[ad_1]
PARIS: Rue de Rivoli, a boulevard that runs through the heart of Paris, has developed in fits and starts.
Napoleon Bonaparte began construction in 1802, after years of planning and debate, but construction stalled after the emperor’s abdication in 1814.
The boulevard remained in limbo until another military strongman, Napoleon III, completed the project in the 1850s. The following century, construction began again, this time to accommodate automobiles.
But last spring, Rue de Rivoli underwent its fastest transformation yet.
With Paris traffic subjected to a COVID-19 shutdown, Mayor Anne Hidalgo decided on April 30 to close the nearly two-mile-long highway to cars to create more space for pedestrians and cyclists.
READ: Comment: Banning bicycles on trails will not make bad cycling habits go away.
READ: Comment: Giving up gasoline cars is much harder for parents
Workers repainted the road and transformed a major artery in central Paris, home to the world-renowned Louvre museum, virtually overnight.
It wasn’t just the Rue de Rivoli. Using only paint and bolt-on markers, nearly 100 miles of Parisian roads were temporarily reassigned to cyclists in the early months of the pandemic, a revolution in urban reprogramming.
It was later announced that the changes would be permanent.
The Parisian example highlights the extent to which the pandemic has accelerated the pace of urban innovation, compressing what would have taken years to months or even weeks.
A woman, wearing protective masks, walks in front of the Eiffel Tower at the Trocadero in Paris amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in France, on February 11, 2021 (Photo: REUTERS / Sarah Meyssonnier).
Beyond highlighting the flaws in pre-pandemic urban systems, such as high levels of pollution, it has enabled city leaders to avoid cumbersome bureaucracy and respond much more efficiently to the needs of individuals and businesses.
CHANGES IN THE SEPARATION OF HOME AND WORK
Those needs are changing rapidly. One of the most discussed changes is related to the separation of home and work.
In the early days of urbanization, people walked to work. Later, they began to use public transport.
It was only after WWII and the rise of suburbanization that people began driving cars from their homes to gigantic factory complexes and office towers.
READ: Comment: Why I’ll probably never own a car, not even an eco-friendly one
READ: Comment: The impact of the increase in gasoline taxes goes beyond the immediate effect on the cost of living
During the pandemic, remote working has become the rule in many industries, and many companies plan to keep it that way, at least largely. This reintegration of work and home threatens one of the last remaining vestiges of the industrial age: the central business districts that pack and stack office workers in skyscrapers.
Since many workers are unlikely to return to their cubicles, old office towers can be transformed into much-needed affordable housing after the pandemic. One-dimensional business districts could become vibrant neighborhoods.
Non-work activities have also been transformed. Dining, entertainment, and fitness have increasingly moved outdoors, occupying a space that used to be designated for cars.
So, as with bike lanes in Paris, the pandemic is creating prototypes for a human-centered city permanently post-car.
People wearing protective masks walk past customers eating lunch on a restaurant terrace in Paris as restaurants and cafes reopen after the COVID-19 outbreak in France, June 2, 2020 (File Photo: REUTERS / Benoit Tessier)
Indeed, the changes in Paris are part of a larger plan to create a “15-minute city” (ville du quart d’heure), where central daily activities, including work, learning and shopping, can be carry out only once. on foot or by bicycle from home.
URBAN RENAISSANCE
So far from making cities obsolete, as some predicted early on, the pandemic has unlocked ever-widening potential for rebirth, what economist Joseph Schumpeter called the famous urban-scale “creative destruction”.
The crisis left governments with little choice but to adopt an accelerated trial-and-error approach. The extraordinary innovations in pedestrianization, affordable housing, and dynamic zoning that have emerged highlight the power of positive feedback loops.
However, a Schumpeterian approach is fundamentally experimental, and even the best-designed experiments sometimes fail.
READ: Comment: Singapore’s CBD must be redeveloped to remain relevant in a post-COVID world
READ: Comment: Comment: Saving the Dover Forest and the plight of Singapore’s urban planner
In addition, the costs of those failures are not paid equally: those with less influence tend to suffer more. The COVID-19 pandemic, for example, has disproportionately affected the poor and vulnerable.
In this new era of urban innovation, leaders must take great care to minimize risks and redistribute benefits to disadvantaged and vulnerable groups. That means, first of all, listening to them.
The Black Lives Matter movement in the United States is a powerful example of an underprivileged group demanding to be heard. Leaders everywhere must heed and address racial and class divisions head-on. Urban design is central to any strategy of this type.
To support this process, and help maintain flexibility and speed in urban innovation after the pandemic, leaders should consider creating participatory digital platforms for residents to communicate their needs.
A haze of tiny particles hangs over the horizon in Paris, France, on December 9, 2016 when the City of Light experienced the worst air pollution in a decade. REUTERS / Gonzalo Fuentes
This could encourage policies that improve the quality of life in cities, especially in disadvantaged neighborhoods, even limiting problematic trends such as increased pollution and gentrification.
Only with an agile and inclusive approach can we seize this once-in-a-century opportunity or, rather, fulfill our urgent obligation to “build back better”.
READ: Comment: When Singapore Homes Become Workspaces: Big Changes at Home and Beyond
A stroll down Rue de Rivoli today reveals nothing of the desolation and boredom we have come to expect on the city streets during the pandemic. Instead, the historic boulevard is packed with masked Parisians, speeding by on bicycles, scooters, e-bikes and in-line skates, or taking a coffee break in cafes and restaurants.
A street muffled by the pandemic has been reactivated. With careful planning, bold experimentation, and luck, such transformations can be just the beginning for cities around the world.
Carlo Ratti, co-founder of the international office of design and innovation Carlo Ratti Associati, is director of the Senseable City Lab at MIT. Richard Florida is a university professor at the University of Toronto School of Cities and the Rotman School of Management.
