Would our cities be more lively, more liveable, if we broke the rules more often?
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: Why We Can’t Plan Everything 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, facadism, queer ecology, and decolonizing public engagement written by experts from all walks of life, Messy Cities makes the case for embracing disorder while not shying away from confronting its challenges.
Table of Content
Contents & Contributors
Introduction – Dylan Reid
Dixie Road – Fadi Masoud
These Walls, These Roads – Ameer Idreis
Designing out Disorder – Cara Chellew
From Loud to Lively – Leslie Woo
Mexico City’s Jumbled Apartment Buildings – Daniel Gordon
Flexible Streets – Dylan Reid
Satisfying Our Thirst for Agency – Colin Ellard
The Collective Effervence of Messy Parks – Jake Tobin Garrett
Industrial Land’s Secret Sauce – Karen Chapple
A Food Map of Toronto – Karon Lui
A Beach Like No Other – Shari Kasman
Sports and Spaces – Perry King
Leave the Leaves – Lorraine Johnson
Interruptions – Zahra Ebrahim
The Readable City – Shawn Micallef
Beyond the Lawn: Meadow or Mess? – Nina-Marie Lister
Planning for an Unplanned City – Jason Thorne
A Farewell to El Gran Burritov – John Kamp and James Rojas
Banquet Halls and Belonging – Sneha Mandhan
Tokyo: The Quintessentially Messy City? – Andre Sorensen
The Ballet of the Parking Lot – Brendan Stewart and Daniel Rotsztain
We Can Live With That – Leslie Woo
Tower Communities Are What We Make Them – Ajeev Bhatia
The Case Against Controlling Infrastructure – Andrés Borthagaray
An Argument Worth Having – Chiyi Tam
Everything is Everything But The Details Matter – Alexandra Lambropoulos and Sami Ferwati
Hidden Struggles – Eileen De Villa
Cities for Women and Girls – Elsa Marie D’Silva
Non-humans (Heard and Unheard) – Suzanne Kite and Robbie Wing
Cape Town’s Rastafarians – Kofi Hope
Conjay’s First Walk Home – Tura Cousins Wilson and Shane Laptiste
Another Fine Mess on Regionalism – Sabine Matheson
The Palimpset of Heritage Streetscapes – Tatum Taylor Chaubal
Protecting a Queer Beach – Wesley Reibeling
Public Health in the Post-COVID Era – Andrew Boozary
Why Can’t We Sell Stuff Anyplace? – John Lorinc
The Messy Culture of Graffiti – Dylan Reid
An Indigenous Take on the 15 Minute City – Carolynne Crawley
Thinking Twice about Consultation – Lorne Cappe
What is safety? – Kimahli Powell
Conclusion – Dylan Reid, Leslie Woo, Zahra Ebrahim, and John Lorinc
About the author
Leslie Woo is a dynamic tri-sector athlete known for her expertise in uniting public, private, and not-for-profit leaders to co-create innovative urban policy solutions. With over 30 years of experience as an urban planner, architect, and community activator, she has been central to shaping urban development in Canada’s largest metropolis. Leslie serves on the boards of Waterfront Toronto and the Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric Care and is a trustee of the Urban Land Institute. 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.
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