Justin de Benedictis-Kessner studies urban politics and the surprisingly difficult question of accountability: when something in a city works—or doesn’t—do residents actually know who is responsible? His work explores how complex institutions, elections, media, and everyday public services shape the relationship between cities and the people they serve.

New York City’s Office of Mass Engagement brings the practices of grassroots organizing into City Hall, seeking to move public engagement beyond meetings and feedback sessions toward sustained participation in governing. Created by Mayor Zohran Mamdani in 2026, the office asks what happens when residents are treated not as an audience for government, but as active participants in it.

The Fog of Accountability asks a deceptively simple question: if local government is the level of government closest to our daily lives, why is it so difficult for voters to know who deserves credit when things go right—or blame when they don't? Justin de Benedictis-Kessner looks at the structures that make local accountability difficult, including weak electoral competition, complicated institutions, limited voter knowledge, and gaps in local media coverage.

The School of Cities is a unique multidisciplinary hub for urban research, education, and engagement creating new and just ways for cities and their residents to thrive. Based at the University of Toronto and in a fast-growing, culturally diverse, and economically dynamic urban region, the School of Cities supports leading scholars, practitioners, and community members spanning disciplines and lived experiences to co-create new understandings, policies, and practices.

Every week, this newsletter explores the future of cities. Topics include housing, climate, urban tech, post-pandemic downtowns, and more. Through this content and occasional subscriber events, I’m hoping to build a community of urban enthusiasts and people who are professionally engaged in city-making.

What I loved about Metropolis is that it doesn’t offer simple answers or romanticize the past. Instead, it offers something more useful: perspective. It reminds us that cities have always been unfinished—shaped by conflict, compromise, bold ideas, and the people stubborn enough to keep making them better.

For anyone drawn to the beauty and complexity of urban life, this book is an endlessly rewarding companion.

Bicycle Diaries follows David Byrne through cities around the world from the seat of his folding bicycle. Part travelogue, part urban observation, the book uses cycling as a way to experience cities at human speed—exploring architecture, culture, politics, public space, and the peculiar ways places reveal themselves when you move through them under your own power.

Sheila Foster is a leading scholar of cities, democracy, and the urban commons. Her work explores how communities share responsibility for the public spaces, institutions, and resources that shape everyday life—and how collective stewardship can make cities more equitable, democratic, and inclusive.

Co-Cities explores new models of urban governance based on collaboration and shared stewardship. Drawing on examples from cities around the world, Sheila Foster and Christian Iaione examine how communities, governments, businesses, and civic institutions can collectively manage urban resources and services.

All Things Urban is a global platform connecting people who work on cities with jobs, organizations, events, education, and ideas from across the urban field. Founded by Anastasia Sukhoroslova, it helps make an unusually interdisciplinary profession feel more like a connected global community.

Metropolis, the World Association of Major Metropolises, provides innovative solutions to the critical challenges facing large metropolitan areas. It serves as a global hub where large cities can connect, share solutions and mobilize on issues related to sustainability, social cohesion, metropolitan governance, future planning and gender equality.

Jane Jacobs was a writer, activist, and urban thinker whose close observation of everyday street life transformed how generations understand cities. Her work challenged top-down planning and championed mixed uses, short blocks, density, and the complex social choreography of sidewalks and neighborhoods. Her description of that choreography gave Sidewalk Ballet its name.