Image by Ted Eytan licensed under Creative Commons.

Since the first reported case of COVID-19 in Washington, DC on March 7, the District’s number of total cases has grown to 12,443 total cases — approximately 63 new cases a day. The District is now facing an unprecedented health crisis that is further compounded by contentious national discourse about how cities can gingerly reopen.

Since the outset of the pandemic, the city has enacted short-term mitigation plans that entail everything from protections against evictions to how city government meetings are conducted.

Once COVID-19 subsides, DC and other cities will also need to rethink how they envision urban areas so that residents, workers, and visitors can thrive in them.

Several bills and plans emerged as DC prepared for COVID-19’s impact

Even before the first official case, DC began preparing for the inevitable by updating its Continuity of Operations plans and issuing its first pandemic-related executive order. The first order assigned DC Health and DC Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency as coordinating agencies for the District’s response — a clear signal and delineation of roles needed at the beginning of any crisis.

Four days after the first case, a local state of emergency was issued (and expired two weeks later). The District quickly tapped into its Contingency Cash Reserve to purchase $5 million of critical personal protective equipment (PPE). By mid-March, the DC Council quickly and unanimously passed the COVID-19 Response Bill addressing an array of constituency needs. Here are a few of the 26 items that the bill pledged to do:

  • Create a small business grant program, delay retail sales tax payments, and extend deadlines for tax filings and licenses
  • Permit the city council to meet virtually, delay submissions for the Mayor’s budget, and allow meeting flexibility for various boards and commissions
  • Extend unemployment compensation to people out of work due to COVID-19 and extend public benefits including TANF and SNAP
  • Prohibit the disconnection of electric, gas, and water utilities, and prohibit evictions during the public health emergency for both residential and non-residential tenants

Other supplementary initiatives were launched such as the Mayor’s DC Small Business Recovery Microgrant Program and another $25 million microgrant program to provide relief to small, local businesses affected by COVID-19. Of the public health initiatives, a Coronavirus Contact Trace Force was established with the option of Home Visit Teams that focused on contact tracing and assessing a household’s need for additional social services.

Many popular destinations began closing just days after the first case was reported in DC. by ep_jhu licensed under Creative Commons.

A taskforce outlines reopening procedures

By early April, the DC government announced a possible $600 million revenue shortfall for Fiscal Year 2020. During a coronavirus update later than month, Mayor Bowser said: “We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to not just reopen our city, but to build a more equitable DC. We will need to be measured, data-driven, and deliberate to ensure a safe and sustainable return.”

To do this, the District launched the ReOpen DC initiative to guide a safe and sustainable reopening. Leading the effort was the ReOpen Advisory Group, which includes previous DC mayors and other national leaders who outlined key recommendations for reopening. This entailed a thoughtful approach to garner input from all parts of the city through interviews with community and business leaders, focus groups with residents, and town halls and committee members.

The advisory group recommended a four-stage approach, similar to other jurisdictions, guided by metrics across four major activities: learning (including schools and libraries), engaging (such as parks and recreation), working, and accessing services. The full list of recommendations can be found here and below are key metrics and guidelines for each phase.

Phase One

  • Declining community transmission
  • Adequate healthcare capacity and contact tracing capabilities without surge support
  • Limited low-risk businesses can continue to operate with safeguards in place

Phase Two

  • Only localized transmission
  • 25% capacity of office space
  • Indoor operations for businesses can resume with curtailed volume
  • Childcare and preK-12 with limited participation
  • Robust safeguards in place

Phase Three

  • Sporadic transmission only
  • Gatherings of 250 permitted
  • Business can increase with greater volume
  • Childcare and schooling with greater participation

Phase Four

  • Contingent upon vaccine availability or elimination of virus
  • All operations can resume without safeguards in place

Eventually, certain operations began to resume in Phase 1 near the end of May with a full move to Phase 2 on June 22, despite not meeting key metrics, such as personnel needed for contact tracing and the city’s community spread metric. More recently, in late July, the District issued a mask mandate to bolster efforts in containing the spread of the virus.

A mandate to wear masks was put in place to “flatten the curve.” by Elvert Barnes licensed under Creative Commons.

Where do we go from here?

While it remains uncertain when the District will move to Phase 3 or reach its new normal in Stage 4, cities like DC will be confronted with reevaluating what their urban areas may look like in the post-pandemic future.

Here are four things that may be adapted or restructured:

  1. “Flexible and adaptable” spaces: Currently, some parts of the city feature more mixed-use buildings while others have more single-function spaces. Going forward, flexible and adaptable spaces should be considered for preparedness planning and carefully configured during a crisis. For example, an open space could allow for the temporary construction of an emergency health facility center in challenging times. During better times, it could be part of the District’s Parks and Recreation system for playing and exercising. As another example, George Washington University dormitories were adapted for frontline health workers to isolate from their families.
  2. Micro mobility options: DC residents may be more drawn toward micromobility options such as bicycles, e-bikes, scooters, e-scooters, and skateboards. Assuming these modes of transit can remain sanitized, there may be an increase in micro-mobility assuming the city dweller or worker will want to avoid enclosed public transit options. As DDOT moves towards Slow Streets and more corrals, this option may be more feasible.
  3. Commercial spaces and offices: DC’s Central Business District commercial office space is expensive, often ranking in the top 10 office rents around the country. The work-from-home movement may make expensive commercial office space less attractive. Office spaces may then be reconfigured more like meeting and gathering spaces with an increased push towards hot desking and coworking. Employees would occasionally come for in-person meetings, making visiting an office the exception rather than the norm.
  4. Urban agriculture: Vegetable and flower seed purchases skyrocketed during the early months of the pandemic, prompted by bare shelves in grocery stores. While space limitations might exist in urban areas, other innovations have bloomed in the District such as green roofs and vertical farming. The University of the District of Columbia, for example, grew over eight tons of sustainable produce over the past five years Expanding these types of agriculture efforts across the city will be critical going forward.

Ultimately, this pandemic will leave an indelible mark on the city — its form and feel among other aspects — forcing us to consider new possibilities in the future.

What things do you think could be changed to better suit the city and its residents?

Seema Thomas is an adjunct professor of urban sustainability at the University of the District of Columbia. She was born in the District, raised in four counties surrounding it, and now lives in the District. You can reach her via Instagram or Twitter at @SeemaPThomas.