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Canada’s Urban Infrastructure Deficit: Toward democracy & equitable prosperity
With the release of Volume 2, this report series continues its examination of Canada’s looming crisis in deferred maintenance and the construction of critical infrastructure—both physical and social. Commissioned from experts and researchers across the country, the series outlines how addressing these challenges is essential to bolstering global competitiveness, place-based prosperity, and democracy.
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.
Multidisciplinary Urban Graduate Seminar (MUGS)
We invite postdocs or faculty from all three U of T campuses to develop a new graduate course on an urban issue within their discipline and to teach it in a small seminar setting. We are now accepting proposals on a rolling basis for MUGS courses to run anytime from Spring 2026 to Winter 2027.
Mapping Tariffs
Interactive map showing potential local impacts of U.S. tariffs on jobs and businesses across Canada
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.
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.
highlights
Keeping up with the neighbours:
Quantitative analysis of accessory dwelling unit permits in Toronto
The impacts of lumber tariffs on Canadian cities
Analyzing potential local impacts of lumber tariffs on jobs and businesses across Canada
The impacts of truck tariffs on Canadian cities
Analyzing potential local impacts of truck tariffs on jobs and businesses across Canada
Toronto Line 1 Trips
Arc diagram of TTC Line 1 daily trips
Maps of Line 5 Eglinton
Maps and data of surrounding land-use and population change along Line 5 Eglinton
Maps of Line 5 Eglinton
Maps and data of surrounding land-use and population change along Line 5 Eglinton
Mapping development changes along the Eglinton Crosstown corridor
Analysis and visualization of building massing data 2013 to 2025
Mapping development changes along the Eglinton Crosstown corridor
Analysis and visualization of building massing data 2013 to 2025
Podcast Launch: Unmasking Higher Education: Indian International Students in Canada
Canada’s two-tiered higher education system and its impacts on the “Indian international student”
Where do the snow plows go?
Mapping GPS locations of snow plows in Toronto
Where do the snow plows go?
Mapping GPS locations of snow plows in Toronto
US Downtown Recovery Trends
Charting downtown recovery trends across 53 US cities
Latest media MENTIONS
School of Cities in the Varsity | Inching forward
School of Cities India in U of T News | U of T to deepen collaboration in India with new initiative focused on AI and health
President Melanie Woodin met with Canadian and Indian officials at an innovation-focused event in Mumbai that highlighted the urban sustainability work of U of T and its local partners
Matti Siemiatycki in CTV News | ‘You get what you pay for’: Toronto’s snow strategy vs. New York’s experiment
Carolyn Whitzman in CBC | Territory’s rent to be capped for final time this year, says Yukon Party
Karen Chapple in The Indian Express | ‘Large areas in South Mumbai could be pedestrianised’: City planning academic Karen Chapple cites examples of New York, Barcelona
Matti Siemiatycki in The Kingston Whig-Standard | High-speed rail business plan needs to be public, U of T prof says
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?
Upcoming Events see all
Knowledge Café: Data collection challenge for Vision Zero
Dr. Brice Batomen will examine critical gaps in data and evaluation of safety interventions for Vulnerable Road Users in North America
“North: The Future of Post-Climate America”
Join Jesse M. Keenan in conversation about his recently published book, North: The Future of Post Climate America (Oxford University Press). In North: The Future of Post-Climate America, Jesse M.… Read more
School of Cities Community Showcase 2026
Join the School of Cities for a showcase of the great work done within our student community from 2025 to 2026
SOCIAL: Circular labour migration and the housing question
India has a growing population of circular labour migrants, with the annual rate of this migration already higher than that of permanent labour migration. What does this mean for creating inclusive cities, specifically in terms of housing?
Life Behind the Ride exhibition opening
Join the University of Toronto’s Department of Anthropology, Ethnography Lab, and School of Cities alongside researchers from WIlfirid Laurier Univrsity for the opening of a new photo-narrative exhibtion, Life Behind the Ride: Resilience and risk in Indonesia’s on-demand economy.
Knowledge Café: Navigating the underground city
Dr. Rotem Mashkov delivers a talk titled Navigating the Underground City: Integrating physiological and spatial methods to study human experience in Toronto’s PATH
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.