Please join Prof. Jan Whittington and students Feiyang Sun and Siman Ning to learn more about their research. Abstract:
This study examines the impact of the built environment on food and retail business continuity as an indicator for urban economic resilience during COVID-19. Building upon existing literature on the effects of built environment during the pandemic, this study examines three groups of factors – business types, indoor and outdoor spatial strategies, and neighborhood characteristics – with two waves of primary survey data of 921 businesses from 40 census block groups, which covers 17% of all food retail businesses in the City of Seattle. The study found that compared with grocery stores that are mostly owned by large franchises, restaurants and coffee/tea shops are more vulnerable to the economic shock from the pandemic and related policy regulations. More interestingly, spatial strategies shaped by health guidelines, such as the provision of sanitizers or distancing marks, were found to have no association with the continuation of business operation. Spatial strategies that are significant include posting of signage and customer counters, which are not directly related to health concerns but could potentially facilitate communication and interaction between businesses and their customers. The associations between neighborhood characteristics, such as population density, job density, and percentage of non-Asian people of color, also reveal the impact of temporal migrations during the pandemic as well as possible inequity in social mobility.
Zoom Meeting https://washington.zoom.us/j/93364032883