Build Back Better: MPC’s COVID-19 Response

April 27, 2020 / Uncategorized

The Metropolitan Planning Council sees our work in housing, transportation, government effectiveness, land use and planning, water, and more, as essential to supporting individual and community health. Indeed, these infrastructure and policy decisions often go unnoticed in our daily life, but become more obvious when we are facing a threat such as COVID-19. For example, access to affordable, clean water for handwashing. MPC’s mission is to create a more equitable, prosperous, sustainable, and engaged and responsible region. This framework has helped us address significant regional challenges in the past, and will guide us through the current challenge of COVID-19.

With regard to the novel coronavirus, MPC’s work can fit into three broad categories:

Slow the Spread — Policies and practices that help reduce transmission by promoting physical distancing, supporting hygiene and wellbeing, testing and tracking, and preventing or responding quickly to future spikes in transmission.
Immediate Financial Relief — Policies and practices that help people, businesses, and municipalities currently in financial distress.
Build Back Better — Policies and practices that will help our communities recover from COVID-19 while also creating a more equitable and sustainable society in the long-term. Policies that will make us more prepared and resilient in the face of future threats.

As we continue our policy advocacy, stakeholder engagement, and research, this page will serve as a hub for you to find all of MPC’s COVID-19 content:

General

Policy Recommendations and Letters

Op-Eds

For Cook County Jail, a hot spot of COVID-19, our choices are fast action or mass death

Research