The Local Policies That Will Outlast the Pandemic

Source: Bloomberg CityLab | March 17, 2021, 8:06 AM CDT

In America’s largest cities, new programs to boost public space and housing were among the most prevalent and enduring Covid responses.

Brooks Rainwater and Lena Geraghty

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s recent guidance that fully vaccinated people can gather once again in small groups is a clear sign that we are on our way back to a semblance of normalcy. But among the signs that things will not go back to the way they were are positive policy changes in cities that the Covid-19 pandemic wrought.

Early on in the pandemic, lockdowns brought urban places to a halt. Mayors and other local officials stepped up to rapidly respond and provide needed help to communities. But city leaders did not have the context for how to respond, since the last comparable U.S. event was the Spanish flu of 1918, and so the early days saw a scramble to respond with little guidance from the federal government.

In the year since, officials in America’s 100 largest cities have enacted more than 2,800 actions in response to the pandemic. At the National League of Cities, we have been monitoring these policy changes through a Covid-19: Local Action Tracker developed with Bloomberg Philanthropies. (Michael R. Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company for Bloomberg CityLab.)

Many key actions were necessarily short-term emergency response efforts that will help us better react to a future pandemic. Others point the way toward lasting positive change, with many policies centering equity in their responses. Two areas highlight this most: reclaiming public space for people in cities, and developing housing policies that ensure everyone has a place to call home.

Public Space

Covid-19 was the push many cities needed to begin reclaiming more space for people. Among America’s 100 largest cities, 91 took action to protect business stability by repurposing public space to allow outdoor retail and dining, or by turning paid parking spots into curbside pickup spaces for online orders and takeout. And 20 cities also closed streets to cars to provide space for people, promote exercise and encourage necessary distancing. This growth is phenomenal when compared to our view before the pandemic. Just over a year ago, when we wrote in CityLab that car-free streets would soon be the norm, we pointed to just two large U.S. cities with active projects. We had no idea how quickly that number would grow.

What these programs show is the efficacy of prioritizing space for people over cars. They answered calls that started long before the pandemic to better serve pedestrians and bicyclists navigating busy, vehicle-dominated streets, and residents in high-rise apartment buildings without green space. Streets make up more than 80% of all public space in cities. Some 100 million Americans do not even have a park or open space within a 10-minute walk from their home.

Using parking spaces for more than just long-term storage for cars is critical as curb space becomes ever more valuable. Many programs spurred by the pandemic have now expanded to serve these needs more broadly: In March 2020, Raleigh, North Carolina, started a temporary curbside pickup zone program that created short-term spots for cars to make quick stops at local businesses that have limited storefront access. Now, there are more than 200 pickup zones in areas that were once major commercial corridors and went quiet in 2020. Due to its overwhelming initial success, the city now plans to continue this program. In addition to easing a burden for struggling businesses and their patrons, policies like this have other benefits: They can limit the harmful effects of cars circling the block, and create more space for other activities by reducing the amount of space allocated solely to parking.

Many of these public space programs are expansions of pre-existing initiatives: Even before Covid-19, Seattle had 196 miles total of bike lanes, trails and neighborhood greenways. In the summer of 2020, the city expanded public space access and launched its Stay Healthy Streets program to enable social distancing while exercising. More than 20 miles of neighborhood greenways were upgraded and added to the Stay Healthy Streets network. Now residents have more options to get outside wherever and whenever works best for them.

Housing

The past year was a time of dramatic action on an issue that was already at crisis level in many communities. City leaders intently focused on developing housing policies to keep people in their homes during the pandemic. Out of the top 100 cities, 45 took action on eviction moratoria and rental assistance programs, either with direct enactment of policies or by lobbying the state government for policy changes. And 78 cities started or expanded utility assistance programs, attempting to ensure that residents had safe, private spaces to turn to during these unprecedented times.

Santa Ana, California, was quick to adjust to the needs of the community to ensure private space for residents. In March 2020, the city enacted an expansive program to temporarily suspend evictions and foreclosures for residential and commercial properties, and to expand utility assistance. Santa Ana extended these orders several times before the state and federal moratoria took precedence. The city’s broad definition of what it meant to be financially impacted by Covid-19 has enabled those in need to more easily receive support — and it’s allowed that support to come more quickly.

Beyond these protections, we saw cities pass innovative policies on a range of practices that will serve our communities well past the pandemic. To expand housing for people experiencing homelessness, many cities and states bought hotels, or established long-term leases. In San Antonio, the housing program moved the previously paper-only process online and provided cash assistance directly to residents in need. These types of solutions seek to diminish, in small and large ways, some of the enormous housing challenges we face.