Pirate's Cove

Contributing opinion writer Allison Arief, whose focus is design and architecture (do we really need opinion on that?) is super thrilled with all these empty streets, forgetting that they’re empty because people are scared, sick, and dying. They aren’t working, they’re fearful of getting booted from their homes, losing their cars, having no money to eat. But, hey, Modern Socialists see an opportunity

The Magic of Empty Streets
Social distancing gives us a rare chance to fix cities.

We’re in week four of sheltering in place here (it feels like week 40). It’s a completely unfamiliar situation in so many ways. As someone who has lived in cities her whole adult life, for me it’s especially strange to experience a time when all the things I love are no longer available. Nearly everything is closed — restaurants and shops, libraries and museums, and of course all schools. All nonessential workers are under a mandatory work-from-home order.

But these efforts to stem the spread of the coronavirus have also offered us a rare experiment: We can see our cities for the first time without the choking traffic, dirty air and honking horns that have so often made them intolerable.

Throughout the world, the coronavirus has forced extreme changes in our behavior in just days. And we’re already seeing the impact of those changes: On Monday, for example, Los Angeles had the cleanest air of any major city in the world.

Yes, changes that have decimated our economy, but, it’s easy for people like Allison who’re getting paid to write this stuff to be cavalier about empty streets being magic.

As a die-hard urbanist, it’s heartening for me to see how many people are adapting, turning the city into a pedestrian paradise. Parks are populated to an extent I’ve never seen before (though some are too populated). Streets are crowded not with cars but with people — and accordingly, pedestrian fatalities (and subsequent emergency room visits) have plummeted.

Yeah, they’re doing it because they have nothing else to do because they are not working and not making money.

Streets are also quieter. Skies are bluer than I’ve ever seen. I saw a dad in the park last week doing a Zoom meeting from a lawn chair while his kids played on the grass. People are saying hello, people are offering to help neighbors, people are rediscovering board games and puzzles, bread-baking and canning.

OK, I can agree with her on that. We do tend to get caught up in the hustle and bustle. I like giving a smile to all the people I see on the greenway when I go for a walk.

If streets become so much safer, if air quality can change so much in just weeks, can we be more hopeful about our efforts to combat climate change?

Pedestrian advocates have suggested converting traffic signals to four-way stops so that people aren’t bunched up in groups waiting to cross. There’s also a move to deactivate “beg buttons,” that thing you push when you’re trying to get a “walk” signal to cross the street. We shouldn’t be touching them now, obviously, but more broadly, they’re designed not so much for pedestrian safety but to serve drivers. Anything that puts pedestrians first and cars second will have a significant impact on the quality of city life and, ultimately, the climate.

What will things look like in the future? How will we navigate our cities? Will we be able to wander in and out of stores and cafes as we do now? That remains to be seen: In China, information design has crossed over into surveillance, requiring citizens to use software on their smartphones that dictates whether they should be quarantined or allowed to go out in the world. Each individual is assigned a QR code based on a health assessment: A red QR code confines you to two weeks of self-quarantine, a yellow one indicates one week, and a green code means that you can move around as you desire.

Germany plans to introduce coronavirus “immunity certificates” to indicate who has recovered from the virus and is ready to re-enter society. It is likely that similar ID’ing mechanisms will emerge here in the United States and elsewhere. Working to ensure that this sort of visual marking of health status doesn’t devolve into profiling, discrimination or worse is essential.

Those sound like wonderful ideas to control the population, don’t they?

Ultimately, what we really need to figure out is how the world gets put back together. Our new Covid-19 reality shows that behavior can change. It is also, however, making it glaringly apparent how poorly existing systems (and places) have been working for most. Time and tragedy create opportunity — in this case an opportunity to make them work for all.

She doesn’t really answer the “how”. I’m betting we can figure out what she wants. No cars, everyone riding the bus or walking or biking. Government in charge.

Read: NY Times Extols The “Magic Of Empty Streets” »