Because The Globe and Mail has decided to take an in-depth look at the future of cities

If you live in a city – and more than 80% of Canadians do – you’ve seen strange things this year: empty buses at rush hour; the clumsy sidewalk dances as pedestrians mentally measure a six-foot space with each other; restaurant patio set up on busy streets.

And those small changes are just the beginning of the transformation we’re likely to see as the COVID-19 pandemic affects how we think about Canada’s urban areas – what we value about them, what needs to change, and how they can thrive in the decades ahead.

In the coming week, The Globe and Mail will assess how the pandemic is changing our cities. Included in our coverage: Doug Saunders explores how mayors and other city officials are now addressing chronic problems, such as housing and transportation shortages. Eric Reguly examines the “15-minute city,” which sees municipal governments prioritizing walkability above all. And Diana Lind explains why now is the time to move beyond our obsession with single-family homes.

For our weekend package, illustrator Kathleen Fu combined many of our themes into one image. In creating the piece, he drew on his background in architecture, along with his experience during the pandemic. “The way I draw, there are a lot of moving pieces,” he says. “In the same way that in cities many small pieces come together to create the whole.”

Our coverage continues throughout the week, right up to a virtual summit on Thursday that we will host alongside Tortoise Media, an innovative British start-up. You will read and hear more about the great challenges our cities face and the great solutions they need. The way we live will never be the same again.

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Join The Globe and Mail e Medium Tortoise for the Future of Cities Summit, a live virtual event on November 19th. To register for this free event, visit tgam.ca/futureofcities and use the GlobeSub promotional code.