Environment

What a Coronavirus Recovery Could Look Like

Urban resilience expert Michael Berkowitz shares ideas about how U.S. cities can come back stronger from the social and economic disruption of coronavirus.
In cities now silenced by coronavirus, what will recovery look like?Gabby Jones/Bloomberg

Michael Berkowitz is a student of disaster, and a guru on how cities weather them. As the former executive director of the nonprofit consultancy 100 Resilient Cities, and now as founding principal at the similar Resilient Cities Catalyst, he has worked with dozens of local governments around the world to plan for hurricanes, droughts, earthquakes, terrorist attacks, mass shootings, disease outbreaks, and other social shocks.

Now, as a global catastrophe unfolds in the form of coronavirus, Berkowitz is trying to think ahead as he shelters at home in New York City. He’s looking for signs of how communities will survive the aftermath, as well as for opportunities to strengthen resilience now in the face of social and economic disruption.