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In This Update:
Families in Manila Struggle During COVID-19 Lockdown
Guyaquil, Ecuador Overwhelmed by Coronavirus Deaths
Chaos and a Stampede Break Out in Nairobi Slum During Lockdown
Crime in Latin American Cities Has Dropped Since National Lockdowns
What Will COVID-19 Mean for "Street Children"?
India's Lockdown Clears Its Cities of Smog
How to Make a City Livable During a Lockdown
In The News and Around the Web:
This Week in Photos
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Families in Manila Struggle During COVID-19 Lockdowns
Families in Manila's poorest neighborhood San Roque are struggling to survive during the COVID-19 lockdown. San Roque residents often experience food shortages, overcrowding, poor sanitation, and high crime rate and now the lockdown has put most of them out of work. When residents protested earlier this month that they had yet to receive promised government relief, nearly two dozen were arrested, while President Rodrigo Dutere instructed police to "shoot them dead," if they felt endangered. Advocates and social workers say meager resources make it near impossible for San Roque residents to protect themselves from COVID19. The neighborhood lacks public health services, overcrowding makes socially distancing virtually impossible, and poverty means residents need to spend their money on food rather than masks.
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Guyaquil, Ecuador Overwhelmed by Coronavirus Deaths
Coronavirus deaths have overwhelmed the city of Guyaquil, Equador. Inundated hospitals that are unable to accept sick patients coupled with strained morgues and slow city services have forced some residents to place deceased bodies outside on the street. One man explained: "We have been waiting for five days. We are tired of calling 911 and the only thing they tell us is to wait, they are working to solve this." Most of the coronavirus-related deaths in Ecuador have occurred in the province where Guyaquil is located. Last week, Guyaquil's mayor publicly appealed for help from the national government, who have so far sent containers to serve as temporary morgues and also promised they will help create space for "dignified burials."
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Chaos and a Stampede Break Out in Nairobi Slum During Coronavirus Lockdown
Chaos, including a brief stampede, broke out in Kibera, Nairobi's largest slum, last week, as thousands of people waited in line for food distribution. Kenya's national lockdown has put large numbers of informal workers out of work, making them vulnerable to food insecurity. Food distributions have been reportedly by charitable donations and not by the government, who Nairobi residents feel have not done enough to compensate for loss of livelihoods. The large numbers of people who have gathered close together for food distribution has also undermined Kenyan mandate for social distancing. As one observer pointed out, those waiting for food "didn't care about government restrictions that we were to stay 1 meter apart."
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Crime in Latin American Cities Has Dropped Since National Lockdowns
Since the national lockdowns in Latin America began last month, street crime, which includes homicides, assaults, and robberies, has substantially declined in the region. Analysts say that police and army presence the streets to enforce the lockdown has played a role, as well as the fact there are simply less people on the streets. Criminal gangs have imposed curfews in the neighborhoods as well. Mexico City security analyst Alejandro Hope says: "The rule of thumb is: the stricter the lockdown, the bigger the effect on crimes committed against strangers on the street." The numbers however may belie the full story about overall rates of violence: over the past week it has been well-reported that domestic violence rates have surged across the world, including in Latin America, since the lockdown began.
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What Will COVID-19 Mean for "Street Children"?
Lockdowns in African cities have concerned onlookers about the fate of "street children," who are especially vulnerable to its effects. For street children, this includes food insecurity, but also susceptibility to arrest by heavy-handed police enforcement for violating curfews. It is estimated there are 100 million street children worldwide who rely on the street for food and shelter and the number may grow since the virus shut schools and left families looking for alternative forms of income. CEO of StreeInvest Duncan Ross explains: "Street children are precisely in that space that everyone is supposed to be getting out of. The usual response to these children is: 'how do we get them off the streets,' and COVID-19 has brought that into sharp focus."
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India's Lockdown Clears its Cities of Smog
"The lockdown, whatever its effect on the virus, has given Indian cities the kiss of life," writes Raghu Karnad at The New Yorker. Twenty-one of the world's most polluted cities are located in Northern India and the World Health Organization estimates that its PM 2.5 count is responsible for the deaths of 100,000 children under 5 each year. Since the lockdown began, India's PM 2.5 count dropped by 71% and skies have visibly cleared. Karnad points out that while blue skies may not compensate for a frozen economy and health crisis, Indian cities have similarly shut schools, construction sites, and offices for smog levels before. Researcher Sarath Guttikunda explains what this may mean for urban environmental policy going forward: "Big cities always point outwards, say 'all my pollution is coming from outside.'" Now we don't have to blindly say...We have that proof."
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How to Make a City Livable During a Lockdown
COVID 19 is an opportunity to "do density better," and become less car dependent, says urbanist Brent Toderian in a recent interview with Vox. According to Toderian, cities have addressed crowding in their efforts to contain COVID by banning assemblies and gathering, but have not improved urban density. This means that city sidewalks, streets, and parks are too tight to for people to go outside and still stay six feet apart from each other. Toderian believes: "It's tougher to address the general reality that we've designed streets to be too tight for daily use by people making them too generously sized for cars." He points to a number of cities who have proactively widened space available to pedestrians and bikers since lockdown by closing down city streets to cars such as Bogota, Paris, and Oakland.
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In The News and Around the Web
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Global Creditors Agree for Debt Relief for Poorest Countries :
The G20 suspended debt for the world's poorest countries to help them deal with coronavirus.
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COVID Will Change Chinese Development in Africa
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Coronavirus threatens to upend China's relationship with Africa.
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U.S. Pulls Funding from WHO::
President Donald Trump pulled funding from the World Heatlh Organization this week.
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This Week In Photos
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COVID-19 Means Disinfecting Historic Sites:
Atlas Obscura shows what it looks like when historic sites are disinfected.
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A worker disinfects the Tower of Pisa and surrounding area.
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The ongoing COVID 19 crisis underscores the vital importance of livable cities and decent living conditions globally. The mobility of diseases within and between urban centers adn across borders is sadly demonstrated by the current pandemic. Now more than ever, we need your financial support and your voice to bring about change. Decent living conditions for one billion people worldwide is a fundamental building block of future resilience and pandemic preparedness.
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