While the extended crisis of the pandemic has upended long-standing practices and embedded new relationships between people and their environments, design and planning solutions are well positioned to guide post-COVID-19 recovery in New York City.

Even with the prospect of a return to “normal,” the new normal will not be the same normal.

Following 9/11, a primary ‘lesson learned’ from the leadership of the planning and design community with New York New Visions was the effectiveness of that community to organize itself in imagining the immediate future and inspiring transformational change.

Twenty years later, the allied disciplines are again poised to deploy our skills as stewards in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis by defining and evaluating built environment issues, examining assumptions and implications, proposing pathways and structuring alternative futures.

 

NYC Perspective

Friday, 4/23, 12:30-2pm

This moment presents widespread opportunity to advance equitable and sustainable urban strategies for healthy, transformational and economically viable futures. Convening local civic leaders, professionals, and practitioners to share their perspective in a fast-paced presentations that point to the impact of the pandemic on NYC’s urban fabric, this program initiated the Post-COVID Cities public dialog towards defining principles and strategies for the future.

Watch the replay >

 

Reinventing World Cities

Thursday, 6/10, 12-2pm

Reinventing Global Cities is the second of a series of three high-profile events focusing on New York City’s future. The NYC audience will mainly comprise planning and urban design professionals, students and stakeholders. In this summit, participants will learn how other global cities currently emerging from the pandemic are positioning themselves to reach aspirational social goals while implementing 21st century zero carbon policies.

Watch the replay >

 

Framework for Opportunity

Wednesday, 9/8, 12-2pm

In September, the third event of the series will present interactive discussion and recommendations for potential strategies that build on the NYC Perspective as informed by approaches presented during Reinventing Global Cities.

These strategies, resulting from three months of analysis by Working Groups representing expertise in Transportation (Streets and Mobility), Land Use (Housing, Zoning, and Economics), and Sustainability (Resilience, Climate, Environmental Justice, and Public Health), will identify scenarios for future action based on the economic, social and political implications of the City’s evolving recovery.

The program will conclude with a look back at advocacy lessons learned from the model of New York New Visions, 20 years after its establishment as a response to the 9/11 crisis. One major success of that venture was its facilitation of a vehicle for the design and planning community to speak with one voice in initiating and advocating for policies and programs.

 

Further Reading:

Post-COVID Cities: NYC Perspective
Post-COVID Cities: Reinventing Global Cities
Post-COVID Cities: Framework for Opportunity

—

Post-COVID Cities intends to set in motion a similar action program among allied design and planning institutions advocating for a transformational approach to post-COVID recovery through invests in the built environment.

Organized by the AIANY Planning and Urban Design Committee and the AIANY Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.