COVID-19’s impact on local planning and urban design practice: focusing on tactical urbanism and the public realm with respect to low income communities

ABSTRACT

In the face of lockdowns promulgated in response to COVID-19, the effects on local planning are diverse. One of the effects is planners’ use of tactical urbanism in their efforts to improve public health. Tactical urbanism is characterized as temporary, and it is appropriate to ask whether tactical strategies help keep communities healthy in times of pandemic. We address that question by examining several examples of a tactical program called Slow Streets. This program provides temporary public spaces in the streets for exercise and interaction. We review literature to understand the relevance of the program to tactical urbanism, and we investigate how successful it has been. Survey questionnaires complement the research. The study outcomes suggest that the pandemic forced planners to act swiftly, but the Slow Streets program was limited in improving the health of the underserved population because it lacks comprehensive community engagement and alignment with longer term plans.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID
• underserved communities
• community engagement
• tactical urbanism
• public health
• public realm

Acknowledgment

I acknowledge that Rachael Garmo, as my student research assistant, helped with questionnaire surveys involving Slow Street participants in several cities.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).