Public Space During a Pandemic, Part 2
COVID-19 is a time to prioritize public space as critical infrastructure for communities
Public spaces have become a refuge during the pandemic. Public parks, open spaces, streets and trails have seen an unprecedented uptick in use. What once were seen as inconsequential are now essential to our everyday health. And as states begin to consider the new parameters of reopening, public spaces will continue to serve as civic infrastructure for wellbeing and human connection. In this second installment, we offer a roundup of articles that explore the role of public space as critical infrastructure for cities and call for prioritizing them in public budgets of all layers of government.
Nature-rich public spaces are essential public health infrastructure.
Writer and journalist, Lucy Jones, shares how reconnecting with the natural world can calm anxiety and fear this this piece in The Guardian. Exactly what we need during this pandemic and as we, as a country, begin to recover.
“In the past decade, the scientific evidence that connection with nature has important therapeutic benefits for human mental health has mushroomed. Robust studies from disciplines across the world are demystifying what many intuitively know — that we often feel restored when we spend time in nature.”
UChicago News, writer Jack Wong speaks with Marc Berman, Associate Professor and Director of the University of Chicago’s Environmental Neuroscience Lab. In his research, Berman explores how interactions with nature can impact human cognitive performance and emphasizes that urban infrastructure should maximize the psychological benefits of nature.
“Nature is not an amenity — it’s a necessity. We need to take it seriously.”
In The Washington Post, Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health experts, Joseph G. Allen and Marc Lipsitch, along with director of Arnold Arboretum, William “Ned Friedman” point out that more than 80 percent of Americans live in urban areas and that the benefits of public green spaces are essential to our collective public health and well-being. Numerous studies have shown the positive psychological and neurological effects of time spent in nature.
“Parks, botanical gardens and arboreta and other urban green spaces are not just pretty places to jog or stroll, they are also central to our health and well-being in the urban built environment. Especially now.”
Now is the time to ensure public spaces are well funded for generations to come.
In the NY Daily News, Adrian Benepe of The Trust for Public Land reminds us that public parks were conceived as places for the working people of a new country to find fresh air and for people from all walks of life to “gather together in a great democratic space. He calls for a recommitment to parks and public space as the places that nourish our communities, time and again.
“Now is the time to make sure our parks are kept open as much as public health concerns allow, that they are properly funded and cared for, and that we make bold plans for the future, to ensure that healing nature of public parks are available to all, for generations to come.”
While Julia Africa, Cheri Ruane, Gary Hilderbrand, and Chris Reed in The Boston Globe, remind us that public spaces are essential public health infrastructure, and that they should be invested in, as such.
“Now, more than ever, our parks must be understood as essential public infrastructure. Not unlike essential workers, their contributions during a pandemic should be celebrated, protected, and ultimately leveraged to support public health.”
Quality public space should not be considered a privilege, but a right.
Dr. Zeynep Tufekci in The Atlantic offers a plethora of reasons why we must keep our public spaces open in order to remain resilient throughout our collective fight against COVID-19.
“While it’s imperative that people comply with social-distancing and other guidelines to fight this pandemic, shutting down all parks and trails is unsustainable, counterproductive, and even harmful.”
While Shelby Semmes of The Trust for Public Land writes for The Boston Globe on the importance of a nature-rich civic commons for all that can support communities during this pandemic and into the future.
“It’s moments like these that stretch our social fabric to its limits — and reveal its holes. In too many communities, parks and accessible natural areas are still considered a privilege, when they should be a right.”
Parks and public spaces are critical infrastructure for equitable communities, but remain underfunded.
Aaron Gordon writes for Vice on how access to green space is an important part of reducing health disparities. In pointing out the disproportionate impact of asthma and coronavirus on communities of color, Gordon also underscores how access to nature is a public health imperative, especially in lower-income neighborhoods that are more likely to be polluted. Yet despite their essential nature, public spaces and the departments that manage them continue to be underfunded in most city budgets.
“Everybody loves parks, but coronavirus has shown us they’re more than just neighborhood amenities. They’re necessities.”
We must rethink infrastructure with public space funded as an essential service.
Journalist and urban planning researcher John Surico writes for CityLab about how the pandemic has proven that equitable access to public space is critical for physical, emotional, and mental health. He calls for public spaces to be funded as critical infrastructure for the resiliency of our communities.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has many lessons to teach us, and how cities rethink infrastructure in the days ahead will be one of the greatest tests of urban resilience. Let’s not let parks be one we forget.”
Anuj Gupta public space fellow with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and former general manager of Reading Terminal Market calls for investments in parks, libraries and other public spaces to take priority in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. In The Philadelphia Inquirer he writes that it is our shared public places that will help weave the civic fabric necessary for our country to recover and heal from months of physical distancing.
“Government, nonprofit, and philanthropic leaders must develop post-crisis plans now to bring our community bonds back together once the virus subsides. An essential ingredient in that recipe will be vibrant and accessible public spaces.”
As we move together through this pandemic, we will continue to share articles that capture this growing recognition of the importance of our civic commons for resilient communities, and those that highlight strategies for managing the public realm during a time when physical distancing is a must.
Reimagining the Civic Commons is a collaboration of The JPB Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, William Penn Foundation, and local partners.
