23 Facts About Gil Penalosa

Gil Penalosa ran in the 2022 Toronto mayoral election, finishing second to incumbent mayor John Tory.

Gil Penalosa's mother Cecilia Londono was a garden designer and his father, Enrique Penalosa Camargo was a liberal government official who would serve as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations at the 1976 UN Habitat Conference on Human Settlement in Vancouver, and later as the country's Permanent Representative to the UN from 1987 to 1990.

In 1984, Gil Penalosa earned a Master of Business Administration from University of California, Los Angeles.

In that position, Gil Penalosa revitalized the Ciclovia open-streets public event that had existed since 1976.

However, Gil Penalosa was allowed to try and improve the event.

Gil Penalosa said that he was inspired by Frederick Law Olmsted's egalitarian ideals for designing Central Park in New York City.

Gil Penalosa opened or rebuilt more than 100 parks in Bogota during his time as parks commissioner.

In 1997, Gil Penalosa served as campaign manager for his brother Enrique's successful second run for the mayorship.

In 1998, Gil Penalosa was appointed as Colombia's trade commissioner to Canada, and moved with his wife and kids, initially only planning to stay for two years to expose his kids to English.

Gil Penalosa described the incident as a political smear campaign by opponents of his brother.

Gil Penalosa later switched to a career working for the City of Mississauga.

In 2005, Gil Penalosa founded the non-profit organization 8 80 Cities, which promotes urban design and is named for his design maxim that well-designed cities should work for both 8-year olds and 80-year olds.

In Toronto, Gil Penalosa worked with Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam to bring a Ciclovia-style event to the city.

Gil Penalosa was the inaugural chair for World Urban Parks from 2015 to 2018, when he was appointed as the organization's ambassador.

In 2016, Gil Penalosa publicly criticized Hamilton City Councillor Lloyd Ferguson and called on him to apologize for saying that Bogota should be not be used as a benchmark for Hamilton's infrastructure plans because the only wealthy people there are drug lords.

Gil Penalosa has been a proponent of promoting bicycle culture by building extensive cycling infrastructure, and supports building physically-separated cycle tracks, because bike lanes are not safe enough.

Gil Penalosa is known for his 8 80 design philosophy, which uses 8-year olds and 80-year olds as a sort of indicator species to assess if a city works well, because if it works for them, it should work for everyone else.

In July 2022, Gil Penalosa announced that he would run in the Toronto mayoral election that October.

Gil Penalosa has proposed a number of policy solutions to address Toronto's housing crisis.

Gil Penalosa would impose an outright ban on gas-powered leaf blowers due to their noise pollution and air pollution.

Gil Penalosa committed to legalizing alcohol consumption in city parks within his first 100 days in office.

Gil Penalosa is married with three adult children, and lives with his wife in Roncesvalles, Toronto.

Gil Penalosa was a nationally competitive tennis player in Colombia as a child.