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Members of our Latinx, Black, Cambodian, and Pacific Islander communities have been hardest hit by the pandemic.<\/p>\n
“The service sector of the economy has experienced the highest job loss and unemployment caused by the pandemic, impacting low-wage service sector workers who are predominantly people of color and women,\u201d according to a memo prepared by City Manager Tom Modica.<\/p>\n
Equity demands that we make strategic investments that provide long-term benefits to chronically underserved communities.<\/p>\n
The proposed Long Beach Recovery Plan does not do enough to meet that standard. It should not be approved by the City Council on Tuesday in its present form.<\/p>\n
The entire Recovery Plan package unveiled March 8 by Mayor Robert Garcia totaled $207 million. It includes the American Rescue Act funds, plus another $29 million in emergency rental assistance and $26 million for health programs, including COVID-19 testing and contact tracing.<\/p>\n
The plan would devote $78 million to rebuilding the city\u2019s reserves and plugging a gaping hole in next year\u2019s city budget. That should not<\/i><\/b> be the highest priority to jump-start the local economy.<\/p>\n
To do so would reward the Mayor and the City Council for failing to address long-standing structural budget problems. In this crisis, it cannot be business as usual at City Hall.\u00a0 Budgets are choices. They are a statement of priorities.<\/p>\n
A presentation<\/a> prepared for Tuesday\u2019s council meeting says: \u201cA successful recovery plan must address economic inequities.\u201d\u00a0 If that\u2019s true, then make that the top priority<\/i><\/b>.<\/p>\n The plan<\/a> would devote $25 million in direct support for an array of businesses, including; grants to restaurants, bars, breweries, fitness centers, personal care services like barber shops, hair and nail salons, and arts and cultural organizations impacted by COVID-19. The city would also waive millions of dollars in fees, promote tourism, and provide grants for technical assistance to businesses.<\/p>\n The recovery plan would make available $5 million in grants up to $25,000 for \u201clocally-owned, independent, full-service, sit-down\u201d restaurants, bars and breweries, based on their revenue, size, and number of employees.<\/p>\n To be equitable, that program needs to give priority to small struggling locally-owned restaurants that have not had access to other pandemic relief loans and assistance programs. Otherwise, the money could be quickly exhausted without benefiting small businesses in need.<\/p>\n The plan also includes $4 million for violence prevention programs at a time when the number of shootings has reached its highest level in years<\/a>.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also $7.5 million for economic inclusion programs, including $2 million to provide Chromebooks and WiFi hot-spots to some residents and businesses. If bridging the digital divide<\/a> is a high priority, the city should use some of the American Rescue Act money to build\u00a0broadband infrastructure in underserved communities.\u00a0 Does spending $5 million to clean up illegal dumping address economic inequities? No.<\/span><\/p>\n Families are struggling. Many parents have been forced to manage their kids\u2019 distance learning by reducing work hours, sacrificing wages, or worse yet getting laid off or furloughed.<\/p>\n The City is in a position to provide relief to quality child-care providers for parents to re-enter the workforce and yet there is no dedicated program in the plan.\u00a0 Not dedicating funding to child-care providers, who like restaurants have had capacity restrictions, diminishes the support for women and working families available to work. Similarly, devoting $2.1 million to early childhood education<\/a> is not enough.<\/p>\n We can\u2019t recover from the COVID-19 recession without real interventions\u2026significant investments to support families, women, and those in need.<\/p>\n The infusion of American Rescue Act funds provides a rare opportunity to address economic disparities that divide our city.<\/p>\n To solicit advice about how to spend the one-time money, the city held 29 invitation-only roundtable meetings with representatives of various business and community groups.<\/p>\n