May 28, 2020
The impact that COVID-19 has had on cities around the world has not been uniform. Neither has the varying responses to the global pandemic. While some cities are transforming their streets into open-aired restaurants or closing them to cars in an effort to make it easier for pedestrians to physically distance, others are shutting down public space entirely. And these unique responses impact the experience of their people – depending on their community support, the design of their neighborhood, their access to housing and jobs, as well as many other factors.
But one thing that remains true across the board is that cities aren’t going anywhere, and public spaces will have to be adapted to meet the needs of a new normal.
Mike Lydon, Founder and Principal at Street Plans Collaborative, moderates a discussion between a panel of international speakers representing a breadth of experiences from the pandemic. They explore topics like open streets and the repurposing of street space, the impacts on various communities through an equity lens, the psychological and physical impacts on residents, and how our collective trust in returning to the public realm will shift as we emerge into a new normal.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE WEBINAR SPEAKERS:
- Marcela Guerrero Casas - Founder and former Managing Director of Open Streets Capetown from Bogotá, Colombia
- Maria Sitzoglou - European Commission Urban Expert for OASIS Schoolyards Project and Advisor for the 100 Resilient Cities program from Thessaloniki, Greece
- Robin Mazumder - Neuroscientist from University of Waterloo, Canada
- Charles Brown - Founder of Equitable Cities, Senior Researcher with the Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center (VTC), and Adjunct Professor at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers from New Brunswick, NJ
All live On the Park Bench webinars qualify for one CEU credit from AICP (click here for more on tracking and reporting). Additionally, CNU-A members can earn one CEU credit for all live and recorded On the Park Bench webinars (click here for more information on tracking and reporting).