Detroit was undesirable when I was coming of age in the early 2000s. It was basically a no-go area, at least outside of a professional sporting event. As a result, I never had the kind of big-city experiences—shopping in flagship downtown department stores, riding a subway, gazing up at massive skyscrapers—that many urban dwellers take for granted until I started going to Toronto, the capital of Canada’s Ontario province, for hockey during my high school and college years. Since then, I have been amazed at how Toronto has exploded, especially along the waterfront between the Gardiner Expressway, one of those typical urban highways, and the Lake Erie shore. The explosive growth hasn’t been limited to just towers. It’s also very evident during the last 45 or so minutes of the drive from Detroit, when Highway 401 becomes abutted by the bland architecture of corporate office parks and suburban housing developments. …