15 ways cities can emerge fantastic after COVID
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Canada spans roughly 10 million square kilometres and with a thousands of less than 38 million people, This territory has.
But don't let that fool you. Canada is a place of cities. More than 80 per cent of Canadians and many third live in the Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver census places.
And it is in cities where outcomes of the novel coronavirus pandemic have been most acutely felt. in the early days of lockdown, As COVID 19 became predominant, radiant, dense, Bustling cities were all but de-activate with office buildings, store shopping, other, theatres and concert halls, museums, And sports types all going dark.
There were early reports of a city exodus and the other of an existential crisis emerged. Could cities survive when being in close proximity was the greatest risk of all? And wouldn't remote work spell the end for the unremitting urbanization of the 20th and 21st centuries?
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld weighed in with a New York Times op ed making clear he was having none of the idea the battered metropolis is dead.
"Real, located, Inspiring human energy exists when we coagulate together in crazy places like nyc, He showed.
"You think Rome is going away too? the united kingdom? tokyo? The East vill? they are certainly not. They rethink. it mutate. all the people re form. Because success is rare. And the true greatness that is nyc is beyond rare,
But question a talented that an examination is underway of what it means to live in cities in 2020 and what urban centres can learn from this crisis.
Each is hopeful that if the lessons of COVID 19 are learned, Canada's cities could become in excess of they are right now: other livable, More maintainable, More robust and more equitable.
This pandemic is simply the latest in a long line of crises to expose the fault lines of cities, alleges Rowe. Neighbourhoods already under stress and without social cohesion are where people have died in very high numbers.
"A crisis in being homeless, Unhealthy overcrowding and decline of main street organizations and businesses all predated the pandemic, She spoken.
"a few bunch of corrections that are overdue, these include equity, Systemic racism and the legal right to housing. Everybody is indicating the big reset of COVID 19, But if we will do it, We better do it right,Coronavirus newssheet sign up: Get The COVID 19 Brief sent for any inbox
Rowe, A self documented optimist, Sees the pandemic as a level that could lead to more livability and equity.
"This is a moment of extraordinary chance for cities, She said in a phone job from Toronto.
"towns and cities are organic. They are never stand still and shifting, But that is needed a lot to kill a city. They probably will morph and transform,
The four experts laid out 15 measures that consider could help Canada's cities move toward that successful future.
Rapidly rising real estate prices have pushed many out of the market, Led to suv sprawl and ever longer commutes. Rowe says equity funds and pension funds have purchased urban housing in big cities, Creating fractured neighbourhoods and many left shut out due to unaffordability.
It will require creative approaches to housing that balance the [-censured-=https://www.pinterest.com/charmdateoffcial/]charmdate[/-censured-] need for more density which is better for sustainability with the possibility that this pandemic could lead to apprehension about living in close quarters.
But Condon at UBC says far more than density, Inequality has been a vector of the transmitting of COVID 19. He's writing a book fact finding how the densest parts of cities, Take New York City's Manhattan for example, Had much lower rates of the virus than other boroughs where residents live further apart but are more likely to work in low wage, High contact work.
In california, The highest tranny rates came in parts of cities with high minority populations where families of eight were crowded into a two bedroom apartment.
Condon says Canada doesn't keep upon data that makes these comparisons possible, But he believes its big cities would be no exception.
The average home price in Canada has doubled during the last 15 years, While wages have ultimately remained flat, according to him.