Local leaders are delivering America's communities through this crisis. That's why Bloomberg Philanthropies created the City Hall COVID-19 Update, to elevate the critical information city leaders need to respond to and recover from the challenges at hand.
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Can college towns avoid being COVID towns? That’s their plan
As colleges and universities across the country begin a most unusual fall semester, the cities and towns surrounding these institutions have a lot at stake. In those places where higher ed has gone mostly (or entirely) online, local economies are suffering. And in those where students have returned for in-person instruction, city leaders worry COVID-19 outbreaks could spread both on and off campus. Here’s how some of those cities—from Fort Collins, Colo., to Burlington, Vt.—are masking up and moving forward.
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DATA TRACKER
Johns Hopkins' confirmed U.S. COVID-19 cases as of 8 a.m. EDT on September 2.
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TOTAL CONFIRMED CASES
6,076,425
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CITY ACTIONS
A roundup of responses to the coronavirus crisis. See the
COVID-19: Local Action Tracker for more.
MEETING THE MOMENT
Six months into the COVID-19 pandemic, city leaders continue to innovate in order to meet residents’ growing needs.
- Costa Mesa, Calif., Mayor Katrina Foley says the lessons and support offered by Michael Bloomberg’s COVID-19 Local Response Initiative have been invaluable. “I don’t know that I could have gotten through the early phase of the pandemic…if I wasn’t participating,” she says of the program, which includes hundreds of mayors and senior leaders and is organized by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Harvard Kennedy and Business schools, and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
- With the return to remote learning expected to put an additional strain on many families, the city of Chicago is working on a plan to provide free child care for at least the first quarter of the upcoming school year. And in anticipation of another, more familiar strain—a cold Chicago winter—city officials are offering three residents $5,000 to come up with the best solutions for winter outdoor dining.
- The city of Oakland, Calif., has approved a plan to buy a college dormitory, two local hotels, and 20 single-family houses to create permanent and transitional housing for homeless and formerly incarcerated residents.
- On Monday, Detroit honored its more than 1,500 residents who have died from COVID-19. Detroit Memorial Day included families driving their cars in 15 consecutive processions past nearly 900 billboard-sized photos of loved ones posted around the city’s Belle Isle.
SOUNDING AN ALARM
Whether it’s by sharing their own experience, uplifting data, or expressing concern, mayors continue to keep residents abreast of COVID’s continued threat.
- Abilene, Texas, Mayor Anthony Williams shares his experience recovering from COVID-19 in an op-ed for the Abilene Reporter News. “Like many of you, I thought I knew something about the effects of [the virus],” writes Williams, who said he lost 35 pounds and a significant amount of strength during his recovery. “But I now have a heightened respect for the disease, and I am of course mindful of our neighbors who have died from it."
- Even though cases are down in Austin, Texas, Mayor Steve Adler writes in a newsletter to residents that he’s “nervous” about mass gatherings over Labor Day.
- Citing a statewide alert system for cities and towns, Bridgeport, Conn., Mayor Joe Ganim warns that his city and surrounding county are at risk for a COVID outbreak
GLOBAL OUTLOOK
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In his own words: Mayor Ras Baraka
Public art is essential to the vibrancy of cities. It has the power to “focus people, to make them think about larger issues, [and] to help them discover the interconnectedness of things that are going on,” says Newark, N.J., Mayor Ras Baraka. In this video, Baraka describes how public art helped bring his community together to reflect on racial justice and reaffirm that Black Lives Matter. “People think art is for the rich, you know, in these museums and different things that people don’t get to go into,” Baraka added. "But art is made for public consumption...to put out messages of community, of family, of hope, of struggle.”
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CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES
Find more COVID-19 resources for city leaders here. Please suggest new resources to include here.
RESOURCES
CDC'S LATEST GUIDANCE FOR:
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