|
REDUCING INEQUALITIES – As a result of the pandemic, socio-spatial inequalities are increasing sharply. Using the case of Chicago as a starting point, the journalist Tatiana Walk-Morris shows that the fight against these inequalities is beneficial to all: the regional gross domestic product could grow by $8 billion. Several courses of action have been identified, from affordable housing to economic development, with a plan: accessibility rather than proximity. – Chloë Voisin-Bormuth, Director of Studies and Research
FROM ONE VALLEY TO ANOTHER – The co-living company Common just announced the five cities that will host “Remote Work Hubs”, complexes composed of apartments and offices: New Orleans, Bentonville (Arkansas), Ogden (Utah), Rocky Mount (North Carolina), and Rochester (New York). Anticipating the arrival of teleworkers and betting on cities’ policies to attract individuals rather than firms, will these workers actually “be toting their laptops from Silicon Valley to new sites”? – Sarah Cosatto, Research Officer
→ Related: our ongoing research project about medium-sized cities.
“NEW NORMAL” – The Centre for Liveable Cities has just published a report dedicated to the urban “new normal”, created by the health crisis. This document, consisting of interviews, essays, and focuses on select metropolises (Tokyo, Paris, Singapore...), deals with issues such as the funding of green infrastructure, the development of new mobilities, the role of technology in managing the pandemic... These angles can be used to lay the foundations for debate, anticipate future crises, and make cities more resilient. – Sarah Cosatto
→ Related: our work on resilience, a new urban imperative.
DECARBONIZING SUPPLY CHAINS – According to the latest World Economic Forum and Boston Consulting Group report, decarbonizing supply chains could have a tremendous impact on climate change, as the supply chains of eight industries make up for 50% of global emissions. However, taking action is not that easy: collecting useful data and setting clear standards may prove difficult in an “often-fragmented supplier landscape”. – Sarah Cosatto
“TREAT THE CITY AS A GLOBAL OBJECT OF DESIRE” – Even before the pandemic, the cores of some superstar cities like Paris, Tokyo, or Sydney had seen their population stall or decline. But is it enough to “formulate a Unified Theory of Anti-Metropolitanism”? It is not, as these variations are due to different local dynamics and as the pandemic has made solid population data difficult to collect. The ebb and flow of cities is tricky to predict but they are still objects of desire for all the “intangibles of urban life” they offer. – Sarah Cosatto
|
