Messy Urbanisms
@messyurbanisms.bsky.social
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Images and articles relating to messy urbanism. Posts by @dylanreid
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"Messy Cities: Why We Can't Plan Everything" has been published by Coach House Books. Forty-three essays by a range of writers from around the world make the case that a degree of messiness is an essential element in all thriving cities.
chbooks.com/Books/M/Mess...
about 1 year ago
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Concrete Botany
5 days ago
The
#Petunias
are popping out in East Oregon, shot yesterday.
#Bloomscrolling
#GardenPlantsGoneWild
#RebelPlants
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This Is My Glasgow
6 days ago
Love this World Cup themed post box topper, featuring that goal by Scott McTominay, at Broomhill Cross on the west of Glasgow. C'mon Scotland!
#glasgow
#streetart
#postboxtopper
#yarnbombing
#scotland
#tartanarmy
#worldcupfinals
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taylr
6 days ago
brass solidarity band’s singer in the midst of the crowd as they dance to “love train” at the minneapolis sculpture garden this group represents the best of this city
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Rodney 🚧🚇
6 days ago
Looks like they’re getting traffic counts on Church Street (some on Jarvis as well) to see how many vehicles are diverted during the pedestrianization.
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Dylan Reid
6 days ago
Huh, payphones in Australia are free (in exchange for advertising). Also this payphone game is delightful!
add a skeleton here at some point
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Dr. Peter Paul Rubens
8 days ago
2/2 17th-century graffiti. As signed by Pieter Saenredam, whose day is today.
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Marcel Moran
10 days ago
A year later, the School Streets program still blows me away
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Alexandra Lange
10 days ago
“A lot of the photos seem less like kids at play and more like kids at scavenge.” (Same difference)
www.newyorker.com/culture/phot...
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How City Kids Used to Play on the Streets of New York
A retrospective of Martha Cooper’s photos shows the ramshackle toys and improvised games from a bygone era of growing up.
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/how-city-kids-used-to-play-on-the-streets-of-new-york
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Stay curious.
10 days ago
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Creating temporary uses for vacant properties waiting for development is a creative way to keep those spaces active. But property tax rules could make this positive practice not viable.
torontolife.com/city/this-po...
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This popular pickleball court just got hit with a $500,000 tax bill - Toronto Life
It could be the end of the Fairgrounds racket club near Yonge and St. Clair
https://torontolife.com/city/this-popular-pickleball-court-just-got-hit-with-a-500000-tax-bill/
14 days ago
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Jason Thorne
15 days ago
“Love Liberty” pop-up park parking lot conversion in Liberty Village (Toronto).
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More surreal pole posters in Toronto
#posters
17 days ago
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Oliver Moore
18 days ago
Update: it’s been sorta scrubbed off, leaving a ghostly dog. Which tells that it was unsanctioned and the company used very tenacious paint to make it last a long time. So my question, what’s the penalty? If the city does nothing but remove it no lesson is learned
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Rodney 🚧🚇
18 days ago
We're currently working with Toronto Society of Architects to possibly create a cool installation that explains the queer histories of the neighbourhood. Lots of unpaid volunteer work has already been done but it'll require money to actually print/install vinyls or plaques. (2/3)
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Brandon
18 days ago
Just imagine the two dozen cars that we could have parked here
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Toronto Boris
18 days ago
The Copyright Infringement League! A mishmash of Marvel and DC comic book superheros on one garage door. Someone who lives there really loves comicbooks or trademark infringement, possibly both.
#BlueSkyArtShow
#EastCoastKin
#UrbanGaze
#Toronto
#theAnnex
#AlleywayTO
#MarvelComics
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Dan Seljak
19 days ago
BlogTO has the goods. Missed this yesterday:
www.blogto.com/eat_drink/20...
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Businesses at Toronto food market forced to remove all their signs
A once-vibrant hub for global cuisines in Toronto has gotten a decidedly minimalistic makeover in recent weeks as all participating businesses were f…
https://www.blogto.com/eat_drink/2026/05/world-food-market-toronto-signs/
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Toronto Boris
21 days ago
Streetcars and fresh bread. An old signa for a local bakery that features an old PCC streetcar. Streetcars like bread are a staple of Torontos municipal transit system.
#BlueSkyArtShow
#EastCoastKin
#UrbanGaze
#Toronto
#Leslieville
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Dylan Reid
20 days ago
Chair planters set out in a street in Fener, Istanbul
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Dylan Reid
22 days ago
Also the Fener district incorporates fun designs in its cobblestones!
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Dylan Reid
23 days ago
Street art in the Fener district of Istanbul
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Dylan Reid
23 days ago
Istanbul stray cat architecture
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Planetizen
27 days ago
MBTA threatens to use eminent domain to pedestrianize Boston streets during World Cup - h/t Streetsblog Massachusetts
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MBTA threatens to use eminent domain to pedestrianize Boston streets during World Cup - h/t Streetsblog Massachusetts
Boston city hall has been unusually reluctant to align with MassDOT and MBTA's proposed crowd management plans.
http://dlvr.it/TSgNDD
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Dylan Reid
27 days ago
Roman graffiti! (I could only take a distance shot)
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Dylan Reid
28 days ago
Coffee cart - and pickle cart. Street food in Kusadasi, Turkey
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GirlRebuilt 🇨🇦🇧🇧
30 days ago
Mystical-themed street art, Toronto, Ontario 🇨🇦. I genuinely believe that this city has among the best street art in the world.
#TagTuesday
#StreetArt
#streetphotography
#urbanphotography
#Photography
#Toronto
#Ontario
#Canada
#PhotographersOfBluesky
#EastCoastKin
#ECK
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Trevor Heywood
about 1 month ago
Good morning from Yonge and Lawrence. This week will be a little different in that I will be refreshing some of my Toronto walks, and they will be broken up. Today we'll look a few different tributaries in the Don River, starting with Burke Brook from Yonge to the West Don. Let's go.
#metroscapes
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Dylan Reid
about 1 month ago
Istanbul graffiti
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Toronto Boris
about 1 month ago
The Danforth Tripper In an alleyway south of Danforth and Woodbine an ode to the venerable maroon and cream PCC streetcar that plied these streets in the days before the subway. As always this is a streetcar city.
#LanewayTO
#BlueSkyArtShow
#EastCoastKin
#UrbanGaze
#Toronto
#Danforth
#AlleywayTO
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Dylan Reid
about 1 month ago
The rooftops of Istanbul are reminding me of the cover of the "Messy Cities" book
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Graham Kidd Photography
about 1 month ago
After the rain, I ventured out with my replacement phone - a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra - to try the camera out. I was quite pleased with the results.
#photography
#fotografie
#fotografia
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Shawn
about 1 month ago
Midtown Manhattan.
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Melissa Bowman
about 1 month ago
"We have produced generations of adults who can name the Prime Minister but not their ward councillor. Who follow a federal budget with more attention than a municipal capital plan that will determine whether their water main gets replaced before it fails." Local politics matter.
#WRpoli
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The Meeting That Decided Your Street (You Weren’t There)
Municipal elections shape your street, your water, your housing costs, and your neighbourhood’s future. Across Canada, the 2026 cycle is already starting. Here is what is being decided, who is decidin
https://lenispooner.substack.com/p/the-meeting-that-decided-your-street
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You don't need to be an old city to have ruins! Decayed, broken walkway to abandoned cages of former Toronto zoo, now Riverdale Farm.
about 1 month ago
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Toronto Boris
about 1 month ago
Trail, fairies are truly the most magical creatures in the valley. Here they have established a camp complete with chair and a firepit. And also some workout equipment. This is guerrilla urbanism, at its most raw.
#RavineRambles
##LoveTheRavines
#DonValley
#Hike
#Trail
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Toronto Boris
about 1 month ago
Ghosts of skiing past. All that is left of the former don valley ski hill a single post high above the valley.
#RavineRambles
##LoveTheRavines
#DonValley
#Hike
#Trail
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Oliver Moore
about 1 month ago
Vestigial lettering of defunct retailer appears from beneath removed HBC sign as another defunct retailer vanishes into history. Queen St location
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Toronto Boris
about 1 month ago
If there is municipal icon of this city (sans Raccoon), its the Streetcars. Spotted these 3 gems of garage door murals all near College & Bathrust. The old CLRVs have edged themselves into our collective memory as a city.
#AlleywayTO
#BlueSkyArtShow
#EastCoastKin
#UrbanGaze
#Toronto
#graffiti
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BrianMcLachlan
about 1 month ago
Nearby, Monkyi with Smoky (from the Clandestinos) and Gratian mural.
#Toronto
#StreetArt
#Graffiti
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Marcus
about 1 month ago
Power Lines Drawing #132 (Detroit, Carbon Works) Original drawing for sale at my store 8" x 10" black ink on paper $250
marcusmerritt.bigcartel.com/product/powe...
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Toronto Boris
about 1 month ago
Urban Decay.. Torontos ravines have long been "places of refuse" where people had dumped their unwanted items. Walk through enough ravines, history of household technology will reveal itself. In this case in Curren Hall Ravine, vintage (60s?) oven & 80s typewriter.
#LoveTheRavines
#RavineRamble
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Jamie Bradburn
about 2 months ago
With all the talk about pedestrianizing parts of downtown Toronto, it seems like a good time to resurrect an old "Historicist" column about the Yonge Street Mall of the 1970s.
#TOHistory
#TOpoli
jamiebradburnwriting.wordpress.com/2026/04/30/t...
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The Life and Death of the Yonge Street Mall
Originally published as a “Historicist” column on Torontoist on January 17, 2015. Yonge Street Mall, circa 1971. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 1465, File 312, Item 55. For…
https://jamiebradburnwriting.wordpress.com/2026/04/30/the-life-and-death-of-the-yonge-street-mall/
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Alissa Walker
about 2 months ago
My latest Paris dispatch on how 300 streets outside of schools became some of the coolest places in the city. But even more importantly, these family-centric improvements provide ubiquitous reminders that this society prioritizes children
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Cool streets
Paris's school streets are effectively sculpting out instant parks in the locations where they'll provide immense public health benefits to the city's most vulnerable populations
https://www.torched.la/cool-streets/
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.
about 2 months ago
between the haze
#street
#photography
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The BUS Collective’s public art project, the Little Free Cinema, aims to bring experimental film to the masses.
www.thestar.com/entertainmen...
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Little Free Cinema in Wychwood aims to bring experimental film to the masses
The BUS Collective's public art project, the Little Free Cinema, aims to bring experimental film to the masses.
https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/it-looks-like-a-little-free-library-but-this-outdoor-box-in-wychwood-packs-a-big-surprise/article_70a7a21a-f232-4d2b-b3a4-25b4f4407925.html
about 2 months ago
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Construction demolition
about 2 months ago
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Shawn Micallef
about 2 months ago
It’s the launch party for Jane’s Walk tonight! Good Toronto. Young
@jasonthorne.bsky.social
says some words. Check out all the walks this wknd
www.janeswalkfestivalto.com
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Petition calling on the City of Toronto to halt plans to remove a native pollinator garden located at the northwest edge of Trinity Bellwoods Park, near the dog bowl.
www.change.org/p/save-the-p...
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Sign the Petition
Save the Pollinator Garden
https://www.change.org/p/save-the-pollinator-garden
about 2 months ago
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In Kensington Market, an artist’s ‘demonic’ wall had to be painted over. Some say the move hurts the area’s ‘imagination’
www.thestar.com/news/gta/in-...
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In Kensington Market, an artist’s ‘demonic’ wall had to be painted over. Some say the move hurts the area’s ‘imagination’
Locals argue the move threatens the market’s free-spirited identity.
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/in-kensington-market-an-artists-demonic-wall-had-to-be-painted-over-some-say-it-hurts-the-areas-imagination/article_8c6c895b-b3ac-49de-92cb-7d72a3372da7.html?source=newsletter&utm_email=376E8F6310DBB13C33C7A87720EA87F3&utm_campaign_id=sub
about 2 months ago
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Sophie Nadeau 🇨🇦
about 2 months ago
C’mon, life is short. It’s okay to get excited about flowers ✨
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