Written by: Aphrodite Bouikidis, Graduate Student, SFU Urban Studies Program

COVID-19 has called into question all our core principles about successful urban places – density, mixed-use, eyes on the street, reliance on public transit and non-motorized transport, and active public spaces. At the same time, new rules about cities, space, work, travel and social life have been imposed as emergency measures, without time to consider their long-term implications.

In this Pandemics and Long-Range Planning webinar on September 30, the conversation focused on how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the basic tenets of city planning and the direction of longer-term planning processes currently underway.

It featured Kennedy Stewart (Mayor of Vancouver), Jennifer Keesmaat (Former Chief City Planner, Toronto), Heather McNell (General Manager, Regional Planning and Housing, Metro Vancouver), Yunji Kim (Assistant Professor, Grad School of Public Administration, Seoul National University), and Am Johal (Director, SFU's Vancity Office of Community Engagement).

The pandemic is one of several crises that Vancouver and other cities are facing, and they are all connected. There are no simple solutions to these complex challenges. This reinforces the importance of long-range planning, even as we work to respond to current... read more from SFU Public Square.