Abstract
This chapter presents a comparative analysis of urban interventions involving the use of public spaces that took place during the pandemic from May 2020 to July 2021 in Toronto (Canada), Recife (Brazil), and New York (USA). The identification and analysis of these transformations can contribute to the constitution of different regulations and urban plans, which go beyond the context of pandemics, supporting sustainable urbanism practices essential to the (re)balance of the ecosystem currently threatened by the appearance and proliferation of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The interventions observed in each city are based on the following conceptual foundations: principles of sustainable urbanism; research on the use of open spaces versus the detriment of closed spaces during the pandemic; recommendations and data from the World Health Organization; and definitions on tactical urbanism, and emergency urbanism. The analysis presented here focuses on practices of tactile urbanism (or “placemaking” or emergency urbanism), the understanding of the need for paradigm shifts for the use of public spaces in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the urgency to present urban actions in response to the new restrictions imposed. For this purpose, the following ways of using the city were observed: circulation, permanence, and commerce. It is argued that these three levels of action, acting together, generate conditions for the use of public space that strengthen the practice of sustainable urbanism in contemporary times.
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Notes
- 1.
Taking into account these different socioeconomic realities, the number of vaccinated people is an indicator of the possibility of greater or lesser use of public space. The percentage of vaccinated people for the three cities at the end of the period of on-site observations of this research (June 30, 2020) is presented for comparative purposes: Toronto: 81.61% with the first dose and 46.86% with the second dose (source: https://www.toronto.ca/home/covid-19/covid-19-latest-city-of-toronto-news/covid-19-pandemic-data/covid-19-weekday-status-of-cases-data/); Recife: 39.2% with the first dose and 14.5% with the second dose (source: https://conectarecife.recife.pe.gov.br/vacinometro/); New York: 55.72% with the first dose and 50.74% with the second dose (source: https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/covid/covid-19-data-totals.page). It is also understood that the greater the number of people vaccinated, the greater the possibility of agglomerations in each city.
- 2.
Ten Brazilian metropolitan regions are part of the report: Belo Horizonte, Brasília, Campinas, Curitiba, Fortaleza, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, and São Paulo. The survey was answered by 13,000 users in these cities in November 2020, indicating best practices in public transport and micromobility (shared bicycles and scooters, among others). All data are anonymous (Moovit 2021).
- 3.
Original Portuguese quote: “A definição de espaço informacional migra entre campos. É a princípio um conceito geográfico, mas que vem sendo aplicado nas crescentes formas de fricção entre arquitetura, arte e informação. É uma trama que une campos visíveis e invisíveis e relações que conectam espaços urbanos, as especificidades do lugar e do contexto, as redes telemáticas, a internet e as ondas de rádio, televisão, telefonia e outras formas indutoras de sinais. São sinais que podem ser minuciosamente mensurados ou apenas presumidos, percebidos efetivamente através de seu impacto físico ou suposição, por formas mais científicas ou imaginadas, fantasiosas que sejam” (Bambozzi 2019, p. 13). Translated by the authors.
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de Lourdes Carneiro da Cunha Nóbrega, M., Trindade, I.L., Rolim, A.L. (2023). Transformation of Public Spaces Through Emergency Urbanism: Lessons from Toronto, Recife, and New York. In: Cirella, G.T., Dahiya, B. (eds) City Responses to Disruptions in 2020. Advances in 21st Century Human Settlements. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-7988-2_4
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