91��ɫ

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 91��ɫ 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 91��ɫ-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.”