With Recovery, A Look Back at Cities and COVID-19 Research

Soon after the pandemic first hit the United States a year ago, urbanists began to think about what this unprecedented global event would mean for cities. As a way to track developments, consolidate the research around the impact of the pandemic on cities, and provide a central repository of databases and organizations’ collections related to cities and COVID-19, Penn IUR launched the Cities and COVID-19 Resource Library in May 2020.

Taken as a whole, the Resource Library illustrates the various urban dimensions, stages, and consequences of the crisis over time. It contains collections of reports, studies, and articles, webinars and podcasts, and op-eds and think-pieces in five categories (governance and finance, economy and real estate, vulnerable populations, infrastructure and urban services, and planning and design). It also serves as a unique collection of links to databases related to coronavirus and cities and to organizations and institutions with COVID-19 resources related to the management and study of cities. The Library continues to be updated each week, and serves as a resource for students, researchers, journalists, and others.

One recent addition to the Resource Library is Penn IUR’s analysis of high frequency, real-time data by the Safegraph researcher consortium. Above, we show data, indexed at 0 in January 2019, that indicates foot traffic in Times Square and how it is changing as more people are vaccinated and comfortable leaving home, visiting restaurants, and traveling. Foot traffic is up 50 percent from its low in April of 2020 but it is still down 30 percent from April 2019 and 50 percent from its peak in November 2019.