Despite the massive “back to normal” waiting mood, we are certain that the reality won’t be the same. COVID-19 has impacted habits and behavior, tested our responsibility, both corporate and individual, and also marked a big challenge for cities and their authorities. To survive, they need a contingency plan, top experts, and data-driven decisions, as well as the ability to adapt fast. Safety will remain the first priority.
All cities, although to a different extent, appeared to be unprepared for the pandemic challenges. There are two main aspects of this unpreparedness. One is infrastructural, including not only health care facilities, but public life in a loose sense. Another is managerial, related to effective interaction with citizens.
COVID-19 has brought to the surface the side effect of urban population density, thus revealing cities as a dangerous place to live. Introducing quarantine measures, many cities suspended or limited internal public transportation.
Istanbul has adopted special measures as a so-called “sanitation fleet” with over 40 machines and 400 professionals, ensuring intensive disinfection of public transport. In London, where the virus took the lives of 20 bus drivers, the mayor allowed free buses to avoid risks for drivers.
Ukrainian cities, according to their mayors, reinforced the disinfection measures too. However, they would face the need to rethink the “marshrutka” phenomenon — the transport of citizens in cramped mini-buses. They need to replace it with bigger buses or electric transport, with bigger capacity and effective ventilation. Everyday safety might be expensive for the city budget, but it is critical for citizens.
Economic infrastructure is heavily hit by quarantine as well.
Businesses fall under two headings. The first is those showing off by the quick set-up of home offices and those that cannot provide online services.
Despite total digitalization, it is still impossible to visit a dentist online, repair a broken tube remotely or grow vegetables via the internet.
Traditionally, local markets are the main source of groceries in Ukraine. For cities known by their big “bazaar” sector, solutions on how to support local entrepreneurs are crucial.
According to Oleksandr Symchyshyn, the mayor of Khmelnytsky, a city of 265,000 people located 320 kilometers southwest of Kyiv, the business structure of the city will change dramatically.
Currently, around 40,000 entrepreneurs are engaged in commerce and need to find ways to survive. Some reprofiled their services and quickly set up delivery options, turning to so-called “Instagram shopping,” while others might face considerable loss in the next few months. The Kalynivsky market in Chernivtsi, a city of 265,000 people located more than 500 kilometers southwest of Kyiv, was also closed for quarantine, as well as all markets in small cities and towns.
Big business is actively involved in helping mayors to deal with COVID-19, having created powerful coordination centers in Odesa, the Black Sea port city of 1 million people about 475 kilometers south of the capital, and Kyiv.
But small businesses may need some help from local governments. According to Living Cities, U.S. municipalities are applying recovery measures to support small business locally. Municipal efforts are varying from no-interest loans to rent freezes, from financial support for employees to deferred utility payment plans. On top of that, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation launched a Save Small Business grant initiative with $5,000 loans for small employers in economically vulnerable communities.
A creative solution was advanced by the mayor of Lodz, Poland, Hanna Zdanowska, encouraging citizens to buy vouchers from local businesses, thus helping them to cope with the crisis now while consumers can use the services or products when needed in the future.
As Vitalii Maletskyi, the mayor of Kremenchuk, a city of 225,000 people located 325 kilometers southeast of Kyiv, mentioned in a conversation, his city is relaxing land rent until the end of the year. He also mentioned a 20% decrease in local budget utility bills, an appreciable difference in times when public services are not suspended and should be paid properly. Despite new strict rules of social isolation, there are several clandestine beauty salons, hairdressers, and other private entrepreneurs who won’t pay taxes to the local budget during the quarantine.
COVID-19 is obviously creating a need for new solutions – rapid, not too expensive, and strategic enough.
As history shows, pandemics can precipitate innovations, similarly to the London central sanitation system born in the mid-19th century after a cholera outbreak. What could be the innovations in the mid-21st century?
Being focused on the fight against the unknown virus, local authorities lack time and resources to deploy big strategic sessions for a new vision of the future cities.
But what if quarantine never ends, but rather gets prolonged or relaxed?
Сompared with Italian, Spanish or U.S. cities, Ukrainian cities haven’t been dramatically hit by the coronavirus yet.
Mayors are unanimous in saying that building new hospitals is not a solution: it is expensive and unreasonable during peaceful times, although future challenges might require some mobile clinics to localize pandemic diseases.
Some mayors have already redistributed local budgets to increase financial support of the health care system.
In Kremenchuk, city authorities decided to postpone major repairs, while in Dolyna, an Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast town, 80% of the deputies’ fund was reoriented to medical needs
Vitalii Lukov, mayor of Voznesensk, a city in southern Mykolaiv Oblast, is proud not to spend a hryvnia from the local budget of 35,000 people for clinics after COVID-19 reached Ukraine. He believes that his approach to continually support the health care system upgrade (even with little resources) has brought good returns on investment. Moreover, due to the Yuzhnoukrainsk Nuclear Power Station, which is only 30 kilometers away from Voznesensk, the city has a considerable supply of individual protection equipment like respirators, masks, etc., that were immediately distributed among doctors and vulnerable groups.
Even if public transportation will be rethought in the future to allow distancing and quality sanitation, the big question remains about how people will behave the day when the isolation restrictions are lifted. Similarly to cities, people appeared to be unprepared for social isolation. It seems that some are purposely testing their destiny or trying to prove their strength to remain untouchable.
The unstoppable striving to pray in church, stronger than exposing oneself to the risk of getting infected or infecting others, was a shocking discovery. Mayors, although living in a secular society, met with clergy to persuade them to limit access to churches, especially during Orthodox holidays, and avoid risk. In some cases, where priests responded positively to mayors’ calls, citizens rushed to neighboring villages where churches were open to visit.
Ukrainians are not alone in striving to live as usual. Beaches in Jacksonville, Florida, became packed with people 30 minutes after reopening despite the unprecedented number of COVID-19 cases.
In Copenhagen, Denmark, hairdressers are booked a minimum of three weeks ahead and booking systems crashed several times due to the influx of inquiries.
I made a joking inquiry on my Instagram account asking a question: What will people do after they “regain freedom.”? To the question, 57% responded that they’ll rush to restaurants against 43% who said they’ll be careful. By the way, social isolation brought people closer together. A number of initiatives to help neighbors and elderly people were launched in Kyiv and other cities.
Cities will eventually change. Encouraging human interaction, they become more exposed to viruses and ecological dangers. They would need to respond to increasing demand for the safety of their citizens. But it should be understood that the local government alone is not the only stakeholder in the fight against the challenge. Citizens and businesses should contribute as well.
Iryna Ozymok is the local economic development program manager for the Western NIS Enterprise Fund, or WNISEF. It is a $150 million regional fund, a pioneer in Ukraine and Moldova with over 25 years of successful experience in investing in small and medium-sized companies.
