THE STAGES OF CITIES RECOVERING FROM THE CRISIS

Today, all countries are implementing one or another set of anti-crisis measures, looking for new and practical approaches to overcome the crisis. The authors of the publication mentioned above, "Cities on the Frontlines of the Pandemic," identify three stages of urban recovery from the pandemic crisis.

In the first phase, the main tasks of local authorities are to support the health care system, conduct an information and awareness campaign regarding the need for sanitation and hygiene procedures, and help the most affected, both individual groups of the population and individual "problem" areas (place-based approach).

It should be noted that the problem in the Russian context is that in recent years the leading powers in the sphere of health care and social protection have been transferred from local government to the regional level, which in the current situation is not always able to ensure proper responsiveness to changes concerning local specifics. Nevertheless, some municipalities continue to implement municipal public health and social protection programs within the framework of powers delegated by regional authorities and on "their initiative. In several cases, activities aimed at solving the problems of the first phase of recovery are contained in municipal programs to improve the quality of the urban environment. The experience of Russian municipalities in implementing programs in these areas needs to be summarized and disseminated in best practices.

In the second stage of the recovery from the crisis, which the World Bank experts call the "initial recovery" stage, the main priority of socio-economic policy is to support groups of people employed in urban economic sectors that have not yet reached the trajectory of sustainable post-crisis development, and therefore have unstable income. Possible support measures include tax benefits and preferences, expanding the practice of public works, and targeted purchases for municipal needs from local businesses. Another priority of this stage is to overcome the risks of excluding specific vulnerable groups in all possible forms - spatial, social, or economic exclusion. The unregulated land market in cities creates, according to the authors, a conflict between the attractiveness of living and development options (livability vs. opportunity). This conflict generates certain groups’ exclusion (pricing out) from urban development processes. This determines the particular relevance of programs for constructing affordable housing and inclusive zoning.

Also, in the second phase, it is critical to ensure local coordination and "complementarity" of economic and population support programs implemented by national governments, big businesses, the non-profit sector, and community organizations.

Finally, the third stage of crisis recovery - the "new normal" - should be characterized by implementing a set of measures to increase the resilience of cities - their strength in future emergencies. Such actions are recommended in the following areas:

- improvement of spatial planning and urban planning regulation, including the rule of "high-risk land users" - food markets, slaughterhouses, etc.; also an urgent issue is the removal of excessive urban planning restrictions that prevent inclusive zoning;

- Improving the system of urban mobility: expanding and increasing the length of pedestrian paths and bicycle paths; 

- localization of production chains, primarily in the food industry;

- accelerated digitalization of service delivery in various sectors of the urban economy.

The priority of these or those measures, according to international experts, will depend on the focus and intensity of new trends in urban development that the pandemic might cause. In particular:

- whether there will be an outflow of population from the centers of large cities to the suburbs and towns with smaller people;

- to what extent the practice of remote work and distance learning will continue after the lifting of anti-epidemiological restrictions;

- how virtual meetings and conferences can replace live communication.

14.02.2022

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