{"id":41066,"date":"2020-05-03T17:48:51","date_gmt":"2020-05-03T21:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/?p=41066"},"modified":"2025-06-28T12:34:06","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T16:34:06","slug":"covid-has-upended-all-the-normal-routines-in-our-lives-and-work-how-do-you-imagine-you-might-be-changed-by-it-both-professionally-but-also-personally-as-you-negotiate-a-new-post-virus-norm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/2020\/05\/03\/covid-has-upended-all-the-normal-routines-in-our-lives-and-work-how-do-you-imagine-you-might-be-changed-by-it-both-professionally-but-also-personally-as-you-negotiate-a-new-post-virus-norm\/","title":{"rendered":"Covid has upended all the normal routines in our lives and work. How do you imagine you might be changed by it, both professionally, but also personally as you negotiate a new post-virus \u201cnormal\u201d?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Authors in This Roundtable<\/h3>\n
Pippin Anderson, Cape Town<\/a> The differences in the lives of our students is stark. With everybody heading home for lock down, the somewhat levelling experience of a shared campus has gone like Cinderella\u2019s carriage at midnight. Some get to leave the ball as they arrived, and others are left with pumpkins and rats.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Isabelle Anguelovski, Barcelona<\/a> The balance between keeping but delaying essential community engagement meetings, moving them online, or cancelling them all together, will be some of the many difficult decisions we will have to make in the near future.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Janice Astbury, Buenos Aires<\/a> I hope that many people around the world are enjoying the sounds of voices and birdsong, and the experience of cleaner air flowing into their homes, and will want this to continue.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Carmen Bouyer, Paris<\/a> I will keep dancing half an hour a day on Zoom with people from all over the world, and join the direct local actions that bring wonder, trust and care among people and among species, learning from the ways of trees and the songs of bees, together.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Lindsay Campbell, New York<\/a> For those of us privileged to be sheltering at home, the crisis has created a new sense of simplicity and attention to place. May we carry that forward wherever the future takes us<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Sarah Charlop-Powers, New York<\/a> While we\u2019re all navigating through this extremely stressful\u2014and sometimes downright scary\u2014moment, I can\u2019t imagine what my life, and the lives of all New Yorkers, would be like without our local parks.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Katrine Claassens, Montreal<\/a> The pandemic teaches us this: rapid, coherent change is possible. It has also laid bare that there is much to be actively dismantled, and much to be actively built.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
M’Lisa Colbert, Montreal<\/a> I am confronted with how much I need trees, grass, and fresh air to remain a sane human being. Being stuck between the four walls of my apartment all day feels foreign and unnatural.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Marcus Collier, Dublin<\/a> I have a new resolve to overcome my despondency and try harder to find a means to engage urban communities with wild nature. In this case, the first step is literally on the doorstep!<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Paul Currie, Cape Town<\/a> Covid has surfaced a key reality for me: choice. I will be paying more attention to how cities increase the promise and attainment of choice for their citizens, who are so often restricted by cost, geography or demography, to one option.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Samarth Das, Mumbai<\/a> Being locked up in the comfort of our homes is certainly a privilege. Social distancing in a time like this is a luxury afforded by a few\u2014over 55% of Mumbai city’s 13 million inhabitants live in slums where 6-7 people share a single room.<\/span><\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Gillian Dick, Glasgow<\/a> We definitely need to take the opportunity to build back better, but we also need to pause and not rush when we hit the reset button. We need the right rebuilding, in the right place, at the right time, for the right communities.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Paul Downton, Melbourne<\/a> COVID-19 has forced changes that have given nature a breathing space, but I\u2019m betting when the capitalist engine of destruction returns to “normal” it will raid the stores of nature like a selfish bully in a candy shop. It won\u2019t be pretty.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Emilio Fantin, Bologna<\/a> Talking about coronavirus, egoism needs to be switched into solidarity and sharing, but this cannot be done as a reaction to contagion fear or daily body count. It has to be the result of a long path towards the achievement of a new existential consciousness.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Todd Forrest, New York<\/a> A garden feels empty and pointless without people to enjoy it. So does nature. While I have always felt strongly about the importance of nature to a person\u2019s well-being, I have never been so keenly aware of the essential partnership people have with the natural world.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Andrew Grant, Bath<\/a> I have learned to take time to notice, and perhaps I have learned that however devastating Covid-19 is being, it has taught me to reflect on my Life, my Art, and my Nature.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Eduardo Guerrero, Bogot\u00e1<\/a> The dilemma for a healthy planet is not: nature or people? The right approach must be people in nature, planning, and building resilient cities following ecological principles. Quoting Garcia M\u00e1rquez: \u201cI believe it’s not too late to build a utopia that allows us to share an Earth on which solidarity could become a reality\u201d.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Bram Gunther, New York<\/a> Instead of opening the streets up to cars again, muscling each other and spewing their nasty exhaust, we should keep the cars where they are now, inert. The city would transform itself, streets into nature trails lined with aster, sweet pepperbush, and oak trees. Our world-class electric-powered mass transportation system would connect all our neighborhoods as one equal family.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Dagmar Haase, Leipzig<\/a> COVID-19 is not just a natural, virus, or health crisis, it is a societal crisis. The response has to be given by the whole humankind. Urban nature, its maintenance, care and fair use, forms an important part of this global response.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Annegret Haase, Berlin<\/a> The crisis also sheds light on existing inequalities and injustices of our urban societies\u2014in terms of how people can adapt to and cope with restrictions: It is much easier to stand restrictions in a large flat with balcony, garden or rooftop access and close to green spaces than in a small flat packed with people.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Fadi Hamdan, Beirut<\/a> What we need\u00a0is a value change in order to effect a paradigm shift in the way we produce, consume and live as societies.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Cecilia Herzog, Rio de Janeiro<\/a> I am investing my time in isolation to improve my capacity to contribute to a wide discussion about urban nature, how it is important to sustain healthy lives and adapt to the ever-growing threat of extreme weather events.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Alex Herzog, Rio de Janeiro<\/a> I believe there will be a strong enhancement of circular economy, increasing the value of local, its people and its businesses. Consequently, waste will decrease, and much of what before was seen as such, will begin to be reused. In other words, a syntropy in restauration.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Mike Houck, Portland<\/a> I will spend more time, personally and professionally, focusing on the green interstices of our city, the small, often scrappy, bits of nature nearby for my own psychological and physical health, and that of my city.\u00a0<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Matthew Jensen, New York<\/a> But who hasn\u2019t dreamt about snapping their fingers and making air pollution go away? And all of a sudden we realize it is optional. Those scroll bar images are fun. Before. After. Before. After. What else is optional?<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Panagiota Kotsila, Barcelona <\/a> The balance between keeping but delaying essential community engagement meetings, moving them online, or cancelling them all together, will be some of the many difficult decisions we will have to make in the near future.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Gilles Lecuir, Paris<\/a> The confinement makes me feel intimately what I have known and said for many years now: the presence of nature in the city is not a decoration, it is a vital need for the city dweller. \/\/<\/strong> Le confinement me donne \u00e0 ressentir intimement ce que je sais et dis depuis de nombreuses ann\u00e9es maintenant\u00a0: la pr\u00e9sence de la nature en ville n\u2019est pas un d\u00e9cor, c\u2019est un besoin vital pour le citadin.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Nina-Marie Lister, Toronto<\/a> For now, I take solace in the routine of daily bread. The measured pace of the knead, the proof, and the rise offers structure to my blurry days. Ultimately, it is the realization that this simple, measured act and its alchemy are both literally and figuratively what sustains us in its slow and patient way.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Kevin Lunzalu, Nairobi<\/a> The COVID-19 curfew has given me the space to reflect on viable alternatives to my common practices: I am rethinking my food, modes of travel, entertainment, and forms of meeting people. Working from home for certain days may prove to be one of the best environmental practices. These ideas will greatly shape my post-crisis personality.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Patrick Lydon, Osaka<\/a> What will be the new normal?\u00a0Perhaps now is our chance to slow down, take care of ourselves and our fellow living beings a bit better, look to nature, and figure it out.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Yvonne Lynch, Riyadh<\/a> I remain positive regarding a post-virus era because, notwithstanding the gravity of this situation, crisis always presents opportunity for positive transformation. Professionals in my field have always struggled to convince decision makers of the benefits of urban greening and climate adaptation. Not so much now.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Antonia Machado, Portland<\/a> The coronavirus has exposed deep structural weaknesses, reinforcing the notion that working across silos and centering equity is imperative to building resilience and moving towards transformative change.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Fran\u00e7ois Mancebo, Paris<\/a> Hidden behind any disaster, there always is a cost-benefits analysis that went wrong.\u00a0Yet, more than often those who decide on the acceptability of a risk are not those who will be most exposed once the disaster happens. For the future, it is crucial to decide now who and what actions should be priority in the aftermath of Covid-19, and by whom these choices should be made.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Rob McDonald, Washington<\/a> I have often been someone who threw himself at work, who saw work as not just a job but as a calling, who perhaps spent too much time working and not enough time at home. So, it is humbling to realize that, at this moment in time, perhaps the most important thing I can do in the universe is be with my family.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Brian McGrath, New York<\/a> I with others have recently postulated a metacity framework\u2014a more flexible and adaptable form of architectural space\u2014for the future adaptation of cities as we face a global climate crisis\u2014such as the current pandemic. My hope for a positive outcome of this tragic virus is the development of new infrastructures in solidarity towards a just transition based on the feminist\/ecologist metacity matrix.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Siobh\u00e1n McQuaid, Dublin<\/a> We are facing now into a pivotal moment in time where it is possible to contemplate an alternative recovery plan. Governments and decision-makers need to take time out to reflect on the importance of small business, local business and nature-based business for community resilience.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Ragene Palma, London<\/a> I call for urban practitioners and legislators to immerse in the daily lives of those who have been sidetracked for the longest time, and work from there to begin championing spatial equality\u2014visit slums, converse with the homeless, and know what it\u2019s like to live on the verge of the city. Our previous “normal”should not be recreated. \/\/<\/strong> Hinihikayat ko ang mga nasa larangan ng pagpaplano at mambabatas na pananaliksik ng pamumuhay ng nakararami\u2014bisitahin natin ang mga iskwater, kausapin natin ang mga walang tirahan, at alamin natin kung ano ang kalagayan ng mga namumuhay sa loob at labas ng mga lungsod.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Diane Pataki, New York<\/a> What about poverty, inequality, food insecurity, lack of access to clean water, climate change, and pollution? Now that I know we can act in response to COVID-19, there\u2019s no turning back. Our society can change \u2013 completely and rapidly. The next time we have a daring solution, let\u2019s not take \u201cno\u201d for an answer.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Mitch Pavao-Zuckerman, College Park<\/a> Not all of our students have the desire to learn online, and not all have the resources to do so. There is talk about impacts to university budgets and student enrollments. This experience is teaching many about the real lives and experiences of our students, and we need to be sure that any transformations in the new normal reflect on inequities in access to time, technology, and privacy.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Steward Pickett, Poughkeepsie<\/a> This changes everything … again. Will those of us who survive learn this time? All of us are on some verge.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Mary Rowe, Toronto<\/a> I think the most profound challenge for any of us working in urbanism through and after COVID, is now that we have seen how our cities truly function at their most vulnerable, what possible excuse do we now have to not emerge solely committed to fixing it?<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Andrew Rudd, New York<\/a> I am frequently in mourning that after this crisis the world will never be the same. I am also hopeful that after this crisis the world will never be the same.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Eric Sanderson, New York<\/a> What is life, if not hope? What are our cities, if not an investment in our future? Great things will come again. Take care, my friends; hold on; and invest what you can into the long now.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Olivier Scheffer, Bordeaux<\/a> We are standing at the edge of the cliff, and the\u00a0coronavirus is right behind us\u2026So how do we urgently change the urban\u00a0metabolism to something highly resilient?<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Huda Shaka, Dubai<\/a> I have been reminded of the privileges I have which others do not: having the option to work remotely, having access to quality public space and amenities at my door step, having a choice about how I travel and where I spend my leisure time\u2014and having leisure time. I will work harder personally and professionally to bring those privileges to others, I hope.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Laura Shillington, Montreal<\/a> While we may be sharing a global<\/em> experience of living in a pandemic, how we experience it is very specific to place, age, class, race, and gender. Can we use this experience to create a new normal with each of us as more ethical subjects to imagine new worlds?<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Elisa Silva, Caracas<\/a> It is clear that the way we have been living and the patterns of governance we have chosen could be very different, they could change the second we decide to make them a priority and work collectively toward their fulfilment.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
David Simon, London<\/a> The adaptational effort will be immense. While certain other activities are amenable to onlin-isation, others are not\u2014some activities will simply be impossible. All bets are off.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Mary Hall Surface, Washington<\/a> At its best, theatre is a unique forum where communities can imagine together. We gather and literally align our beating hearts as a story unfolds told by actors who breathe our same air. My nightmare new normal is a Romeo and Juliet who never touch, watched by a masked audience too afraid to believe the story.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Erika Svendsen, New York<\/a> I am grateful for all those who are working outside during this crisis and the sacrifices they have made all these days. Nature\u2019s stage crew, so to speak. In the future, I\u2019d like to explore ways to help strengthen our green workforce and support those within it that are most vulnerable during times of crisis.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Abdallah Tawfic, Cairo<\/a> Planting is a representation of peace and hope and we should continue to encourage, support and spread it in such critical time, for the sake of our health and wellbeing. Let\u2019s be hopeful and revive victory gardens again all over the world, let\u2019s get back to our roots, and grow food and hope inside our cities.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Christine Thuring, Vancouver<\/a> I\u2019m contemplating alternative and new ways by which to engage my energy, expertise, and love for the world. It is a bit of an existential place, which enlists the whole range of my creative and scientific faculties. If this is the new normal, where \u201cbusiness as usual\u201d no longer applies, then how do I wish to contribute?<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Naomi Tsur, Jerusalem<\/a> Since we are supposed to go no more than 500 meters from our homes, this is clearly a good time to see if we have all we need within that perimeter. A grocer\u2019s? A small park? A school? A community garden?… Perhaps it is time to think just what is needed for a happy neighborhood and ask whether we have it.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
St\u00e9phane Verlet-Bott\u00e9ro, Paris<\/a> Can we, as artists, organize ourselves to inspire our institutions and societies to keep the engine on slow and never start again the machinery of neoliberal destruction? We talked long enough about politics in art. Time for action and art-as-politics.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Andreas Weber, Berlin<\/a> I wonder what we will make of the insight that we are suddenly so vulnerable. I watch the glittering insects in the sun, much less numerous than some years ago behind this same window, and listen to the nightingale that plucks those insects from the twigs to feed their young. I sit in silence, until the first bat is out and shatters the pale sky with its ragged path.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Diana Wiesner, Bogot\u00e1<\/a> We are the birds that make up their nest with everything they find: branches, bark, feathers, leaves, hair, and even strands of wool, any material to protect the essential: creatively reinventing what will emerge from this process of caring for the global nest. \/\/\u00a0<\/strong>Somos las aves que componen su nido con todo lo que encuentran: ramas, cortezas, plumas, hojas,\u00a0 pelos, y hasta hebras de lana, cualquier material para proteger lo esencial: reinventando creativamente lo que va a emerger de este proceso de cuidar el nido global.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Darlene Wolnik, New Orleans<\/a> My work supporting farmers’ markets across the U.S. remains very much the same. The markets are innovating contactless procedures at a furious pace: new \u201cdrive-thru\u201d markets, ticketed entry walk-thru markets, curbside pickup, \u201cclick and collect\u201d pre-ordering procedures. My days start early and go late, and at the end of each I wonder if I could have done more. Yet it is such hopeful work<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Xin Yu, Schenzhen<\/a> Will the pandemic flame urban residents\u2019 passion to get in touch with Nature? I really hope so. Will people further respect and take care of Nature after the post-pandemic world becomes the new normal? We need to find out and do more.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Carly Ziter, Montreal<\/a> I desperately miss interacting with family, friends, and colleagues in person\u2014but I do plan to be more intentional about the choices I make, and to appreciate every family visit, conference, and chat in the hallway a little bit more as we make our way to a new normal.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Introduction<\/h3>\n
\n
David Maddox<\/div>\n
\n

about the writer
\n David Maddox<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

David loves urban spaces and nature. He loves creativity and collaboration. He loves theatre and music. In his life and work he has practiced in all of these as, in various moments, a scientist, a climate change researcher, a land steward, an ecological practitioner, composer, a playwright, a musician, an actor, and a theatre director. David's dad told him once that he needed a back up plan, something to \"fall back on\". So he bought a tuba.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

We are all confined to our homes\u2014if we are lucky (more on that later). Which is something, since most of us are “outdoor types”, “people types”.. Can we find meaning, motivation, and renewed spirit for action in this contemplative but deeply strange time? We find ourselves wondering, doubting, planning our next steps or perhaps second-guessing our last ones. We are trying to keep all the parts of lives still stuck together and not flying apart. Good luck with that. Bonne chance. Buena suerte. In bocca al lupo. \u0938\u094c\u092d\u093e\u0917\u094d\u092f. \u00a0\u05d1\u05d4\u05e6\u05dc\u05d7\u05d4. Boa sorte. Viel Gl\u00fcck. \u9811\u5f35\u308c. Buti na lang. \u062d\u0638\u0627 \u0637\u064a\u0628\u0627 \u0648\u0641\u0642\u0643 \u0627\u0644\u0644\u0647
\n(Please pardon any clumsy use of Google Translate.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Now that we have seen how our cities around the world truly function at their most vulnerable, what possible excuse do we now have to not emerge solely committed to fixing it? Maybe in searching for a new post-Covid \u201cnormal\u201d, we need to act on the idea that the old normal was a big part of the problem.<\/blockquote><\/figure>Perhaps we are somewhat like ascetics in caves, contemplating a potentially perfectible life outside, somewhere else and out of reach. For myself, I have been wondering how we will be changed by this experience: as people with dreams, families, and styles of behavior; and also as urban professionals.<\/p>\n

So we, as we tend to do, gave a wide variety of people\u2014artists to architects, scientists to planners\u2014the following prompt: How do you imagine you might be changed by Covid, both professionally, but also personally as you negotiate a new post-virus \u201cnormal\u201d?<\/em><\/p>\n

In this prompt we intended to ask a professional question, but also a deeply personal one. All of us now know people personally who have been sick; many (even all?) of us know people who have died. All of us have had lives upended, lost opportunities, had careers and livelihoods set back or even wrecked.<\/p>\n

How do we pick up the pieces? What pieces are even still available to us? Which pieces should we cast aside, and leave on the ash heap?<\/p>\n

There are a few key threads in this collection of 58 people from 24 countries, and many hopeful responses:<\/p>\n

We see (or can simply hear more clearly) more wildlife. Can we hold on to this and build on momentum for and the dream of greener cities for all?<\/p>\n

New modes of communication and teaching have a lot of potential, but are also fraught. Meeting in person has real, intangible, and alchemical \u00a0value.\u00a0Not all of our students have the desire to learn online, and not all have the resources to do so.<\/p>\n

Many of us are slowing down, \u201csmelling the lilacs\u201d, baking more bread, finding new ways to connect to others. Can contemplation and mindfulness be sustained?<\/p>\n

Many are amazed at the clean air and reduced consumption. Can a new normal for the fight against climate change and for livability be embedded in our social actions?<\/p>\n

Several note that after years of hearing \u201cno you can\u2019t change that\u201d, or \u201cthese activities are not optional\u201d, suddenly in a matter of days or weeks we changed fundamental ways of operating. Paraphrasing Diane Pataki below: let\u2019s not take \u201cno\u201d for an answer next time. Or quoting Matt Jensen: \u201cWhat else is optional\u201d in our lives?<\/p>\n

You can read and download here a PDF of all of the short summary statements found in the full texts below.<\/a><\/blockquote><\/figure>Let\u2019s make sure not be too glib or tin-eared about the joy of greenery and songbirds, wonderful though they are. Most in this collection have jobs at big organizations that continue to pay salaries. Some in this collection work for small organizations or are free-lancers. Their lives are not simply changed by working at home until they go back to the office; life trajectories may be fundamentally altered. Some have lost opportunities that may not exist in the future.<\/p>\n

We are lucky to be sheltering at home. Many beyond this collection have to go to work, brave public transportation. Or have no work at all. David Simon in this collection has two children who are emergency room physicians. (Our gratitude to them.) The New York <\/u>Times<\/span>\u00a0and others reported recently that most new Covid cases are people who are working outside the home<\/a>, such as in grocery stores. They probably don’t have a choice. Covid’s consequences seem to hit hard communities that already are challenged. For example,\u00a070% of Covid deaths in Louisiana are African American<\/a>. In Kibera, Dharavi, and other slums of the world, who knows?<\/p>\n

We are The Nature of<\/u> Cities\u2014that is, the character<\/u> of cities that we believe in: green, certainly, but also a thriving mix of communities, and immigrants, and restaurants, and performing arts, and cultural institutions, and civil society, and innovation, and diversity, and opportunities, and \u2026 people.\u00a0I love cities. I fear for their immediate future and the people who live in them. Let\u2019s remain focused on what we can now see are the fault lines and the possibilities for change in cities. As Mary Rowe says below: \u201cnow that we have seen how our cities around the world truly function at their most vulnerable, what possible excuse do we now have to not emerge solely committed to fixing it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Maybe in searching for a new post-Covid \u201cnormal\u201d, we need to act on the idea that the old normal was a big part of the problem. Both personally and professionally, let’s take nothing for granted.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

The banner image above is a nested necklace, jewelry by Ligia Ceballos de Wiesner, who happens to be the mother of one of our contributors here, Diana Wiesner Ceballos. (Photo by Mar\u00eda Jos\u00e9 Velasco.) To me the piece symbolizes much of what we discuss in this roundtable: the act of nesting in our homes (our nests) during quarantine, the interconnectedness (the intricate tagle of nests) of communities, and the new life and ideas (eggs) nurtured within nests.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Cecilia Herzog<\/h3>\n
\n
Cecilia Herzog<\/div>\n
\n

about the writer
\n Cecilia Herzog<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

Cecilia Polacow Herzog is an urban landscape planner, retired professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. She is an activist, being one of the pioneers to advocate to apply science into real urban planning, projects, and interventions to increase biodiversity and ecosystem services in Brazilian cities.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

I am investing my time in isolation to improve my capacity to contribute to a wide discussion about urban nature, how it is important to sustain healthy lives and adapt to the ever-growing threat of extreme weather events.<\/blockquote><\/figure>Let nature be the solution to heal us all<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am being transformed by this sudden tragic pandemic that is affecting the whole of humanity. I am lucky to have a beautiful place in the countryside to be during this period of retreat. I have more questions than statements up to now. How will I go back to a new “normal” life? How long will take until I will be able to hug my granddaughters? My kids\u2026 Will I be able to be with my mother again? Those questions are on my mind every day, all day long.<\/p>\n

I believe this is a life-changing event. When we lose the abstract confidence that life will go on forever in the same way, deep changes occur. Now I praise living more than ever. I miss my loved ones and fear for their lives. I miss my work, my colleagues, my presential classes, and so many other \u2018normal\u2019 activities I used to have.<\/p>\n

I am eager to meet people, especially my family and friends, peers, students\u2026 I want to travel to be with my kids and grandkids. I also want to attend conferences and other events when my friends from other places get together. I value and long for presence: look in the eyes, be able to hug and laugh, sense the pleasure of having made friends from different cultures and meet them.<\/p>\n

Life and human relations are the most important things for me.<\/p>\n

Transformation. I have written a lot about urban transformation, and now in social distancing I have been wondering how this crisis will change cities and people\u2019s minds.<\/p>\n

Will our societies wake up for the immense challenges we face: growing social inequalities, climate change, loss of biodiversity and other threatening life disruptions?<\/p>\n

I am interested in knowing how people will come out after a long period of isolation, mainly who live in apartments without contact with nature. Parks and squares will be there, and I believe people will praise common green spaces more than ever before. As I work with urban landscapes, my thoughts are about what will happen to them. Will they become more important and valued by people and decision makers? Once economic losses are affecting most of urban dwellers, what kind of low-cost experiences they will demand? How people will interact in urban spaces? What kind of open spaces will bloom to help societies recover from this traumatic period?<\/p>\n

I am investing my time in isolation to improve my capacity to contribute to a wide discussion about urban nature, how it is important to sustain healthy lives and adapt to the ever-growing threat of extreme weather events. I believe nature-based solutions are the response to enhance our adaptive capacity and social justice. I am prepared to stay away for a long period of time before I will be able to restart a new “normal” life and face new challenges in the city. Let nature be the solution to heal us all.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\n

Naomi Tsur<\/h3>\n
\n
Naomi Tsur<\/div>\n
\n

about the writer
\n Naomi Tsur<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

Naomi Tsur is Founder and Chair of the Israel Urban Forum, Chair of the Jerusalem Green Fund, Founder and Head of Green Pilgrim Jerusalem, and served a term as Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem, responsible for planning and the environment. <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

Since we are supposed to go no more than 500 meters from our homes, this is clearly a good time to see if we have all we need within that perimeter. A grocer\u2019s? A small park? A school? A community garden?… Perhaps it is time to think just what is needed for a happy neighborhood and ask whether we have it.<\/blockquote><\/figure>Time to Rethink and Reset Our Urban Systems?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many of us are spending time in contemplation and reflection during these difficult days. We have a gut feeling that beyond the immediate and severe impact of the global Corona pandemic, there will need to be game-changing restructuring of our systems in the period following it. However, post-Corona is as yet an indistinct concept, too hazy to consider, especially as we are barely managing to cope with the storm of the pandemic as it rages.<\/p>\n

There is an inherent contradiction in our current circumstances\u2014we need and want to pull together, but must do so while observing strict social distancing. Virtual work meetings and social interaction are all well and good, but not as productive nor as enjoyable as real-time human interactions. Moreover, the current shut-down throws the whole world into severely challenging economic territory.<\/p>\n

I am among those who believe that in the post-Corona age the main shift will have to be in our economic thinking and planning. When Adam Smith wrote his famous treatise, \u201cThe Wealth of Nations\u201d, published in 1776 (the same year that the U.S.A. gained independence\u2026.) he laid the foundations of modern economic thinking. He could not have been expected to, nor did he take into account that 250 years later the world\u2019s population would have reached its current size, and that there would be a serious danger that global resources would no longer be sufficient to provide food, water, energy and other needs for the ever spiraling numbers. In 1776 the global population was 800,000,000, compared to 7,795,000,000 today. He could certainly not have anticipated a world in which 90 percent of the total population live in cities, nor one in which more than half of us are over the age of sixty. Add to that the current on-going climate crisis, with the steady rise of sea-levels, the increasing incidence of natural disasters and the life-threatening rise in temperatures, and you might agree that there is a sufficient basis to re-think our way of looking at things, even before the recent outbreak of Covid-19.<\/p>\n

In spite of the rise of democracy in the western world, and the attempt made in some countries to establish a welfare state (my own country, Israel, among them), the free market economy is globally predominant. Adam Smith\u2019s \u201chidden hand\u201d still moves and shakes global economic trends.<\/p>\n

Economics students are taught that the economy is healthy when there is growth. However, as early as the mid twentieth century, some economic thinkers were already pointing out that growth cannot go on forever, especially if we take into account the dwindling resources of a finite planet. So we currently live in a world where we have to over-consume in order to maintain a healthy economy, yet we must live modestly and consume mindfully, if we are to enable our planet to continue to support human life. I am sure that many will join me in finding an inherent contradiction here.<\/p>\n

Adam Smith claimed that the job of government is to protect national borders, to enforce civil law and to engage in public works (education, infrastructure, etc.). In our over-populated world of dwindling and finite resources, it makes sense for governments to invest in the kind of infrastructure that will conserve and protect natural resources\u2014renewable energy, sewage treatment, desalination, innovative methods of food-growing, sustainable transportation, public health, social welfare and so on. I would humbly point out that most world governments are failing in this. Moreover, in the face of the current global Corona pandemic, world leaders are talking about a \u201ctemporary\u201d breakdown of their economies, with the goal of picking up on production and consumption levels when this nasty patch is over.<\/p>\n

How does COVID-19 fit into these dilemmas? The pandemic is first and foremost an equalizer, since it does not make any distinction between rich and poor, or people of different faiths, and has proved that it is truly borderless. Countries round the world are maintaining only essential services, and a tremendous drop in pollution levels has been marked worldwide as a result. On the other hand, we are paying a heavy economic price. There is a genuine spirit of community support, but a real danger that elderly people, living in physical isolation, may develop depression and anxiety.<\/p>\n

In my own urban world, in a locked-down neighborhood of Jerusalem, I find it a fascinating game to try and reconcile the restrictions imposed on us with the concept of \u201clocal is good\u201d, that reflects the spirit of modern sustainable urbanism. Since we are supposed to go no more than 500 meters from our homes, this is clearly a good time to see if we have all we need within that perimeter. A grocer\u2019s? A small park? A shaded path to walk on without noise and air pollution? Kindergartens? A school? A family clinic? A community garden? A day center for the elderly? A post office? A glimpse of nature? Perhaps it is time to think just what is needed for a happy neighborhood. We might be surprised to learn the positive health impact of one that offers clean air, a taste of nature, plenty shade, and locally grown fruit and vegetables\u2026<\/p>\n

Looking ahead to the post-Corona era, dare we hope and strive for a better world, in which economic security does not go hand in hand with over-taxing of our natural and finite resources? Can we \u201crepair our world\u201d, by basing our economic planning on an equitable and sustainable system? If we do, we may look back on Corona as the chance we were given to rethink and reset our urban world, something we would have been much less likely to do if we had continued with business as usual.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>

\n

Isabelle Anguelovski and Panagiota Kotsila<\/h3>\n
\n
\n
Isabelle Michele Sophie Anguelovski<\/div>\n
\n

about the writer
\n Isabelle Michele Sophie Anguelovski<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

Isabelle Anguelovski is a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Environmental Science and Technology at the Universitat Aut\u00f2noma de Barcelona. She is a social scientist trained in urban and environmental planning and coordinator of the research line Cities and Environmental Justice.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\n
Panagiota Kotsila<\/div>\n
\n

about the writer
\n Panagiota Kotsila<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

Panagiota Kotsila has a PhD in Development Studies and is a postdoctoral researcher at ICTA-UAB and the Barcelona Lab for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability (BCNUEJ). Her research examines the unequal distribution of health risks and how the very concepts of disease, health and well-being are constructed, mobilised and interpreted through and for power.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n<\/div>\n

The balance between keeping but delaying community engagement meetings, moving them online, or cancelling them all together, will be some of the many difficult decisions we will have to make in the near future.<\/blockquote><\/figure>One most recent and direct impact we have had in our practice is the need to rethink and cancel multi-stakeholder meetings we were preparing as researchers and academics from the Barcelona Lab for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability<\/a> on the topic of creating more just and sustainable cities, and which were going to take place in Barcelona during spring-summer 2020.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>One of them, focused on ongoing urban socio-environmental conflicts and struggles, was originally planned for March 19, 2020. The event was going to bring together activist platforms in the city who are working to address real estate speculation and large-scale redevelopment in their perspective neighborhoods while, at the same time, fighting for greener and sustainable neighborhoods for long-time residents – rather than for visitors, tourists, or high-income residents. Our idea as conveners was to reflect with participants on the common issues they are facing and to strategize on possible alliances and coalitions. Our meeting was going to be supported by short videos that filmmaker Alberto Bougleux<\/a> was in the process of filming about each neighborhood struggle. Needless to say, both the event and the videos have been postponed for later this summer. Because of the topic of the event and the types of activists\u2014vulnerable residents, local groups within one city\u2014the idea of moving the meeting online is not in order. The challenge here lies in being able to grasp how the epidemic has changed activists\u2019 priorities and abilities to participate amidst a process of recovering from a pandemic, while also in maintaining a thematic focus that is relevant, as the timeliness of activist oriented events is key to their meaningful outcomes.<\/p>\n

The second event was a European wide Arena event<\/a> in Barcelona, planned for June 4th<\/sup> and 5th<\/sup> 2020, which would bring together academics, urban planners, practitioners, and civic groups from across Europe and thus invite a transversal (cross-domain, transdisciplinary, intersectional) dialogue on the manifestations and drivers of urban injustice in the context of sustainability planning. Some of the questions on the table have been: How does racialized or ethnically exclusionary urbanization create inequalities in access to green amenities? How does tokenistic participation in urban planning reproduce exclusion in planning more sustainable and equitable food systems? How does urban regeneration create new inequalities in planning sustainable neighborhoods and eco-districts?<\/p>\n

For this event, organized within the framework of the UrbanA EU project<\/a>, the greater uncertainty surrounding international travel, even within Europe, for the next 3-6 months, has prompted us to transform it into a two-day series of small webinars (Agenda<\/a> available here). The event will thus host already registered participants and hopefully welcome additional participants who might not have been able to participate before (due to time or travel restrictions) \u00a0but now might find renewed opportunity to attend and\u2014and can now apply online<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Apart from the different type of interaction that an online event can bring (and this restrictions in building connections between our participants and Community of Practice), an important caveat here is that people will probably be \u201cZoomed out\u201d by June 2020 and thus might be discouraged by the prospect of online meetings. Our plan is to have highly interactive, short webinars, with concrete outputs, rather than long online sessions.\u00a0We also intend to invest quite some time in engaging participants with the ideas and the people that will be \u201cpresent\u201d in each online conversation.<\/p>\n

The balance between keeping but delaying community engagement meetings, moving them online, or cancelling them all together, will be some of the many difficult decisions we will have to make in the near future.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\n

Marcus Collier<\/h3>\n
\n
Marcus Collier<\/div>\n
\n

about the writer
\n Marcus Collier<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

Marcus is a sustainability scientist and his research covers a wide range of human-environment interconnectivity, environmental risk and resilience, transdisciplinary methodologies and novel ecosystems. <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\u201cThe Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word “crisis”; one brush stroke stands for danger, the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger\u2014but recognize the opportunity.\u201d John F. Kennedy, April, 1959<\/em><\/p>\n

I have a new resolve to overcome my despondency and try harder to find a means to engage urban communities with wild nature. In this case, the first step is literally on the doorstep!<\/blockquote><\/figure>While the first part of this quotation is now recognised as a mistranslation followed by a misinterpretation of Chinese characters, in my opinion the second part is more relevant as an aphorism for me during the COVID crisis. As an ecologist and sustainability scientist, I am well aware of how crisis or disturbance in an ecosystem can negatively impact some species, even to the point of extinction, but also provide opportunities for others. We live in a world of both natural disturbances and, as we all know, significant anthropogenic disturbances. Cities are, for me, the ultimate of anthropogenic disturbances. Their presence and operation does not permit “natural” processes to adapt and\/or recover at the same rate as would historically have occurred, and therefore cities are a continual “danger” and “crisis”, to follow JFKs sentiments. This is the part of my work that fascinates me, and this is why I am a more than a little obsessed with urban novel ecosystems! While urban areas of all sizes and scales are increasingly dominating our global ecosystem, within them we observe many differing life forms coping, adapting, and in many cases, thriving. So while I am “trapped” indoors during the COVID crisis, I feel myself wanting to emulate these urban life forms and forcing myself to cope, adapt, and (I hope) thrive. You see, my mission to understand and quantify urban novel ecosystems has been faltering lately, and I have been growing increasingly despondent, particularly with my inability to attract funding and interest for creating a citizen science approach to recording the effects of urban novel ecosystems on human behaviour.<\/p>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Photo: Marcus Collier<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, during the COVID lockdown period I have noticed a significant increase on observations of nature in cities with a plethora of new websites, social medial feeds, and mainstream media observations of nature in cities. The absence of large numbers of people and vehicular traffic is permitting many animals to be brazen; unashamedly wandering through what were once busy streets. It should be said here that it is not the case that there are more<\/em> animals or more<\/em> bird song, however, it is the case that we are better able to observe them now that the noisy, chaotic background of human activity has been removed and we are forced to “stop and smell the roses”. I love that people are posting their observations, some of them for the first time, and this will make my job a lot easier when I am trying to convey the diversity and resilience of species in urban environments. What is even more exciting is that urban ecologists are being provided, free of charge, with a growing data resource complete with images and geolocations. We are being given a snapshot of what cities could be like when nature is permitted to do its own thing, and thus we have more opportunities for generating theory and measuring urban ecological processes and characteristics. Indeed, this data resource could be an opportunity, in combination with data from transport, air, and water quality, and so on, for convincing urban communities, planners, and policy-makers of the values of adopting urban regreening strategies. Moreover, this is possibly our best opportunity to definitively prove to our fellow humans that by changing our behaviour we can have greener and healthier cities, and that these greener cities will make us<\/em> healthier in mind and body; yes, we can cope, adapt and thrive!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Photo: Marcus Collier<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wait, I\u2019m beginning to think that COVID might be doing me out of a job! Well no. With all sorts of tiny wildernesses appearing on walls, or in cracks in the pavement, or in the unmanaged corners of parking lots and parks, for me personally this crisis is providing an opportunity for some of the poorest members of our society, who perhaps cannot afford to visit a national park some distance from the city, to experience what wild nature really looks like. I have been speaking of the potential values of urban novel ecosystems for many years, and finally, I am starting to see people voluntarily commenting on the emergent wildness of cities; emergent nature in cities! So, I am excited by the prospect of being able to demonstrate the values of urban novel ecosystems “in the flesh” as it were, and this has provided me with a new resolve to overcome my despondency and try harder to find a means to engage urban communities with wild nature. In this case, the first step is literally on the doorstep!<\/p>\n<\/div>

\n

Eric Sanderson<\/h3>\n
\n
Eric Sanderson<\/div>\n
\n

about the writer
\n Eric Sanderson<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

Eric Sanderson is Vice President for Urban Conservation at the New York Botanical Garden, and the author of Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City. His upcoming book, Before New York: An Atlas and Gazetteer, will be released in 2026.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

What is life, if not hope? What are our cities, if not an investment in our future? Great things will come again. Take care, my friends; hold on; and invest what you can into the long now.<\/blockquote><\/figure>A few great things<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was in the middle of a really great thing when the COVID-19 pandemic came to town.<\/p>\n

Last spring, I was offered one of fifteen coveted fellowships at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center<\/a> at the New York Public Library<\/a>.\u00a0 For nine months, I was going to commit entirely (well, almost entirely) to one project: to complete research on a book I longed to write, summarizing everything I had learned from two decades of study about the historical ecology of all of New York City, as a kind of sequel and complement to my earlier book, on Manhattan (sensu Mannahatta<\/a>). The forests of Bushwick, the wetlands of Jamaica Bay, the schisty basements of the Bronx, and the towering hills of Staten Island, and their ancient forefathers and Earth mothers, were my topic. Generations on generations of relationships, human and mostly not, developed through the planet’s long and dramatic history, had been expressed in extraordinary, beautiful, biological splendor right here, in the place where the five boroughs came to be. If the streams, meadows, and indigenous inhabitants had been forgotten under the relentless onslaught of concrete and asphalt of the 21st<\/sup> century city, then some old maps, dusty books, and our remaining natural areas, plus a bit of historical and ecological puzzle-solving, could help me remember them for all of us.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Outside the library, on \u201cLibrary Way,\u201d also known as East 41st street, this quote from John Ruskin\u2019s Sesame and Lilies is embedded in the sidewalk. I used to walk by it every day on my way to the New York Public Library\u2019s Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The very best part, though, was that I had lucked into spending nine months of my working life with people unlike my usual science-oriented cohort at the WCS<\/a>. My fellow fellows<\/a> were novelists, journalists, poets, translators, philosophers, and historians, all scholars and writers committed to plumbing the human heart and exploring the reaches of the human mind, not a scientist amongst them save me. They could carry on in ancient tongues or witty English.\u00a0 They ruminated on the pros and cons of back story. They knew engrossing details about people I had never heard of. Lunch time conversations ran from Nabokov to the National Book Award to techniques for baking the best sourdough bread. Yes, we were baking and breaking bread long before the library was shuttered, and we were all forced to skedaddle.<\/p>\n

I totally understand that the breakup of our fellowship is among the lightest of burdens to carry during the pandemic. Although a few of us have been sick, none have died; and we all have some version of a home to which we can return. The library is closed, but not insolvent. \u00a0Our work is largely imaginative and portable. Like so many, we now zoom and text and email; we connect as best we can; we share rumors and speculations; and we try to claw out of the vacuum vortex of talking only about COVID-19. We live and work cognizant of better days to come, if only because every other disaster we have ever seen or read about has had better days that followed worse ones, as dawn follows night.<\/p>\n

What does any of this have to do with the Nature of Cities? Everything really. Cities are successful because of the kind of interactions the Cullman Center exemplifies: new people, new ideas, new expressions, new feelings, new friends. Scientists in conversation with artists, artists laughing with librarians, librarians effusing to philosophers. Cities, such as New York, which have been in the urban business a long time, have invested in institutional structures to foment such connections. In much the same vein, The Nature of Cities<\/a> connects our global community of urban-obsessed, nature-loving, polyglots.<\/p>\n

Of course, this same trick of determined confrontation with difference is the genius of nature too, though in manifestly more diverse ways and means. Nature is all about felicitous combination, shaped by the conditions and circumstances of place and time, informed by the past, but not bound to it, channeling an effervescent hope for the future.<\/p>\n

What is life, if not hope? What are our cities, if not an investment in our future? Great things will come again. Take care, my friends; hold on; and invest what you can into the long now.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Some books by this year\u2019s fellows at the Cullman Center. How are books like these made? Through the magic of the nature of cities.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>
\n

Patrick Lydon<\/h3>\n
\n
Patrick M. Lydon<\/div>\n
\n

about the writer
\n Patrick M. Lydon<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

An American ecological writer and artist based in East Asia, Patrick uses story and community-based actions to help us rediscover our roles as ecological beings. He writes a weekly column called The Possible City, and is an arts editor here at The Nature of Cities.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

What will be the new normal?\u00a0Perhaps now is our chance to slow down, take care of ourselves and our fellow living beings a bit better, look to nature, and figure it out.<\/blockquote><\/figure>Remembering: What We\u2019ve Been Needing<\/strong><\/p>\n

A haphazard series of slight changes, sometimes seemingly disconnected, have occurred here in Osaka. Shops close early, big gatherings are prohibited, people are going to their offices less, nearly everyone wears a mask. The tourists are gone too, which in Osaka means about 10 million would-be consumers will have vanished from streets and balance sheets by year end if this continues.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, suddenly more people visit parks and green spaces in the middle of the week, cars are fewer, and many of the trains and public buildings that once relied on climate control, now have their windows open to encourage fresh air instead.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Physical distancing at Nakanoshima Park in central Osaka, Japan \/ CC BY-SA, Patrick M. Lydon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Privately here in our home, coronavirus has meant more time spent cooking\u2014and growing\u2014new foods, sewing and fixing clothes instead of buying them, and working to enjoy the process of finding where we can slow down and be more attentive, to ourselves, to our neighbors, to our environments.<\/p>\n

Much of my work as a writer and artist\u2014and my wife as an herbalist\u2014is becoming more virtual. After six months of preparation, an exhibition in Kyoto was canceled just days before we were set to open due to COVID-19. We went ahead virtually<\/em> instead, substituting an in-person audience for an “online” audience thanks to The Nature of Cities\u2019 new Urban Ecological Arts Forum<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re now trying to expand this opportunity, to help more urban artists who are in similarly difficult positions.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The closed exhibition \u2018Typhoon Queens, Exhibition #1\u2019 at Art Spot Korin in Kyoto, Japan \/ CC BY-SA, Typhoon Queens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It seems this is a theme across other disciplines too. Helping those in need suddenly becomes the obvious thing to do, when we realize so clearly that all humans, and the entire living world around us, are in need.<\/p>\n

It seems many other urban needs are finally being realized at this time, too.<\/p>\n

In most industrialized nations, we have been in need of a slowdown, of more time listening to nature, of more urban gardens, of clean air, clean water, and of bringing and end to jobs that degrade the environment and human health. We\u2019ve also been in need of ways to feed and house our fellow mortals\u2014as ecologist Larry Korn liked to say\u2014in ways that support the wellness of all beings.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve needed these things in our cities for a long time.<\/p>\n

Now, suddenly, miraculously, seemingly accidentally, so many of these needs are being revealed to us in very potent ways. Outdoor air pollution \u2014which kills <\/a>over 4 million people every year\u2014is giving way to blue skies that have not been seen for lifetimes<\/a>, and the same is true for the reduction of urban noise pollution<\/a>. There are Coronavirus Victory Gardens<\/a> popping up all around Los Angeles. Tiny homes for homeless are being built in San Jose<\/a> at rapid pace, and Americans are suddenly listening to birds<\/a>, and going out into nature in such numbers that authorities don\u2019t know how to handle<\/a> the new influx of nature lovers.<\/p>\n

With these revelations, come some inevitable questions. How do we keep the skies blue, the herons cackling, and the gardens growing, after this is all over?<\/p>\n

What will be the new normal?<\/p>\n

Perhaps now is our chance to slow down, take care of ourselves and our fellow living beings a bit better, look to nature, and figure it out.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\n

Rob McDonald<\/h3>\n
\n
Rob McDonald<\/div>\n
\n

about the writer
\n Rob McDonald<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

Dr. Robert McDonald is Lead Scientist for the Global Cities program at The Nature Conservancy. He researches the impact and dependences of cities on the natural world, and help direct the science behind much of the Conservancy\u2019s urban conservation work. <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

I have often been someone who threw himself at work, who saw work as not just a job but as a calling, who perhaps spent too much time working and not enough time at home. So, it is humbling to realize that, at this moment in time, perhaps the most important thing I can do in the universe is be with my family.<\/blockquote><\/figure>Both personally and professionally in this time of COVID-19, what I thought was important is changing.<\/p>\n

A pandemic like this has a way of clarifying what is important, and what is not truly important, in one\u2019s personal life. I am on day 39 of self-quarantining with my family in our little apartment in Washington, DC. It has been an intense event, for all the usual cliched reasons but also for more spiritual ones. I could make jokes about the challenges of home-schooling two kids while two spouses do Zoom calls to people in all time zones around the world, etc. But those jokes seem already fully played out in popular culture, and don\u2019t capture what I find novel about the experience.<\/p>\n

Rather unexpectedly, I have found all this time at home with my family to be a spiritually clarifying moment. It has given me an increased appreciation of the power of family in a time such as this. I have often been someone who threw himself at work, who saw work as not just a job but as a calling, who perhaps spent too much time working and not enough time at home. So, it is humbling to realize that, at this moment in time, perhaps the most important thing I can do in the universe is be with my family. We are lucky to all be healthy, and for both my spouse and I to have jobs that allow us to work at home, so I don\u2019t mean to imply that it was a particularly hard lot for me. Rather, just that I have realized the work of teaching my kids and psychologically connecting with my family, of helping us survive and thrive mentally as a family, was more important than any of my official work as an urban ecologist.<\/p>\n

Professionally, this pandemic has brought some big changes for me. The Nature Conservancy, like many non-profits around the world, will have its budget significantly impacted by the economic crisis we are in. This will lead to significant changes in how our urban work is structured, which we are still working through as an organization. Moreover, it seems clear to me that the \u201ctraditional\u201d agenda of urban conservationists, of pushing for nature-based solutions in cities for the ecosystem services they provide, for resilience and human well-being, may not be enough. There are hard questions being asked within the conservation movement right now. What is the value of nature during a pandemic? Does nature matter in cities post-coronavirus? Is there even a future for cities post-coronavirus, and if so, what is it? How can we talk about the links between nature and health, which are real and significant, without seeming trite compared with the enormity of the health impact of this pandemic? While we are beginning to find some answers to these questions, they will take months or years for the conservation movement to fully ponder. I truly don\u2019t know yet how much our movement will change, or how.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\n

Paul Downton<\/h3>\n
\n
Paul Downton<\/div>\n
\n

about the writer
\n Paul Downton<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

Artist, writer, \u2018ecocity pioneer\u2019. A former architect with a PhD in environmental studies, Paul is distressed by how the powerful idea of ecological cities has been perverted, citing \u2019Neom\u2019 as a prime example. Still inspired by his deceased life-partner Ch\u00e9rie Hoyle (1946-2024), Paul is continuing his graphic novel \/ epic poem \/ art project called \u2019The Quest for Wild Cities\u2019 that he promised Ch\u00e9rie he\u2019d finish along with his 80% complete \u2018Fractal Handbook for Urban Evolutionaries\u2019!<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

COVID-19 has forced changes that have given nature a breathing space, but I\u2019m betting when the capitalist engine of destruction returns to “normal” it will raid the stores of nature like a selfish bully in a candy shop. It won\u2019t be pretty.<\/blockquote><\/figure>“Let us talk, I will isolate myself.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The title and all other quotations are from “The Machine Stops” by E.M. Forster, first published in 1909.<\/em><\/p>\n

The usual routines of my wife and I are minimally affected by the pandemic as I work from home and have long relied on electronic communications. The dog gets a walk on the beach every day but I no longer plan to do anything else. In a world turned on its head my frustrations are trivial. But I\u2019m angry.<\/p>\n

Australia has dealt quite well with COVID-19 but we hold a fraction of the world population. Trump wants to sacrifice lives to rescue the US economy whilst making “democracy” and “freedom” meaningless globally<\/em>. America is fighting a bizarre civil war and I\u2019m wondering when \u201cthe Hunger Games\u201d will start in earnest…<\/p>\n

Imagine, if you can, a small room…<\/em><\/p>\n

In Forster\u2019s prescient 111-year-old story \u201cThe Machine Stops\u201d, Vashti lives a static life in a single room, nevertheless, like an avid Facebook user:<\/p>\n

She knew several thousand people…<\/em><\/p>\n

Dealing with the pandemic would be unthinkable without the internet.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

…in certain directions human intercourse had advanced enormously…<\/em><\/p>\n

COVID-19 has accelerated changes already underway. Our doctor offers phone consultations and our grandchildren are attending school virtually; families are zooming in to teleconferencing…<\/p>\n

“I see something like you in this plate, but I do not see you.”<\/em><\/p>\n

We accept being isolated in order to talk to others, we accept a simulacrum of someone\u2019s image on a screen and mechanical reconstitution of their voice as if they were the real thing.<\/p>\n

The clumsy system of public gatherings had been long since abandoned; neither Vashti nor her audience stirred from their rooms.<\/em><\/p>\n

Public space has been central to urban civilisation but life in personal bubbles mediated by machines is part of modern urbanism and pre-COVID-19 we were already abandoning meetings in the flesh.<\/p>\n

She made the room dark and slept; she awoke and made the room light; she ate and exchanged ideas with her friends, and listened to music and attended lectures; she made the room dark and slept… Those funny old days, when men went for a change of air instead of changing the air in their rooms!<\/em><\/p>\n

Air-conditioning and artificial light have separated urban generations from reliance on diurnal cycles and a sense of how the earth moves through space has been eroded to a point of irrelevance for much of our industrial civilisation. COVID-19 seems likely to exacerbate this condition. As we connect on-line, we disconnect from the planet. It becomes harder to understand the poison gas we can\u2019t see and that other great invisible force pressing on our civlisation. Global heating will take many more lives than this pandemic, and there\u2019s no quick fix.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

“Have you been on the surface of the earth since we spoke last?”<\/em><\/p>\n

Few people experience anything wild in a world of industrialised civilisation. Children ape their elders thinking that farmland is “nature”. Many will never stand on the pre-industrial surface of the earth.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>And if Kuno himself, flesh of her flesh, stood close beside her at last, what profit was there in that? She was too well-bred to shake him by the hand.<\/em><\/p>\n

Tactility is part of being human but now it\u2019s anti-social and dangerous. Social distancing, facilitated by reliance on the virtual, presages a disaster in terms of healthy human evolution. How is it not possible to feel angry and worried about this? Is it just too “abstract”?<\/p>\n

“You know that we have lost the sense of space. We say ‘space is annihilated’, but we have annihilated not space, but the sense thereof. We have lost a part of ourselves.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Like many of us, I\u2019m reviewing assumptions about the way physical social space functions in our cities. I don\u2019t have any answers yet. Then there\u2019s our relationship to the rest of nature. COVID-19 has forced changes that have given nature a breathing space, but I\u2019m betting when the capitalist engine of destruction returns to “normal” it will raid the stores of nature like a selfish bully in a candy shop. It won\u2019t be pretty. But it\u2019s hard to be an optimist as the Trumps and Bolsanaros make things unnecessarily worse and the world outside our “western” universe isn\u2019t looking too good, with estimates of 3 million or more likely to die in the next 12 months in Africa alone.<\/p>\n

Forster\u2019s story doesn\u2019t end well but allows a glimmer of hope, with others “…hiding in the mist and the ferns until our civilisation stops…”.<\/em><\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s time to take the dog for a walk.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\n

David Simon<\/h3>\n
\n
David Simon<\/div>\n
\n

about the writer
\n David Simon<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

David Simon is Professor of Development Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London and until December 2019 was also Director of Mistra Urban Futures, an international research centre on sustainable cities based at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden. He is a Lead Author of the current IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Cities.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

The adaptational effort will be immense. While certain other activities are amenable to onlin-isation, others are not\u2014some activities will simply be impossible. All bets are off. <\/blockquote><\/figure>Inevitably, the personal and professional aspects of my life are closely intertwined. At one level, coping with the disruption and uncertainties at all levels has been greatly facilitated by no longer having dependent children at home who need home schooling and boundless time and energy in so many ways. We also no longer have elderly parents or in-laws and their siblings to worry about and care for.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, our elder son and his fianc\u00e9e are both intensive care doctors who have been under relentless pressure on the frontline in two London hospitals. Given the risk to unprotected healthcare workers, exacerbated by the ongoing shortages of personal protective equipment and ongoing inadequacy of the testing regime for staff, this has been a nagging worry on them and us.<\/p>\n

I am also immensely privileged in living in a detached house with good-sized garden on the very edge of the green belt, and with the forested expanses and beauty of Virginia Water lake in Windsor Great Park just around the corner. Unlike so many, I have therefore been able to swap my regular squash and tennis for training cycles “in nature” as the daily exercise for which, along with essential shopping and medical appointments, we are allowed to leave the house under the UK version of lockdown. Moreover, the 90% reduction of daily flights into and out of nearby Heathrow Airport has greatly reduced ambient background noise, making the birdlife far more audible.<\/p>\n

Professionally, the progressive shutdown of travel and the universities caused anxiety and indefinite postponements of long-distance travel for research work, related workshops in Kenya, a PhD defence in Germany, and a guest university lecture in Luxemburg. Where practicable, rather like the teaching and assessment work of my university, we have rapidly reorganized to do the work online, so the guest lecture will go ahead on schedule.<\/p>\n

While I have already done one UK PhD defence via Skype, the German system involves a whole ritual including a public lecture by the candidate and then a debate with the examiners. Hence the host university refused to countenance a slimmed down online version and we have set a provisional alternative date in mid-July. All bets are off.<\/p>\n

Conversely, while certain other activities are amenable to onlin-isation, others are not. The bulk of planned fieldwork, multi-stakeholder discussions, and academic writing training workshop for PhD students and early career researchers in Kenya require travel and face-to-face engagement. To date, it has been impossible to reschedule this because the team comprises colleagues from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, India, Argentina, the UK, and Sweden and each country has different restrictions and lockdowns, timelines, and so forth. Who knows when all will be clear, flights will resume, visas be obtainable, the respective universities have rejigged their activities to cope with lost time, and thus leave of absence be granted?<\/p>\n

Kenya\u2019s universities will struggle since they have been unable to go online because many students lack wifi at home, let alone stable electricity, personal computers, and enough domestic space to be able to study quietly. As I started writing this, my own university has announced radical plans to reconfigure next academic year\u2019s curriculum and modes of delivery, on the assumption that something resembling normality for our global student catchment will be unachievable before next January. The adaptational effort will be immense, and thus, apart from contractually agreed circumstances, sabbatical leave (which I have due for Sept to December this year) has summarily been postponed a year. What this means for the grant-funded research projects I hope to win and start in September\/October, not to mention other activities incompatible with intensive curriculum redevelopment and teaching\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>

\n

Elisa Silva<\/h3>\n
\n
Elisa Silva<\/div>\n
\n

about the writer
\n Elisa Silva<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

Elisa Silva is director and founder of Enlace Arquitectura 2007 and Enlace Foundation 2017, established in Caracas, Venezuela. Projects focus on raising awareness of spatial inequality and the urban environment through public space, the integration of informal settlements and community engagement in rural landscapes. <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

It is clear that the way we have been living and the patterns of governance we have chosen could be very different, they could change the second we decide to make them a priority and work collectively toward their fulfilment.<\/blockquote><\/figure>An Optimistic Legacy for Covid-19<\/strong><\/p>\n

The misnamed Spanish flu of 1918 infected over 500 million people and was responsible for 100 million deaths. Since it coincided with WWI and economic depression it is difficult to separate the effects the epidemic might have had on the way people live from the equally devastating effects of war and famine. As we collectively devour articles, scouring over the past in order to find clues of what may lie ahead in our near future, I find myself most curious about the long-term effects COVID-19 will have on our lives. Re-dimensioning circulation corridors for social distancing, inserting sneeze guards at checkout counters, and increasing the number of divisions within homes seems to me akin to other spatial investments in the past such as underground bunkers in German homes, or bulletproof glass separations in convenient stores in Brooklyn. In other words, they may have been absolutely critical for a finite period of time, but not structural in the way we live or the choices we make.<\/p>\n

As a direct consequence of the Spanish flu, so far, I have been able to identify two clear long-term outcomes. The first one involves changes in interior design and furniture motivated by sanitary reasons. It was believed that increased light, air, and openness would help kill germs, (the flu’s exact cause was still unknown) and the elimination of bacteria-lodging-crevices in ornament, and dust-collecting draperies typical of 19th century homes came to be seen as a deterrent for maintaining homes free of disease.[i]<\/a> In other words, the white, spacious interiors flooded with light associated with modern architecture and the continuous surfaces of bent wood and tubular steel, used by Alvar Aalto, Marcel Brewer, Le Corbusier, and\u00a0 Mies van der Rohe in their furniture design, was as much a consequence of increased concern for hygiene as it was about practicality and the industrial aesthetic.<\/p>\n

The other even more amazing change to which I have become aware, is the story behind Sweden’s modern welfare state. The flu affected the town of \u00d6stersund particularly hard, due to the fact that it hosted several army regiments, which in response to the war had increased in number to the point of swelling the town’s population by 50%. They were stationed in close quarters which facilitated the spread of the diseases. Another factor that aggravated the situation was the severe inequality that had resulted from the industrialization process of previous decades. Many families lived in cramped quarters, wooden shacks, and tents. Apparently, this all changed when the city’s bank director Carl Lignell, decided to take matters into his own hands by using federal funds to turn a school into a hospital, since the city did not have one.[ii]<\/a> He had people quarantined in their homes, he convened a medical team to scour the city for victims and moved the sick into the transformed school. These efforts were strengthened with city-wide cooperation to organize relief, raise funds, feed, and clothe the most vulnerable. After the epidemic, what had been a week state, adopted the cooperative approach to social reform, and one hundred years later, Sweden boasts one of the world\u2019s most exemplary welfare systems.<\/p>\n

So, what might be the long-term effects of COVID-19 in 2020? I would like to believe they will also be closely tied to both eliminating what is superfluous and the empowerment of institutions focused on mitigating inequality. We have all been shocked to see how quickly pollution levels have diminished in the atmosphere and nearly extinct animals have reclaimed their habitats. What is superfluous and unnecessary in this case is the way we contaminate and destroy the environment, the way we overgraze our share of a planet that is shared with other beings. Considering the second point, not surprisingly, we have witnessed the complete impotence of people living in informal settlements and the homeless to defend themselves from the virus’ eminent spread. Might we, like the Swedes, collectively grow indignant of what has thus far remained a tacitly tolerated humanitarian injustice, or will we continue to embrace our indifference as a society to these manifestations of inequality. In either case, it is clear that the way we have been living and the patterns of governance we have chosen could be very different, they could change the second we decide to make them a priority and work collectively toward their fulfilment.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Maps by NASA\u2019s Earth Observatory. Levels of nitrous dioxide NO2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

[i]<\/a> Paul Overy, Light Air and Openness: Modern Architecture Between the Wars, London: Thames & Hudson, 2008.<\/p>\n

[ii]<\/a> Brian Melican, \u201cHow Spanish flu helped create Sweden\u2019s modern welfare state\u201d. The Guardian<\/em> August 29, 2018.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\n

Abdallah Tawfic<\/h3>\n
\n
Abdallah Tawfic<\/div>\n
\n

about the writer
\n Abdallah Tawfic<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

Abdallah is an architect, environmentalist and urban farmer. He works at the German International Cooperation (GIZ) and he is also the cofounder of Urban Greens Egypt, a startup aiming to promote the concept of Urban Agriculture in Cairo.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

Planting is a representation of peace and hope and we should continue to encourage, support, and spread it in such critical time, for the sake of our health and wellbeing. Let\u2019s be hopeful and revive victory gardens again all over the world, let\u2019s get back to our roots, and grow food and hope inside our cities.<\/blockquote><\/figure>Growing Hope in the time of a Pandemic<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do you think its the first-time humanity faced a dark cloud? <\/strong>Skimming through history books, mankind has been through serious and tough plights. But I always wondered what keeps us going in the face of any adversity. We as Human Beings are remarkably resilient as a species. We don\u2019t fully understand the science, but we know that the \u201csupport of one another\u201d is crucial and is what keeping us strong during such difficult times. The experiences that we are going through nowadays will probably stay in our hearts before our minds for the rest of our lives. COVID-19 should be a lesson to all of us on how to go beyond the norms and routines of our daily \u201cfor granted\u201d lives and be more dynamic and resilient inside our cities and within our communities. It should also allow us to have a glimpse through our past, learn and reflect from previous times of distress, and highlight and get inspired by solutions, innovations, and successes that we always refer to in our history books with pride and admiration.<\/p>\n

Urban Agriculture\u2019s loyalty through stormy seas of our history.\u00a0<\/strong>Through history Urban Agriculture has been an effective tool and a supportive friend for lots of cities worldwide, especially during critical times of humanity. Urban Agriculture is nothing new. In fact, it\u2019s been around for as long as humans have lived in cities! Through time, the significance of urban Agriculture has taken on different levels of meaning; from serving as tools for social reform, to promoting environmental justice, and as subsistence in times of food insecurity during wars or pandemics, and even as a simple pastime and leisure in times of prosperity.<\/p>\n

During World War I and World War II, most supplies and food were prioritized for the war effort, leaving many at home to deal with scarcity. In order to boost food supplies, many countries promoted \u201cVictory Gardens\u201d or \u201cWar gardens\u201d, or gardens cultivated by citizens on private and public land. Besides alleviating the strain on the public food supply, it also was a way to boost morale and patriotism. In the US, President Woodrow Wilson asked Americans to plant Victory Gardens to prevent food shortages. Victory gardens were responsible for about\u00a041%<\/a>\u00a0of all consumed vegetable produce in the US in the year 1943 according to some resources 1<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Nowadays Urban agriculture can be crucial to feeding more than half of the world\u2019s population, whom are residing in cities, potentially producing as much as 180 million tons of food a year\u2014or about 10% of the global output of pulses and vegetables, according to a 2018 study published in the journal Earth’s Future 2<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
World War II poster created by the United States Office of Emergency Management, circa 1941-1945. Image courtesy of Pinterest<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Do we have a potential to grow food during this critical times ?\u00a0<\/strong>Balconies, gardens, empty lots, and roofs are potential spaces that we can make good use of and start growing different types of productive crops, and decrease stresses happening nowadays on our global food supplies. Panic buying in some countries during this crisis has led to empty supermarket shelves and an uptick in the purchase of seeds, according to media reports. Many urban farms across the world are switching to this kind of community-supported-agriculture model (CSA), which guarantees a weekly supply of produce and may save their recipients trips to crowded supermarkets. The idea can also have a direct impact on our usual visits to busy local markets and thus decrease possible health compromises from social interactions we, unfortunately, aren\u2019t encouraged to do nowadays.<\/p>\n

Planting is a representation of peace and hope and we should continue to encourage, support, and spread it in such critical time, for the sake of our health and wellbeing. Let\u2019s be hopeful and revive victory gardens again all over the world, let\u2019s get back to our roots, and grow food and hope inside our cities.<\/p>\n

Resources<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

1\u2014Anisa Holmes, The Green Conspiracy: https:\/\/thegreenconspiracy.com\/a-brief-history-of-urban-gardening\/<\/a><\/p>\n

2\u2014 \u201cA Global Geospatial Ecosystem Services Estimate of Urban Agriculture\u201d : https:\/\/agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/full\/10.1002\/2017EF000536%0D<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>

\n

M’Lisa Colbert<\/h3>\n
\n
M'Lisa Colbert<\/div>\n
\n

about the writer
\n M'Lisa Colbert<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

M'Lisa Lee Colbert is a social scientist, and an urban farmer. She is currently working to improve access to locally grown produce year-round at an affordable price, in Montreal.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

I am confronted with how much I need trees, grass, and fresh air to remain a sane human being. Being stuck between the four walls of my apartment all day feels foreign and unnatural.<\/blockquote><\/figure>I am changed by it. Everything in my small apartment looks more precious to me than it did a few months ago. I keep thinking about how to be careful with everything\u2014the dishwasher, brushing my teeth, not wasting any food\u2014because finding a technician, taking a trip to the dentist or risking it at the grocery store are all incredibly difficult and dangerous things to do right now. I feel constrained, uncomfortable, and anxious, and yet I am also ashamed of this because the majority of people around the world live like this on a daily basis.<\/p>\n

My best friend sent me a GIF from Venezuela that asks of the rest of the world:\u00a0\u201cOh, rationing, first time?\u201d<\/p>\n

It also makes me think about arguments I\u2019ve made for increasing density in cities. Let\u2019s build up. But how much do we build? And where? Is there a point where it because unsafe? I live in an area of Montreal that is food poor. They built condos, and leased main strip commercial space to expensive restaurants and boutique clothing stores to build out marketing campaigns for realtors that raised housing prices, but groceries stores and other practical services are scarce. This is ordinarily a heavily contested urban planning problem we argue about in our community, but the pandemic is highlighting just how critical it is, and will be for the future, to mix public services and access to diverse services in each borough in a city.<\/p>\n

Mostly though, I am confronted with how much I need trees, grass, and fresh air to remain a sane human being. Being stuck between the four walls of my apartment all day feels foreign and unnatural. If this isn\u2019t a stark reminder of just how much a part of nature humans are, I am not sure anything will push us to remember. I remain hopeful though, that this just might be the thing to do it.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\n

Andrew Grant<\/h3>\n
\n
Andrew Grant<\/div>\n
\n

about the writer
\n Andrew Grant<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

Andrew formed Grant Associates in 1997 to explore the emerging frontiers of landscape architecture within sustainable development. He has a fascination with creative ecology and the promotion of quality and innovation in landscape design. Each of his projects responds to the place, its inherent ecology and its people.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

I have learned to take time to notice, and perhaps I have learned that however devastating COVID-19 is being, it has taught me to reflect on my Life, my Art, and my Nature.<\/blockquote><\/figure>I have just read Station Eleven<\/span> by Emily St.John Mandel. Published in 2014 and based around a global flu pandemic that wipes out 98% of the population, it is very hard not to use this book to imagine the potential consequences of an even more virulent COVID-19 outbreak leading to a total breakdown of life as we know it. No vehicles, ships, planes. No electricity, gas, clean water, gadgets. No government structures, schools, hospitals, prisons. Yet there are things that endure in the book. Art, music, reading, play, albeit on a basic analogue level. Then nature recovering and reclaiming the abandoned landscapes and cityscapes. People reverting to hunting, foraging, and farming for food. Life, Art, and Nature as enduring themes.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, COVID-19 has brutally illustrated how our values have been corrupted and I think it is time for Life, Art, and Nature to reassert themselves as fundamental components of our culture and approach to urban development. The images of streets and squares empty of vehicles all across the world just makes you wonder why we ever need to fill them up again with such a polluting, undemocratic model of people movement. At the same time, the spotlight on parks and green spaces and walks highlights how they are universally beneficial to our health and enjoyment. I hope we can move towards landscape based cities rather than road based cities from here on.<\/p>\n

I also hope COVID-19 proves to be the “Tree Shaker” for my professional world. We were already seeing a distinct move towards nature-based systems, greening cities and inviting nature into our lives. The climate and biodiversity emergencies were, and still will be, key drivers for change in the way we all work. Can COVID-19 be the accelerant to that? Shifting urban planning and design from vehicle and economics dominated systems to people and nature motivated place making? To social, creative, and ecological models rather than financial?<\/p>\n

At the heart of both our professional and private lives will be the need to adapt to the new post Covid-19 world. It might be one or two years before we are able to even think about this but in that time we are all going to change how we live and work. It will strip out waste and inefficiencies. It will make us understand the value of our life support systems of clean air, water, fresh and healthy food. It will see the end of unsustainable industries and perhaps even the rapid demise of anything fossil fuel and petrochemical related. It will inevitably mean all designers have to focus on cost effective sustainable solutions informed by resilience, circular economy concepts and availability of materials. Landscapes in cities will move away from hardscapes to softscapes. Rural landscapes will move towards rewilding in those areas of poor agricultural performance and to more productive farming in the better soils. Forest and woodlands will spread across the planet. Landscape as art will also become more relevant as we try to make marks on the land that make sense about our place in the world.<\/p>\n

This Easter I sat outdoors each day watching the world turn green. Slow at first but then rapid unfurling of leaves of multiple hues of green fill my valley view. Birdsong almost saturates the soundscape. Sunshine warms the soil ready for planting out seedlings. For the first time we have had a hedgehog in the garden, newts and frogs bring new life to our natural pool. We have had a pink moon illuminating the nightscape. I have learned to take time to notice, and perhaps I have learned that however devastating COVID-19 is being, it has taught me to reflect on my Life, my Art, and my Nature.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\n

Mary Hall Surface<\/h3>\n
\n
Mary Hall Surface<\/div>\n
\n

about the writer
\n Mary Hall Surface<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

Mary Hall Surface is a playwright, director, and teaching artist. She is devoted to intergenerational audiences, multidisciplinary collaborations, and to transforming communities, museums and schools through the arts.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

At its best, theatre is a unique forum where communities can imagine together. We gather and literally align our beating hearts as a story unfolds told by actors who breathe our same air. My nightmare new normal is a Romeo and Juliet who never touch, watched by a masked audience too afraid to believe the story.<\/blockquote><\/figure>February 1, 2020. Almost 10am. Actors gather for rehearsal. Effusive, affectionate comrades greet, hug, laugh in each other\u2019s faces. They do a quick warm up, their bodies interacting, giving and taking weight, close, dance-like. They circle in and breathe together as their voices send sound across the shared space. Three actors then stand tightly together and move in sync to hoist another high above their heads. She\u2019s flying! Theatre magic.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

February 1, 2021. Almost 10am. Actors arrive for rehearsal. Cautious, efficient troopers leave their shoes at the door, wash their hands, wave across the large room. They stretch, run in place, alone in six-foot intervals of space. They circle wide, backs to one another as they warm up their voices, muffled behind facemasks. Three actors then stand in separate spots and raise their arms on cue as a fourth, lifted only by her own toes, grounded, spreads her arms like wings. She\u2019s flying. Maybe. <\/em><\/p>\n

When trying to imagine theatre in the new post-virus \u201cnormal,\u201d my colleagues tend to focus on audiences. How far apart can we seat people? Do we hand out masks at the door? Take temperatures before taking tickets? These are shattering images. But what keeps me awake at night is picturing a socially distanced rehearsal process that leads to a performance by face-masked actors who never physically connect. My nightmare new normal is a Romeo and Juliet who never touch, watched by an audience too afraid to believe the story.<\/p>\n

At its best, theatre is a unique forum where communities can imagine together. We gather and literally align our beating hearts as a story unfolds told by actors who breathe our same air. Theatre can challenge, lead, comfort, and heal. My grief for my shuttered profession is tempered by my knowledge that theatre has always risen from the ashes of past plagues and disasters. But a return to live performances, the kind we treasured only two months ago, is now far in the future.<\/p>\n

So what happens between now and then? And what will \u201cthen\u201d look like once we live through the journey forward? Will we create vibrant virtual spaces that can fill the role that theatre has played in our cities and communities? What essential aspects of the art form can exist now when what defines it\u2014its in person\u00a0<\/em>shared live-ness\u2014is impossible? Theatre companies worldwide are rushing to create on-line content. But can we truly convene on line as we do on stage? Can we collectively think and feel about our humanity, our interconnectedness, our systems, and shortfalls on Zoom? If we can, then live theatre will change. When we reach \u201cthen,\u201d what kind of rehearsal room will I return to?<\/p>\n

April 22, 2020. <\/em>Almost 10pm.\u00a0 A director\/playwright wrestles with her core beliefs about what theatre requires and what it provides. COVID-19 simultaneously erodes and strengthens what she knows to be true. Her next play is in process, under development, with no set opening date. But she has the beginnings of a story line.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

\n

Emilio Fantin<\/h3>\n
\n
Emilio Fantin<\/div>\n
\n

about the writer
\n Emilio Fantin<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

Emilio Fantin is an artist working in Italy on multidisciplinary research.\r\nHe teaches at the Politecnico, Architecture, University of Milan, and acts as coordinator of the \u201cOsservatorio Public Art\u201d.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

Talking about coronavirus, egoism needs to be switched into solidarity and sharing, but this cannot be done as a reaction to contagion fear or daily body count. It has to be the result of a long path towards the achievement of a new existential consciousness.<\/blockquote><\/figure>Many people define this pandemia as a war. If you look at what has been happening since second world war, I would say that nothing is going to change in a short time. In Italy, after the first moment of depression, we had the economic boom. That meant the improvement of health, poverty, and social conditions due to the circulation of a huge amount of money, as a consequence of reconstruction of houses, streets, bridges. A new man arose, apparently happier, but more cynical and more individualistic than before. So, if you look at the long term situation, you can understand that war didn’t bring a real change in ethics and moral. What happened, was exactly the contrary.<\/p>\n

Talking about coronavirus, egoism needs to be switched into solidarity and sharing, but this cannot be done as a reaction to contagion fear or daily body count. It has to be the result of a long path towards the achievement of a new existential consciousness.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Many reflections and essays deal about the relationship between chemical and electromagnetic pollution and coronavirus. Some others speculate on how to reinforce our immunity system, but all conclusions bring to the same result: respect humans and not humans, love nature, take care of the environment, be sympathetic.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why the new urbanism has to be thought as a care for the environment. The design of the city has to switch from a logistic and pragmatic vision to the consideration of those aspects which balance broken down rhythms and neurotic habits of city life. Time and space cannot be seen only in term of mobility and economic value, but we need to consider both in term of preserving human health end preventing possible diseases (I am not talking only about virus, but also about neurotic behavior and poisoning). We have to start such a process from below, reducing the number of our cars, limiting the use of our smart technologies, asking for new cycle lines, walking in our cities. The immunity system of the city will improve its force which depends on its inhabitants\u2019 behavior. To fund healthcare doesn\u2019t only mean to build more hospitals and provide new technologies. This approach comes from considering the view point of the \u201ceffects\u201d. What should be done is taking into account also the \u201ccauses\u201d (which mean low life quality). Rather than using the term urbanism we might find a more appropriate word in order of re-thinking the city as a living organism. If we don\u2019t want this organism to get sick, we should ask politics to limit private interests in the building industry, to avoid the abuse of power into water business and not to break the balance between natural and artificial elements inside the city.<\/p>\n

It looks simple, but it is extremely complex.\u00a0Why?\u00a0Because of profit, private interests, economic strategies, political conveniences?\u00a0Yes of course, but it is also a matter of our action, in term of considering ourselves as a part of a \u201ccity organism\u201d, by feeling its skin, heart and brain.<\/p>\n

A city like a human body and soul.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\n

Dagmar Haase and Annegret Haase<\/h3>\n
\n
\n
Dagmar Haase<\/div>\n
\n

about the writer
\n Dagmar Haase<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

Dagmar Haase is a professor of urban ecology at Humboldt University in Berlin. She is a guest scientist at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig. She specializes in urban systems analysis. Together with her team, she investigates ecosystem services, green infrastructure, and nature-based solutions in cities.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\n
Annegret Haase<\/div>\n
\n

about the writer
\n Annegret Haase<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

Dr. Annegret Haase is a senior researcher at Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ in Leipzig, Germany, at the Dept. of Urban and Environmental Sociology. Her research is focused on sustainable urban development, urban transformations and social-environmental processes in cities.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n<\/div>\n

COVID-19 is not just a natural, virus, or health crisis, it is a societal crisis. The response has to be given by the whole humankind. Urban nature, its maintenance, care and fair use, forms an important part of this global response.<\/blockquote><\/figure>Reflections about Corona pandemic and the nature of cities<\/strong><\/p>\n

An urban ecologist and an urban sociologist sharing under current social isolating measures in Germany one home office and\u2014due to the nature of this matter\u2014are constantly exchanging thoughts, experiences, and perceptions, wish to share the following reflections with a wider community interested in TNOC: Dagmar is convinced that, firstly, we need to rethink what we as urban ecologists mean be “co-evolution” in urban systems. Evolution in wilderness systems\u2014regardless being situated in a city or beyond\u2014has been continuously endangered by humans in a way that it\u2014finally\u2014endangered humans, in cities or beyond, with zoonosis. For cities, this means, sharing a larger habitat together, humans and wildlife need real niches<\/strong> in urban systems where wildlife can develop without disturbance surrounded by buffer zones access of humans and livestock is limited. Refraining from current increasing living space per urban capita, we have to understand that it is the size of the niches<\/strong> for wildlife in and around cities that has to increase first!<\/p>\n

We have considerable knowledge about ranges of wildlife and diversities of healthy ecosystems in urban ecology discipline(s): we have to make use of them! Having understood that co-evolution does not always mean co-habitation<\/strong>, we will be able to create healthy cities embedded into a larger landscape that respect wildlife. Another core principle of urban ecology needs revival in relation the aforementioned:<\/p>\n

Secondly, we should strictly follow the idea of a real network of open spaces in cities and its peripheries\u00a0<\/strong>that allow for both human outdoor stays\u2014also in such bad times of a pandemic\u2014as well as safe outdoor life for wild animals. Providing space for a healthy stay outside without crowding effects and respective\u2014when and whatever distancing, also in a non-pandemic sense\u2014is possible in a “fair way” seems mandatory. Thus, we need clear limits for infill and densification in cities. We need space. When spatial resources are understood\u2014at least in parts\u2014as a commons, values like affordable flats and house prizes along with open green and blue spaces for humans and wildlife should be as rewarding as any economic return rate. Full accessibility of green and blue spaces for all would be prerequisites. And\u2014what is important and relates back to the argument above\u2014the human-used open space network does not interfere with the wildlife space. This way, we allow wildlife in and around cities to find space to form stable biocoenosis, including all vectors that belong to, and thus prevent the formation of zoonosis as best as we can. How can we achieve such conditions?<\/p>\n

Thirdly, we need a novel thinking about values that guide our “do” and “don\u2019t” imperatives in urban system where wildlife and humans interact and where humans exploit natural resources. Cities always were and will be social-ecological-technological systems (SETs) with a lot of\u2014as we learned during the pandemic\u2014critical infrastructure. Also critical resources like fresh air, green, blue and soil resources for the above mentioned co-habitation of humans and wildlife. To safe both, human life and wild animals life, we will need to shift our values for these resources from a very utilitarian to a more holistic one. From a pure economic and revenue-oriented to a common resource and habitat one. This does not mean that we should totally neglect market and market capitalism. However, we should let a commons thinking<\/strong> accompany the market-orientation and develop a multi-value system adopting the D\u00e9pense-system-idea<\/strong>, which involves a rethinking of the organization of society signalled by terms such as limits, care and sustainability.<\/p>\n

What does this mean for cities, for urban society, for the interaction of people and nature in cities?<\/p>\n

The crisis also sheds light on existing inequalities and injustices of our urban societies\u2014in terms of how people can adapt to and cope with restrictions: It is much easier to stand restrictions in a large flat with balcony, garden or rooftop access and close to green spaces than in a small flat packed with people.<\/blockquote><\/figure>Annegret as an urban sociologist sees, after just very initial thinking and increased reading since about four weeks (which makes clear how much we are still at the beginning of a discourse), the following major points we have to consider:<\/p>\n

Cities are hotspots of the crisis<\/strong>\u2014since cities are densely populated and form hubs of mobility and interaction, they are especially likely to become also hubs of pandemic crises\u2014as we experience now e.g. in Paris, Madrid, the urban Lombardy, NYC etc. Subsequently, pandemic crises of today and tomorrow will always be primarily urban crises and\u2014at the time\u2014hubs to deal with them. Therefore, it will be crucial to debate how we can make cities more resilient to pandemic crisis. Here, urban nature plays an important role. Under the circumstances of physical distancing and restrictions<\/strong> to meet as we experience them currently worldwide, the contact to urban green and nature, the stay in nature becomes even more important for human physical and mental health than normally<\/strong>. The stay in nature can counteract stress, depression and fears related to \u201ccurfew\u201d condition and personal concerns about future, family, job etc.<\/p>\n

Being in urban nature also admits contact to other people, even while keeping a physical distance. Insofar, urban nature represents an environment which may actively counteract social distancing, alienation and isolation. Next to parks and open spaces, also allotment gardens or community gardens play an important role as safe places for people allowing for distance and contact, especially also for current high risk groups as elderly people. To use this potential, easy access to urban nature, parks, gardens and other forms of open space for all urban inhabitants is indispensable, as the maintenance of the existing spaces<\/strong>. Here, we are in front of a multiple challenge<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The crisis also sheds light on existing inequalities and injustices <\/strong>of our urban societies\u2014in terms of how people can adapt to and cope with restrictions: It is much easier to stand restrictions in a large flat with balcony, garden or rooftop access and close to green spaces than in a small flat packed with people. No easy access to high quality green space is a clear disadvantage under the conditions of restrictions. Not to speak of social support structures that are closed now and poor people are depending on. As we experience now, the crisis is aggravating existing injustices and runs the risk to lead to even larger injustices in the future<\/strong>; the longer restrictions endure, the larger injustices may become. First evidence in many affected countries shows this already now. To make our urban societies more resilient to pandemic crises, among others, an easy access to high-quality nature represents one crucial precondition, and urban planning and policy-making should consider this.<\/p>\n

Putting justice and social responsibility into the centre of urban resilience thinking <\/strong>is thus not just a romantic dream but also a clear demand in the name of sustainability and liveability<\/strong> of our cities. Maybe, the recognition of such requisites belongs to what others call the \u201cprogressive or even productive moment\u201d of the crisis or a chance for learning and making other decisions for the long-term future. Since it is not at all whether we experience just a temporary disturbance or a fundamental change<\/strong> of our ways of living, producing, working, travelling and interaction. Even more: The crisis also challenges our conceptual thinking about people-environment relations in cities: resilience, sustainability, health, justice etc. <\/strong>More than ever, there is a need of truly interdisciplinary thinking, and of a thinking that considers a fair co-existence of society and nature, not only, but particularly in cities where they come so close and intensely together. We have to look for cross-fertilizations of the mentioned concepts with terms like fairness, solidarity, weighting and, if needed, renouncement.<\/p>\n

We as researchers on TNOC have many new questions to answer: What do urban green spaces mean in times of restrictions?<\/strong> What do restrictions do with visits to and use of urban green spaces? Will people appreciate urban nature differently under the current conditions? Will the crisis allow for a more responsible, wise and even more humble debate on nature and its values and our dependence on it? Will urban green become a considerable part of our resilience towards times with restrictions? And what about our co-habitation with wildlife: How do we ensure mutual respect; live and let live. We need truly interdisciplinary answers to this hyper-complex challenge.<\/p>\n

COVID-19 <\/strong>is not just a natural, virus, or health crisis, it is a societal crisis. <\/strong>The response <\/strong>has to be given by the whole humankind. Urban nature<\/strong>, its maintenance, care and fair use, forms an important part of this global response. <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>

\n

Antonia Machado<\/h3>\n
\n
Antonia Machado<\/div>\n
\n

about the writer
\n Antonia Machado<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

Antonia Machado is the Strategic Partnerships Project Manager for the Natural Systems Enhancement and Stewardship Department at Clean Water Services in Hillsboro, Oregon. <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

The coronavirus has exposed deep structural weaknesses, reinforcing the notion that working across silos and centering equity is imperative to building resilience and moving towards transformative change.<\/blockquote><\/figure>Most schoolchildren in Puerto Rico experience at least one field trip to El Yunque National Rainforest, the only tropical rainforest in the United States’ national forest system. Careening through the humid rainforest in noisy buses while learning about one of the Caribbean\u2019s most precious natural resources is a unifying national experience. A particularly memorable lesson learned on these excursions is that hurricanes are mechanisms for forest renewal, ultimately increasing the resilience of the ecosystem. This lesson shaped my understanding of these occurrences, providing a sense of assurance when hurricanes pummeled the island and left us without power or running water. In the face of the coronavirus pandemic, I cling to the same hope that we are in the midst of a transformative event from which we will emerge more resilient.<\/p>\n

A pandemic is undoubtedly different from a hurricane, but these disasters share key similarities. When I returned to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, I flew in over a sea of blue tarps that covered all of the structures where the roofs had been torn off, a patchwork of blue squares against the denuded landscape. While the pandemic has left our houses intact, it has managed to pull the roof off the top of our systems, like prying the lid from a fuse box, allowing us to peer inside. Two definitions are useful here: The word \u201ccrisis\u201d derives from the Greek word krisis<\/em>, which means \u201cdecisive moment\u201d. The word \u201cemergency\u201d is derived from the Latin emergere<\/em>, \u201cto bring to light\u201d. Indeed, this crisis provides an opportunity to recognize the interdependence between our social-ecological systems, and to consider how we can act upon that recognition to increase our collective resilience.<\/p>\n

My work centers itself around developing strategies for catalyzing transformative partnerships through Tree for All<\/a>, a collaborative landscape-scale restoration program in the Tualatin River Watershed, just west of Portland, Oregon. Tree for All counts more than 35 organizations as partners, enabling the program to be one of the nation\u2019s most successful large-scale conservation programs. In the midst of this pandemic, I am peering into the metaphorical fuse box and contemplating the role of transformational partnerships and collective impact to rebuild from this crisis.<\/p>\n

It is well established that the impacts of large-scale conservation extend far beyond the ecological arena, providing significant benefits to the local community and economy. How do we expand upon this model, leveraging our collective capacities to pursue interdisciplinary and multi-sector approaches to wicked problems such as houselessness and climate change? This work is beyond the capacity or resources of any single organization or institution. The coronavirus has exposed deep structural weaknesses, reinforcing the notion that working across silos and centering equity is imperative to building resilience and moving towards transformative change. Our collective health is only as strong as the most vulnerable among us, and as such, this issue is not beyond the mission of any sector. A characteristic endemic to all crises is their ability to uncover the weaknesses in our structures, but it is ultimately our responsibility to use that information to inform our rebuilding efforts. My unbridled hope is that we may use these lessons to provoke an era of innovation in the form of interdisciplinary partnerships that spur transformational change.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\n

Janice Astbury<\/h3>\n
\n
Janice Astbury<\/div>\n
\n

about the writer
\n Janice Astbury<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

Janice Astbury is a Research Associate at the University of Sheffield where she is working on the Breathing Infrastructures project undertaking action research related to green infrastructure, air quality, wellbeing and connecting schools with urban nature in Buenos Aires. <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

I hope that many people around the world are enjoying the sounds of voices and birdsong, and the experience of cleaner air flowing into their homes, and will want this to continue.<\/blockquote><\/figure>I arrived in Buenos Aires on March 3rd. That was the day that the first case of Covid-19 was identified here.\u00a0I came to collaborate with colleagues at the University of Buenos Aires working on green infrastructure in schoolyards, with a goal of reducing the concentration of air pollutants that reach children, and also generating other benefits associated with greening and enhancing nearby nature for children to interact with. I had barely got started when the national quarantine began. Today is day 40.<\/p>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Street trees of Buenos Aires. Photo: Janice Astbury<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I was lucky to find somewhere to live in the neighbourhood of Palermo. The first things I noticed were the tall beautiful street trees, the balconies from which people could interact with the street, and the array of small local shops and cafes. The next things I noticed were the high volume of traffic on my residential street, the noise it created, and the exhaust fumes that seemed to flow directly into my second floor apartment. Sitting on my balcony felt like sitting on the side of a motorway and I soon stopped doing it.<\/p>\n

Now I sit on the balcony to work most mornings and enjoy the immersion in the street life, beginning with the custodians of the various apartment buildings chatting to one another and the swish of their wet brooms as they clean the pavement outside their buildings. I think how nice it would be if they were also watering gardens. The high-end buildings across the street feature only a few stalks of bamboo in pots\u2014one arrangement is in a glass case.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Post-green planting. Photo: Janice Astury.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Later come the deliveries, I like the ones from the local shops where staff push shopping carts up the middle of the street. Less appealing is the daily visit from the massive truck delivering bottled water. I\u2019m not sure about this “essential” service in an area with perfectly good tap water. I think one of the important things to come out of this experience is thinking about what\u2019s essential, as governments all over the world deliberate on what should be included in necessities and what special permissions should be allowed. Allowing access to green space and nature is continuing to challenge many countries (including this one) and I am hoping that accessible nature will come to be seen as essential, not only during crises.<\/p>\n

Having come here to work on a project with a focus on air quality and its impact on children\u2019s health and development, I am thinking about the widely presumed essentialness of driving. Currently, if people want to drive somewhere, they have to fill in an online declaration stating which of the allowable exceptions justifies their movements during this health emergency.<\/p>\n

By day 9 of the quarantine, air pollution in Buenos Aires was halved. If this can work to confront the COVID-19 health emergency, why shouldn\u2019t it work to combat the greater illness and death caused by air pollution? Some people would still drive in the city but it would be considered exceptional, they would need to justify their travel by car. Rather than being the obvious choice, it would be the last resort. This will involve, among other things, maintaining online work practices, facilitating more active transport, and adapting public transport so that people feel it is safe to use.<\/p>\n

I hope that some cities in the world will show the way by applying the sorts of systems they have put in place for the coronavirus pandemic to tackling the air quality and climate change crises. I hope that I myself will continue my work with greater confidence that big, rapid, creative interventions that change urban life for the better are possible. And I hope that many people around the world are enjoying the sounds of voices and birdsong, and the experience of cleaner air flowing into their homes, and will want this to continue.<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n[1] Pollution in Buenos Aires went down to half due to the quarantine \u201cLa\u00a0contaminaci\u00f3n\u00a0en Buenos Aires baj\u00f3 a la mitad por la cuarentena\u201d Clarin, 29 March 2020<\/p>\n[2] In 2016 (last WHO global assessment) 91% of the world population was living in places where the WHO air quality guidelines levels were not met and ambient air pollution was estimated to cause 4.2 million premature deaths worldwide. (WHO, Ambient air pollution: a global assessment of exposure and burden of disease,<\/em> 2016)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Essential service? Photo: Janice Astury.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>
\n

Huda Shaka<\/h3>\n
\n
Huda Shaka<\/div>\n
\n

about the writer
\n Huda Shaka<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

Huda's experience and training combine urban planning, sustainable development and public health. She is a chartered town planner (MRTPI) and a chartered environmentalist (CEnv) with over 15 years' experience focused on visionary master plans and city plans across the Arabian Gulf. She is passionate about influencing Arab cities towards sustainable development.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

I have been reminded of the privileges I have which others do not: having the option to work remotely, having access to quality public space and amenities at my door step, having a choice about how I travel and where I spend my leisure time\u2014and having leisure time. I will work harder personally and professionally to bring those privileges to others, I hope.<\/blockquote><\/figure>As an urban planner, I am hopeful that COVID-19 will bring a renewed understanding and appreciation for urban resilience and what it means for communities, infrastructure, facilities, and governance. I am not simply referring to measures to facilitate life with physical distancing. In fact, I hope that we do not get stuck on the concept of physical distancing. It is a necessary extreme measure which is needed while we live through the pandemic. However, the next shock to face our cities will likely not be a pandemic and it will likely require a different set of responses. We need to be more strategic and plan for more holistic inclusivity, flexibility, and robustness in our urban systems.<\/p>\n

I am hopeful that my work will look at the planning and design of housing and public spaces differently. I am hopeful that developers and local authorities will be more interested in minimum standards that provide acceptable and accessible outdoor and indoor spaces for all. I am hoping that there will be more interest in promoting “complete communities” where basic amenities are provided within walking distance. I am hoping that there will be renewed interest in facilitating active travel, and in ensuring that our streets and policies are flexible enough to accommodate people\u2019s needs and lifestyles.<\/p>\n

As for how I do my work, COVID-19 has highlighted to me the importance of face-to-face office interactions. No amount of video calls can replace unplanned, informal chats with colleagues and clients or over-hearing project discussions happening in the background. At the same time, I realized how many of our planned, formal meetings can occur virtually, and maybe even more successfully. For one thing, it’s easier for me to keep quiet and focus on listening when there is a mute button!<\/p>\n

On a personal level, the pandemic has helped me realise my fragility and dependency on others, particularly for my mental wellbeing. I hope that my post-COVID “normal” will include being more accepting of my limitations and weaknesses, and more open to reaching out to others. I expect that I will be more aware of my level of anxiety and better able to manage it. I will no longer expect certainty.<\/p>\n

I have been reminded what it means to have three meals a day with family, and I hope to have more of those days even after I go back to working from the office. I have also been reminded of the privileges I have which others do not: having the option to work remotely, having access to quality public space and amenities at my door step, having a choice about how I travel and where I spend my leisure time, and having leisure time. I will work harder personally and professionally to bring those privileges to others, I hope.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\n

Samarth Das<\/h3>\n
\n
Samarth Das<\/div>\n
\n

about the writer
\n Samarth Das<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

Samarth Das is an Urban Designer and Architect based in Mumbai. Having practiced professionally in Ahmedabad, Mumbai, and subsequently in New York City, his work focuses on engaging actively in both public as well as private sectors\u2014to design articulate shared spaces within cities that promote participation and interaction amongst people.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

Being locked up in the comfort of our homes is certainly a privilege. Social distancing in a time like this is a luxury afforded by a few\u2014over 55% of Mumbai city’s 13 million inhabitants live in slums where 6-7 people share a single room.<\/blockquote><\/figure>The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly brought normal life to a grinding halt. Following the spread of the virus worldwide, the Indian government under Prime Minister Modi took the bold step of enforcing a nationwide lockdown\u2014initially for a period of 3 weeks which has since then been extended for another 18 days. India has done surprising well so far and the numbers speak for themselves. <\/span><\/p>\n

This duration of the lockdown has offered a lot of time to reflect and critically think about work and other daily engagements. We all certainly have found ways to ensure that the work flow of our offices are not too hampered. As an architectural practice such as ours, it was difficult to cope and manage design work. But this was overcome through adapting several modes of communication and a certain up-skilling that individuals have undertaken. This testing time has certainly thrown light on finding efficient ways of communication, collaboration and co-producing work. Human desire to succeed in tough situations prevails, and with it brings copious amounts of positivity and hope. <\/span><\/p>\n

But being locked up in the comfort of our homes is certainly a privilege. Social distancing in a time like this is a luxury afforded by a few. Over 55% of Mumbai city’s 13 million inhabitants live in slums where 6-7 people share a single room in most cases. The fate of daily wage workers who live hand to mouth is truly deplorable. With industries and businesses coming to a standstill, these workers are completely cut off from their daily source of income. Despite the state\u2019s efforts in providing food and water to this vast and mobile people, are isolated, stranded in cities with no way home to the comfort of their loved ones. It does hit one hard. <\/span><\/p>\n

We are all hyper aware of the pandemic at this moment in time, but the fact is that a majority of the urban poor in our country live in and encounter pandemic like scenarios on a daily basis with no access to formal housing, affordable healthcare, stable employment or any other sense of social security. It has certainly made me think about how we utilise our resources be it water, energy, produce, products, etc. <\/span><\/p>\n

The COVID-19 pandemic has paralysed the world economy and taken countless lives. It has been close to 100 years since the devastating Spanish flu of 1918, but the frequency of such epidemics is bound to increase as we move forward. As an architect, it certainly fuels my drive to pursue large scale affordable housing as well as promote the development of accessible amenities and open public spaces for the urban masses. The general quality of everyday living must improve for the vast majorities who are often neglected in our development agenda. The change must happen now. A structural change in the way we approach policies and strategies that promote equitable distribution of resources, housing, healthcare, education and livelihoods must be taken up immediately.<\/span><\/p>\n

The silver lining amidst this crisis has been the respite that our natural environment is receiving. With no human activity, our beaches and waterfronts are cleaner than even before, coastal marine life has come to the fore, the air is the cleanest it has been in decades and the continuous noise of cars has been replaced by the swelling sounds of bird calls. Nature is getting its much deserved break, albeit temporary. What will be the new \u2018normal\u2019 we aspire to achieve once this is behind us?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>

\n

Laura Shillington<\/h3>\n
\n
Laura Shillington<\/div>\n
\n

about the writer
\n Laura Shillington<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

Laura Shillington is faculty in the Department of Geoscience and the Social Science Methods Programme at John Abbott College (Montr\u00e9al). She is also a Research Associate at the Loyola Sustainability Research Centre, Concordia University (Montr\u00e9al). <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\u201cIt’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine\u201d \u2014\u00a0REM, 1987, Document<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

While we may be sharing a global<\/em> experience of living in a pandemic, how we experience it is very specific to place, age, class, race, and gender. Can we use this experience to create a new normal with each of us as more ethical subjects to imagine new worlds?<\/blockquote><\/figure>Like many who read and write on The Nature of Cities, my hope is that the world at all scales (from personal to global) is radically changed as we slowly emerge from the global COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, I hope that we have not forgotten that we were in a crisis before this\u2014the climate crisis\u2014and that perhaps living through this pandemic and seeing how the world has changed (for example, the clear waters and skies in cities normally clouded in smog) will persuade more individuals to take the climate crisis as seriously as the coronavirus pandemic. Reflecting on how I have been professionally and personally changed by the pandemic is an interesting task. As a geography professor, I have continued to teach my classes online, so my schedule and life has altered little. Just as my college closed, I was about to start economic (development) and population geography in my “Introduction to Human Geography” class. As I prepared to pivot online, I altered the course content to incorporate the pandemic. In doing so, I revisited my books and articles on feminist political economy and political ecology. I wanted to give students new ways of thinking about economies, populations, health and, most importantly, the role of individuals within a collective. Two books, specifically, have become essential to me during this troubled time: The End of Capitalism (as we knew it)<\/a><\/em> (1996) and A Post-Capitalist Politics<\/a><\/em> (2006), both by JK Gibson-Graham.<\/p>\n

As I re-read, I was reminded how insightful, instructive and inspiring the books were and still are. There are two broad ideas that can help us transition into thinking in radically new ways as we negotiate a new post-virus normal. The first<\/strong> is that we already live in a world of diverse economies<\/em>. Despite the taken-for-granted assumption that we are a globalized, capitalist economy, and that this economy was the pinnacle of so-called development. Yet there have always existed other economies, but such economies tend to be viewed as not important, stuck in the past, and a threat to profits. Without diverse economies, what we know as capitalism would not have emerged and functioned. In the current pandemic, we are seeing the importance of these other economies, especially the care economy<\/a>. Other economics, especially economies of care, have greater potential to bring about not just social justice, but also ecological. Recognising the important of other economies will (hopefully) lead us to \u201cethical practices of thinking<\/em> economy and becoming different kinds of economic beings\u201d (2006, p. xxviii).<\/p>\n

Gibson-Graham\u2019s second<\/strong> main idea is the importance of collective action and the politics of the subject (2006, p. 127). They ask and attempt to answer: \u201cHow we might become post-capitalist subjects?\u201d We can add to this how we are different post-pandemic subjects. The politics of the subject for Gibson-Graham is a complex, not-so-neat process of “resubjectivation” \u2013 \u201cthe mobilization and transformation of desires, the cultivation of capacities, and the making of new identifications with something as vague and unspecified as a \u2018community economy\u2019 \u201d (2006, p. xxxvi). The process is reciprocal: as we change ourselves as subjects, we also change our worlds.<\/p>\n

Indeed, there is a reciprocity in the current global pandemic. It is changing us as subjects (individual and collective) as well as changing our worlds. While we may be sharing a global<\/em> experience of living in a pandemic, how we experience it is very specific to place, age, class, race, and gender. Can we use this experience to create a new normal with each of us as more ethical subjects to imagine new worlds?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a world to create a locality, and an imagined world to transform ourselves in place\u201d (2006, p. 196)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

\n

Andrew Rudd<\/h3>\n
\n
Andrew Rudd<\/div>\n
\n

about the writer
\n Andrew Rudd<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

Andrew Rudd is the Urban Environment Officer for UN-Habitat\u2019s Urban Planning & Design Branch in New York, where he leads substantive advocacy for the urban dimension of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (including the SDGs). <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

I am frequently in mourning that after this crisis the world will never be the same. I am also hopeful that after this crisis the world will never be the same.<\/blockquote><\/figure>I wake up without an alarm\u2014bad dreams are just as effective\u2014and take 100 ujjayi breaths, then brew coffee while we air out our 60m2<\/sup>\u00a0apartment. This is our morning ritual. Much bird song pours in during these 20 bracing minutes and I realize that my only previous memory of hearing springtime birds through an open window is from the 1980s at my great-grandmother\u2019s house in the Appalachian foothills. Either I never took the time to notice the springs of intervening years or the reduced noise of background traffic during the last 42 days (apart from ambulance sirens) has brought them to the fore. All the same, the indifference of nature is comforting. Sparrows gather in the honey locust in front of our building while, inside, neighbours text-quarrel over common space protocols. Some have started leading yoga from the courtyard balconies. Two weeks ago, when I first went outside, clustering teenagers <\/span>brandished their normalcy, and callery pear trees blossomed in oblivion to their invasive<\/span> stigma. New York is as quirkily convenient as ever, and food and supplies can be delivered right to our doors. However, this ability to conduct life (almost) as normal exposes the ugly class divide between those who can afford to self-quarantine and those who cannot. Here COVID-19 prevalence is highest not in the dense core, but in peripheral neighbourhoods where those with the highest occupational hazard can afford to live. The national health director of the US claims that the role of federal government is merely to \u2018facilitate\u2019 the pandemic response in cities, but this left New York with distressingly fewer ventilators from our own national government (400) than others around the world (1,000 from China). Now is also a sobering time for urbanists. A number of columnists are arguing unfoundedly against compact living and attempting to resurrect segregated, car-centric living patterns. Samuel Kling writes that the scapegoating of urban space for disease is nothing new. But we again have the task of revealing the socioeconomic causes of our social ills so that cities\u2019 positive potential can be maximized. People are social animals, and they require co-existence in shared physical places. So does climate action. One of my tasks at the UN will be to help frame a more convincing argument that, rather than sharing space, the more likely transmission factors are destruction of natural habitat, excessive air travel, and disintegrating (or nonexistent) public health systems. Another will be to research urban form and human behaviour, including surface touch and close-contact networks. Cities are going to need this evidence if they are going to build for survival. And my colleagues and I will have to design solutions that accommodate the impact of our actions at multiple scales\u2014the immediate, near, and far. Mariana Mazzucato writes that we now have the opportunity to rethink capitalism and rebuild the public sector into more than a fixer of crises. I am frequently in mourning that after this crisis the world will never be the same. I am also hopeful that after this crisis the world will never be the same.<\/p>\n<\/div>
\n

Siobh\u00e1n McQuaid<\/h3>\n
\n
Siobh\u00e1n McQuaid<\/div>\n
\n

about the writer
\n Siobh\u00e1n McQuaid<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

Siobhan is the Associate Director of Innovation at the Centre for Social Innovation in Trinity College Dublin where she heads up research and innovation activities under the themes of sustainability and resilience. <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

We are facing now into a pivotal moment in time where it is possible to contemplate an alternative recovery plan. Governments and decision-makers need to take time out to reflect on the importance of small business, local business, and nature-based business for community resilience.<\/blockquote><\/figure>Post-COVID \u2013 an opportunity for a new type of business?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over the last five years, I\u2019ve had the privilege of working with some innovative companies who are passionate about bringing more nature into cities \u2014sometimes they\u2019re community enterprises designing and developing “growing” projects to meet the needs of vulnerable groups. Other times they\u2019re commercial entities who have leveraged their horticultural knowledge to create new innovations like green living rooms. Such interventions can instantly transform concrete squares into urban oases, enticing children with little exposure to nature to engage, happily picking strawberries from green walls. More recently, I\u2019ve met start-ups harnessing satellite technology to come up with so-called “green-prints” to help cities plan, monitor, and benchmark greener, healthier and happier urban environments.<\/p>\n

In February this year, Connecting Nature, an EU-funded initiative, launched a survey to explore more widely the concept of nature and business. What type of business can nature support? How can business support nature and society? Just as Europe began to shut down country by country, we reached our first goal of 100 survey responses. A preliminary analysis shows that nature-based enterprises offer considerable potential in a post-COVID environment\u2014not just to create much-needed jobs but equally importantly at a social and environmental level. Nature-based enterprises offer sustainable solutions to transform grey spaces into green lungs for cities, lifelines for apartment-dwellers, for homeless gym-bunnies, for communities as a whole, for nature.<\/p>\n

This month we launch a mini-follow up survey to find out how these businesses have been affected by COVID-19.\u00a0 Anecdotally we have seen a wide divergence in impact. Any kind of food-growing business has seen interest skyrocket; the more local and natural the produce, the more insanely busy they have become. On the other hand, nature-based businesses depending on the construction or public sector have virtually closed down overnight, with tons of plants wilting on pallets waiting for on-site construction which has effectively been put on hold.<\/p>\n

With plans afoot for the gradual re-opening of society, what will a post-COVID world look like for these nature-based businesses? Faced with mounting pressure, will the public sector, business, and construction sector put nature on the long finger again? Will governments roll out short-term economic stimulus packages focusing on a return to “business as usual” as quickly as possible? Will workers return in their hoards to city-centre offices on packed commutes? Or will government and businesses seize this opportunity to reflect and consider the situation we were in before this crisis\u2014where “business as usual” led to unsustainable economic cycles contributing to climate change and biodiversity devastation in another type of emergency.<\/p>\n

We are facing now into a pivotal moment in time where it is possible to contemplate an alternative recovery plan. Governments and decision-makers need to take time out to reflect on the importance of small business, local business, and nature-based business for community resilience. Business leaders need to consider the proven benefits of bringing nature into work environments or even better the possibility of creating new working environments in commune with nature. We have the opportunity to incubate a new business sector, to stimulate the start-up of new nature-based enterprises and support the re-emergence and growth of existing nature-based businesses. Can each of us make the case in our own community for investment in a different type of business, nature-based businesses that contribute to resilience, community connectivity, and that most crucial element we have all come to appreciate\u2014quality of life?<\/p>\n

(Note<\/em>: The Connecting Nature survey of nature-based enterprises is open to enterprises globally. We welcome your insights on the impacts of COVID-19 and future opportunities for this sector. Click <\/em>here<\/a><\/em> for more information.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

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Source: Borzykowski, B. \u201cThe outdoor office spaces where workers commune with nature\u201d\u00a0BBC (2017) https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/worklife\/article\/20170517-the-outdoor-office-spaces-where-workers-commune-with-nature (accessed 22\/4\/2020)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The ouidoor office. BBC (2017) https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/worklife\/article\/20170517-the-outdoor-office-spaces-where-workers-commune-with-nature(accessed 22\/4\/2020). Photo: Siobh\u00e1n McQuaid.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Exploring nature on a mobile green living room. Photo credit: Jonathon Muller, Helix Pflantzen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Getting in touch with nature on the mobile green living room. Photo credit: Jonathon Muller, Helix Pflantzen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>
\n

Matthew Jensen<\/h3>\n
\n
Matthew L\u00f3pez-Jensen<\/div>\n
\n

about the writer
\n Matthew L\u00f3pez-Jensen<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

Matthew Jensen is an interdisciplinary artist whose rigorous explorations of landscape combine walking, collecting, photography, mapping and extensive research. His projects investigate the relationships between people and local landscapes.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

Upended\/Routine\/Imagine\/Changed\/Negotiate: Response<\/strong><\/p>\n

But who hasn\u2019t dreamt about snapping their fingers and making air pollution go away? And all of a sudden we realize it is optional. Those scroll bar images are fun. Before. After. Before. After. What else is optional<\/blockquote><\/figure>Our apartment is on one of the highest hills in the Bronx and we can see out to Queens. Every plane out of LaGuardia flies up and over our building, directly over, before banking one way or another. I once took a picture of our rooftop from an airplane window, before banking one way or another.<\/p>\n

Morning comes with deep silence; 10:00am is the new 3:00am. The sparrows tussle on the windowsill. This is nothing new. There is a male sparrow that has been advertising a hole in the eve for a few years. But now his morning chirps seem to shake the building.<\/p>\n

My students are Zooming from across the globe. Or not at all. I am a tab now. Just another tab. Maybe even minimized. Whatever I just said was not that funny. What are they laughing at?<\/p>\n

Spring is here. On time and ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n

Everywhere, all at once, an entire species is changed while the rest go about their business. Except for those tigers at the Bronx Zoo.<\/p>\n

We are on the sixth floor and the elevator is down for a few more weeks. Our neighbor across the hall, Alma, an 86-year-old wonder woman is stuck. No more senior center. Her granddaughter might die of Covid. But her daughters are worried about how she\u2019ll can handle the news. Perhaps a virtual goodbye?<\/p>\n

But who hasn\u2019t dreamt about snapping their fingers and making air pollution go away? And all of a sudden we realize it is optional. Those scroll bar images are fun. Before. After. Before. After. What else is optional?<\/p>\n

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Callery Pear in bloom in empty New York City. Photo: Matthew Jensen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Right. I am an artist. It is not like I can turn that off.<\/p>\n

My life post-virus? But some recovered patients are testing positive again. Or is that clickbait? It is me who needs to stay positive. Chin-up-can-do-bootstraps-yes-we-can-dawn-horizon. I used to spend so much time in the future but now I\u2019m afraid to go there.<\/p>\n

Summer classes? Doubtful. Fall? Well, we have to wait for enrollment numbers. Wait, are we still charging money for school? What am I not getting here?<\/p>\n

It is time for the 7:00pm clap session and sing-along out the windows of the building. Finally, something other than bird song! But now that \u201cthis is New York\u201d song makes me want to cry. Is it a requiem? Our building has essential workers and our neighborhood is suddenly very essential.<\/p>\n

Negotiate? Well, I guess the stimulus payment might be considered a settlement. Is there someone else I can talk to? Someone in charge?<\/p>\n

I do remember that article about the 130,000 saiga antelope that dropped dead in Kazakhstan. But that was five years ago. Why am I thinking about it now? Were bats somehow involved?<\/p>\n

How many wonderful parts of our civilization were symptoms or extensions of the worst parts? I am afraid of the answer.<\/p>\n

I photographed all the flowers blooming around our building so our neighbors that cannot leave can enjoy a digital spring, a very silent spring.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\n

Eduardo Guerrero<\/h3>\n
\n
Eduardo Guerrero<\/div>\n
\n

about the writer
\n Eduardo Guerrero<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

Eduardo Guerrero is a biologist with over 20 years of experience in projects and initiatives involving environmental and sustainable development issues in Colombia and other South American countries. <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

The dilemma for a healthy planet is not: nature or people? The right approach must be people in nature, planning, and building resilient cities following ecological principles. Quoting Garcia M\u00e1rquez: \u201cI believe it’s not too late to build a utopia that allows us to share an Earth on which solidarity could become a reality\u201d.<\/blockquote><\/figure>Pandemic prevention and management needs healthy nature in cities<\/strong><\/p>\n

Global crises as COVID-19 remind us that our cities are intrinsically part of nature, not only social and economically interconnected, but also part of ecologic corridors. So, in addition to social, health, and economic measures, solutions should be also nature-based.<\/p>\n

From politics and economic perspectives, we human beings pretend to be apart from nature but, we ourselves, our economic models and our cities are functionally part of nature. If you prefer let\u2019s call urban areas “transformed nature”.<\/p>\n

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A satellite image of the Earth at night (left image) resembles fungal mycelia (right image)\u00a0which is like a natural internet connecting the forest through soils<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Condominiums are like honeycombs or coral reefs; highways seem like a school of fish and our social networks resemble the fungal mycelia which are like a natural internet.<\/p>\n

We are nature for good, not for bad. The problem is not to be a social animal that evolves by building an interconnected global society. The problem is acting as if nature is something alien to us instead being part of us. The problem is the air contamination and particulate material that causes cardiopulmonary diseases and facilitates virus dissemination. The problem is the illegal traffic of wild fauna and their habitat fragmentation which disrupt ecological balance and allows the zoonotic transmission of a virus from a wild animal to people.<\/p>\n

The new coronavirus emergency has moved humanity to feel united in diversity and, at the same time, has obliged leaders and governments to make synergic decisions relating economy and human health.<\/p>\n

Under this crisis, links between human health and environment have emerged more clearly than ever before. Biodiversity loss, climate change, and COVID-19 challenge humanity in similar manners. They are not just themes under a single-sector responsibility, not unidimensional problems assigned in a simplistic way to Environment or Health Secretaries. They are multidimensional and complex matters which require comprehensive approaches.<\/p>\n

I hope government and corporate leaders will no longer act according to false dichotomies like economy vs social well-being or economy vs environment.<\/p>\n

As many under this crisis, I feel anxious, expectant and concerned and, at the same time, I feel motivated and optimistic about the opportunities and challenges we face.<\/p>\n

I imagine a post-COVID world in which human relationships are less physical in terms of contacts but emotionally closer with more real solidarity. I imagine a post-COVID stage in which nature is organically integrated into urban planning, not just as a \u201cmust be\u201d, but as a \u201call of us appreciate it and want to\u201d.<\/p>\n

The dilemma for a healthy planet is not: nature or people? The right approach must be people in nature, planning, and building resilient cities following ecological principles.<\/p>\n

The global crisis of COVID-19 poses a challenge to the dense and compact city model. However, the solution cannot be a radical change in urban development models, but the development of tools, redesigns and environmental adaptations that contribute to preventing, controlling and mitigating public health threats.<\/p>\n

Many actions for a healthy urban environment are at the same time good practices for a healthy population to prevent and\/or mitigate epidemics and other public health threats. Landscape architects and ecologists must talk and work together, as must economists, biologists and health professionals.<\/p>\n

So, an effective management of post-COVID emergency will require integrative nature-based solutions.<\/p>\n

We can develop approaches such as the following:<\/p>\n