Stokes later told me he was referring to University of Chicago sociologist Ernest Burgess, whose ideas on CBDs influenced the planning of other new world cities.
As Stokes points out, pandemics and other disasters have long fuelled urban change. The Great Plague and Great Fire of London led to some of the city’s first planning controls. Now, he says the Covid-19 pandemic will trigger more transformation. But that is a far cry from the knottier task of overhauling planning policies to allow more pedestrian-friendly streets. Or building better public transport. Or new parks. Or crucially, more residential homes in business districts.
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