When the residents of Jane and Finch learned that they were on a list of 31 communities scheduled to get a makeover as part of the contentious Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy 2020, they approached the City Institute at York University for some insight and guidance.

“They invited us to give them our input,” says City Institute director Linda Peake, a professor of urban studies in the Department of Social Sciences. “They wanted to tap into our expertise.”

Building on decades of York-led research into both local and global city issues, from urban politics and economies to housing, immigration and transportation, that expertise has made the City Institute one of Canada’s top-ranking urban research centres since its founding in 2012.

The focus is both local and global, honed by academics and students in collaboration with policy-makers, NGOs, government representatives and city inhabitants from around the world.

“We don’t just offer theories,” Peake says, “but solutions to real problems.”

Continue reading this article in the Winter 2019 issue of York University Magazine.