The Journey of Lockdown, the rebirth of Urban Planning inside Neighbourhood
Three year downs the memories around this time every other neighbourhood across the globe busy in finding what more they can shutdown barring burial ground and medical as they have lockdown the city, the schools, the mall’s, the airports except for emergency, sports, etc, because it was COVID-19 Pandemic.
Somehow since my childhood Bhubaneswar for me was a lively vibrant place due to its bondage with nature, culture and heritage, in precisely the inhabitants were not chasing a ambiguous life rather a simple lifestyle of happy people. Well i grew up with those ideas, living inside one of the neighbourhood over four decades, dazzled by its infinite opportunity from Monday Morning temple chants to let afternoon chai pe charcha on road side and although there Is nothing much called weekend yet a long cycling was always part of happy life. But somehow in recent yea I began to recognise that living in the City of Temples had certain disadvantages – particularly its mirage’s world class dream run against lifestyle of happiness, as “Bhubaneswar is a city that is always on the move with happiness”.
However, that conveyor belt of choice came crashing to a halt with the coronavirus pandemic. But for me as an Urban Planner, the fortnight lockdown that began on 17 March – confining inside home and to a large extent to a 1km radius of home – gave me a nuanced, enriching view of neighbourhood. I discovered it’s possible to feel like you’re in a small village or a town in Bhubaneswar. Many things were seeming knew neighbours, to maintain good links with shopkeepers, to favour local craftsmen and shops over large supermarkets. I even joined. Couple of citizens movement where people prepare food baskets for homeless, those in isolation, providing medicines and volunteering in Bicycle. Initially I thought I would have a hard time living the lockdown, but I was perfectly quite moving around the city in Bicycle over two year’s of mixed lockdown & shutdown in understanding the future of cities from the lenses of urban planner. The photographs of those periods today not just surprises me but also brings out smiles as well as tear’s & smiles
Unexpectedly, this experience strengthened the bonds I had with some people,It led me to criss-cross the small streets of my neighbors more than usual and thus to discover magnificent places just a stone’s throw from my home. lockdown gave me a nuanced, enriching view of neighbourhood and appreciation of life inside mini circle.
Being interest in urban research it was great learning about the impact on how dense cities like Bhubaneswar function, and how people that live in them interact, has been undeniable. The way we communicate, travel, consume and socialise had been moulded by the pandemic restrictions. The believes I had then was there “will never be” a return to city life as it was before the coronavirus struck. Perhaps the world has changed, so do urban planning.
When the pandemic shuttered city centres, it showed how important social links are but through a different prism. Well many people never visited shops close to their homes before because they were busy. They didn’t know their neighbours or the parks nearby or a beautiful flowery trees. The pandemic made us discover this, I rediscovered locality, I ran marathons in home, in neighbourhood; those hundreds of kilometres group cycling overnight turned into solo riding inside city and this has improved quality of life and rediscovered happiness in our life.
This learning infused inside me the resurgence in a new model for urban planning that seems almost custom built for this localised future that human found active neighbourhood of happy people. The idea is to improve quality of life by creating cities where everything a resident needs can be reached within a quarter or half of an hour by foot or bicycle. The active neighbourhood city requires minimal travel among housing, offices, restaurants, parks, hospitals and cultural venues. Each neighbourhood should fulfil six social functions, such as living, working, supplying, caring, learning and enjoying.
Many experts and planners have provided elements feeding into idea over past decades. In the 1920s, American urban planner Clarence Perry proposed the idea of the liveable “neighbourhood unit” before the mass influx of private cars and city zoning arrived later in the 20th Century. Copenhagen pedestrianised its main shopping street in 1962. Then New Urbanism, an urban planning movement promoting walkable cities, swept across the globe in the 1980s. Possibly due to rise in oil prices and safety vulnerable sections in society.
Yet active neighbourhood city of today represents a major departure from the past, responding to climate change, Covid-19 and globalisation. While past initiatives focused on ease of travel, walkability and public services. But today Cities have taken an all-encompassing approach to bring a greener take on those aspects as well as including workplaces, cultural activities and the more ephemeral nature of social connections.
What new learned from pandemic that sometimes large cities can be tiring and can create a sense of anonymity. But proximity means that we will, through our social links, rediscover our way of living in cities. We want open spaces, but ones for doing nothing in particular, where people can meet each other or encounters can happen as much as possible. We live better when we live together, and this will rework our social fabric.
The transformation of neighbourhoods has been well underway, with mayor across the globe are banning high-polluting vehicles, allowing pedestrians and cyclists, and creating mini green spaces across the city , just like Bhubaneswar did during hockey World Cup 2022,. Overnight major streets flooded with bicycle have also been added since the pandemic struck.
The learning from pandemic is to have more Active Neighbourhood, which will reduce emissions through low carbon transportation, but also neighbourhoods are more resilient. It also means changing land use to allow offices but also ‘third spaces’ for people who are working remotely. So, at the neighbourhood-level, they will be more resistant to shocks.
The shift in structure of cities will also mean that individuals themselves will be more resistant to shocks, mental health and social impacts of Covid-19. The sense of belonging in neighbourhood could make us all happier.
The pandemic has caused us to think about how to move differently, to consume differently, to live differently, three year into pandemic we are discovering that by working differently we have more spare time, to have more time to be with our families or friends. We are discovering and appreciating our neighbourhoods have much more to offer. This will make us all more engaged inhabitants.
However, this transition will not be straightforward – but some key goals are need to be lined up such as believing that people can work remotely, a professor can teach certain numbers of days online, there is no need of reporting physical clock in & clock out, making every street in Bhubaneswar cycle, walkable, public transport friendly.
Today our neighbourhoods are segregated by money – rich, poor, middle class, workers, bars, offices. Which was automatically invisible during pandemic, rather the biggest thing we had was trust, believing, the sense of belonging.
But today there’s great segregation, even though enough funding and support, are available, learning from pandemic can guarantee us they are for the people’s happiness.
