A City of Healthy and Unhealthy Neighborhoods

"This is the new crisis of cities: Badly designed neighbourhoods are literally sapping people of their ability to live fully.

If, as a newly arrived immigrant, poverty has driven you to the inner or outer suburbs, where you live in a basement apartment or high above the concrete ground in a residential tower, you are far more likely to suffer from type 2 diabetes and its related consequences such as blindness and amputation. Most of Canada's growth comes from immigrants, but the troubling fact is that Hispanics, blacks and South Asians are genetically predisposed to diabetes. Because of the compounding of these forces, you and your neighbours can expect a lower life expectancy."

An accompanying infographic in this story maps out diabetes in Toronto, based on a 3-year study of the city's neighborhoods.