Collections by Topic

Governance and Finance

Neither the coronavirus nor its economic impacts respect national, state, or local jurisdictional boundaries. This crisis is raising questions about how levels of government interact, where power and responsibilities lie, and how revenue and resources should be raised and distributed as cities deal with the fiscal fallout of quarantine and continuing concerns about public health.

Economy and Real Estate

Cities are economic engines, driving growth, innovation, and providing opportunity. But the coronavirus pandemic is creating doubt around cities’ greatest strengths: their density, interconnectedness, and diversity. These unprecedented challenges are disrupting economic activities in cities everywhere, with some businesses, industries, occupations, and markets affected more than others.

Vulnerable Populations

The pandemic is highlighting existing inequities within cities as well as holes in the social safety net. While no one is immune to COVID-19, some are more vulnerable than others. Similarly, the economic impacts of the virus and the response to it are felt unevenly across populations.

Infrastructure and Urban Services

The coronavirus pandemic is disrupting many of the infrastructure systems that create cities and keep them functioning and uncovering flaws in others. The shortcomings of public health systems are most salient, though other infrastructure systems and urban services are also facing challenges.

Planning and Design

Some of cities’ essential strengths, like density, now seem suspect. At the same time, people are raising questions about whether rapid urbanization into previously pristine ecosystems may be creating opportunities for new infectious diseases. In the face of these doubts and questions, should cities be designed, structured, and built differently?