Resilient Cities, Post COVID-19: Urban Planning

Pandemics have a history of changing the built form. The spread of infectious diseases related to overcrowding is one of the reasons urban planning was established as a practice. This time will be no different.

Data has shown us that new immigrants and people with lower incomes are at higher COVID-19 risk in Toronto. Connections between poverty and COVID-19 have been analyzed elsewhere, including Montreal. In City Building through Social Inclusion, Ayana Webb notes that “COVID-19 has made obvious that whiteness and wealth are actually the first lines of defence in the fight against COVID-19, and that many of the virus’ issues are simply amplifications of long-standing social structures that disadvantage and oppress specific communities.” The built form, the ways in which our communities have been developed, who this design has benefitted and who it has failed are major contributors to the disproportionate impacts of COVID-19.

How can the infrastructure stimulus spending coming out of this pandemic serve communities that for too long have been underserved? This could mean ensuring that investment goes to what award-winning placemaker and author Jay Pitter has termed forgotten densities — residential areas characterized by overcrowded and poorly maintained buildings with inadequate transportation options. This could mean ensuring that everyone – regardless of class or race – has equal access to public parks, green spaces and leisure activities. This could mean a dramatic increase in the supply of affordable housing in our cities. It could mean that communities in our cities’ inner suburbs are better connected by a mix of transportation options that are safe, affordable, and convenient.

In the fourth and last of this series, we’re focusing on urban planning and how the design of our cities may shift in response to COVID-19 and the many inequities it has laid bare.

Urban Planning

Create flexible communities, neighbourhoods and green spaces that reinforce healthy behaviours and that protect and support future generations.

Keywords:  mobility;  housing;  density;  greenspace;  public space ; safe streets

New housing possibilities

Michelle German is the Vice President of Policy and Strategy at WoodGreen Community Services
Toronto, Ontario

Many of the things government and private industry have said historically are ‘not possible’ have happened over night. We have moved 1,200 people out of the shelter system, taken on 11 hotels across the City of Toronto and found ways to accommodate people living on the street by setting up portable washrooms and showers, and are now quickly building hundreds of modular housing units on publicly owned land.

This should illuminate for folks ‘what is possible’ and how we may ensure that everyone has a safe and suitable place to live in our cities.

Governments can be enablers by de-risking new ventures and leveraging their resources. There is an opportunity for acquisition of bricks and mortar housing to be converted or protected as affordable in perpetuity. Governments at all levels can create an acquisition fund to take on multi-residential buildings and/or hotels that are being sold off and then work with non-profit housing providers to make them available for affordable housing in perpetuity.

The City could demonstrate leadership in the acquisition space by developing a municipal tool (e.g. loan facility) that could be leveraged alongside Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) funding or on its own. This would be capital available to assist securing property in the short term that gets financed out as CMHC comes in. This could also take the form of a simple loan guarantee in support of philanthropic or other non-profit investment in acquisition.

Home as a sanctuary

Steffan Jones, Vice President of Innovation, CMHC
Ottawa, Ontario

As we all shelter in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the idea of home as a sanctuary has never been more pertinent. It’s clear that we can only successfully rebuild from this crisis if we take decisive, urgent action to boost the supply of affordable rental housing in our cities.

Canada’s 10-year, $55-billion National Housing Strategy, provides strong momentum, and CMHC is proud to be delivering on this historic plan that engages all levels of government. Municipalities can continue to help by accelerating approvals, contributing land and/or waiving fees and taxes for affordable housing developments.

But the housing challenges faced by our cities are complex – and we need to do more. In all sectors, we need to mobilize and ask ourselves: How can we innovate and do better? How can we make housing safer? More affordable? More environmentally sustainable?

Flexible density

Anthony Townsend is the Founder and President of Star City Group and author of Smart Cities: Big Data, Civic Hackers, and the Quest for a New Utopia
New York, New York

I am most focused on a set of ad hoc and strategic responses that are trying to create what I call “flexible density”. We aren’t going to abandon cities. Density is just too useful and efficient. But we are going to have to make cities flexible enough to allow people to spread out whenever the threat of pandemic, terror, heat waves, or whatever threat we may face. We already have a lot of the tools—telework, on-demand and flexspace services and spaces. The challenge will be translating that into an agenda for government. Culturally, I think there will be a lot of pressure and demand to accommodate this. Having had a taste of remote work and more flexible schedules, many people in the knowledge workforce aren’t going to want to go back to employer-mandated commutes on a business week schedule. I should also note, none of this bodes well for conventional mass transit. People are going to be reluctant to travel in tight quarters with larger numbers of strangers. Those who can, will avoid it. Few people in the West know this, but it was SARS that spurred the rise of the Chinese e-bike industry in the 2000s. Workers on the urban fringe didn’t want to be on buses anymore, and bike makers quickly realized that batteries for a 15-20 km commute were now available. The rest is history. Expect more kinds of adaptive innovation as people look for alternatives to trains and buses.

Parks as core urban infrastructure

Dave Harvey is the Executive Director of Park People
Toronto, Ontario

We’ve seen an unprecedented use and appreciation of parks and trails. The pressure on our park systems glaringly highlights insufficient access to public greenspace in many neighbourhoods. Going forward, I believe we’ll see stronger measures from government to enhance the provision of parks and more integrated thinking on how the creative use of the broader public realm can connect and augment our park systems.

Stewarding assets locally

Mallory Wilson is the Managing Director and Co-Founder of Entremise Montreal
Montreal, Quebec

For those of us whose missions are about shifting the paradigms of inequality in cities, we cannot go on with business as usual as the COVID-19 crisis continues to disproportionately affect lower-income and marginalized communities. The need for adequate and affordable space to live, work and play for everyone in cities will become a priority, as the consequences have been serious, on our health and the economy. Governments will wake up and recognize that the “free-market” is a theory, one that has failed to redistribute wealth and resources adequately and equitably throughout the 21st century. We are ready for new theories and new plans, such as Elinor Ostrom’s Nobel prize winning Theory of the Commons, where the most economically and ecologically viable way of stewarding an asset is done locally, by the users themselves. Governments will begin to see the error of selling-off public assets for short-term financial gain, as massive debts will seem increasingly difficult to pay down on the balance sheet, while public assets will be transitioned into common assets to support more livable, sustainable and equitable cities.

Français

Pandemics have a history of changing the built form. The spread of infectious diseases related to overcrowding is one of the reasons urban planning was established as a practice. This time will be no different.

Data has shown us that new immigrants and people with lower incomes are at higher COVID-19 risk in Toronto. Connections between poverty and COVID-19 have been analyzed elsewhere, including Montreal. In City Building through Social Inclusion, Ayana Webb notes that “COVID-19 has made obvious that whiteness and wealth are actually the first lines of defence in the fight against COVID-19, and that many of the virus’ issues are simply amplifications of long-standing social structures that disadvantage and oppress specific communities.” The built form, the ways in which our communities have been developed, who this design has benefitted and who it has failed are major contributors to the disproportionate impacts of COVID-19.

How can the infrastructure stimulus spending coming out of this pandemic serve communities that for too long have been underserved? This could mean ensuring that investment goes to what award-winning placemaker and author Jay Pitter has termed forgotten densities — residential areas characterized by overcrowded and poorly maintained buildings with inadequate transportation options. This could mean ensuring that everyone – regardless of class or race – has equal access to public parks, green spaces and leisure activities. This could mean a dramatic increase in the supply of affordable housing in our cities. It could mean that communities in our cities’ inner suburbs are better connected by a mix of transportation options that are safe, affordable, and convenient.

In the fourth and last of this series, we’re focusing on urban planning and how the design of our cities may shift in response to COVID-19 and the many inequities it has laid bare.

Urban Planning 

Create flexible communities, neighbourhoods and green spaces that reinforce healthy behaviours and that protect and support future generations.

Keywords:  mobility;  housing;  density;  greenspace;  public space ; safe streets 

New housing possibilities   

Michelle German is the Vice President of Policy and Strategy at WoodGreen Community Services
Toronto, Ontario 

Many of the things government and private industry have said historically are ‘not possible’ have happened over night. We have moved 1,200 people out of the shelter system, taken on 11 hotels across the City of Toronto and found ways to accommodate people living on the street by setting up portable washrooms and showers, and are now quickly building hundreds of modular housing units on publicly owned land.

This should illuminate for folks ‘what is possible’ and how we may ensure that everyone has a safe and suitable place to live in our cities.

Governments can be enablers by de-risking new ventures and leveraging their resources. There is an opportunity for acquisition of bricks and mortar housing to be converted or protected as affordable in perpetuity. Governments at all levels can create an acquisition fund to take on multi-residential buildings and/or hotels that are being sold off and then work with non-profit housing providers to make them available for affordable housing in perpetuity.

The City could demonstrate leadership in the acquisition space by developing a municipal tool (e.g. loan facility) that could be leveraged alongside Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) funding or on its own. This would be capital available to assist securing property in the short term that gets financed out as CMHC comes in. This could also take the form of a simple loan guarantee in support of philanthropic or other non-profit investment in acquisition.

Home as a sanctuary 

Steffan Jones, Vice President of Innovation, CMHC
Ottawa, Ontario 

As we all shelter in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the idea of home as a sanctuary has never been more pertinent. It’s clear that we can only successfully rebuild from this crisis if we take decisive, urgent action to boost the supply of affordable rental housing in our cities.

Canada’s 10-year, $55-billion National Housing Strategy, provides strong momentum, and CMHC is proud to be delivering on this historic plan that engages all levels of government. Municipalities can continue to help by accelerating approvals, contributing land and/or waiving fees and taxes for affordable housing developments.

But the housing challenges faced by our cities are complex – and we need to do more. In all sectors, we need to mobilize and ask ourselves: How can we innovate and do better? How can we make housing safer? More affordable? More environmentally sustainable?

Flexible density  

Anthony Townsend is the Founder and President of Star City Group and author of Smart Cities: Big Data, Civic Hackers, and the Quest for a New Utopia
New York, New York  

I am most focused on a set of ad hoc and strategic responses that are trying to create what I call “flexible density”. We aren’t going to abandon cities. Density is just too useful and efficient. But we are going to have to make cities flexible enough to allow people to spread out whenever the threat of pandemic, terror, heat waves, or whatever threat we may face. We already have a lot of the tools—telework, on-demand and flexspace services and spaces. The challenge will be translating that into an agenda for government. Culturally, I think there will be a lot of pressure and demand to accommodate this. Having had a taste of remote work and more flexible schedules, many people in the knowledge workforce aren’t going to want to go back to employer-mandated commutes on a business week schedule. I should also note, none of this bodes well for conventional mass transit. People are going to be reluctant to travel in tight quarters with larger numbers of strangers. Those who can, will avoid it. Few people in the West know this, but it was SARS that spurred the rise of the Chinese e-bike industry in the 2000s. Workers on the urban fringe didn’t want to be on buses anymore, and bike makers quickly realized that batteries for a 15-20 km commute were now available. The rest is history. Expect more kinds of adaptive innovation as people look for alternatives to trains and buses.

Parks as core urban infrastructure 

Dave Harvey is the Executive Director of Park People
Toronto, Ontario  

We’ve seen an unprecedented use and appreciation of parks and trails. The pressure on our park systems glaringly highlights insufficient access to public greenspace in many neighbourhoods. Going forward, I believe we’ll see stronger measures from government to enhance the provision of parks and more integrated thinking on how the creative use of the broader public realm can connect and augment our park systems.

Stewarding assets locally 

Mallory Wilson is the Managing Director and Co-Founder of Entremise Montreal
Montreal, Quebec 

For those of us whose missions are about shifting the paradigms of inequality in cities, we cannot go on with business as usual as the COVID-19 crisis continues to disproportionately affect lower-income and marginalized communities. The need for adequate and affordable space to live, work and play for everyone in cities will become a priority, as the consequences have been serious, on our health and the economy. Governments will wake up and recognize that the “free-market” is a theory, one that has failed to redistribute wealth and resources adequately and equitably throughout the 21st century. We are ready for new theories and new plans, such as Elinor Ostrom’s Nobel prize winning Theory of the Commons, where the most economically and ecologically viable way of stewarding an asset is done locally, by the users themselves. Governments will begin to see the error of selling-off public assets for short-term financial gain, as massive debts will seem increasingly difficult to pay down on the balance sheet, while public assets will be transitioned into common assets to support more livable, sustainable and equitable cities.

More on this:  

• CityLab: ‘Safe Streets’ Are Not Safe for Black Lives 
• The Guardian: Cities after coronavirus: how Covid-19 could radically alter urban life  
• Curbed: In the coronavirus crisis, who gets to be outside?  
• CityLab: Pandemics Are Also an Urban Planning Problem  
• The Globe and Mail: Will cities stay healthy, or will the coronavirus mean the end of density?  
• Meanjin: Cities In The Time Of Coronavirus  
• Spacing: The Power of Parks in a Pandemic  
• Curbed: Design in the age of pandemics  
• Wired: The Pandemic Could Be an Opportunity to Remake Cities  
• BBC: How Covid-19 could redesign our world