One of Canadian Architect's 'Best books for Canadian architects: 2025'

One of Bloomberg Cities Network's 'Summer Reads for Urban Innovators'

"Messy Cities highlights the richness and clues in community-led design, and how the scrappiness of cities and urban diversity are what make these areas strong, vibrant, and livable." – Brittany Andrew-Amofah, Perspectives Journal

"This book ... focuses mostly on personal, organic, on-the-ground descriptions of the ways neighbourhoods work in Toronto: How one created a “gorgeous landlocked oasis” out of a vacant lot at the start of the COVID‐19 pandemic. The veggie grannies of West Chinatown. The banquet halls, primarily serving the South Asian community but not exclusively, that have become important cultural conduits even though they’re usually bland buildings in the middle of suburban industrial areas." – Frances Bula, Literary Review of Canada

"Messy Cities doubles as a love letter to Toronto’s growing immigrant neighborhoods, and an archive of the everyday strategies by which communities make an often hostile city work for them." – Sabina Sethi Unni, Places Journal

"[S]tudents of urbanism looking for an alternative to the straight and narrow path will find much to consider." – Publishers Weekly 

"Cities will always grapple with disorder and the best ways to manage it. But one core message embedded in this collection of 43 essays is that it can be helpful for residents and local leaders alike to consider when that “mess,” whether a glut of street vendors or a complicated traffic intersection, is actually an asset." – Bloomberg Cities Network, '5 Summer Reads for Urban Innovators'

"This anthology of (mostly) brief essays celebrates what’s now known as “messy urbanism” – the serendipitous, unplanned ways people shape urban environments, from graffiti to street vending. Appropriately polyphonic, its diverse contributors include urban planners, artists, physicians and geographers." – Emily Donalson, Globe and Mail

"With examples from Toronto and around the world (Mexico City, Cape Town, Los Angeles, Tokyo and points beyond), it’s a book that takes an intentionally scattered – one could say messy –approach to considering the value and the complications of spontaneous and unplanned city building." – Edward Keenan, The Toronto Star

Zahra Ebrahim is an urbanist, educator, and strategist. Her award-winning work focuses on building bridges between institutions and their public, working with communities to co-design towards better social outcomes and leading some of Canada’s most ambitious participatory infrastructure and policy programs. She currently co-leads Monumental, a national organization focused on projects that advance fair, just, and culturally competent citybuilding, with previous experience leading organizations across multiple sectors. She is currently an Adjunct Professor at the Daniels School of Architecture and Urbanist-in-Residence at the University of Toronto’s School of Cities. She currently lives in Toronto with her partner, and their whippet, Zada.

John Lorinc is a journalist and editor. He reports on urban affairs, politics, business, technology, and local history for a range of media, including The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Corporate Knights and Spacing, where he is senior editor. John is the author of five books, including No Jews Live Here: A Memoir (Coach House Books, 2024), and has co-edited eight anthologies for Coach House, including The Ward (2015), Any Other Way (2017), and Messy Cities (2025). John is the recipient of the 2019/2020 Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy and was the winner of the Writers' Trust Balsillie Prize for Public Policy, for Dream States: Smart Cities, Technology and the Pursuit of Urban Utopias (2022). He lives in Toronto.

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 that recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. He is the author of the Toronto Public Etiquette Guide and co-editor of other books about Toronto. He was co-chair of the city government’s Toronto Pedestrian Committee and later co-founder of the advocacy group Walk Toronto. He is also a fellow at the Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies at the University of Toronto, and author of several scholarly articles about the history of cities in Renaissance France.

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.

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