ISBN: 9781552455036

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Messy Cities

Name: Messy Cities
SKU: 9781552455036
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Why We Can't Plan Everything

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Featuring forty-three essays by a range of writers from around the world, this book highlights the role of messy urbanism in enabling creativity, enterprise, and grassroots initiatives to flourish within dense modern cities.

Contributors

Dylan Reid

Dylan Reid is a co-founder and now the executive editor of Spacing magazine, an award-winning print quarterly about Toronto urbanism and public space. He was co-chair of the city government’s Toronto Pedestrian Committee and later co-founder of the advocacy group Walk Toronto.; Zahra Ebrahim is an urbanist, educator, and strategist and is currently an Adjunct Professor at the Daniels School of Architecture and Urbanist-in-Residence at the University of Toronto’s School of Cities.; Leslie Woo has experience as an urban planner, architect, and community activator shaping urban development in Canada’s largest metropolis.; John Lorinc is a journalist and editor. He writes regularly about cities, climate, and planning for a range of media, including the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, Corporate Knights, Walrus, and Spacing Magazine, where he is senior editor.

Chapter	Contributors	Pages	Year	Price
Introduction Co-editor Dylan Reid provides an overview of “messy urbanism”, explaining the overarching argument of the book which is that this disorder is necessary for cities to thrive. View	Dylan Reid	10	2025	$1.00
A Farewell to El Gran Burrito The authors lament the loss of a beloved burrito establishment, unique in design and how it co-existed with its surroundings in a gentrifying Los Angeles neighbourhood. View	Dylan Reid	5	2025	$0.50
These Walls, These Roads Ameer Idreis chronicles the hardship of Palestinians living under Israeli control, but reminisces about his connections with the land. View	Dylan Reid	12	2025	$1.20
Living Loud: The Migration of a Steelpan Soundtrack Leslie Woo recounts her family gatherings in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Woo compares the noise present in their busy neighborhood in Trinidad to the lack of noise in Toronto. View	Dylan Reid	5	2025	$0.50
Planning for an Unplanned City Jason Thorne argues for factoring in “messy urbanism” and its challenges into how we plan our cities and to move away from a more top-down approach to city-building. View	Dylan Reid	6	2025	$0.60
Interruptions Zahra Ebrahim discusses how the infrastructure of the formerly industrial street she lives on positively affects interactions with her neighbours. View	Dylan Reid	6	2025	$0.60
Packrat City Tatum Taylor Chaubal connects her “packrat” collecting tendencies with her role and values as a city heritage planner, advocating for these roles to include preserving the “messy urbanism” of the past. View	Dylan Reid	4	2025	$0.40
An Argument Worth Having Chiyi Tam explains how conflict within communities has the capacity to net positive and democratic results, using her role in the Toronto Chinatown Land Trust as a key example. View	Dylan Reid	8	2025	$0.80
Dixie Road Fadi Masoud details how suburbs, like the ones on the edges of Toronto, are crucial entry points for immigrants, in spite of these spaces facing social and infrastructural challenges. View	Dylan Reid	6	2025	$0.60
A Beach Like No Other Shari Kasman writes about Bloordale Beach, a guerrilla art project that grew organically among the community as a creative placemaking initiative. View	Dylan Reid	9	2025	$0.90
The Ballet of the Parking Lot Brendan Stewart and Daniel Rotsztain write about the plazaPOPS initiative in Etobicoke North to illustrate the vibrancy of community life that strip malls generate and how these plazas can be … View	Dylan Reid	9	2025	$0.90
What Is Safety? Kimahli Powell uses their experience with the Toronto-based charity, Rainbow Railroad, to explore what it means to provide a safe community for LGBTQIA+ individuals amidst a housing crisis. View	Dylan Reid	7	2025	$0.70
Why Can’t We Sell Stuff Anyplace? John Lorinc discusses zoning rules that govern commercial activity, and the history of urban retail in cities around the world. View	Dylan Reid	8	2025	$0.80
Desire Lines in the Sand Wesley Lincoln Reibeling explains how desire lines symbolize the spaces that queer people have carved for themselves outside conventional planning norms in society, and uses Hanlan’s Point on … View	Dylan Reid	9	2025	$0.90
Conjay’s First Walk Home Tura Cousins Wilson and Shane Laptiste explore Little Jamaica in Toronto’s historic Caribbean community, and trace its history from the 1960’s to its imagined future in 2035. View	Dylan Reid	7	2025	$0.70
Flexible Streets Dylan Reid writes about the accessibility of flexible streets for blind people, and the challenges that blurred boundaries between park, sidewalk, and street pose towards some pedestrians. View	Dylan Reid	11	2025	$1.10
Leave the Leaves Lorraine Johnson writes about the benefits of leaf litter to local ecology in residential areas, and the ways this essential habitat is endangered in cities. View	Dylan Reid	7	2025	$0.70
Non-humans (heard and Unheard) Kite and Robbie Wing discuss workshops they lead, combining Indigenous listening practices and the urban or built environment to inform each participant’s perception of the workshop. View	Dylan Reid	6	2025	$0.60
My Teacher Carolynne Crawley writes about Mama Snapping Turtle, who lives in Toronto’s High Park, and their advocacy work for further Turtle relatives in city parks. View	Dylan Reid	4	2025	$0.40
Beyond the Lawn: Meadow or Mess? Nina-Marie E. Lister writes about challenges posed by Toronto’s bylaw enforcements officers who attempt to regulate yards and gardens on private property. View	Dylan Reid	10	2025	$1.00
Designing Out Disorder Cara Chellew writes about defensive urbanism, and the ways that attempts to control public space reduces its flexibility, threatening its social and political dimensions. View	Dylan Reid	6	2025	$0.60
The Collective Effervescence of Messy Parks Jake Tobin Garrett writes about how the pandemic broke previous understandings of public space for Canadians, specifically examining parks. View	Dylan Reid	7	2025	$0.70
Mexico City’s Eclectic Apartment Architecture Daniel Gordon writes about Mexico City’s apartment architecture, and the design guidelines across Canada that would label them undesirable, inappropriate, and problematic. View	Dylan Reid	7	2025	$0.70
Tower Communities Are What We Make Them Ajeev Bhatia explores the apartment tower communities in and around Toronto. View	Dylan Reid	3	2025	$0.30
Rasta Cape Town Kofi Hope reflects on their experience living in Cape Town, South Africa, and how the Rastafarians they met there were messy urbanists: community builders, peacemakers, entrepreneurs, … View	Dylan Reid	7	2025	$0.70
Chaotic Unregulated Tokyo: The Quintessentially Messy City? Andre Sorensen argues that Tokyo is often praised by tourists as the quintessential messy city with no zoning laws, while Japan in fact operates strict zoning systems that are completely … View	Dylan Reid	6	2025	$0.60
The Readable City Shawn Micallef explores how visually messy cities are easily understood by walking the streets themselves, and draws on examples from Berlin, Toronto, and other major cities across the world. View	Dylan Reid	6	2025	$0.60
Cities for Women and Girls ElsaMarie D’Silva writes about the danger that crowded public spaces and transport potentially hold for female bodies, and that the chaotic nature of urban life can endanger vulnerable targets further. View	Dylan Reid	7	2025	$0.70
A Food Map of Toronto Karon Liu discusses their mental map of Toronto according to grocery stores, restaurants, and hidden gems. View	Dylan Reid	6	2025	$0.60
Sports and Spaces Perry King writes about the public spaces utilized for sports in urban cities such as the multi-purpose sports courts housed beneath highways in Navi, Mumbai. View	Dylan Reid	6	2025	$0.60
Everything is Everything … But the Details Matter Authors Alexandra Lambropoulous and Sami Ferwati argue that urban developments which ignore the local context of culture and socio-political dynamics will lead to failed urban spaces that lack … View	Dylan Reid	7	2025	$0.70
The Case Against Controlling Infrastructure Andrés Borthagaray writes that a combination of messy and orderly urbanism produces beneficial interaction, and uses examples of mobility infrastructure to illustrate their point. View	Dylan Reid	5	2025	$0.50
Painting the Town Dylan Reid and Leslie Woo discuss graffiti and its many qualities, and the case for street art in cities. View	Dylan Reid	8	2025	$0.80
Banquets and Belonging Sneha Mandhan writes about the cultural significance of banquet halls and convention centres. View	Dylan Reid	11	2025	$1.10
Satisfying Our Thirst for Agency Colin Ellard argues that our desire for messy cities is connected to the desire human beings feel towards the complexity of the natural world. View	Dylan Reid	6	2025	$0.60
Industrial Land’s Secret Sauce Karen Chapple writes about the potential avenues for preserving existing messy but productive industrial spaces, while introducing innovation districts in cities around the world. View	Dylan Reid	9	2025	$0.90
Thinking Twice About Consultation Lorne Cappe writes about his experience as a consultant on a supportive house project within Toronto, and the intense pushback he received in public engagement. View	Dylan Reid	8	2025	$0.80
A Lifeline at the Door Dr. Eileen de Villa writes about supervised consumption sites, their importance to the physical health, mental wellbeing, and community of their clients, as well as their perceived messiness by others. View	Dylan Reid	5	2025	$0.50
Public Health in the Post-Covid Era Dr. Andrew Boozary writes about how the pandemic illustrated that public health and equity in Canada do not meet the standards many Canadians expect. View	Dylan Reid	4	2025	$0.40
Another Fine Mess About Regionalism Sabine Matheson writes about her experience as an advisor to the government that debated the amalgamation of Toronto in the late 1990’s. View	Dylan Reid	5	2025	$0.50
We Can Live With That Leslie Woo writes about the plan to evolve the Greater Golden Horseshoe region within Canada in the early 2000’s, and how bureaucratic short-sightedness eroded the plan’s potential and original … View	Dylan Reid	7	2025	$0.70
Confessions of a First-Time Parade Organizer Zahra Ebrahim writes about organizing a parade in her Toronto west end neighbourhood of the Junction Triangle, its route around infrastructure, and the vibrant community celebration that ensued. View	Dylan Reid	8	2025	$0.80
Conclusion: Whose Messiness Is This, Anyway? The editors of Messy Cities advocate for messy conditions which provide the opportunity for local and institutional change. View	Dylan Reid	6	2025	$0.60

Messy Cities

Why We Can't Plan Everything

Contributors

Dylan Reid

Welcome