During the first year of the pandemic, I had the opportunity to be part of the team that delivered a series of monthly online panel discussions called Pandemonium: Urban Studies and Recovering from COVID-19.
Simon Fraser University (SFU) Urban Studies in collaboration with SFU Public Square and with financial support from the Initiative in Urban Sustainable Development delivered this series that brought together 38 panelists and more than 1,400 participants in online events from May 2020 to March 2021.
I wrote the summaries and highlights of the individual webinars and the overall series, and I want to share them here because the panelists and the discussions were interesting and remain relevant.
The panelist presentations and discussions covered a range of interrelated issues at the neighborhood and city scale, including health, housing, sociability, public space, economy, long-range planning, and resilience. Panelists from Canada, Europe, New York, Seoul and the small island nation of Saint Lucia discussed the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on cities in the context of pre-existing vulnerabilities and inequities, ideas and expectations about the future of cities, and what it takes to transform our cities into environments for more healthy, equitable, inclusive and resilient communities.
This is a summary of insights, themes and questions that were raised throughout the Pandemonium series.
A video recording and written Recap for each individual webinar in the series is also available:
Pandemics & Long-Range Planning, September 30, 2020
Being Kind: How Much Does Sociability Matter? October 21, 2020
The Post-COVID-19 Urban Economy, November 25, 2020
Not Back to Normal: Housing Post-Pandemic, January 27, 2021
Urban Resilience: New Realities, February 24, 2021
Taking It to the Streets, March 24, 2021
Finally, this article I co-authored in HazNet, the Magazine of the Canadian Risk and Hazards Network, features the solutions shared in the Pandemonium series that are being implemented in Canada for community health, quality housing, social connectedness and online youth engagement.