How can cities learn from the pandemic? 

Helping cities stay adaptable

Across the globe, the pandemic drove rapid adaptations to public spaces, parks and street furniture. Temporary traffic arrangements were created to widen pavements, providing pedestrians with more space for social distancing. Outdoor dining was extended, and more active travel arrangements were created by adding pop-up cycle lanes. 

Professor Andres examined and catalogued pandemic responses in London and New York when inhabitants of both cities were still facing severe restrictions on their movement and behaviour. She is now assessing their legacies. 

She has assembled an interdisciplinary consortium of researchers in London, New York, Paris and Tokyo to design a set of evidence-based lessons helping to embed proactive adaptability approaches.

The project uses a mix of academic analysis, alongside surveys and interviews with stakeholders and local communities, focusing on three themes: 

1. How planning regulations and policy can be adapted to allow swift and prompt change of use 
2. How spaces dedicated to mobility and transport, like streets and sidewalks, can be repurposed for socio-cultural and health purposes 
3. How outdoor public spaces, like squares, parks, and vacant and abandoned land, can be adapted for more diverse and inclusive community-led purposes and improve wellbeing and mental health 

The project has already learnt much about how different geographical, planning and governance contexts affected the response to, and recovery from, the pandemic in the cities studied. 

Flexible adaptation in London

London provided the team with a deeper understanding of how regulatory approaches could be designed with flexibility in mind, by adopting new attitudes to the participatory process in times of crisis. As one local government worker interviewed pointed out: 

“We usually spend about six months to a year doing community engagement, going through the political process. Then we were basically told by central government, ‘don’t do any consultation, you just need to put it in within a matter of weeks.’ That was the actual wording, a central directive, so we just went and did it.” 

London’s efforts to adapt were also improved by temporary changes in permitted development rights – but as Professor Andres points out, planners have missed the opportunity to capitalise on this advantage. 

“It is really interesting... since the 2008 financial crisis, London has been at the forefront of adaptable urbanism, really pushing temporary – or what they call ‘meanwhile’ – uses to reactivate spaces.  

“During the pandemic, temporary urbanisms spread to outdoor spaces to build city resilience. 

“But nowadays adaptability is mostly back to thinking about empty shops and declining high streets, rather than reflecting about what various forms of temporary urbanism could look like and mean for cities, neighbourhoods and local communities.” 

Tactical urbanism in New York

New York’s pandemic adaptations and recovery planning provided some illuminating contrasts with what has been seen in London, Paris and elsewhere. New York’s coherent, ‘whole city’ approach was rooted in a strong political commitment to climate crisis management and active travel. They were already focused on diversifying usage of streets and other outdoor spaces long before the pandemic, thanks to movements like tactical urbanism. Professor Andres explains:  

“In New York, there is a very strong legacy of what is called tactical urbanism, or DIY urban design. It is linked to the New Urbanism principles, a planning movement in the US which has been informing the transformation of cities over the past 20 or 30 years with the view of creating more liveable and walkable urban environments.  

“Tactical urbanists argue that you can improve living conditions just by making small changes in streets – adding bookshelves on sidewalks or creating seating areas when none are available, for example.”  

The instinctive logic of the tactical urbanist approach played out in a wide range of locations and contexts throughout the pandemic, and in many North American cities this matched with core policy priorities and emergency measures. 

This was the context that allowed the Department of Transport (DOT) in New York to respond to the health crisis by significantly expanding their Open Streets programme. 

Designing for change and challenge 

As the project moves toward Tokyo and Paris, Professor Andres is curious to find out more about how adaptations and ways to engage with recovery in those cities differ from the locations already studied. 

“The political nature of planning in Japan is different. There is political continuity and fewer challenges related to contrasting political agendas. Similarly, community engagement is different and far less active and visible.  

Professor Andres hopes that solutions and recommendations from the project may help resolve some of the tensions between agility and permanence that continue to divide the planning community.