These lessons are particularly important for cities, because the very things that make cities successful economically make them successful at spreading pathogens. Rob Maxim, at the Brookings Institute, points out that “coronavirus case map ends up being a fantastic illustration of America’s superstar, globally-connected cities.” Of course the virus can also spread between suburbs and smaller cities, but the urban centers with the strongest density of international connections are no doubt where it can spread fastest. What should we do about this?

Preparing the Social Off Button

Perversely, a pathogen seems to turn everything good in cities into a problem. We want international business and tourism travelers. We want streets, public spaces, festivals, theaters, bars, and restaurants full of people. We want packed public transit. We want tight, socially-connected communities, in which people see friends and family all the time. The things that make cities vibrant and prosperous all involve human connections, and that’s also precisely how the virus spreads.

So what is the solution? We could create bad streets and transit to discourage people from gathering. Many North American public spaces already look as empty on a normal day as Italian ones do during a pandemic, so perhaps this helps protect us. If we were really serious, we could abandon urban settlements and go back to hunting and gathering, because we had fewer pandemics before agriculture.

But no, we shouldn’t stop creating dense, vibrant, walkable communities, because these are the best environments for supporting our wellbeing, social bonds, and prosperity, and for fighting climate change. If pathogens love our human connections, that doesn’t mean we should stop loving them.

The lesson here is not that it’s bad to have strong human connections in cities, but rather, that we need to be able to shut them down quickly when we need to, like a turtle slipping back into its shell.

Every City Needs a Social Distancing Plan

Here is something I didn’t know a month ago: it is highly irresponsible for a well-connected, international city to lack a Social Distancing Plan. It’s a bit like having a dangerous, high-voltage machine that lacks an emergency off switch. Many parts of social distancing require state and federal action, so all levels of government should also have a plan.

In recent weeks, we have been learning what a social distancing plan should entail. Of course, experts will have much more to say on what works, and what doesn’t, once we have a chance to look back on Covid-19. But the following is an early tentative sketch of what such a plan should include:

Employees who can work from home should be officially identified in advance, so government, companies, and employees can better prepare, and quickly send people home when it is time.

Nonessential, high-risk businesses and government institutions should be categorized in advance, and prepared for temporary closure when necessary. Gyms, climbing gyms, bars, and libraries may fall into this category.

Government should audit how many households have a month’s worth of backup food and supplies. They should experiment with programs to push that number upwards, including subsidies for low-income families.

Government should encourage grocery stores to provide home delivery in all urban areas. Grocery companies may require subsidies to temporarily provide delivery to lower-density, low-income communities.

Schools, universities, and daycares need to work with students, parents, and instructors to develop their own plans to prepare for shutdowns.

Government must build bike lanes between all urban neighborhoods, so that if taking transit becomes unadvisable, people who cannot drive have safe backup options.

Many of the above points cause considerable economic hardship, particularly for businesses that must shut down, and for people who cannot go to work. Governments must also therefore prepare a second set of measures to help ensure that the urban economy bends, but does not break.