Recovering the Right to the City in Post Pandemic: What About the Public Space?

The coronavirus has confined more than 3 billion people to their homes, almost half of the world's population. This unprecedented situation has emptied the cities and given us apocalyptic images, with no people at the streets, squares and parks. Not only the public space has been affected by the pandemic. Although we are getting back to certain normality, the world economy is highly damaged and the urban activity is facing great challenges.

The cities are paused and nobody knows, for sure, what will happen once the crisis is over. The bets to recover normality as we knew it before are few. This scenario poses one big question: if we have lost the right to the city as we have known it until now, how can we recover it after the lockdown is over? One of the potential threats is focused on urban public space and its main users, such as senior citizens and children.

The right to the city implies the use and enjoyment of public space and all urban services, and with it, the relationship between people.

Key Words: post-pandemic urban public space, thrives in community participation, social activities