It’s September, early in the morning. I stand on the front doorsteps and breathe in the fresh air. The morning dew brings an ethereal look to my surroundings and takes me back to first-day-of-school photoshoots. I start walking, opus card in hand, ready to take over the city once again. This time it is real; we are heading back to school, office, library. We are ready, the city is ready, to welcome life in its center again.
Fast-track to the metro: a delayed car on the orange line. Only this time, there does not seem to be animosity in the air. Is it possible to long for an inconvenience? After spending so much time in our homes, it seems that the collectivity enjoys on some level the time spent traveling. However, the desire to get back to our pre-pandemic lives might not compensate for the reality of the present routine. Practically nothing has changed, except for new buildings here and there in the downtown core.
Figure 1. A commuter rides a near-empty subway train in Montreal. © Paul Chiasson
Heading back to the city brings a fresh perspective over the problems to fix and the path we should take towards better urban planning. Mary Rowe of the Canadian Planning Institute associates in an interview the pandemic with a ‘particle accelerator’, explaining that city issues ‘manifest themselves now in a much more acute way’ (Saunders, 2020). Considering the economic impact of the last year, it may even take longer to solve such amplified issues, while tackling the new demands of climate change and public health. What lies in front of us is a rethinking of the human factor in cities in a modern context, which will take years to fully input.
In the meantime, smaller changes will take place, one at a time. Urban design and transportation have been at the center of attention, being fields where modifications can be implemented quickly. In North America and Europe, more space is opened up to pedestrians and bikers or being reinforced through older projects (Leigh, 2020). An interesting Covid-19 direct response is the city of Oakland’s ‘Slow Street’ program, closing up to 119 km of the street to prioritize shared access (City of Oakland, 2021). The challenge lies in choosing which solution will provide the best transition to longer-lasting redevelopment. Only time will tell.
Figure 2. Woman running through Oakland’s ‘Slow Street’ system. © City of Oakland, 2021.
Figure 3. Barcelona’s Superblock of Sant Antoni, a street reclaiming project. © Del Rio Bani, 2021.
References
Chiasson, Paul. (2020). A commuter rides a near-empty subway train in Montreal, Global News. https://globalnews.ca/news/7163843/montreal-public-transit-mask-wearing-july-13/
The city of Oakland. (2021). Oakland Slow Streets. https://www.oaklandca.gov/projects/oakland-slow-streets
Del Rio Bani. (2021). Superblock of Sant Antoni / Leku Studio. ArchDaily. https://www.archdaily.com/938244/superblock-of-sant-antoni-leku-studio
Leigh, Gweneth Newman. (2020, September 15). Reimagining the post-pandemic city. Architecture AU. https://architectureau.com/articles/reimagining-the-post-pandemic-city/
Saunders, Doug. (2020, November 14). The urban cure: How cities seize opportunity from the pandemic crisis to change how they operate for the better. The Globe and Mail. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-urban-cure-how-cities-seize-opportunity-from-the-pandemic-crisis/