This paper uses qualitative data and simple network analysis to demonstrate the trans-local nature of two counter-normative cultural practices affecting public space in many cities: street art (physical artwork installed upon and participating in the built environment as an act of transgression and often illegally) and do-it-yourself urban design (unsanctioned yet ostensibly functional alterations to urban streetscapes intended as civic-minded improvements). Building out of my own and others' research on these practices, which I connect as acts of "creative transgression" in public space, I argue here that these trends are also sources of identity formation, acts of political engagement, and recognizable forms of cultural communication that can structure ties between people and places. The creation of street art or DIY urban design interventions is more than a local/individual act of informal placemaking; these practices can connect their participants, residents and policymakers in affected areas, and cities themselves, illustrating the existence of global urban networks based on subcultural practices. This has implications for policymakers, development actors, and everyday urbanites. Information on multi-city street art is drawn from interviews, archival data, and network analyses for eight cities from a study completed in 2005. Data on DIY urban design come from interviews, participant observation, and analyses of spatial and policy contexts in seventeen cities conducted between 2011 and 2014. I draw on literatures ranging from cultural and economic geography to critical cultural studies, connecting the discourse on cultural globalization and global city networks to themes of privilege, inequality, democracy, and resistance.