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Placemaking with an Equity Framework: In Portland, Oregon, the city council has approved plans to develop Broadway Corridor, a 32-acre downtown development for which Project for Public Spaces produced a placemaking plan for new streets and public spaces. Perhaps the most exciting part of the project is its “historic” community benefits agreement, which seeks to ensure equity and opportunities for women and people of color through affordable housing and commercial space, prioritizing minority-owned businesses, and meeting high environmental standards in design and development, among other strategies (The Oregonian).
Park Access in the Bayou City: Houston, Texas, often ranks among the top ten most unequal metro areas in the US, but since 2012, it has been building one of the most extensive and equitably distributed networks of parks and greenways in the country (City Monitor).
How the Coronavirus Works Indoors: El País offers one of the most in-depth visualizations at how COVID-19 spreads in indoor spaces. The risk of contagion is highest in indoor spaces but can be reduced by applying all available measures to combat infection via aerosols. Their story covers three everyday spaces: an indoor gathering, a bar or restaurant, and a classroom (El País).
Secondary Cities: Changing commuting patterns during and after the pandemic could lead to big changes both for big cities and for nearby “secondary cities,” as some workers move further from the office and work entirely from home most weeks. Costs like congestion and benefits like economic multiplier effects could become more geographically spread out, but left unchecked, any new pattern is sure to mirror existing lines of inequality, too (The Guardian).
Did Quarantine Open Streets Work? It’s hard to know the exact connections between open streets and slow streets initiatives and limiting the spread of the virus, but a new study reveals who has been making use of the programs in five American cities (StreetsBlog).
Endangered Main Streets: Since the pandemic began, America’s Main Street revival has gone into reverse, cutting a small-town lifeline. The challenges faced by businesses in Emporia, Kansas, show how much that revival is now in danger from Covid-19 (Wall Street Journal).
A Flood-Resilient Public Realm: A proposed citywide rezoning would layer resilience in New York City. With 520 miles of coastline, New York City is ready to implement the lessons of Hurricane Sandy in the zoning code for the entire city (Planetizen).
Election Protection: With the threat of unrest and intimidation in public places looming over Election Day this week in the United States, some cities have announced plans aimed at protecting voters (CityLab).
Protest Crackdown: Five months after the killing of George Floyd sparked renewed racial justice protests around the United States, hundreds face trials and prison (The Guardian).
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