Cheryll Case

30 people joined us on May 1st 2026 for **Our Voices, Our Place: Collage, Sound, and Story Through the Divide** as part of this year’s @janeswalkto Festival. 💛 Together, we walked the laneways and neighbourhoods surrounding the Allen Expressway and /Cedarvale/ Station — spaces shaped by displacement, infrastructure, community resilience, and ongoing change. Along the walk, we heard on the stories and histories of residents displaced for the development of the expressway, neighbours who had children protested its development. explored buried waterways, and discussed the implications of over 40,000 new planned housing units arriving in the area without dedicated policies for affordable housing. The walk invited participants co-create. The shared playlist included reggae, Vietnamese pop, and of course - Nelly Furtado. We ended the walk with a collective collaging — transforming flyers, memories, observations, and ideas into visual experiments about the futures we want to shape together. The prompt: what would your neighbourhood look/sound/taste/feel like if your voice guides the way it operates? The collective collage reflected a shared desire for neighbourhoods shaped by care, creativity, and connection. Participants imagined more public art, greener and safer spaces, stronger gathering places for residents of all ages, and communities where local culture and relationships are visible, celebrated, and protected from displacement. It was a powerful experience to see people from across the neighbourhood — longtime residents, newcomers, planners, artists, families, and advocates — and visitors share stories and imagine possibilities together. Many agreed that the City of Toronto should fund community led planning to support the realization of these dreams. ~~ Jane’s Walks are one of the best parts of the city. They remind us that planning happens through walking, listening, creating, and building relationships with one another.

Join local residents from both sides of the Allen Expressway for an arts-focused walking activation along a laneway shaped by a history of displacement and community building. This corridor marks where hundreds of residents were displaced in the 1970s — and where governmental planning decisions continue to enable the displacement of residents and community spaces throughout neighbourhoods along the new Eglinton LRT. This walk is an act of reclamation — of creativity, memory, and ownership. Through storytelling and shared reflection, residents from the East and West sides will ground the experience in lived realities, connecting histories of displacement to present-day questions of growth, stability, and who gets to shape the future of our neighbourhoods. Participants will take part in a collective collaging process using flyers and materials from local businesses, alongside a curated audio experience. Do you feel that your community is able to shape decisions about development and protections to renters in your neighbourhoods? Let’s explore together, and have fun exploring pathways forward that honours and celebrate the people, cultures, and relationships that make our neighbourhoods worth protecting

Community has put forward a clear, practical proposal: 👉 the city funds $250,000 per neighbourhood, per year for community-led planning. Community-led planning led by neighbourhood coalitions. While the Executive Committee has said it aligns in spirit with their priorities, funding has not yet been committed. That’s where public support matters. Community-led planning would cost about $12.10 per person. Budgets reflect values—and this is an opportunity to invest in alignment with community priorities. Be part of progress: ✔️ Join or watch City Council budget meetings (Feb 4 & Feb 10) ✔️ Attend a deputation training (Feb 1 or Feb 2 – hybrid, Regent Park & online) ✔️ Submit a letter of support ✔️ Get updates on ways to support community-led planning 🔗 See link in bio to learn more, RSVP, and sign up: cpplanning.ca/2026-city-budget Community leadership strengthens democracy, builds local wealth, and leads to better outcomes for everyone. It is a tried and tested model improve community wellbeing and safety, reducing the need for elevated policing. Let’s make sure the 2026 budget reflects that.

This National Housing Da was a mix of emotion. Always, community gatherings bring joy from togetherness and seeing familiar faces; however, this gathering marked deep sorrow as our provincial government has chosen now to further disregard the rights of tenants to safe and secure housing. Bill 60 is following a long pattern of this government to push tenants out of their homes.People are being brought to the landlord tenant board for being 1c behind on their rent, and their landlords “losing” their cheque. In 2021, @cpplanning_ partnered with @ovcommunityorganization to fund the incubation of what’s now become the @ovtenantunion . This, and their ongoing operations is has brought tangible benefit to tenants. Grateful to the incredible grassroots leaders who are stewards of meaningful policy and programmatic solutions. Public talks and reports are great - but action and solidarity are better 🧡 Hoping to see more action and solidarity in alignment with tenant rights in the future.

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What key messages should I be sharing on this world stage? On Nov 5th I'll be speaking at the Smart Cities Expo World Congress in Barcelona – one of the world’s largest and most influential events on urban innovation! My plan is to share about the incredible leadership that's coming from the grassroots -- and why municipalities are successful when they invest in solutions that resident leaders are empowered to champion. Housing is a human right --> that means our economy needs to invest in it accordingly. Largely, that requires investment into people. With 25,000 attendees, over 600 speakers, and representation from 850 cities, I am excited to use this opportunity to share the learnings I have gathered over the past 7 years. How we can work together, to implement Equitable Land Use Planning, a grounded measure and driving force for improving community well-being and creating more resilient cities. Feel free to DM me your thoughts, and learn more about the Congress by visiting their Instagram -> @smartcityexpo ! 🎟️ #SmartCitiesExpo #UrbanPlanning #SustainableCities #UrbanInnovation #EquityInPlanning

Join us on Feb 22 for the launch of Nothing For Us, Without Us, our mini-doc on exclusionary practices in city planning. The doc and the launch feature Cheryll Case (@_chelllo ), distinguished urban planner and founder of CP Planning. Register now at the link in bio or visit schoolofcities.ca for more.

What a time May was. My 28th bday! Travelling to Ottawa a second time for work. Then 2 major trips. Trip 1: To Venice, Rome, and Florence with my dad and partner. Fascinating and beautiful locales. Good food too. (Was my first ever time in Europe!). Tis a dream, to travel for work ✌🏾 (was there for @venice.architecture.biennale as part of team @aaha.ca project ‘Not for Sale!’ Became curious about Indigneous I/t/a/l/i/a/n culture. There was a lot of rich history and culture that was wiped out due to this push for strong handed “nationalism”. Trip 2: went to a cool island in Muskoka, as part of some cross-country organizing here in Canada. Was cabin style. Been meaning to go to a cabin for 3+ years now; but finding access is hard for folks like me. So super happy for the opportunity to do some DOPE work with some of the smartest minds here in Canada, while luxuriating in water views and trees galore. 💐

Had such a wonderful time at the kick off for @community_in_public ‘s Roadmap! Second photo is my parents, looking proud as ever. Final thought: highly recommend you check out a bharatanatyam performance if you have the chance. Thank you @grihalakshmidance for the honour of witnessing Devi Anjali 🌸 📸: @briannablank (my cousin, hehe)

So much fun. Always a great time chatting with Nam. Building @community_in_public has been a tough journey, but it’s so much more fun now with @folialy . Check the last slide! We’re celebrating the kick off of @community_in_public ‘s largest project yet. Visit the non-profits page to access the full interview and the Eventbrite link in the bio :)

Fun time in kerela and karnataka, india 💕

What’s crackin? Wood