I’ve been following Zohran Mamdani’s rise from relative obscurity to mayor of the largest city in America not just with interest, but with a kind of wild enthusiasm. And I suspect that some of you out there might be feeling the same. That’s because Mamdani ran on a list of pledges that haven’t, with a few notable exceptions, been heard out of a civic politician’s mouth in many a moon - the chief one being the promise of a just and helping hand for the millions of New Yorkers

WHAT IT’S ABOUT: It’s often said that urban trees are the only form of city infrastructure that actually increase in value and capacity over time. So why have so many North American cities historically underfunded their care and maintenance? And why do we continue to indiscriminately mow down city trees – and entire urban forests?  In Out On A Limb , Erna Buffie  answers these questions and more as she explores the secret lives and extraordinary benefits of urban trees, the c

Downtown Winnipeg Everybody thinks it, but no one wants to say it out loud – the fact that for decades, our city council and its administration have, to a large degree, been in thrall to the construction and development industries. And on one level, you can understand why. After all, these are the folks who build things – everything from high rises, homes and sewer plants to the endless kilometers of roads that service our over-expanded city. But while the construction and de

So, something pretty unusual happened to me today. I got an email from Margaret Atwood. And before you ask, no, it wasn’t a personal letter, it was a mass email sent out to solicit donations to protect Canada’s resident and migratory birds. Atwood it turns out is an avid bird watcher and like a lot of us is acutely concerned about a North American bird population that’s plummeting. The reasons behind that rapid decline are both simple and complex, including everything from ha

Sadiq Khan ,Mayor of London, UK at the 2025 C40 meeting of mayors A few weeks ago, 300 city mayors gathered in Rio de Janeiro ahead of COP 30 to reaffirm their pledge to take decisive action on climate change. They’re called the C40, an organization that began in 2005 when 40 mayors from 40 cities met to discuss the role municipalities could play in fighting climate change. Since then the organization has expanded and is closely aligned with the 14,000 cities that now belong