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Learning From What Works: Leveraging local solutions to make better places
Learning From What Works highlights 89 community-driven solutions to housing, mental health, climate, small business, and more. Led by the School of Cities and the Canadian Urban Institute, the initiative shows how local innovations across Canada can be scaled to strengthen communities and create better, more inclusive places.
Leading Urban Change: Cross-sector collaboration for urban transformation
Applications are now open for Leading Urban Change: Cross-Sector Collaboration for Urban Transformation. Attend our information session on January 21 to explore whether the program is right for you.
Urban Data Analysis & Storytelling Professional Advancement Certificate
The Urban Data Analysis & Storytelling Certificate helps professionals transform complex urban data into insights that shape policy, planning, and community outcomes. Earn stackable microcredentials online and gain hands-on skills to drive evidence-based, impactful decisions in cities today.
Visiting Experts
Visiting experts are influential practitioners in civil society, the arts, business, media and government; members of the global urban academic community; and emerging leaders in their urban-related sectors. While at School of Cities, they engage in intellectual, cultural and artistic exchange; nurture new ideas; and support research, collaboration and knowledge creation across geographies, disciplines and communities.
“Home Truths: Fixing Canada’s Housing Crisis”
Join us as Carolyn Whitzman discusses her recently published book, Home Truths: Fixing Canada’s Housing Crisis. Home Truths addresses Canada’s housing crisis from all sides, including exploring what adequate housing… Read more
Canadian Municipal Barometer
The Canadian Municipal Barometer (CMB) is a national research partnership that seeks to understand and improve local democracy in Canada.
highlights
Toronto’s Linguistic Heritage
Exploring how language communities have evolved over five decades in the Toronto region.
Backyard housing in Toronto
Mapping laneway and garden suite development, 2018–2025
Layers of Climate Risk in Canada
Multivariate maps and visualizations of Canada and Canadian cities.
IMUCP 2025-26 India Blog
In October 2025, professors Aditi Mehta and David Roberts travelled to Mumbai, India with 12 undergraduate students from University of Toronto and Ashoka University as part of the Multidisciplinary Urban Capstone Project (MUCP) course. Read the blog that the students kept of the experience.
Dog Days in the City
This series uses a dog’s point of view to talk about what makes a good city, why cities strengthen the fabric of society, and how dogs contribute to civil society.
Want to Prevent a Doom Loop? Look at Canada
Maps and comparative local economic analysis of U.S. and Canadian cities
Reframing Housing
Reframing Housing is a series that clarifies some of today’s most persistent housing misconceptions. Drawing on insights from leading academics, policymakers, and practitioners, the videos explore why public housing fell out of favour, why zoning reform alone can’t fix our supply challenges, and how housing became financialized.
Maps of Line 6 Finch West
Maps and data of surrounding land-use and population change along Line 6 Finch West
Maps of Line 6 Finch West
Maps and data of surrounding land-use and population change along Line 6 Finch West
Government’s role in housing around the world
Interactive map for showing how national governments address housing supply, regulation, and support
Volume 5: Issue 2 | Community voices on the transformation of Moss Park
This City Research Insight reports on the Moss Park Coalition survey conducted by the Moss Park Coalition with support from the Housing Justice Lab in 2024.
Wildfires and urban air quality
Examining worsening air quality across Canada cities
Latest media MENTIONS
Meric Gertler joins the School of Cities
The School of Cities welcomes Meric Gertler as Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence, effective January 1, 2026. A former President of the University of Toronto, Professor Gertler brings deep expertise in cities, innovation, and sustainability to support the School’s mission and future direction.
Steven Farber and Shoshanna Saxe in Toronto Star | Where have the TTC’s riders gone? Transit ridership never recovered from the pandemic. We asked why — and what could bring them back
Matti Siemiatycki in Montreal Gazette | Ottawa-Montreal first up for high-speed rail link, but money could be better spent, expert says
Karen Chapple in National Post | ‘The worst is behind us’: Canada’s economy is defying some of the grim forecasts about Trump’s tariffs
Matti Siemiatycki in CTV News | Speed enforcement cameras officially banned across Ontario
School of Cities in Globe and Mail | Parks should be made for people. Why does such an obvious idea elude us?
Carolyn Whitzman in Globe and Mail | How presales helped Canada’s condo market boom, then collapse
Karen Chapple & Matti Siemiatycki in CTV News | How housing in Toronto has changed since the last time the Blue Jays were in the World Series
School of Cities in Waterloo Region Record | Trump tariffs put Preston and northwest Kitchener neighbourhoods at biggest risk
School of Cities in CTV News | Interactive tool from UofT researchers shows where tariffs could hit Ontario hardest
School of Cities in the Toronto Star | Trump tariffs’ potential damage highest in Canada’s smaller centres, U of T tool shows
School of Cities in CityNews Halifax | Halifax relatively unaffected by Trump tariffs, data shows
Upcoming Events see all
Knowledge Café: Inside the emotional politics of digital extremism
This talk explores how Islamophobia, conspiracy thinking, and platform design come together to fuel transnational affective publics — communities bound by shared feelings rather than shared facts
Cities of Care: Shaping sustainable and equitable futures through the water-food-waste nexus
Explore how water, food, and waste systems intersect to shape healthier, more equitable cities. Join global experts in Chennai, India, on January 30–31, 2026 to share research, spark dialogue, and inspire action toward sustainable urban futures.
SOCIAL: Going BUST?/I took the Metro, now what?
This session of SOCIAL will feature a lightning talk by Apoorva Rathod of the University of New Brunswick, followed by a main talk by Govind Gopakumar of Concordia University.
Knowledge Café: Could history help end the disinformation crisis?
Dr. LK Bertram discusses how World War II-era history holds the key to solving the disinformation crisis in the modern AI Age.
Creating Sustainable Places: A comprehensive approach to sustainable urban design
A talk with Prof. Nico Parker of the University of Oregon on the role of physical planning and design on global sustainability goals.
The School of Cities is a unique multidisciplinary hub for urban research, education, and engagement creating new and just ways for cities and their residents to thrive. Based at the University of Toronto and in a fast-growing, culturally diverse, and economically dynamic urban region, the School of Cities supports leading scholars, practitioners, and community members spanning disciplines and lived experiences to co-create new understandings, policies, and practices.
Learn more about us.