Una Mullally: All local authorities should formulate a radical outdoor plan for 2022

One of my favourite films, Mathieu Kassovitz’s 1995 French drama La Haine, begins with a parable. “Heard about the guy who fell off a skyscraper? On his way down past each floor, he kept saying to reassure himself: so far so good, so far so good, so far so good. How you fall doesn’t matter. It’s how you land.”

This parable is relevant to two aspects of the pandemic. The first is the “so far so good” phase that occurs when cases are rising and many of us react with a swab up the nose and fingers in the ears. At least we’re not in England, where the chaotic Tory government and a gaslit population partied aboard HMS Exceptionalism without believing the ship was barrelling towards an iceberg the whole time.

The previous 'outdoor summers' should have been codenamed 'piss-in-the-bushes' because, for many people, that was the reality

The second aspect is all about how we land. This wave will pass. For England, it spells a potential humanitarian disaster. For Ireland, maybe we’re not too far behind. Hopefully the difference in our behaviour, our adherence to restrictions, our excellent vaccine take-up (thanks everyone!) and a society that genuinely cares for the collective and unites at times when others divide, will allow us to confront a wave that will crash, and not a tsunami that will overwhelm. Right now, the facts of the virus’s spread mean that is the best we can hope for.

But let’s talk about the landing. At the outset of the pandemic, I wondered if design and architecture would undergo a revolution. If outdoors was safe, then what would it take for our lives to move more outside? I wrote a lot about the need to facilitate outdoor socialising, outdoor dining, to close parks off to car traffic, to increase public space, and to match the reality that people were socialising outside – because they were told to, and because it’s the safe thing to do – with facilities such as public seating, pedestrianisation and public toilets. Some local authorities dealt with this well, others such as Dublin City Council dragged their heels and failed.

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Safe air

There needs to be an instruction now, from Government, that all local authorities must formulate a radical outdoor plan for 2022. This needs to recognise the reality that outdoors is safe. The previous “outdoor summers” should have been codenamed “piss-in-the-bushes” because, for many people, that was the reality, not some kind of bucolic move outside into “the public realm”.

One thing we know about the pandemic is that outdoors is safe, unless you’re squished into a crowd. It’s what we’ve known from the get go. It’s why outdoor dining was facilitated, it’s why people are told not to gather indoors, it’s why crowds were allowed in outdoor sports grounds before they were allowed in indoor venues. And it all speaks to the same issue: safe air.

We need to start thinking seriously about the changes that are required for us not just to endure the pandemic, but to progress and take our lives off hold

This isn’t complicated, it’s basic logic, and it’s why some people have rightfully tried to raise the issue of ventilation and Hepa filters all through the pandemic, while the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) and the Government were telling us to keep washing our hands. This virus and its variants are airborne, so if you’re in an environment where transmission can be interrupted by safe air and plenty of it, you can go about your business.

So, knowing that, let’s talk about safe air. Safe air is going to become a rights issue. There are certain things that we are in control of – our own behaviour, for one, and getting vaccinated – and, by and large, people in Ireland have been exceptional on both counts. For the most part, people have abided by restrictions, changed how they live, and got vaccinated and queued for boosters. None of this has anything to do with the Government, it has to do with us. One simple change we can make is getting rid of “face coverings” and using N95/FFP2 masks. They’re better and safer and they protect you. This should be central to Government messaging, but it never has been.

Culture in the open

The pandemic will still exist in 2022, and probably beyond that. Scientific responses will improve, as will vaccines, as will treatment. But we need to start thinking seriously about the changes that are required for us not just to endure the pandemic, but to progress and take our lives off hold. We need more mental health supports, and we need to focus on safe air, inside and out.

Living isn’t just about getting through something. We need pleasure, fun, lightness and release. We need to pedestrianise all city centres. We need to fund arts venues to create outdoor spaces where live events can happen. We need awnings over every street where people hang out, and public seating everywhere. We need more parks, outdoor restaurants and new open-air structures built where people can socialise. We need outdoor clubs and markets. We need outdoor public swimming pools, the refurbishment of all derelict public baths, vast networks of bike lanes and expanded paths. We need outdoor games, barbecue areas, picnic spots, and we need this planned for now.

Next year doesn’t have to be about sitting on a curb drinking a pint out of a plastic glass. It could mean theatre in the park, concerts in big tents, city-wide cycling days for kids, and the sense that we’re not just surviving, we’re thriving. These are years of our lives, and the political system needs to recognise that they are for living.