Pedestrian streets. Vertical gardens. Arenas overhauled for social distancing. Robert Muggah and Thomas Ermacora envision how urban centers will adapt to pandemic life.
A man wearing a face mask as a preventive measure against the spread of the new coronavirus walks next to commercial buildings in the Raffles Place financial business district in Singapore on April 14.A man wearing a face mask as a preventive measure against the spread of the new coronavirus walks next to commercial buildings in the Raffles Place financial business district in Singapore on April 14.
The severity of the pandemic is connected fundamentally to governance. Where there is leadership and coordination, as in Copenhagen, Seoul or Taipei, the virus is more rapidly contained. Where there is competition and dysfunction, fatality rates are higher. The coronavirus has exposed the tattered state of the social contract in nations rich and poor. These failures will have consequential knock-on effects.
We are about to start one of the greatest experiments in recent history as cities everywhere emerge from lockdown. The stakes could not be higher. A staggeringis affected by full or partial shutdown measures. Most people live pay-check to pay-check and cannot afford to stay isolated. But this is just the beginning: We can expect waves of infectious disease outbreaks for years until we have a vaccine and strong antiviral options.
Everyone agrees that cities cannot stay in lockdown indefinitely. So how are they expected to cope? In the short-term, face masks, test kits, digital contact tracing, social distancing and other restrictions will be ubiquitous. Measures will vary in intensity and invasiveness from city to city. In China, cellphone-based contact tracing is already the norm with
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