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“There’s just so much diversity of experiences here. And the food is a direct representation of this melting pot or cultural mosaic,” Mazumder, who is a post-doctoral fellow at the Future Cities Institute at the University of Waterloo, told the Star. “º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍødoes that so well, and it’s something that I haven’t experienced anywhere else.

“It’s funny, people will talk about how it’s such an unfriendly place. But in my opinion, it is one of the friendliest cities I’ve ever lived in.”

It may come as no surprise that the environments we live in play a significant role in shaping our physical and mental health, as well as the people we surround ourselves with — and it might be as simple as how close we live to the corner store or park.

To many scientists, architects and urban designers, º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøis not the drab concrete jungle some might think it is. There are green spaces and walkable neighbourhoods aplenty — but not everyone can access them, raising questions of who this city is designed for.

Walkability is king

It can be hard to find the time for regular exercise in our busy schedules. 

But if we’re able to substitute a drive down to the grocery store with a quick walk or bicycle trip, that’s more physical activity for us. And all those little walks add up, especially on a population level.

that the more walkable a city is, the more active its residents become — and the healthier they are as a result. The more walkable neighbourhoods in Ontario , for example.

“It’s not just about putting in sidewalks and crosswalks,” said Brent Raymond, a landscape architect and planner with º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøurban design firm DTAH. “It’s about designing our community so that the destinations and the services that we need on a daily or a weekly basis are close to walk to.”

The more places we have to walk to nearby, the more likely we are to, well, walk. For example, among women aged 45 and older found participants living in neighbourhoods with a greater density of destinations, like shops, libraries and services, were 53 per cent more likely to walk at least 30 minutes a day, five days a week.

Meanwhile, having a grocery store selling healthy, affordable foods within walking distance leads residents to eat healthier, studies suggest. It’s why some experts pitch mixed-use zoning — blending residential, commercial and other properties into one walkable area — as a solution to promoting good health.

The parts of º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøthat do this best are often the older, pre-Second World War neighbourhoods — think Cabbagetown, Corktown or Parkdale, Raymond said. As regions built before the dominance of automobiles, these areas were designed with walking in mind. Most of everything one needs is a stroll away, and public transportation is plentiful.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, most suburbs in the Greater º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøArea necessitate a car to get around, and it’s eroding our well-being, said David Gordon, a professor at the School of Urban and Regional Planning at Queen’s University.

Car-dependent suburbia has been especially taxing on our youth, who have gone from walking and biking to playdates and playgrounds in the past to “being driven everywhere to everything,” Gordon said. He believes our suburban lifestyles — and  live in suburbs — have contributed to a childhood obesity epidemic across Canada, with rates .

The transportation situation

A healthy city can’t run on cars alone. Residents need options, whether it’s public transportation, walking, biking or driving, said Marie-Paule Macdonald, an associate professor of architecture at the University of Waterloo. Not only could this reduce traffic congestion and provide more freedom to residents, she said, but it will also promote physical well-being.

For example,Ìý promote greater physical activity among residents as they walk from stop to stop. Meanwhile, the , including a lower risk of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes — not to mention the savings in gas money.

It’s why Toronto’s bike lane system is one of Macdonald’s favourite aspects of the city. It’s also why she’s been frustrated with Premier Doug Ford’s push to remove certain º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøbike lanes in the name of improving traffic — despite his own government concluding their removal is unlikely to ease congestion, and may even make roads less safe.

“Maybe instead of saying bike paths should be removed, maybe they could be looked at and analyzed and improved as networks to accompany the other transit methods that people have as a choice,” Macdonald said.

Mazumder feels the Harbourfront does transportation right, featuring easy streetcar and subway access and dedicated spaces for non-drivers: “In the morning, I go for a walk and the trail is always full of people running and riding their bikes,” he said.

On the flip side, he feels College Street downtown is a traffic nightmare. “It is often quite congested, which places cyclists at risk between streetcar tracks and dooring. I’ve had my own close calls and have observed numerous near misses, many potentially fatal,” Mazumder said. “It needs a true separated bike lane for its entirety.” 

Touching grass

It’s all too easy to lose sight of nature living in the concrete jungle. City dwellers need access to open, green spaces, said Jeffrey Brook, an associate professor of public health at the University of Toronto.

There are four main reasons green spaces are so crucial to public health, Brook explained. First is the individual health aspect: “Just being able to get out and see nature, see parks, see trees, see greenness, it helps reduce stress and restores our psyche,” he said.

It’s not just psychological — is linked to a reduction in several chronic diseases, all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease and birth outcomes.

Then there’s the environmental aspect. As the climate crisis accelerates, green spaces have been shown to improve a city’s resilience to extreme weather events. They can , provide ,Ìý and more.

For example, areas near green spaces have less traffic, resulting in less noise and air pollution, Brook said: “If you’ve got green spaces, those areas will generally become cleaner, so there’s less exposure to those harmful elements.”

The last two reasons are interlinked. Green spaces often house playgrounds, sports fields, hiking trails and more, promoting both physical fitness and community cohesion, Brook said. 

Unfortunately, while º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøhas no shortage of green spaces, not everyone can access them. Low-income neighbourhoods have the least access — studies show Toronto’s , while the top 20 per cent have access to 40 per cent of the city’s green.

It’s partly the fault of gentrification, Brook explained. As good parks, public transportation, public art and other health-promoting infrastructure get installed, property prices rise — eventually pricing out lower-income residents from their homes, he said.

“If we fast forward to º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍødown the road and we’ve got all this great new infrastructure, but there’s still deep inequity in the city, it’s still not a healthy city.”

Building communities

Humans are social creatures, to the point where the health impact of loneliness is equivalent to . It’s why you can’t have a healthy city without strong communities, said Kate Mulligan, an associate professor of public health at the University of Toronto.

A key part of this is the creation of third places — spaces outside of work and home where residents can congregate, interact and feel a sense of belonging, Mulligan said. It can be a coffee shop or pub, a library, a dog park or even a friend’s backyard. The key is to feel welcomed or even a .

To get people out of the house and into these spaces, Mulligan said there needs to be sufficient event programming. Think book clubs, concerts and community yoga sessions: “One of the hardest parts is taking that first step and getting out the door and going to something. All of those invitations are really important,” she said.

One part of º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøthat really excels in this aspect is the Bentway — a stretch of space under the Gardiner that has evolved from a linear mobility corridor into a vibrant gathering place that “fosters health, well-being and community connection,” according to a .

In an area dominated with condos with few backyards, the Bentway offers residents a “communal backyard” with green spaces and plenty of benches to rest and converse, Mulligan explained. The Bentway also hosts frequent public events, from outdoor yoga sessions to free drop-in skating in the winter.

Couple that with interesting public art and landscaping, inviting visitors to linger and interact with each other, and you’ve got a crucible for community-building.

“It’s a very small space with a very big impact for the neighbourhood,” Mulligan said.