Andrea Elliott, Joe Manget and William B.P. Robson are members of the City of Toronto’s Economic and Culture Recovery Advisory Group who are looking ahead to a post-pandemic world.
They present five ideas that cities can implement to maximize the coming recovery from COVID, in a new intelligence memo for the C.D. Howe Institute.
1. Link safety to productivity: Despite whatever official reopening plans are in place, recovery will be hampered if the public is not confident that engaging in commercial and cultural activities is still unsafe. The authors stress the importance of ensuring local businesses and public officials are working in conjunction to provide a long-term communications strategy alongside effective and safe protocols to restore public confidence.
2. Restore confidence in public transit: Similarly, government, transit agencies and employers need to collaborate on innovative marketing, communication and incentives in order to minimize hesitancy around public transit use.
3. Keep commerce moving with a coordinated approach to traffic and public-realm improvements: Reserving streets for pedestrians and bicycles improves the quality of life for residents, but collaboration must be made to balance the tradeoffs, keep traffic moving, deliver supplies, and avoid gridlock.
4. Expand and enhance existing initiatives to rebuild local tourism: As travel restrictions loosen, implementing campaigns to attract visitors back to Canada’s cities will provide tangible benefits for businesses, cultural organizations, and residents alike.
5. Support retail innovations to promote local resilience and expand opportunities for small businesses: E-business and web-based tools have been essential to keeping any small businesses alive. Cities can build on this success by collaborating with private-sector partners to establish funds to support other such business innovations.
