Luisa Sotomayor

From Minneapolis to Toronto and Bogotá, cities showcase new ways to address crises Cities aren’t just places where multiple crises may collide. They’re also places where people develop ways to navigate them.

“Poly-crisis” is everywhere, often framed as a call to restore nation-state primacy. But are states the only or even the best entities to respond? We argue that cities are where crises are lived and often most directly handled. With @rkeil.bsky.social, Ross Beveridge, Ewan Kerr and Maryam Lashkari.

Farhana Sultana is a tenured , full prof & a prominent critic of right wing supremacies. RW extremists are targeting her for exercising her 1A rights. Worse her institution has shamefully caved to political pressure and placed her on leave. An atrocious violation of academic freedom.

Please sign.

‘A battle for who belongs’: Downtown Toronto condo suing charity next door for $2.3 million A downtown Toronto condominium corporation is suing its next-door neighbour, a church and drop-in centre that has served unhoused, underhoused, and marginalized people since 1992.

I love seeing @luisasotomayor.bsky.social 's comments on the nature of 33 Charles's lawsuit against a charity. Seeing all the poverty in this neighbourhood sucks. Suing people who are helping, for things beyond their control is repulsive

www.cp24.com/local/toront...

Thank you for the shout out, zoi. Much appreciated! and kudos to @joannalavoie.bsky.social for her rigorous, excellent journalism.

We had a great time at the panel last week and learned a lot!

#toronto #tech #politics
@luisasotomayor.bsky.social @vassb.bsky.social @ghadaa.bsky.social @paulafletcherto.bsky.social

Call for Participation - WORKSHOP - The City Institute at York University (CITY) Please click HERE to view the Spanish Version Vertical Peripheries: Housing and Urban Transformation at the Metropolitan Margins August 21–22, 2025 | Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia As part...

📣 Call for proposals!
Join us in Bogotá on August 21–22 for the Vertical Peripheries workshop, which explores high-rise housing and urban transformation at the margins.
🗓️ Deadline to apply: July 1
📍CIDER, Uniandes
🔗 www.yorku.ca/cityinstitut...

Episode 325 – You gotta fight for your right to proooooootest In this episode, Sandy and Nora talk about the attacks on Canadians’ right to assemble — from Toronto’s so-called bubble law to PEI police telling peace activists to buy a $2 million insurance policy.

Our latest podcast episode rings the alarm bell on the increasing criminalization of protest in Canada, and why we have got to fight back.

sandyandnora.com/episode-325-...

Vertical Peripheries: Three findings so far, mapped Planning and citizenship in Colombia's commodified periurban housing towers

3 cities, 3 cases: how VIS towers reshape Colombia’s metropolitan edges.

Nuestro primer #ArcGIS #StoryMap explora las #PeriferiasVerticales y la política de densificación en los bordes.

🗺️ Diseño: Federico Arévalo, CITY Institute @cityinstitute.bsky.social
👉 storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/9959...

Ford asks Carney to support Highway 401 tunnel in new letter about priority projects The letter, sent to Mr. Carney on Monday, identifies five projects that Ontario says should be prioritized

Unholy post-election alliance taking shape with terrible results for Toronto. Ford & Carney talking 401 tunnel, a Liberal former MP & city councillor backing Therme (and Ford) at Ontario Place. Without powerful opposition at any scale of government. The pits. www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

We're in fundraising mode at @cityinstitute.bsky.social to secure endowment funds to honour the inspiring work of our dear colleagues and CITY's former Directors @rkeil.bsky.social and Linda Peake. Please contribute if you can - those in 🇨🇦 will get a tax receipt: donate.yorku.ca/site/Donatio...

Excited about my new books to read on my daily commute to @cityinstitute.bsky.social: @javierauyero.bsky.social’s and Sofia Servian’s ‘Squatter Life’, Maria Kaika and Luca Ruggiero’s ‘Class meets land’ and Premilla Nadasen ‘Care: the highest stage of capitalism’.

📣 Workshop CFP: Spatialising Urban Crisis
📍 University of Manchester, UK
📅 June 26–27, 2025
🧵

City Research Seminar: Dr. Ross Beveridge - The City Institute at York University (CITY) Seeing Democracy Like a City Urbanisation is changing landscapes, social relations and everyday lives across the globe. At the same time, urbanisation is also changing the ways democracy is understood...

JOIN US! March 31, 12 PM -1:30 PM "Seeing Democracy Like a City" with CITY's 2025 Senior Visiting Scholar Ross Beveridge @uofglasgow.bsky.social

With @sergemont.bsky.social and Peggie Kohn @utsc.bsky.social

To register: www.yorku.ca/cityinstitut...

I suggest this international list, which gathers 50 scientists, academics and researchers working on urban issues in an interdisciplinary way
go.bsky.app/UmvqMH4

New paper! With Ryan Whitney, we examined how Medellin’s electric escalators were mobilized to #CDMX as a best practice. Despite poor implementation, political actors benefited as they played the politics of visibility. Free to download until Feb 2: kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F...

Mobilizing legal expertise in and against cities: urban planning amidst increased legal action in Bogotá In the past decade, there has been a rise in legal action around urban policy and planning in Colombia. Legal expertise has been mobilized by a plethora of actors, including social movements, local...

As @sergemont.bsky.social, Natalia Angel-Cabo, and I have argued, legal mobilization is increasingly used to contest urban planning agendas. Judges are becoming key actors in urban governance.

Read more here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

#UrbanPolitics #LegalMobilization #Toronto

In #Toronto, a top-down anti-bike lane agenda is unfolding via a Provincial bill that undermines municipal planning and endangers lives—but @cycletoronto.bsky.social is fighting back. Please support!

TODAY! Join us at 11 AM EST for an online book talk with Jennifer Tucker @unm.bsky.social about #OutlawCapital. You can register here: yorku.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

The book is available for purchase through @anotherstoryto.bsky.social in Toronto.
anotherstory.ca/item/OiPWq97...

JOB OPPORTUNITY‼️ CITY and the Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change at #YorkUniversity in #Toronto are accepting applications for a postdoctoral fellow to work on climate justice and affordable housing. Apply by November 30. Details below: www.yorku.ca/cityinstitut...

We need this. Go @maritstilesndp.bsky.social

PASSED! A huge win from our union! York University Faculty Association General Members Meeting passes motion on #scholasticide by super majority on November 19, 2024!
@cjpme.org @jvp.bsky.social

Adding to the list the complete disregard for local democracy and civic participation, and the overriding of municipal autonomy on areas where cities have admin responsibilities. Anti-model of democratic governance too.

Poste de professeur.e en économie politique @sciencepo-udem.bsky.social : échéance 22 novembre.

Tenure-track position in political economy in my department: deadline Nov 22.

pol.umontreal.ca/departement/...

pls share: funded by EPA: Economy & Space, up to 8 travel + accommodation stipends available to enable doctoral & postdoctoral researchers to participate in the "ideational geographies" workshop at UBC, June 11-13, 2025. Application details:
blogs.ubc.ca/peck/researc...

Ciclovía 50 años: pasado, presente y futuro de las ciudades - Facultad de Ciencias Sociales | Universidad de los Andes Colombia En diciembre de 2024 se cumplen 50 años de la Ciclovía de Bogotá. En el marco de esta celebración, buscamos llevar a cabo un encuentro para un público académico, practicante y ciudadano, nacional e in...

This December we will be celebrating Ciclovía's 50th anniversary in Bogotá. It will be a tribute to the citizen-driven and experimental roots of Ciclovía, which started on Dec 15, 1974 as a visionary response to the increasing dominance of car-centric urbanism 🚴‍♂️ 🌍 #Ciclovía50

tinyurl.com/4n38t96m

🚨We're hiring! Postdoctoral Fellowship in Climate Change, Equity & Housing. Apply by November 30, 2024. All details are here: www.yorku.ca/cityinstitut...

lol. A psychiatrist. It also seems he taught for 2 decades at UofT before moving to York, so FES cannot fully claim him.

#SanctuaryCities like #Toronto can and must step up via social #planning where national policies fail—defending those caught in between violence, border conflicts and political games for a sanctuary that truly protects. Out this month in @antipodeonline.bsky.social

Non-status people face a socio-legal precariousness that contradicts the promises of an inclusive city. Marking Toronto's tenth anniversary of its “sanctuary city” policy, our research assesses the progress and potential of social planning and municipalist agendas to support irregularised residents. Drawing from interviews with service providers, city officials, and non-status citizens in Toronto, we propose a decolonial politics of urban citizenship recognition we call “non-status citizenship”. This concept addresses specific paradoxes related to irregularisation, access, jurisdiction, and regularisation. By framing our discussion around these paradoxes, we highlight the discomfort and transformative potential of non-status citizenship for immigration regimes in sanctuary cities. We argue that recognising non-status citizenship goes beyond notions of urban citizenship to claim formal recognition and security, which resolves the four paradoxes theoretically, politically, and practically. We also emphasise the role of cities in expanding service delivery and calling out the failure of planning across levels of government.

Amidst Trump’s election and Canada’s surge in anti-immigrant, alt-right politics, Liette Gilbert and I call for a radical rethink: municipalities should protect non-status residents with a generous form of “non-status” citizenship. 1/2 #OpenAccess onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....