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> Toronto had a massive building boom [1] over the last 5-7 years that far outpaced Chicago, NYC, and Huston (something like #1 Toronto had 150 buildings v the

> Toronto had a massive building boom [1] over the last 5-7 years that far outpaced Chicago, NYC, and Huston (something like #1 Toronto had 150 buildings v the closest #2 was 40 in Chicago being built) South Florida gets ignored in articles like that, because the cities are so physically small[1]. As of December 2014, South Florida as a whole had built 20 new towers, started construction on 80 more, and had yet another 200 in some sort of planning or presale stage[2]. That is what you want to look at for an example of skyrocketing population density in land-constrained areas. [1] The largest city in South Florida is Miami, which is only 36sqmi. In contrast, Toronto is 244sqmi). [2] http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/biz-monday/article4816320.html http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/biz-monday/article4...

mabbo 10y ago
I was going to reply that hey, that 244sqmi is the greater toronto area (GTA), but then I checked the wiki page, and well I'll be damned that's just the city itself. The GTA is 676 sqmi. What's really interesting is that the 244sqmi is full. There is room for maybe one or two more subdivision of houses, and then the only option is up (or another amalgamation with the neighbours, because that went so well last time).
- vonmoltke 10y ago
  Yeah, I checked to make sure I had the wright number before I posted. I don't have a good number for the tri-county core of South Florida, but I'd guess it is not much larger than the GTA. We hit the point of "no way but up" about 20 years ago. There are a few holdout family ranches, but other than that there is nowhere left to build that doesn't involve tearing down something else first. In some parts of my home county the school board has had to start cannibalizing parts of public parks in order to build new schools to support the population.
  - mabbo 10y ago
    The Toronto school board got clever: you tear down the school, build a 20-story building on top but the bottom 3 floors are a school and the other 17 are condos that you sell or rent. The board keeps their school in the area that needs it (minus a few tough years without it) and they make a profit selling or renting the condos!

mabbo 10y ago

I was going to reply that hey, that 244sqmi is the greater toronto area (GTA), but then I checked the wiki page, and well I'll be damned that's just the city itself. The GTA is 676 sqmi. What's really interesting is that the 244sqmi is full. There is room for maybe one or two more subdivision of houses, and then the only option is up (or another amalgamation with the neighbours, because that went so well last time).

vonmoltke 10y ago
Yeah, I checked to make sure I had the wright number before I posted. I don't have a good number for the tri-county core of South Florida, but I'd guess it is not much larger than the GTA. We hit the point of "no way but up" about 20 years ago. There are a few holdout family ranches, but other than that there is nowhere left to build that doesn't involve tearing down something else first. In some parts of my home county the school board has had to start cannibalizing parts of public parks in order to build new schools to support the population.
- mabbo 10y ago
  The Toronto school board got clever: you tear down the school, build a 20-story building on top but the bottom 3 floors are a school and the other 17 are condos that you sell or rent. The board keeps their school in the area that needs it (minus a few tough years without it) and they make a profit selling or renting the condos!