A Manifesto for Equity Street in Pandemica

We all live in the city of Pandemica.

With apologies to Italo Calvino, it is time to reconsider a current “road closed” image of historic Church Street in Twickenham (retitled Equity Street in Pandemica for just a moment). The setting on display may be symbolic of a return to the urbanist’s walkable street of old. Or in fact, it may signify a difficult future, full of pitched battles between safety and economy, haves, and have-nots.

For Pandemica residents in need of certainty, oracle Richard Florida informs us, here, in an excellent series on the post-pandemic city. Welcome to stylish masks, college towns with fewer people, sidewalks too narrow for inevitable queueing, and more cars amid fears of fellow travelers on the Tube. For avid punters, the Prime Minister has your back, because a tabloid-darling Super-Saturday for reopening is coming soon.

For ruminators like me, read on.

Here are five shades of gray responses (not to be confused with Fifty Shades of Grey) to this interesting, symbolism-filled view of a street barred, or a street reclaimed:

• We just don’t know. Like real estate developers, we seek certainty. Sorry, not possible now. We don’t know what will happen. But, no matter, let’s move on.
• Small businesses deserve their patrons. In…