MESSY CITIES

Crowded streets, sidewalk vendors, jumbled architecture, constant clamor, graffitied walls, parks gone wild: are these signs of a poorly managed city or indicators of urban vitality?

Messy Cities argues that messiness is not a liability but an essential element in all thriving cities. Forty essays by a range of writers from around the world illuminate the role of messy urbanism in enabling creativity, enterprise, and grassroots initiatives to flourish within dense modern cities. With pieces on guerrilla gardening, façadism, queer ecology, and decolonizing public engagement, Messy Cities makes the case for embracing disorder while not shying away from confronting its challenges. ZAHRA EBRAHIM is an urbanist, educator, and strategist. She is an Adjunct Professor at the Daniels School of Architecture and Urbanist-in-Residence at the University of Toronto's School of Cities. JOHN LORINC is a Toronto-based journalist and editor. He writes about cities, climate, and cleantech for a range of publications, including Spacing, where he is senior editor. John is also the Toronto nonfiction editor for Coach House Books, and the author of five books, including Dream States and No Jews Live Here. DYLAN REID is a co-founder and executive editor of Spacing magazine, an awardwinning print quarterly about Toronto urbanism and public space that recently celebrated its twentieth anniversary. He is the author of the Toronto Public Etiquette Guide and co-editor of other books about Toronto. LESLIE WOO is a dynamic tri-sector athlete known for her expertise in uniting public, private, and not-for-profit leaders to co-create urban policy solutions. A Senior Fellow at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, Leslie champions women city-builders on her blog shebuildscities.org