Planning in the time of COVID
A little more than a month ago our Team was in the break room talking about COVID. We were all drinking a cup of coffee (because that’s what we do) thinking about what would happen if our favorite restaurants closed and we couldn’t do happy hour. How can we do business without happy hour? Or lunch meetings? Or coffee? How? We’re urban planners, we collaborate.
Little did we know that less than a week later we would be faced with a far bigger challenge - how do we do business when the economy is in a tailspin? When businesses are closed? And to most, when planning has evolved into a luxury given current events? I knew we were in for much more than a “hiccup” the week before the “Safer at Home” order started. That week was quiet. Too quiet. People were afraid, clients stopped calling and even the junk e-mail slowed to a trickle. It felt eerily reminiscent of 9/11. The same dark cloud filled with unknowns floated above in the bright blue Minnesota skies to add a dash of irony, or maybe hope, I’m not sure.
Since that horrible week, things have started to look up (minus that whole snowstorm-in-mid-April nonsense). Our Governors started to make a plan - which always makes types like us feel better - and real qualitative and quantitative metrics were presented to help us understand how we might get out of this situation, even if slowly. Perhaps the most simple conclusion of the pandemic is that each of us has a role to play, and that our collective response will determine our success in making a community-wide impact. Funny, that could probably be a statement from every public meeting I’ve ever facilitated.
For our part we resolved to get to work (from the safety of our individual homes of course), to embrace Zoom, and to plan - because that’s what we do. So while we don’t know how this will end, or when it will end, we are planning for a time when we can all meet again for a glass of red or a cup of coffee. In the meantime, we continue to serve our clients and welcome new contacts and projects - we just might have to meet you virtually first.
Stay healthy, be well.
Jennifer