• Director's Welcome:

  • Welcome to Cities Centre, the University of Toronto's urban research centre.

  • We aim to have impact not only within the halls of academia but in the streets, homes and workplaces of our urban regions. I encourage you to make good use of our website, to attend our seminars and workshops and to contact us to find out how you can become involved in our activities and projects.

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  • Andre Sorensen and Paul Hess with map
  • "Greater Toronto Area, Land Use and Urban Form, 2010" Andre Sorensen (L), Paul Hess
  • Stilllife
  • Photo: Sophie Leblanc
IATBR 2012: JULY 15-19  in Toronto 
Cities Centre is proud to co-sponsor the 13th International Conference of the International Association for Travel Behaviour Research.  Abstracts are now closed. Registration to open early in 2012.

News & Events

March 27
Who Needs Arts and Culture in Toronto? - Toronto in Question Lecture Series, speakers John Ralston Saul and Mark Kingwell
February 28
Who Governs? City Hall and Citizen Participation - Toronto in Question Lecture Series, speakers Adam Vaughan and Richard Stren
January 25
Innovative Methods in Community Development - Guest speakers Michael Prosserman, Unity Charity; Margo Charlton, Toronto Arts Foundation; and Meredith Hayes, FoodShare Toronto
January 24
Whose City? Gentrification, Inequality and the Future of Toronto - Toronto In Question Lecture Series featuring David Miller and David Hulchanski, with guest moderator Richard Sommer
January 18
Overcoming the Green Premium - Building a Model Sustainable Community - with Gordon Harris, President and CEO of the Simon Fraser University Community Trust
December 08
Innovation in City Building: Is Toronto Still Leading the Way? - CUI, Cities Centre & NRU present an annual conversation with Toronto’s Chief Planner, Gary Wright.
November 29
City Building: Beyond the Concrete - Ken Greenberg, Larry Bourne - Toronto in Question Lecture Series
November 10
Toronto Talks Mobility Symposium - Artscape Wychwood Barns
November 09
Toronto Talks Mobility - Public Forum - Toronto City Hall Council Chambers
November 09
What's Academia Got To Do With It? Looking for Community-Scholarly Balance in Co-developing Community-driven Research - Vanessa Parlette
November 08
Staying the Course - What Have Planners Learned About Implementation? CUI, AOLE
November 04
Urban Design Comes to Toronto, 1966-1972 - Cities Centre features historian Dr. Richard White in a new "Lunch and Learn" series
October 25
Moving People: Responses to Congestion - Toronto in Question Lecture Series
October 04
Is Toronto Broke? Making sense of the numbers: Municipal finance in Toronto - The inaugural lecture of the Toronto in Question series of lectures presented by Cities Centre, University of Toronto.
October 03
Cities Grow Ontario Forum UTSC - What influences voters in the inner suburbs? The 2010/2011 elections and voting trends in the inner suburbs
September 29
Orientation Meeting - For enrolled students of the Graduate Collaborative Program in Community Development.
September 22
Cities Grow Ontario: Toward a GREATER Greater Golden Horseshoe -
September 15
Jane Jacobs' Toronto - Join the Centre for City Ecology and four of Toronto's past Mayors for their reflections on the impact of Jane Jacobs on our city.
September 15
Resilient Infrastructure by Design - Register early for this forum featuring four excellent speakers representing current thinking and best practice at the national, regional and local levels
September 15
PRESS CONFERENCE - Re Toronto Waterfront. With Paul Bedford (former Chief Planner for Toronto), Richard Florida (Martin Prosperity Institute), and Richard Sommer (Dean, U. of T. Faculty of Architecture), and others.
July 19
Green Infrastructure: The Effects of Urban Rail Transit on Air Quality - The transportation sector is a major source of air pollution worldwide, yet little is known about the effects of transportation infrastructure on air quality.
June 16
Inner Suburbs at Stake: Investing in Scarborough's Communities - Learn from a panel discussion about urban change. The report, “Toronto’s inner suburbs: Investing in social infrastructure in Scarborough,” by Deborah Cowen and Vanessa Parlette, will be released.
June 16
Book Launch - A celebration of recent publications by Cities Centre Associates
June 15
Workshop on Recent Advances in Transit Research and Practice - Please RSVP here
June 14
2011 Public Transit Planning and ITS Short Course - An intensive two-day course with experts Amer Shalaby, Eric Miller and Brendon Hemily
June 13
2011 Public Transit Planning and ITS Short Course - An intensive two-day course with experts Amer Shalaby, Eric Miller and Brendon Hemily
May 21
3 Cities Forum - Tale of Three Cities with guest speakers J. David Hulchanski and Grace-Edward Galabuzi
May 12
Toronto The Good - The ultimate urban gathering of Torontonians who are interested in the City and in city building. RSVP: torontothegood@era.on.ca
May 12
Tower Neighbourhood Renewal Symposium - The second Tower Neighbourhood Renewal symposium is being held in conjunction with Toronto the Good
May 10
Funding the Cost of Municipal Services - Who Pays? - The goal of developing “complete communities” is a worthy one, but urgent questions are emerging about how best to handle the cost of growth ...
April 28
Complete Streets Forum -
April 14
Who Cares About 15 Million Voters? - Presented by Cities Centre, Innis College Urban Studies Program, Martin Prosperity Institute, and School of Public Policy and Governance, University of Toronto, and Canadian Urban Institute. Read Report / RSVP here
March 25
Cities Mixes and Fixes Interdisciplinary Workshop: Complete Streets -
March 02
Jody Macdonald, Women's Community Development at the United Nations in New York -
March 02
The OMB: Affront to Democracy or Essential to Maintaining Community Balance? -
February 16
Organizing to Win -
February 08
Prelude to Collaboration -
February 07
The Forms and Dynamics of Anti-Poverty Activism in Toronto -
January 18
Jon Udell, Microsoft -
January 13
Community University Research Partnerships: Who does what, and why? -
January 06
Neighbourhood Renewal - Can We Repair the Great Divide? -
December 09
Toronto Today, Toronto Tomorrow - An Annual Conversation with Toronto's Chief Planner -
December 03
Community-Based Research & Community Development: Who does what, and why? - With Sarah Wakefield & Carla Klassen. Sponsored by Cities Centre, Community Development Collaborative Program, and & the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work’s Chow Yei Ching Chair in Housing.
November 10
How Well Do You Know Your City? Who Decides What You Know? -
November 06
The Other Home Show -
October 27
Cooperatives in Canada -
October 06
Beyond the Ballot Box: Civic Engagement-From Buzz Word to Meaningful Process -
September 16
Producing and Negotiating Precarious Migratory Status in Canada -
September 15
Mayoral Debate at Innis Town Hall - Mayoral candidates in the Toronto municipal election continue the debate tradition at Innis Town Hall.
September 09
On The Outside Looking In? - Cities Centre co-sponsors this Breakfast Roundtable of the Canadian Urban Institute's Election Issues Series: On the Outside Looking In? The Many Mysteries of Governance in the City of Toronto. Moderator Art Eggleton, Senator and former Mayor of Toronto, with speakers Richard Stren, Cities Centre Senior Advisors and Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto, Alan Broadbent, Chairman, The Maytree Foundation, and Frank Cunningham, Cities Centre Senior Advisor and Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Political Science, University of Toronto.
August 09
Public Transit Planning & ITS Short Course - Provides participants with knowledge of demands of public transit & of tools used in forecasting demand at both the system & route levels.
July 15
The Edible City: Where is Food on the Election Agenda? - The Canadian Urban Institute, in collaboration with the Cities Centre at the University of Toronto, presents an extended Roundtable Breakfast Seminar on how and why food fits in the election agenda.

Featured Project:

Cities Centre writes City Council re Public Housing in Toronto (PDF)

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In the Media:

Mayor seeks deferral in social-housing sale
Patrick White, Globe and Mail

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