Praise for Messy Cities:

One of Bloomberg Cities Network’s ‘Summer Reads for Urban Innovators’

One of Canadian Architect’s ‘Best books for Canadian architects: 2025’

‘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 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

‘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 Donaldson, The 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

Praise for Any Other Way: How Toronto Got Queer:

‘The one hundred and four pieces in the book show a remarkable level of diversity on all accounts, and deserve particular praise for the focus on queer and trans of colour histories so often buried or obscured by white queer historians.’ – Morgan M. Page, Lambda Literary Review

Zahra Ebrahim is a seasoned leader and advocate with two decades of experience bringing communities to the center of decision making. This has included redesigning systems and services essential to the public’s wellbeing, with the goal of making cities work for residents who face the most acute barriers. Throughout her career, she has used walking as an instrument of social change, research, and connection, including as the Chair of the global Jane’s Walk festival. She currently co-leads Monumental, a national organization focused on projects that advance fair and culturally considerate citybuilding. She is an Urbanist-in-Residence at the University of Toronto’s School of Cities and the co-editor of Messy Cities (Coach House Books, 2025). Zahra lives in Toronto with her partner, and their whippet, Zada.

Jane Farrow is a writer, broadcaster and dynamic interviewer, and facilitator who has dedicated herself to city and community building over several decades. She has written many articles and co-edited books, including Any Other Way, a queer history anthology of Toronto (Coach House Books, 2017), The Book of Lists (Knopf Canada, 2017 & 2005), and Wanted Words 1 and 2 (Stoddart). Her ten years at CBC Radio included producing and hosting for current affairs programs such as This Morning, And Sometimes Y, and Workology. Jane was the founding executive director of Jane’s Walk, a global initiative involving free, locally-led walking tours inspired by urbanist Jane Jacobs’s ideas about connected, livable neighbourhoods. She currently lives in Toronto.