Carlo Ratti, Director of the Senseable City Lab at MIT, and UTTRI associated faculty Professor Richard Florida co-authored a commentary on how changes made by cities during the pandemic may help us rejuvenate and reclaim our urban space.
In “Bike lanes and housing in the CBD? Here’s how COVID-19 could transform cities,” Ratti and Florida say that some of the initial short-term temporary changes, such as re-designating road for cars to lanes for bicycles, have become permanent.
The massive movement to work-from-home, instituted to protect employees from the virus, may also continue post-pandemic. This opens up possibilities for other uses of corporate real estate in central business districts.
… far from rendering cities obsolete, as some predicted early on, the pandemic has unlocked an ever-broader potential for renaissance …
Read “Commentary: Bike lanes and housing in the CBD? Here’s how COVID-19 could transform cities,” Carlo Ratti and Richard Florida, CNA, February 28, 2021.