Gil Penalosa

Gil Penalosa
Penalosa in 2016
Born
Guillermo Peñalosa

1956 or 1957
Bogotá, Colombia
NationalityCanadian
OccupationUrban planner
Known forRevitalization of the Ciclovía
Children3
Parents
RelativesEnrique Peñalosa (brother)
WebsiteOfficial website

Guillermo Penalosa (born 1956 or 1957) is a Canadian urbanist who was the runner-up in the 2022 Toronto mayoral election to Mayor John Tory.

Originally from Colombia, he was Bogotá's commissioner of parks and recreation from 1995 to 1998 and oversaw the popularization of the Ciclovía open-streets event. After moving to Canada in 1998 as Colombia's trade commissioner, he founded the non-profit 8 80 Cities, which promotes a people-centered urban design philosophy.

Penalosa ran in the 2022 Toronto mayoral election, finishing second to incumbent mayor John Tory. After Tory's resignation in February 2023, Penalosa announced that he would run again in the subsequent mayoral by-election, but later dropped out of the race in April 2023 and endorsed Olivia Chow.[1]

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