Messy Cities: Why We Can’t Plan Everything

“Order needs to be in constant creative tension with disorder for cities to thrive,” according to this scattershot collection from urbanist Ebrahim, journalist John Lorinc (Dream States), Spacing magazine editor Dylan Reid, and architect Leslie Woo. Less than authorized, ground-up approaches to urbanism and city planning are the main focus, mostly in the Toronto area, with an emphasis on how communities’ vital creative impulses are often stifled by local regulations and a top-down approach from government. For instance, “A Beach Like No Other” is a rollicking account of residents in Toronto’s Bloordale neighborhood coming together against the city’s wishes during Covid lockdown to make a community “beach” on an abandoned lot. Other essays include “Cities for Women and Girls,” which considers how to reduce sexual assault on public transport, and “Desire Lines in the Sand,” a solid look at the history of queer beaches. The pieces run the gamut from creative speculation, such as in “Conway’s First Walk Home, Little Jamaica, 2035,” which imagines a safe and well-planned Toronto neighborhood years into the future, to up-close, nitty-gritty accounts of regional governance that unfortunately make for rather dry reading. Still, students of urbanism looking for an alternative to the straight and narrow path will find much to consider. (June)