Message to our Members: COVID-19 & Our Downtown Community

This is the third COVID-19 update from San Jose Downtown Association

View this email in your browser

Dear Members and Stakeholders:

Downtown is our collective community and we are proud to see us all come together. We are seeing creative virtual programming from our arts groups, museums and gyms to keep us active and to support our mental health. Community outreach projects, like the one spearheaded by Urban Community to create Shelter in Place kits for laid-off workers, are popping up. Our nonprofits continue to provide essential services at a time when we need them the most. Let's keep our downtown community strong.

We're here to help

As always SJDA staff is available to help answer questions and concerns and to provide moral support as needed. Please reach out via email as we are working remotely. Together, we’re going to get through this.

Opportunity for relief for laid-off workers

Please take this 1-minute survey if you are the manager of a nonprofit, retail or hospitality business (restaurant, cafe, bar, nightclub, coffee shop) that has closed or has severely reduced hours. Urban Community plans to deliver "shelter-in place care packages" including food, hand sanitizer and other household goods to furloughed or laid-off workers. Survey results will be supplied to Frank Nguyen of Academic Coffee, who has volunteered to organize distribution. We know times are hard, and we appreciate Urban Community's gesture.

Tune in Friday: Mayor Sam Liccardo addresses business challenges

Mayor Sam Liccardo is hosting a Facebook Live Q & A on Friday (March 27) at 10 a.m. to address the challenges our small businesses face. If you miss it live, you should also be able to watch it afterward. Watch it here.

City email introduced to answer business and employer questions

The Office of Economic Development (OED) has established a new email address, covid19sjbusiness@sanjoseca.gov, where employers, businesses, non-profits, and workers impacted by COVID-19 can ask questions. The OED staff will work to respond quickly with the information and resources currently available.

City offers SBA loan webinar April 2

Businesses which have been impacted by COVID-19 can join a City of San Jose workshop about low-interest, long-term loans of up to $2 million from the Small Business Administration at 3 pm on Thursday, April 2. Representatives of the SBA and Silicon Valley Small Business Development Center will offer both high-level and detailed looks at the program and application, and provide resources to help businesses to best connect with the opportunity. The workshop will be offered via Zoom and registrants will be sent the link as the event approaches. Register here.

To Go Cocktails & More: ABC relaxes laws for bars and restaurants

Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) has relaxed regulations that may help restaurants and bars through this crisis.

Helping DTSJ restaurants

We are promoting downtown restaurants through a variety of partnerships in conjunction with the Mayor's office, the Silicon Valley Organization and Team San Jose. Door Dash launched #openfordelivery to help restaurants in partnership with other food delivery options including UberEats, Postmates, Caviar, Grubhub, Skip the Dishes and Foodora. Visit openfordelivery.com/ for more information.

Our list at sjdowntown.com has grown to 75 restaurants open.

Santa Clara County Supervisors Summary

SUPERVISOR DAVE CORTESE RECAPS SANTA CLARA COUNTY MEETING TUESDAY
“At our remote Board of Supervisors meeting March 24 the Board approved my request to allocate $1 million to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation’s Coronavirus Nonprofit Support Fund and, through our contracts, be flexible to their needs.

"The Board also approved supporting the Community Foundation’s COVID-19 Coronavirus Relief Fund with a $2 million contribution to go to vital resources to prevent homelessness, provide food and address other needs of those affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Destination Home will be the lead organization to provide funds to the 15 organizations in the Emergency Action Network. This initiative was brought to the Board by Board President Cindy Chavez and myself.

"The Board also voted in favor of an Urgency Ordinance to prohibit evictions resulting from the COVID-19 emergency. The Ordinance prohibits nonpayment of rent and no-fault evictions for all residential tenants and small business tenants who have lost income or had out-of-pocket medical expenses as a result of COVID-19. The Ordinance also includes a 120-day grace period for payment of rent following the conclusion of the emergency."

Support for arts groups

SJDA joined local arts groups in a letter by SVCreates to our Congressional representatives that requests immediate support for our arts groups. Nationally, arts groups have lost $3.6 billion in revenue, and that number is growing by as much as $400 million each week.

The letter requests:

Support $4 billion in COVID-19 relief funding to be administered by the National Endowment for the Arts;
Adopt recommendations to temporarily lift specific federal grantmaking restrictions;
Ensure that individual artists (and artists who are small businesses) are fully eligible for individual payments, including unemployment insurance;
Ensure that our nation’s 120,000 nonprofit arts organizations, most of which are small businesses, are fully eligible for any small businesses being incorporated in relief funds.

SVCreates also has a valuable webpage for artists during the coronavirus pandemic:
https://www.svcreates.org/2020/03/20/resources-for-our-arts-community-coronavirus-covid-19/

More arts COVID-19 websites of interest:
COVID-19 Freelance Artist Resources

https://www.theatrebayarea.org/page/COVID-19relief-fund

Free Creative Cloud software from Adobe

Adobe is offering free 2 months of Creative Cloud. You can learn and use PhotoShop, InDesign, Illustrator, Premiere and other great Adobe software products. Here is how to get it.

More websites for all businesses

State of California now has a COVID-19 website.

Silicon Valley Strong is a go-to place to find information and ways to help out. Over 650 people have answered the call to action, and there is much work to be done.

SJDA is here to help and support you

Subscribe to Downtowner Online
As we have just about every week for more than 15 years, SJDA sends out a weekly Downtowner Online email of downtown events. For the past two weeks, instead of listing events, the Downtowner has posted the creative efforts of downtown businesses to entertain and keep subscribers busy. We want to make sure you see the links we’re including to your businesses. Here’s this week's Downtowner Online, and here’s the link so that you can subscribe if you don't already receive the "D.O."

Emergency Tree Service
Emergency tree service is essential when branches and trees fall. Call the tree emergency hotline at (408) 497-4062. Please have an address available to share with the operator. Or use the form created for tree care.

We’ll have another message next Thursday. Keep up the good fight.