In this episode of The New Abnormal series, ICF Co-Founders Lou Zacharilla and John Jung speak with Cyrus Tehrani of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Paddy Harrington of Frontier Co., and Institute without Boundaries at George Brown College graduate students Hardeep Kaur and Madalynne Lawrence. Their "Transforming into Ethical Smart Cities" playbook, website, and video launches this Friday, May 29 at 4pm EST - more information can be found at www.ethicalsmartcity.com

In this #NoPlaceButHome discussion, we move away from the topic of physical space and density in communities and move to another topic: privacy. ICF Co-Founders Lou Zacharilla and John Jung speak with Kristina Verner, Monique Crichlow and Jean-Noé Landry in the third discussion of The New Abnormal series.

“If you’re going through Hell, keep going,” Winston Churchill supposedly said.

For sure, we took that advice in New York. Some of us stayed here but kept going, grinding away in what now is recalled as an exhausting attempt to keep some shreds of the familiar life in the Great City close. But as a friend who left, returned for a few days recently but left again said, “Lou, I could not stay. It’s too heartbreaking.” Many left town to flee far away from what appeared to be Hell. The Epicenter is either the worst place to be or, for some, the only place to be. It depends on your core and your love of your town. You can leave it and still love it. I understand. I just have a hard time grasping or respecting it.

In this video, ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla speaks with James Stifler, Chief Economic Officer of Hudson, Ohio, USA - a Top7 Intelligent Community of 2020.

In this video, ICF Co-Founder Robert Bell talks about COVID-19 and Caledon with Mayor Allan Thompson.

In this No Place But Home: The New Abnormal panel discussion, ICF Co-Founders Lou Zacharilla and John Jung speak with Shyam Khandekar and Hassan Radoine.

In this video, ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla speaks about COVID-19 and other challenges with Sunshine Coast Mayor Mark Jamieson.

What will our cities look like post-COVID? Will we ever trust our cities again? Is "density" the new enemy of urban planning? In this new segment of No Place BUT Home, we look at issues of vital importance that relate to the health, design & economic future of the places we live.

We are living in this pandemic era of COVID19. We are all wary of the public realm. Spatial distancing is the new normal. Urban designers, planners and architects are all scratching their heads about what to do both in this rescue and recovery phase and what the reimaging phase might look like with limited resources available after this protracted period of economic decline. 

It seems appropriate that the USS Comfort shoved off and left New York Harbor a hero and forever a part of the New York legend. It was also right that she left us in the damp, misty fog that engulfed the harbor and the city that day. She did leave behind a black swan, which she could not do anything more about. That is left up to us. Rain or shine, the Pandemic is still very much walking my streets and riding my beloved Q train like a hungry ghost and mass murderer who seems ready to appear at any moment in any household, apartment or CVS checkout line to devour.

Today, Sunday, is a spectacular day. But another strange one. There was no church and even God seems to be at home trying to figure it out. But I believe the governor of New York and the mayor of New York City when they say that the steady decline in new COVID cases and deaths has not happened because this virus is tiring. On the 64th day after the City of New York hung a “Closed for Business” sign, 789 new cases entered our hospitals and 280 New Yorkers died. And as the USS Comfort cuts through smoother waters on her way back to home port, the long trailer serving as a morgue in nearby Lennox Hospital is still double-parked right there. Alternate side of the street rules are not in effect.