Weekly Urban News Update
October 9, 2020
In This Update
Evictions in the United States Continue During the Pandemic Despite Federal Moratorium
Coping with COVID-19 in Freetown, Helsinki, and Sao Paulo
Learning About Good Governance from Informal Settlements in Ghana
Water-Scarce Bangalore Turns to Age-Old Practice to Mitigate Water Crisis
The Unintended Consequences of Crime-Tracking Apps in Rio de Janeiro
The Housing Crisis Is More Than a Housing Deficit
The International Home of the Year Award
In the News And Around the Web
Evictions in the United States Continue During Pandemic Despite Federal Moratorium
Evictions in the United States have continued during the pandemic despite a federal ban. The federal moratorium on evictions ended in July and in September, the Center for Disease Control issued a nationwide order to ban eviction, but thousands of evictions filed during the interim continued. Advocates say that in many cases evictions continue because renters are unaware of the moratorium or of the process of obtaining renter protections which involves submitting a declaration form to their landlord. Sarah Saadian of the National Low-Income Housing Coalition believes: “Corporate landlords are moving forward as quickly as possible before renters hear about the moratorium.” 

Read more here.
Coping with COVID-19 in Freetown, Helsinki, and Sao Paulo
As part of its launch last week, the new Global Platform for Sustainable Cities hosted a panel on how geographically diverse cities are coping with COVID-19 and choosing to build greener, healthier, and more inclusive cities in the post-pandemic era. Despite the daunting challenges presented by virus outbreaks which have largely occurred in cities, the Mayors Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr of Freetown, Jan Vapaavuro of Helsinki, and Luis Alvaro Salles of Sao Paulo, expressed their determination to use the crisis as an opportunity to make their cities more liveable and sustainable. In Sao Paulo, for instance, the city has announced that it will plant a tree for every resident lost to COVID-19

Read more here.
Learning About Good Governance from Informal Settlements in Ghana
In an interview with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, political scientist Jeffrey Paller explains why informal settlements in urban Ghana can provide lessons on the development of good governance and community problem-solving. In Accra, the Zongo settlements are often marginalized from city services and simultaneously stigmatized as dangerous, disease-laden, criminal places. Yet, Paller says it is their marginalized status that has pushed residents to come together to solve their own problems. For example, if the city of Accra does not provide sewer collection for Zongo areas, then it becomes a collective action problem for communities to resolve.

Read more here.
Water-Scarce Bangalore Turns to Age-Old Practice to Mitigate Water Crisis
In the face of its growing water scarcity, the city of Bangalore has turned to an age-old, traditional profession called “mannu vaddars." Bangalore is located over 60 miles away from a major river and lacks crucial access to piped water while its 400,000 groundwater boreholes are drying up from over-exploitation. Mannu vaddars are workers that dig, repair, and maintain deep wells, a highly specialized and dangerous occupation. One water conservationist expert explains the benefit of deep wells dug by the mannu vaddars over current city boreholes: “With the help [of the mannu vaddars] areas of the city with shallow aquifiers can create a river beneath the ground, rather than pump a river up to the city.”

Read more here.
The Unintended Consequences of Crime-Tracking Apps in Rio de Janeiro
Crowd-sourced mapping initiatives in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro may further marginalize residents, rather than simulating city action to make the neighborhoods safer. In Rio, popular mobile apps and online platforms allow residents to upload and access crime data to help users more safely navigate their city. But, sociologist Marcelo Batista Nery says that crowdsourced data is often skewed by and exacerbates existing biases about “no-go neighborhoods," and rarely results in city investments. Nery explains: “Platforms like these were not made to avoid places, but to press the public authorities so that the occurrence doesn’t happen again. But that is not what commonly happens.”

Read more here.
The Housing Crisis Is More Than a Housing Deficit
Debates about solving the global housing crisis often singularly focus on closing the housing deficit gap. But, Vidhee Garg at URBANET explains that increasing available housing units must be considered as a key part of housing solutions, rather than the solution itself. Garg points out that accessible housing does not automatically equate with access to safe water and sanitation or resilient and high-quality construction to mitigate disaster risk. She calls for a broadened understanding of housing that understands safe and affordable housing as intimately related to cross-sectoral interventions that seek to improve access to related services and benefits. 

Read more here.
Call for Applications: The International Home of the Year Award
IHC Global member organization the National Association of Home Builders announced a call for applications for its 2020 Global Innovation Awards. This year, NAHB introduced a new category, the International Home of the Year Award, which will recognize design projects by land planners, architects, engineers, designers, builders, and developers that solve a socio-economic challenge, are rooted in sustainability and wellness, and will have positive implications for the global market. Applications are due October 29, 2020.

Read more here.
In the News and Around the Web

  • Protests in Indonesia: Protests broke out in Indonesian cities earlier this week following the introduction of a new labor law that could weaken environmental regulations and workers' rights.

  • The New Urban Agenda Platform Launches: On World Cities Day, UN-Habitat launched the New Urban Agenda Platform that brings together reports, best practices, and data on the progress of the NUA and Sustainable Development Goal 11 in an online database.

  • The Gendered Housing Crisis in India: Addressing India’s housing crisis requires understanding the particular vulnerabilities women in urban settings face.

  • Smart Cities After COVID-19: IHC Global is hosting a two-day Urban Thinkers Campus on smart cities in the post-COVID-19 era on Wednesday, October 21st and Friday, October 23rd. Check it out here!
Pictured: A Zongo settlement in Accra (Photo Credit: Hughes)
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