The COVID-19 pandemic experience could potentially change urban public space perceptions, planning, and use

Honey-Rosés, J. ., Anguelovski, I. ., Chireh, V. K., Daher, C. ., van den Bosch, C. K., Litt, J. S., … Zapata, O. . (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on public space: An early review of the emerging questions - design, perceptions and inequities. Cities and Health. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23748834.2020.1780074

Imposing restrictions on the use of public space is one of the ways cities around the world have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. While most of these restrictions are intended to be temporary, they could impact our future relationship with public space.

Presented in this paper are some preliminary research questions, ideas, and conjectures about how the pandemic may change public space and our relationship with it. While the authors recognize that “it may take years before we are able to ascertain how the global pandemic has changed the planning and design of public space”, they also suggest that 2020 could define a before and after in urban planning and design. They recognize that COVID-19 could “present an opportunity to integrate a health perspective into planning in new ways.”

With this in mind, the authors identified a list of emerging questions that could be useful in further thinking about urban public space. They present and discuss their questions in three categories: (a) use, behavior, and perceptions of public space; (b) design; and (c) inequities and exclusions. The questions reflect conversations and exchange between the co-authors, online narratives from other researchers and practitioners, and social media discussions. The questions draw attention to the fact that the COVID experience may result in changing preferences and expectations about green spaces. This shift in thinking could then prompt new designs and practices in green space planning.

How cities are planned and designed impacts the physical and mental health of urban residents. Planning for a post-COVID world should be based on careful study and reflection on what we've learned through the COVID experience. The questions, ideas, and conjectures presented in this paper could be helpful for future research and policy. “Will post-COVID planners succeed in transforming streets to become healthier, safer, greener and more livable?” Could they also succeed in making public spaces “truly accessible, inclusive, and welcoming to all residents, especially vulnerable groups”? Post-pandemic public space planning should consider these questions and include environmental justice as a priority.

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