Children's perceptions of their neighbourhoods during COVID-19 lockdown in Aotearoa New Zealand

Neighbourhood design can have substantial impacts on children's physical and psychological well-being. COVID-19 lockdowns produced striking and unprecedented changes in how neighbourhoods functioned for children. The aim of this research was to explore what worked well for children during Alert Levels 3 and 4 (lockdown) in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ), focusing in particular on the neighbourhood environment. Children (n = 192) aged between 5 and 13 years completed an online survey that collected information on neighbourhood walking and wheeling and what they liked about their neighbourhood during lockdown in NZ. Car-less neighbourhoods were important for supporting children's well-being. Community activities such as the NZ Bear Hunt were appreciated by children. Natural environments, being home, spending time with family, and simple activities were all liked by participants. Social connections were important but often required technology. Findings can help inform initiatives to support child well-being in the face of potential future lockdowns or new pandemics.

Tracking the Transit Divide: A Multilevel Modelling Approach of Urban Inequalities and Train Ridership Disparities in Chicago

Using a multilevel modelling approach, this study investigates the impact of urban inequalities on changes to rail ridership across Chicago's "L” stations during the pandemic, the mass vaccination rollout, and the full reopening of the city. Initially believed to have an equal impact, COVID-19 disproportionally impacted the ability of lower socioeconomic status (SES) neighbourhoods' to adhere to non-pharmaceutical interventions: working-from-home and social distancing. We find that "L” stations in predominately Black or African American and Hispanic or Latino neighbourhoods with high industrial land-use recorded the smallest behavioural change. The maintenance of higher public transport use at these stations is likely to have exacerbated existing health inequalities, worsening disparities in users' risk of exposure, infection rates, and mortality rates. This study also finds that the vaccination rollout and city reopening did not significantly increase the number of users at stations in higher vaccinated, higher private vehicle ownership neighbourhoods, even after a year into the pandemic. A better understanding of the spatial and socioeconomic determinants of changes in ridership behaviour is crucial for policymakers in adjusting service routes and frequencies that will sustain reliant neighbourhoods' access to essential services, and to encourage trips at stations which are the most impacted to revert the trend of declining public transport use.

Social and Spatial Governance: The History of Enclosed Neighborhoods in Urban China

COVID-19 calls for a new understanding of urban landscape and associated living. As an emerging topic, lockdown urbanism involves an unpredictable future where lockdown or quarantine may be a come and go new normal for everyday practice, but the topic itself seems to have escaped historical inquiry. This paper attempts to answer why the strict lockdown is suitable for China by revealing a long and complex history of urbanization and its social and administrative organization. The urban fabric is characterized by a system of urban patterns: enclosed communities, the spatial layout and service distribution of the neighborhood, and the formation of the center. It was also animated by daily ritualistic practices, such as the control of time, quotidian lockdown practice (yejin), and individual ties within the enclosed neighborhood. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the deep history of urban form and the order and logic behind lockdown urbanism. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Urban History is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Communities in Transitions: Reflection on the Impact of the Outbreak of COVID-19 on Urban China

"Community”, as a basic category of urban socio-space, has undergone evolution within academic, policy, and day-to-day life contexts in China. Through years of transitions, a kind of dual community emerged in Chinese cities before the epidemic. It encompassed a "conceptual community” based on the concept of (social) co-governance and an "experiential community” based on citizens' daily living. The disparity between the two had given rise to a paradoxical situation in local community governance practices. The outbreak of COVID-19 brought fundamental changes to the transition process. Through the analysis of 21 recording reports during the outbreak period, we found that to contain the pandemic, the community epidemic prevention measures necessitated both these communities to overlap within a brief time frame. This led to reinforced community boundaries, the coexistence of multiple actors, the reconstruction of a sense of security-based belongingness, and the reformulation of the governance symbolic system that temporarily resolved the paradoxical governance practices. What happened under the preface of co-governance logic during the outbreak period was the coverage and shaping of the conceptual community over the experiential community, which may continue during the post-epidemic era. This study offers a relatively new approach and valuable insights into examining the long-lasting impact of the epidemic on urban social space and sustainable development in the post-epidemic era.

Development of a core outcome set for studies investigating safety, efficacy, and implementation of COVID-19 vaccines: A collaboration with African American/Black communities in Baltimore City, Maryland

Background: Since it was declared a global pandemic in March 2020, Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has claimed over one million lives in the United States. Since COVID-19 vaccine rollout efforts began in Baltimore City, Maryland in December 2020, approximately 63.4% of all residents have been fully vaccinated (i.e., received their first and second doses in a two-dose series or received a single-dose vaccine). Despite efforts to implement equitable vaccine distribution in Baltimore City, prominent disparities in COVID-19 vaccine uptake persist, with poorer, predominantly Black neighborhoods frequently reporting lower levels of vaccine uptake than affluent, predominantly White neighborhoods. Guided by key principles of community-based participatory research, this dissertation explores community experiences with COVID-19 vaccines and develops a core outcome set (COS), inclusive of community-important outcomes, for use in studies evaluating the safety, efficacy, and implementation of COVID-19 vaccines. Methods: In March 2022, semi-structured interviews were held with vaccinated and unvaccinated Black residents of a community in Baltimore City reporting 40% vaccination uptake. Data were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis with subsequent subgroup analyses and thematic network analyses. To assess the extent to which outcomes measured in COVID-19 vaccine studies published between December 2019 and March 2022 aligned with factors of vaccine hesitancy, a systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted. Results from the qualitative analyses and the SLR informed the development of a candidate list of outcomes used in the first round of a Delphi study held in June 2020. After two rounds of Delphi survey distribution, a face-to-face consensus meeting was held with community members and community health workers to prioritize outcomes of interest to all relevant stakeholders and finalize the COS. Results: Thematic analysis yielded four emergent themes relating to COVID-19 vaccine uptake decision making: (I) Safety and efficacy of vaccines, (II) Perceived importance of COVID-19 vaccines in relation to pre-existing community needs, divided into two subthemes, a) Environmental injustice and (b) Personal health concerns, (III) Access to trustworthy, understandable information, and (IV) Physical access to vaccines. Participants acknowledged that physical access to COVID-19 vaccines was not a major barrier to uptake, however finding trustworthy and understandable information about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines were common areas of concern. Of all primary outcomes (N=20) identified in the 56 articles included in the SLR, 85% (n=17) corresponded with factors of vaccine hesitancy. The final COS included 19 outcomes across four "domains:" "Is the vaccine safe?";"Does the vaccine work in my body?";"Does the vaccine work in the community?";and "Outcomes identified during consensus meeting." Conclusion: The findings from this dissertation suggest that although community-important outcomes related to safety and efficacy of vaccines are often addressed in clinical studies, outcomes measuring institutional trust, economic and health impacts, community acceptance of the vaccines, and trustworthiness of vaccine information are underutilized in studies of vaccine implementation. As these social factors function as barriers to vaccine uptake, particularly among underserved communities, they should be regarded as indicators of equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. The findings from this dissertation provide a framework with which public health researchers can begin to rethink measures of equity in vaccine rollout efforts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

The Impact of Fast-Food Density on Obesity during the COVID-19 Lockdown in the UK: A Multi-Timepoint Study on British Cohort Data

Poor food environments are considered to trigger obesity and related health complications by restricting the local food options to predominantly low quality, energy-dense foods. This study investigated the impact of the food environment on obesity with a focus on any changes that might have occurred around the COVID lockdown period in the UK when majority of the population relied on food delivery and the local food environments. The proportion of fast-food retailers in the area and the Retail Food Environment Index (RFEI) were calculated for participants of the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) at three timepoints: pre-COVID (2016), the first UK nation-wide lockdown (April–May 2020) and post lockdown (September–October 2020). The association of the food environment and the odds of obesity was estimated through multivariable logistic regression, with adjustments being made for selected socioeconomic variables. A model using the fast-food proportion as the sole predictor estimated that higher fast-food proportion increased the odds of obesity by 2.41 in 2016, 2.89 during the lockdown and 1.34 post lockdown, compared with 1.87, 2.23, and 0.73, respectively, for the same three periods with adjustments being made for select socioeconomic variables. On the other hand, RFEI increased the odds of obesity only slightly at 1.01, 1.02 and 1.03, respectively, with the model with adjustments yielding respective similar values. The fast-food proportion model indicates that proximity to a poor food environment is linked to obesity, especially during the COVID lockdown period, but the impact of a poor-food environment is limited if the RFEI is used as its indicator. The findings will add much needed insights on the UK data and will inform public health planning and policy.

Selling city centre flats in uncertain times: findings from two English cities

The UK's city centre apartment markets have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic and a building safety crisis in ways not experienced by its suburban and rural housing markets. Sellers and estate agents have encountered falling demand and prices, elevated safety concerns, reluctant lenders and changes in buyers' preferences. Against this backdrop, we investigated the narratives and images used to sell what have sometimes appeared to be 'less sellable' homes. Analysing the textual and visual content of 100 adverts for city centre flats, we explored the possible effects of the pandemic on property advertising, the positioning within adverts of building safety and, noting growing interest in sustainability, the presence of sustainability messages. Findings suggest that the core narratives used to sell city centre flats remain largely unchanged from those deployed to first market the concept of 'city living' to UK buyers in the late 1990s. Messages about building safety and sustainability appear uncommon. The implications of the findings are considered.

Physical to virtual: challenges and opportunities for a neighbourhood-based employment support initiative

PurposeThis paper aims to explore challenges and opportunities of shifting from physical to virtual employment support delivery prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic. It investigates associated changes in the nature and balance of support and implications for beneficiary engagement with programmes and job search.Design/methodology/approachThe study draws on longitudinal interviews conducted with beneficiaries and delivery providers from a neighbourhood-based employment support initiative in an English region with a strong manufacturing heritage between 2019 and 2021. The initiative established prior to the Covid-19 pandemic involved a strong physical presence locally but switched to virtual delivery during Covid-19 lockdowns.FindingsMoving long-term to an entirely virtual model would likely benefit some beneficiaries closer to or already in employment. Conversely, others, particularly lone parents, those further from employment, some older people and those without computer/Internet access and/or digital skills are likely to struggle to navigate virtual systems. The study emphasises the importance of blending the benefits of virtual delivery with aspects of place-based physical support.Originality/valuePrevious studies of neighbourhood-based employment policies indicate the benefits of localised face-to-face support for transforming communities. These were conducted prior to the Covid-19 pandemic and the more widespread growth of virtual employment support. This study fills a gap regarding understanding the challenges and opportunities for different groups of beneficiaries when opportunities for physical encounters decline abruptly and support moves virtually.

Managing stormwater in South African neighbourhoods: When engineers and scientists need social science skills to get their jobs done

Stormwater harvesting via managed aquifer recharge in retrofitted infrastructure has been posited as a method for resource augmentation in Cape Town. However, the existing guidelines on stormwater retrofits are technically inclined, occidental, and generally misaligned with the realities and socio-economic contexts of developing nations like South Africa. Water and urban practitioners from developing nations cannot just 'copy and paste' existing guidelines as different socio-economic dimensions and colonial histories typically hinder 'traditional' approaches. This paper assesses how a transdisciplinary team navigated these realities in a case study of a retrofitted pond in Mitchells Plain, Cape Town. A decolonial thinking framework was applied for reflection and thematic content analysis. The framework was used to unpack how the team encountered, addressed, and learned from the challenges during the retrofit process. The research team found that the retrofit process within a context of under-resourced South African communities can be viewed as developmental work with a strong emphasis on continuous community engagement. Thus, it is suggested that in the South African context, water practitioners should consider, at the fore, interaction with local communities, including awareness of racialised histories, to ensure projects are successfully implemented and completed.

Influence of Revitalization on the Social and Economic Well-Being of Residents: Case Study of Lithuania

The lack of public spaces, recreational areas, and sports facilities in older city neighborhoods, as well as the importance of people's social and economic well-being, have been exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Revitalization is used to update the physical environment of old neighborhoods;it improves not only the physical environment of the neighborhood, but also contributes to ensuring the social and economic well-being of the residents. The article aims to identify which typical revitalization project solutions, only referring to physical environmental improvement projects, improve the social and economic well-being of the residents. To achieve this goal, a statistical analysis of the Žirmūnai triangle residents was performed with obtained survey data. The hypothesized connections between typical revitalization solutions and changes in the social and economic well-being of the population were verified using Pearson's Chi-Square test. The results showed that the public spaces, sports, and playgrounds provided by revitalization were directly related to the social and economic well-being of the residents. As a result of this typical revitalization solution, 17% of the residents experienced an improvement in their economic well-being, 17% of the residents got to know their neighbors, and 95% of the residents indicated that they enjoy living in the neighborhood.

Abolition as Durational Performance: Mutual Aid Aesthetics in Chicago's Southeast Asian Neighborhood

Responses to rising anti-Asian violence during the COVID-19 pandemic prompted multiple, often conflicting, actions including calls to defund the police, calls for more police, bystander interventions, and the exploitation of violence to promote influencers' brands. In Chicago's "Argyle" Uptown neighborhood, an area known as a Southeast Asian refugee business district, Asian Americans and local white government officials promoting liberal multiculturalist urban renewal projects used the news after the Atlanta spa shooting to advance their plans for gentrification and increased policing. How do we understand the colliding narratives of racial antagonisms, racial solidarities, and the genocidal logics of urban renewal, as they emerge at the intersection of settler colonialism and the afterlife of slavery? How is this question complicated by the entwined issues of refugee resettlement and multiculturalist solutions to anti-Asian violence? In this article, I argue abolition as durational performance offers an embodied, performance studies based analytic and methodology for the study and praxis of abolition. Abolition as durational performance centers the creation of life-affirming institutions, relations, and spaces while navigating the histories and bodily impacts of white supremacy, anti-Blackness, native genocide, and US liberal war on refugee resettlement as it is enacted through urban renewal and redevelopment projects. I focus on Axis Lab, a community-based arts and architecture organization based in Chicago, which launched its mutual aid and public arts project in June 2020. This is an abolitionist project inspired by the Black Panther breakfast and political education programs.

A Place for Us: Parks as a Social Justice Issue for Asian Americans

Krishnan and Park's communities of Jackson Heights and Elmhurst in New York City - home to a 75,000-strong, rapidly growing Asian American population - were the epicenter of not one, but two pandemics in 2020. As COVID-19 claimed the lives of their elders, trapped in nursing homes and cramped apartments, anti-Asian hate awaited them at every turn, stalking them on subway platforms and sidewalks. As these twin pandemics surged through their communities, their parks saved their lives. Their open spaces allowed them to escape the physical, mental, and social constraints of quarantine into fresh air. They allowed them to exist in community with their neighbors. And today, from daily t'ai chi ch'uan and yoga to annual Diwali, Eid, and Lunar New Year celebrations, their parks have become places of continued healing and growth. Here and across New York City, their public open spaces are essential to meeting the multiple challenges they face, from public health to public safety. They must recognize the extraordinary value of their park system and deepen their investment for all neighborhoods, and for future generations. Every community needs and deserves space to thrive.

Protecting the Most Vulnerable: Policy Response and Eviction Filing Patterns During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic crisis exposed the U.S. rental housing market to extraordinary stress. Policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels established eviction moratoria and a number of additional direct and indirect renter-supportive measures in a bid to prevent a surge in evictions and associated public health risks. This article assesses the net efficacy of these interventions, analyzing changes in eviction filing patterns in 2020–2021 in thirty-one cities across the country. We find that eviction filings were dramatically reduced over this period. The largest reductions were in places that previously experienced highest eviction filing rates, particularly majority-Black and low-income neighborhoods. Although these changes did not ameliorate racial, gender, and income inequalities in relative risk of eviction, they did significantly reduce rates across the board, resulting in especially large absolute gains in previously high-risk communities.

Wulumuqi Road

Old-style lilong housing (shikumen 石库门, ‘stone-framed gate') comprised row houses along lanes within a walled border, with a mixture of Western and Chinese design elements, the latter including a walled front courtyard. Dihua (‘enlighten and educate') was an alternative name for Ürümqi and was also the Qing Empire's description of its army's extermination campaign against the Zungar rebellion in one of the bloodiest wars of the eighteenth century. The area thus contrasts sharply with the dominant patterns of urban commercial and residential development in China of mid- or hig-hrise apartment buildings grouped within gated perimeter walls—a spatial form that has proved particularly conducive to administration and control. The fire was the latest in a series of outrages large and small in the wake of China's zero-Covid policy: suicides, those who died without access to emergency medical services, the 27 dead in a Guizhou bus crash while being transported to a quarantine site in September, the workers of Foxconn in Zhengzhou who escaped en masse from their appalling lockdown conditions in late October, the unemployed, the bankrupt, students prevented from leaving their campuses, and the many and varied deprivations of normal life.

Serving the low-income consumer in a rich economy: Dollar General racks up sales

PurposeThe conceptualization of the Base of Pyramid (BOP) proposes that low-income markets can lead to profitable opportunities for businesses. The purpose of this study is to identify key success factors of a BOP business strategy based on a case study of the discount retailer, Dollar General, in the USA.Design/methodology/approachThe research design used in this research is an in-depth case study of Dollar General in the USA. Qualitative methods are applied in both the primary and secondary data collection and during the follow-on data analysis of Dollar General.FindingsDollar General's strategic profile is achieved through the combination of the following four actions which are tailored to compete effectively at the BOP in the USA: creating the neighborhood discounter, raising aspirational appeal, reducing service and eliminating internationalization.Research limitations/implicationsThe case is specific to Dollar General in a US cultural context.Practical implicationsThe case of Dollar General demonstrates how a discounter retailer should not only follow a low-cost strategy to compete at the BOP. Its ability to craft a distinctive strategy is coherent with meeting the logistical, rational and emotional needs of the low-income consumer in the USA.Social implicationsMany businesses have neglected rural areas of the USA as being unprofitable. The ability for businesses such as Dollar General to serve the BOP segment can foster the socio-economic well-being of communities.Originality/valueThe overwhelming body of the BOP literature is based on emerging markets. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is one of the few studies to investigate BOP business strategy in the USA.

Housing Activism and Urban Space during the Covid19 Pandemic. Research Notes on the Bairro of Arroios, Lisbon

This paper presents some research notes from an on-going project on housing activism in Lisbon in the last decade, describing its ascendant trajectory (2012-2019) and the impact that the Covid epidemic had on the local activist community (2020-2022). In particular, the paper focuses on two of the main protagonists of local housing activism, the association Habita and the collective Stop Despejos, and on the relation that they have developed in time with an ecosystem (of sites, groups, projects) that have developed in the last ten years in the neighbourhood of Arroios, which have found a characteristic spatial infrastructure in the coletividades (a Portuguese expression that identifies spaces managed by no-profit associations or collectives). The paper examines this relation against the background of two bodies of literature, namely contributions that have examined (i) the nexus between collective action and space and (ii) the different forms of political agency represented by the conceptual pole of "contentious" and "everyday politics". This research is based on extensive data collection (through ethnographic notes, documental analysis, and in-depth interviews, 2020-2022) and on the authors' status of insiders in the process observed.

Open Streets for Whom?

The COVID-19 pandemic has created opportunities for cities to close streets to automobile traffic in the name of public health. Although these interventions promise numerous benefits, neighborhood activists and scholars of color suggest they can perpetuate structurally racist inequities. In this Viewpoint, we implore planners and other city builders to think critically about the impact of these interventions by employing an environmental justice framework. Applying this framework in the open streets context exposes several potential paradoxes that arise. We conclude with a set of best practices that can help city builders transcend these paradoxes and extend this livability revolution to all.

The Configuration of a Multi-Pronged Housing Movement in Barcelona

The housing movement that emerged in Spanish cities during the 2007–8 global financial crisis has undergone various mutations. If at first it was led by the anti-evictions fight of the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages (PAH) and the housing groups of the 15M mobilization cycle (2011–14), the successive rent crises since 2013 and during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–22) have given rise to new activist expressions—housing/neighborhood unions (sindicats d'habitatge / de barri) and a tenants' union—in metropolitan areas such as Barcelona. These have played a central role in housing organizing during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this article we investigate the development of the housing/neighborhood unions while understanding their relationships with other housing groups in Barcelona. We first aim to know if, how, and why they have adopted, modified, or replaced the protest repertoires used by the PAH and the tenants' union and, second, to what extent the local housing movement in Barcelona evolved into a more diverse and multi-pronged configuration. Our findings indicate significant divergences between these housing organizations but also a common and complementary field of activism that eventually proved to be resilient during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.