Open AccessWhat Still Matters in a City. The COVID-19 Pandemic Offers a “Teachable Moment” Illustrating that Public Spaces Must Simultaneously Connect us, and Protect us too
Author(s) -
Michael W. Mehaffy,
Tigran Haas,
Peter Elmlund
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
the journal of public space
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2206-9658
DOI - 10.32891/jps.v5i3.1378
Subject(s) - teachable moment , public space , urban sprawl , pandemic , space (punctuation) , public health , covid-19 , political science , sociology , public relations , urban planning , computer science , engineering , medicine , architectural engineering , psychology , civil engineering , infectious disease (medical specialty) , nursing , disease , pathology , psychoanalysis , operating system
Various commentators have sought to assess the long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on urban form and public space, with predictions ranging from “the end of urban density,” to a new impetus for auto-encapsulated sprawl, to exacerbation of the effects of urban inequality, to an explosion of digital surveillance, to a return to relative normalcy with new protective strategies. Here we tease out a more basic lesson about public space: that it is far from one amorphous thing, but it has both connective and protective characteristics. Its structure has a profound impact upon the life of the city and the health and well-being of its residents. Furthermore, it is up to us, as practitioners at the interface of science and policy, to chart the very real choices emerging for a better generation of public space and urban form.