SINGAPORE – Last June, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, people could go on safely distanced picnics and outings on an 18-hole golf course in Atlanta in the US state of Georgia.

One day a week, the 46ha golf course was closed to golfers and opened to the public as a park.

This is one of the many examples of how cities have adapted to the changing needs of their people as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, said Mr Edward Walter, global chief executive of the Urban Land Institute, on Monday (June 21).

He was one of four panellists in a World Cities Summit discussion on how city leaders can engage with their communities to build more resilient cities.

“(The summit) is a great opportunity to look at what is working in different places around the world and figure out what cities have been doing to improve the lives of their residents and provide new options for businesses,” said Mr Walter, who is based in Washington.

Cities across the globe have been largely focused on encouraging safe outdoor activities, he noted. For instance in Melbourne, Australia, design guidelines were created to help restaurants convert to outdoor dining.

Cities such as Bogota, Colombia, and New York City have also taken the opportunity to expand their cycling infrastructure, as more people took to bicycles during the pandemic, he added.

GuocoLand Singapore’s group managing director Cheng Hsing Yao, another panelists, said the cities that adapted quickly to changes were the ones that performed better in the pandemic.

He pointed to three key ingredients: the Government coming up with initiatives and measures, businesses doing their part to pivot to retain and create jobs, and the community at large adjusting their lifestyles accordingly.

“The real foundation is the trust that you have build up through the years and long period of communication. Especially now that the crisis is prolonged, the foundation is even more challenged,” Mr Cheng said.

The higher education sector also has a role to play in strengthening societal resilience, said Professor Lily Kong, president of Singapore Management University.

“Be it contributing to individual, environmental or economic resilience, universities have a responsibility to play a role… through the graduates that emerge and the programmes that we put out,” said Prof Kong.

Many students, for instance, supported less-advantaged communities such as the migrant workers to develop their mental resilience when they were isolated and impacted by the pandemic, she added.

Now that cities have gotten a grasp on the Covid-19 situation with societies “beginning to turn the tide”, it is time to think about the future, said Ms Amy Chester, managing director of Rebuild by Design, a research and design organisation in the US that aims to address challenges faced by cities.

For example, every dollar in Covid-19 recovery funds that goes into the communities should reap multiple benefits both on the national and local level, she said.

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Being transparent and accounting for every dollar will go a long way to building trust, even in countries like the US where there is a deep and longstanding political divide, Ms Chester added.

Echoing a point by Mr Cheng, Mr Walter said cities that can adapt quickly and have good leadership to tackle challenges like the rising inequality gap caused by the pandemic will do best during this crisis.

He added: “Communities that have been thoughtful and proactive about their general resilience strategies, not necessarily one targeted for a pandemic… that has created a framework to deal with the specific challenges that was presented by Covid-19.”

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