EVENING NEWS CLIPS – 3.27.20
MAYOR LORI LIGHTFOOT
MLL AND BACP WARN NON-ESSENTIAL BUSINESSES TO FOLLOW ORDERS
ABC7 News at 4PM: MLL and BACP warn non-essential businesses to follow orders
*MLL: investigators have been responding to complaints and taking proactive measures to make sure that there is enforcement following up on complaints regarding employers that have not been abiding by the rules of the road.
ANCHOR: saturday will mark one week since the governor’s stay-at-home order went into effect but there is still confusion over which businesses are considered to be essential. Mark Rivera with more.
CBS2 News at 11AM: MLL and BACP warn non-essential businesses to follow orders
ANCHOR: as the city continues to try to slow the spread of covid-19, a crackdown on nonessential businesses. Mayor Lori Lightfoot is warning employers that no one should be forced to go to work at a business that does not qualify as essential. you can call 311 to complain and if city investigators find the business in violation, the owner could face up to a $10,000 fine.
NBC5 News at 11AM: MLL and BACP warn non-essential businesses to follow orders
ANCHOR: Mayor Lightfoot is putting some business owners on notice right now. the statewide stay-at-home order requires nonessential businesses to close. City Hall says any still open could face up to $10,000 in fines. City investigators will investigate complaints from employees or others who call 311. all businesses can face fines if they force an employee to work while sick or if they refuse to pay them paid sick leave. employees can call 311 to file a complaint. Businesses can face fines of up to $1,000 per employee per investigation
Don’t think you’re essential and should be working? The city wants to hear from you.
TRIBUNE//Corilyn Shropshire
Chicago’s 311 system is used to getting complaints about potholes, rats and burned-out streetlights. Now Mayor Lori Lightfoot wants to use it to investigate businesses that are open during the COVID-19 pandemic — but shouldn’t be. The city on Friday urged residents and employees aware of businesses that may not be consider “essential” to submit complaints to to the 311 system. Investigations by the city could lead to fines of up to $10,000.
MLL AND DFSS LAUNCH COVID-19 HOUSING ASSISTANCE GRANT PROGRAM
ABC7 News at 6PM: MLL and DFSS launch COVID-19 Housing Assistance Grant program
ANCHOR: Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot starting a new program to give some relief to residents struggling to pay their rent or mortgage. 1000 Chicagoans can get 1000 dollars, this is all part of the covid-19 housing assistance program. you do have to apply. there are criteria. we have all that information for you on our website. that is also where we have the latest information and an interactive guide for you. type in abc7chicago.com/coronavirus.
NBC5 News at 4PM: MLL and DFSS launch COVID-19 Housing Assistance Grant program
*audio from phone call with MLL
*MLL: I think realistically we're looking at something that's going to stretch deep into april and, you know, again subject to change and modeling and so forth but, you know, the governor's teams are very able.
ANCHOR: slowing the virus is the key to lifting the orders here in illinois.
AHERN: so many are asking how long will this stay-at-home order be in place. while it is governor pritzker's call, there was guidance from Mayor Lightfoot as she spoke to reporters by teleconference.
TRIBUNE//Gregory Pratt
The city of Chicago will give one-time $1,000 grants to help residents who have suffered financially due to the coronavirus outbreak with rent and mortgage payments, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced. Lightfoot announced the COVID-19 Housing Assistance Grant program on Friday, which she said will go toward Chicagoans “who have lost their jobs or otherwise been impacted by the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
City creates grants to help residents with rent, mortgage payments
SUN TIMES//David Roeder
Chicagoans whose jobs have been affected by the coronavirus can get help with rent or mortgage payments under a grant program Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Friday. Lightfoot said 2,000 grants of $1,000 each will be made in early to mid April. The $2 million allocated will come from the city’s Affordable Housing Opportunity Fund, which is bankrolled by developers building market-rate housing.
2,000 Chicagoans Will Get $1,000 In Rent Relief Under New City COVID-19 Plan, Mayor Says
BLOCK CLUB//Kelly Bauer
CHICAGO — With April 1 around the corner and thousands unemployed due to coronavirus in the city, Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Friday announced a plan to give at least a portion of struggling residents some rent relief. The COVID-19 Housing Assistance Grant Program will use $2 million from the city’s Affordable Housing Opportunity Fund to give 1,000 Chicagoans $1,000 toward rent or mortgage payments.
MLL CLOSES LAKEFRONT, PARKS, AND RIVERWALK
NBC5 News at 6PM: MLL closes lakefront, parks, and Riverwalk
*Audio from phone call with MLL
MLL: I think realistically we're looking at something that's going to stretch deep into april.
ANCHOR: heath experts anticipate the next two weeks will be the most challenging. Many people asking how long the stay at home order will last. Mayor Lightfoot offering some guidance on that today
AHERN: rob, this is the question everyone is asking, the stay-at-home order is in place until april 7th, but many anticipate it will be extended beyond that date.
WGN News at 4PM: MLL closes lakefront, parks, and Riverwalk
*MLL: I think realistically we're looking at something that is going to stretch it deep into April. And you know, again, subject to change in modeling and so forth but you know, the governor’s team are very able, they're looking at similar data to what we are.
ANCHOR: chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot predicted that illinois residents may have to stay home for several more weeks, although the Mayor did admit the decision is ultimately governor pritzker's call, but she says she doesn't see the order being lifted any time soon.
CBS2 News at 11AM: MLL closes lakefront, parks, and Riverwalk
ANCHOR: and remember that the lakefront is off limits, Mr. Jogger you see there, police stopped him this morning. Mayor Lightfoot closed the beaches, parks and the river walk yesterday after seeing crowds gathered at those locations. chicago police are issuing warnings for first-time offenders but may ticket or arrest anyone that continues to disobey.
OTHER MLL NEWS
FOX32 News at 5PM: Spike in Coronvirus cases among CPD
ANCHOR: we start with mike flannery and a spike in coronavirus cases within the chicago police department.
FLANNERY: In one day, the number of police officers testing positive for the coronavirus has nearly doubled. Most disturbing of all is that these new positive tests are coming from officers who are working in districts where other officers had previously tested positive for the coronavirus and the union president said every cop on the street is worried.
CBS2 News at 11AM: MLL says she is looking into options to keep CTA drivers safe
ANCHOR: cta workers are pleading for safety measures as they work on crowded buses and l trains. while the transit agency says it has seen an 80% drop in ridership, some buses are seeing passengers of 10 or more especially in south side communities. drivers are not allowed to pass up any people along the way. the union president said when talking about social distancing, the Mayor should be including this problem.
Illinois’ stay at home order likely to extend ‘deep into April,’ Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot says
TRIBUNE//Gregory Pratt
The stay at home order issued by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker realistically will extend “deep into April,” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot told reporters on Friday. Asked whether she’s talked with Pritzker about extending his stay at home order, which he issued a week ago for the entire state through at least April 7, Lightfoot said she doesn’t want to get ahead of the governor but said it’s realistic that it would “stretch deep into April.”
TRIBUNE//Gregory Pratt
When voters elected Lori Lightfoot to be Chicago’s 56th mayor, she expected to have her hands full with a yawning budget deficit, labor battles with the city’s teacher and police unions, and federal public corruption probes inside City Hall. But nearly a year into her first term, Lightfoot and her administration instead are consumed with battling the coronavirus, a fast-spreading global pandemic that’s drastically changed daily life for Chicagoans and forced the mayor to take the previously unimaginable step this week of shutting down the city’s lakefront in an effort to save lives.
Lightfoot: Stay-at-home order likely to last ‘deep into April’
SUN TIMES//Fran Spielman
The statewide stay-at-home order is likely to continue “deep into April,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Friday, but the final call will be made by Gov. J.B. Pritzker. The governor’s order is scheduled to expire April 7. So does his statewide order that closed all public and private schools. Lightfoot has ordered Chicago Public Schools closed through April 20.
Chicago joins New York, Los Angeles with drops in crime as coronavirus and shelter order take hold
TRIBUNE//Jeremy Gorner
Like other major U.S. cities, Chicago has seen a dip in crime with the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting virtually every aspect of the country’s way of life. Despite beginning 2020 with crime spikes, particularly related to gun violence, Chicago saw a sudden single-week drop of nearly 20% in major crimes in mid-March, records show. That was just as much activity in Chicago was slowing.
Coronavirus In Chicago: City Becoming A ‘Hot Spot’ As Cases Hit 1,149, White House Warns
BLOCK CLUB//Kelly Bauer
CHICAGO — Cook County is becoming one of the United States’ “hot spots” for coronavirus, a White House official said as cases in Chicago passed the 1,000 mark. So far, Chicago has had 1,149 confirmed cases of coronavirus, accounting for about 45 percent of the 2,538 confirmed cases in all of Illinois. The quick growth of cases here means Chicago is becoming a hot spot in the nation for coronavirus, as is New Orleans, Dallas, Detroit and Philadelphia, among other cities, said Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot guarding the lakefront is now a meme
SUN TIMES//Alice Bazerghi
Mayor Lori Lightfoot is fed up. After seeing throngs of people enjoying a spring day at the lakefront and 606 trail despite her instructions to stay home to stop the spread of the coronavirus, she reached her breaking point Thursday. Now, the lakefront is closed, along with all its parks and beaches, the 606 is closed, and Millennium Park and the downtown Riverwalk are locked down indefinitely.
BLOCK CLUB//Staff
CHICAGO — With many Chicagoans not practicing proper social distancing as COVID-19 continues to spread, Mayor Lori Lightfoot laid down the law Thursday. “Your conduct, yours, is posing a direct threat to our public health,” Lightfoot said of people still crowding outside despite the pandemic. “And without question, your failure to abide by these life-saving orders will erase any progress we have made over the past week in slowing the spread of this disease and could lead to more deaths.”
$747 million. That’s the hit to Chicago’s economy of the 33 conventions canceled so far.
TRIBUNE//Abdel Jimenez
Chicago could take a $747 million economic hit because dozens of conventions scheduled to take place in the city have canceled due to the fast-spreading new coronavirus, according to an estimate from a McCormick Place spokeswoman. The impact includes lost spending from event attendees at hotels, restaurants, transportation and entertainment venues.
TRIBUNE//Morgan Greene
The Lakefront Trail was officially closed to the public Thursday after a sunny day brought Chicagoans out in droves, but the Chicago Park District still hopes to tackle repairs on sections clobbered by erosion starting this spring. There’s the impact of the coronavirus crisis on any business as usual. And lake levels are at near-record highs and not expected to subside soon.
Like shootings, Chicago’s anti-violence efforts remain despite pandemic
SUN TIMES//Sam Charles
In spite of a pandemic and a statewide stay-at-home order, shootings in Chicago remain a constant. But so do anti-violence efforts in the city’s neighborhoods most plagued by gunfire.
Albeit with a few tweaks to strategies in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, community outreach work is still being performed in an effort to tamp down the city’s entrenched violence.
Officer among two more CPD employees diagnosed with COVID-19
SUN TIMES//Staff
Two additional Chicago Police Department members have been diagnosed with the coronavirus. An officer assigned to a district on the South Side and a civilian employee who works at a West Side district tested positive, bringing the total number of confirmed cases within the department to 11, police said Thursday.
COVID-19
Here’s what the coronavirus stimulus package will mean for Illinois
SUN TIMES//Lynn Sweet
“Something miraculous has happened in Washington. We’ve actually done something, on a timely basis,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Thursday about the $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill the Senate passed Wednesday night and and earned full approval from the House early Friday afternoon. About $5 billion of that will be direct federal funding for state and local Illinois governments to help fund COVID-19 soaring expenses.
Coronavirus: You have questions, we have answers
TRIBUNE//Elvia Malagon, Grace Wong, and Patrick M. O’Connell
As the coronavirus pandemic continues, new questions about the virus and how to respond in our daily lives arise every day. We took concerns from Tribune readers and started asking experts those questions in early March. We’ve added answers from other settings when experts have answered questions publicly. As health officials scramble to understand the virus, questions that are no longer relevant have been removed.
AP//Andrew Taylor, Alan Fram, and Laurie Kellman
Acting with exceptional resolve in an extraordinary time, the House rushed President Donald Trump a $2.2 trillion rescue package Friday, tossing a life preserver to a U.S. economy and health care system left flailing by the coronavirus pandemic. The House approved the sweeping measure by a voice vote, as strong majorities of both parties lined up behind the most colossal economic relief bill in the nation’s history.
Undocumented immigrants face coronavirus, looming jobs crisis with no real safety net
SUN TIMES//Carlos Ballesteros
Hector and Sandra are scared. He’s diabetic and she has rheumatoid arthritis, putting them at higher risk of getting sick and dying from the coronavirus. But since they’re undocumented, they have to keep working — no matter what. “If we don’t work, we can’t survive. It’s just that simple,” Sandra said. Hector and Sandra are pushing 50 and have lived in Chicago for nearly 20 years.
UChicago Medicine Brings Furloughed Workers Back, Requires All Employees To Wear Masks
BLOCK CLUB//Maxwell Evans
HYDE PARK — University of Chicago Medicine will bring back workers temporarily laid off due to coronavirus precautions and require all employees to wear masks in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus. The university furloughed asymptomatic workers known to have been exposed to the disease or who had recently traveled to a country with “high infection rates.”
TRIBUNE//Jennifer Smith Richards, Jodi S. Cohen, and Haru Coryne
To encourage learning while schools are shut down, Illinois education officials have gathered online tools for educators and promoted the hashtag #keeplearning. Some students in Illinois, however, won’t be able to watch their teacher conduct live science experiments or download a story time video. They don’t have a computer or high-speed internet at home, or a cellphone data plan that would support it.
Legalizing pot deliveries gains momentum during coronavirus crisis
SUN TIMES//Tom Schuba
As Illinoisans are ordered to hunker down to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, calls to allow legal marijuana deliveries have increased. Rep. Sonya Harper (D-Chicago) introduced legislation last month that would allow cannabis dispensaries to deliver marijuana to both medical pot patients and recreational customers. Now, she’s calling on Gov. J.B. Pritzker to take immediate action amid the rising public health crisis.
How recreational weed went from illegal to essential in 3 months
SUN TIMES//Tom Schuba
Throngs of high-minded shoppers started flooding pot dispensaries when sales of recreational weed kicked off in Illinois at the start of the year. Less than three months later, that type of mass clamoring is strictly forbidden as social distancing measures have been put in place to quell the spread of the novel coronavirus. In the uncertain age of COVID-19, when news and information travels almost as fast as the virus itself, Jan. 1 likely seems like a lifetime ago to many cannabis users.
SUN TIMES//Rachel Hinton
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle announced Thursday that the county will waive a number of fines and fees and defer the collection of some taxes to aid businesses grappling with coronavirus containment efforts. “This is no ordinary time,” Preckwinkle said at a Thursday news conference. “The [coronavirus] pandemic is not only a public health crisis, but also an economic, financial crisis. ...
Scooter companies find dockless riding and pandemics don't mix
BLOOMBERG//Staff
(Bloomberg) — Dockless scooter companies charged into cities in 2018, promising a mobility revolution with cheap, clean rides and billions in venture capital backing. Yet they soon faced roadblocks, including shaky business models, safety concerns, and fast-moving city regulators. At the start of 2020, cash-losing operators were shrinking their headcounts and vehicle fleets.
BLOCK CLUB//Staff
CHICAGO — A South Side grandmother who called out a fellow grocery shopper for peddling coronavirus conspiracy theories got high praise Thursday from Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. “I don’t know if you saw the video of Bonnie from Chicago who made a video of herself and posted it on Twitter about her social distancing herself from somebody, and that person essentially calling her a kook,” the governor said at his daily media briefing.
CHICAGO
CRAIN’S//Greg Hinz
The Chicago metropolitan area lost population once again in the last year, with metro New York and Los Angeles also joining in the drop. That’s the word from the U.S. Census Bureau in its last official estimate to be released before the decennial count—now underway—is completed.
The bureau estimates in the year ended July 1, 2019, population in the Illinois/Wisconsin/Indiana metro area dipped by about 36,000 residents, to 9,458,539.
FULL TRANSCRIPTS
ABC7 News at 6PM: MLL and DFSS launch COVID-19 Housing Assistance Grant program
ANCHOR: Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot starting a new program to give some relief to residents struggling to pay their rent or mortgage. 1000 Chicagoans can get 1000 dollars, this is all part of the covid-19 housing assistance program. you do have to apply. there are criteria. we have all that information for you on our website. that is also where we have the latest information and an interactive guide for you. type in abc7chicago.com/coronavirus.
NBC5 News at 6PM: MLL closes lakefront, parks, and Riverwalk
*Audio from phone call with MLL
MLL: I think realistically we're looking at something that's going to stretch deep into april.
ANCHOR: heath experts anticipate the next two weeks will be the most challenging. Many people asking how long the stay at home order will last. Mayor Lightfoot offering some guidance on that today
AHERN: rob, this is the question everyone is asking, the stay-at-home order is in place until april 7th, but many anticipate it will be extended beyond that date.
PRITZKER: i'll be honest with you. we're in the midst of the biggest crisis in our lifetimes, at least in my lifetime across the nation.
AHERN: the covid-19 crisis has streets empty in chicago, only essential workers allowed to be out and about and many asking will the order to stay at home be extended beyond april 7th?
MLL: I think realistically we're looking at something that's going to stretch deep into april.
AHERN: likewise in indiana, officials believe the covid-19 peak is weeks away.
GOV. HOLCOMB: if you don't think it's there and you don't think it's coming, we need to talk. it is.
AHERN: correction officials in indiana are using prisoners to make much-needed personal protective equipment.
This is the gown. this is actually material that we use to make pillows with and it's water proof. so they turned out pretty nice.
AHERN: the city of chicago is escalating its enforcement of keeping people home, not just closing the lakefront trails but asking the public to call 311 to report those working and are not considered essential.
GOV. PRITZKER: if i knew then what i know now, i probably would have put a stay at home order in back when we shut down the st. patrick’s day parades. But we’re evaluating the science as it comes in and making the moves we think are necessary.
AHERN: and gm will retrofit one of its plants to begin making respirators. governor pritzker responded that is great news.
FOX32 News at 5PM: Spike in Coronvirus cases among CPD
ANCHOR: we start with mike flannery and a spike in coronavirus cases within the chicago police department.
FLANNERY: In one day, the number of police officers testing positive for the coronavirus has nearly doubled. Most disturbing of all is that these new positive tests are coming from officers who are working in districts where other officers had previously tested positive for the coronavirus and the union president said every cop on the street is worried.
UNION PRESIDENT: it is about their personal safety, having protections, haing gloves, masks, and hand sanitizers but it is also about the possibility of bringing this home to your family and your children and your spouse. we are asking for the face shields, we’re asking for additional gowns. We are asking for the n95 masks. we are asking for whatever equipment is going to be available. certainly there are the white suits that look like hazmat suits.
FLANNERY: a police spokesman said 10 new cases of covid-19 were confirmed in officers today bringing the total to 21 officers who have tested positive for the virus. Police officers have gotten or will be getting masks, gloves, wipes, and sanitizers to clean the workspace, their patrol cars, etc.. the areas where they are touching or might be exposed potentially to some lingering traces of the virus. Now The union has asked that roll calls be canceled. the police department has said that roll call's in groups of six are being done for now. The union also would like the city to set up a first responders testing center so that officers can get tests done at 35th and Michigan, both the officers and paramedics and firefighters. the union is also asking that the lobbies of district station houses be closed to the public except in cases of emergency. so far, says a police spokesman, that is not going to be done.
NBC5 News at 4PM: MLL and DFSS launch COVID-19 Housing Assistance Grant program
*audio from phone call with MLL
*MLL: I think realistically we're looking at something that's going to stretch deep into april and, you know, again subject to change and modeling and so forth but, you know, the governor's teams are very able.
ANCHOR: slowing the virus is the key to lifting the orders here in illinois.
AHERN: so many are asking how long will this stay-at-home order be in place. while it is governor pritzker's call, there was guidance from Mayor Lightfoot as she spoke to reporters by teleconference.
MLL: I think realistically we're looking at something that's going to stretch deep into april and, you know, again subject to change and modeling and so forth but, you know, the governor's teams are very able.
AHERN: Mayor Lightfoot announced emergency housing assistance for those who have lost their jobs. 2,000 people impacted by covid-19 can apply to receive $1,000 each to help pay with rent and mortgage payments. Lightfoot also says it's important not only that only essential workers should be out and about right now because the next few weeks are critical to slowing the virus. the city says complaints should be sent to 311 about businesses violating that order. and the emergency planning of possibly turning mccormick place into a hospital continues when we heard earlier from the health commissioner. and governor pritzker announced more than ever there are those answering the call. 500 retired health care workers have applied to renew their licenses to help relieve the stress. They must have active licenses to return to work and the state has received more than 600 applications for small group child care for those essential workers. He also addressed the need for more emergency equipment.
GOV. PRITZKER: we need thousands more ventilators. I was on the phone today with one of the ventilator manufacturers trying to get a hold of those thousands more ventilators. as many as we can in short order. unfortunately, you know, as you hear time and time again like I was just saying, you're competing against everybody all the time.
AHERN: whether it was governor pritzker or Mayor Lightfoot, the bottom line today, the next two weeks are expected to be very challenging and it's important to honor the request to stay home and save lives.
ABC7 News at 4PM: MLL and BACP warn non-essential businesses to follow orders
*MLL: investigators have been responding to complaints and taking proactive measures to make sure that there is enforcement following up on complaints regarding employers that have not been abiding by the rules of the road.
ANCHOR: saturday will mark one week since the governor’s stay-at-home order went into effect but there is still confusion over which businesses are considered to be essential. Mark Rivera with more.
RIVERA: Things that are essential, health care organizations and workers, police and fire, convenience stores, dry cleaners, and supermarkets, construction and maintaining infrastructure like wireless communication workers like Jonathan McKinley and his staff.
MICKINLEY: their cell phone might be their only source of communication with their loved ones. RIVERA: they are climbing cell towers to keep your calls and data flowing. places like theaters, the opera house, amusement parks, museum, playgrounds, even country clubs, have all been ordered to close. And the city says it is cracking down, threateing up to $10,000 in fines if non-essential businesses do not close down.
MLL: investigators have been responding to complaints and taking proactive measures to make sure that there is enforcement following up on complaints regarding employers that have not been abiding by the rules of the road.
RIVERA: gyms are shut, restaurants, if they are open are only available for takeout or delivery from another essential worker like 66-year-old delivery driver, brian linker.
LINKER: a lot of the people that you deliver to are really appreciative of what you do.
RIVERA: hardware stores are open and west side garden center and design studio city escape has opted to stay open as well after reducing staff to only three and personally checking with the governor's office.
CHICAGOAN: we do sell seeds and you can see that there are fresh herbs in front of the store. So that is a food supply. So we are trying to give people a small outlet.
RIVERA: they’re also offering curbside plant pickup. the city is asking that you call 311 to report an open business that shouldn’t be.
thank you for that.
WGN News at 4PM: MLL closes lakefront, parks, and Riverwalk
*MLL: I think realistically we're looking at something that is going to stretch it deep into April. And you know, again, subject to change in modeling and so forth but you know, the governor’s team are very able, they're looking at similar data to what we are.
ANCHOR: chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot predicted that illinois residents may have to stay home for several more weeks, although the Mayor did admit the decision is ultimately governor pritzker's call, but she says she doesn't see the order being lifted any time soon.
MLL: I think realistically we're looking at something that is going to stretch it deep into April. And you know, again, subject to change in modeling and so forth but you know, the governor’s team are very able, they're looking at similar data to what we are.
ANCHOR: within the last hour, the governor said that he is making decisions based on data and he's not ready to say the stay at home order will be extended. yesterday the Mayor shut down the lakefront it's adjacent parks, the 6 o 6 trail and the river walk because people were not practicing social distancing.
CBS2 News at 11AM: MLL and BACP warn non-essential businesses to follow orders
ANCHOR: as the city continues to try to slow the spread of covid-19, a crackdown on nonessential businesses. Mayor Lori Lightfoot is warning employers that no one should be forced to go to work at a business that does not qualify as essential. you can call 311 to complain and if city investigators find the business in violation, the owner could face up to a $10,000 fine.
NBC5 News at 11AM: MLL and BACP warn non-essential businesses to follow orders
ANCHOR: Mayor Lightfoot is putting some business owners on notice right now. the statewide stay-at-home order requires nonessential businesses to close. City Hall says any still open could face up to $10,000 in fines. City investigators will investigate complaints from employees or others who call 311. all businesses can face fines if they force an employee to work while sick or if they refuse to pay them paid sick leave. employees can call 311 to file a complaint. Businesses can face fines of up to $1,000 per employee per investigation
CBS2 News at 11AM: MLL closes lakefront, parks, and Riverwalk
ANCHOR: and remember that the lakefront is off limits, Mr. Jogger you see there, police stopped him this morning. Mayor Lightfoot closed the beaches, parks and the river walk yesterday after seeing crowds gathered at those locations. chicago police are issuing warnings for first-time offenders but may ticket or arrest anyone that continues to disobey.
CBS2 News at 11AM: MLL says she is looking into options to keep CTA drivers safe
ANCHOR: cta workers are pleading for safety measures as they work on crowded buses and l trains. while the transit agency says it has seen an 80% drop in ridership, some buses are seeing passengers of 10 or more especially in south side communities. drivers are not allowed to pass up any people along the way. the union president said when talking about social distancing, the Mayor should be including this problem.
HILL: when i see an image like that, i think of the danger they are placed in and what they could take home to their families. It’s very concerning
ANHCOR: the mayor said she is concerned about cutting service because for some people, public transportation is the only way for them to get around. she says she is looking at other options to keep drivers and riders safe. the cta also said they are following federal and health restrictions. so far two cta employees, a bus driver and train operator, have tested positive for coronavirus.
FULL ARTICLES
TRIBUNE//Jennifer Smith Richards, Jodi S. Cohen, and Haru Coryne
To encourage learning while schools are shut down, Illinois education officials have gathered online tools for educators and promoted the hashtag #keeplearning.
Some students in Illinois, however, won’t be able to watch their teacher conduct live science experiments or download a story time video. They don’t have a computer or high-speed internet at home, or a cellphone data plan that would support it.
A Chicago Tribune-ProPublica Illinois analysis found digital inequities across the state, the effects of which will be exacerbated as families are isolated inside their homes during the coronavirus pandemic. In more than 500 of the state’s roughly 3,100 census tracts, there were fewer than 600 quality connections per 1,000 residents, accounting for a significant portion of Illinois geography. At least 54 census tracts had even lower rates of connectivity as of the end of 2017, the analysis showed.
The Federal Communications Commission surveys the nation’s fixed internet service availability by collecting data through internet service providers twice a year. It defines fixed high-speed internet connections as those with adequate bandwidth to upload or download.
So if a provider offers service at least that fast for at least one household on a census-defined block, the entire area is considered served. The most recent data about individual connections is from the end of 2017 and was released last year; providers may have improved speeds and access since then.
The Tribune-ProPublica Illinois analysis of FCC data, combined with estimates of households per census tract, showed that in a high-poverty tract of St. Clair County, about 250 miles southwest of Chicago, there were fewer than 200 quality internet connections per 1,000 households. It was among the most underserved downstate areas, according to the analysis.
So, too, was Edgar County, in the central part of the state along the Indiana border. In three of the five census tracts there, there were fewer than 600 broadband connections per 1,000 households. In contrast, the census tracts served by the Maercker School District 60 in DuPage County all show close to one decent connection for every household.
Trico District 176, which straddles pieces of Jackson, Randolph and Perry counties in southwestern Illinois, draws students from seven census tracts. Only two of the tracts have what the FCC considers wide broadband internet coverage. In the rest of the area, fewer than 600 connections per 1,000 households are available in each tract, suggesting that hundreds of households lack basic service, the analysis shows.
Trico Superintendent Larry Lovel called the technology gap “a poverty issue, pure and simple.” He said he filled out a recent Illinois State Board of Education survey that asked for districts’ technology needs, but said he’s previously responded to many surveys like it. He said providing technology to close the gaps should be part of a consistent funding source, not one-time grants.
“I don’t want to sound crass,” he said, “but I don’t see it coming to light that a truck will end up driving up with 500 devices and 500 hot spots for the Trico district.”
Illinois has 852 public school districts, plus special education cooperatives and hundreds of private schools. All were ordered by Gov. J.B. Pritzker closed from March 17 to April 7 to try to slow the spread of COVID-19. Chicago Public Schools have already extended the closure until April 20, and others may as well.
Schools aren’t required to educate students during the closure, but they are encouraged to provide “educational opportunities.” Recent state guidance said districts that can provide virtual learning should do so.
That creates concern for rural districts in areas throughout the state without strong fixed broadband. In southeastern Illinois, the Carmi-White County district enrolls about 1,400 students who live within 240 square miles, much of it rural.
Carmi-White County school officials are surveying families this week to find out who has reliable internet service and who doesn’t. Analysis of the FCC and census data shows that the majority of households in the areas served by the district do not have adequate fixed internet connections.
“It is a concern of ours. That's why we're hoping that we're not mandated to do e-learning necessarily. ... But hopefully we can provide some hybrid opportunities,” Superintendent Brad Lee said. “There's some areas that just don't have very good service. So hopefully in those, we can provide hard copies of curriculum and learning opportunities for our kids.”
When it became clear that schools would likely be affected by virus-related closures, ISBE posted a survey asking superintendents to weigh in on their technology needs — both physical devices and the internet capabilities of students at home. The agency said it would work with the governor’s office and philanthropic community to “ensure that every public school has the technology needed to provide e-learning to all students in the immediate future.”
That survey showed that 433 districts — or 71% of all those that responded — said there were obstacles to teaching students remotely, ISBE spokeswoman Jackie Matthews said.
ISBE followed up with another survey that collected about 600 districts’ responses through March 25 to ask: Are you providing video lessons? Mobile applications? Requiring book reports?
An initial analysis of districts’ answers show that fewer than 10% of districts — 56 of them — are providing education solely online. Another 52 districts, or about 9%, were using paper-and-pencil methods only. And about 82% were trying to teach students using both online and analog methods.
Of the more than 600 respondents, a third said they’re delivering materials to students through bus routes or the mail. And a little more than half said educators had actually led video lessons.
Matthews said the state assembled an advisory group that “will explore what is possible and what is reasonable under these unprecedented circumstances, always recognizing the incredible diversity and varying capacity of Illinois' 852 school districts.”
Six school districts responded to the survey that they had no plan in place to offer remote learning.
Some districts are finding creative ways to get digital access to students who don’t have it. Near St. Louis, the Belleville Township High School District has repurposed four school buses as Wi-Fi hot spots. The district already owned the buses, which are Wi-Fi-equipped and used for field trips and academic, athletic and band activities.
“We thought, well, rather than have them sit … we've identified four parks each day within our boundaries and they sit in the park,” Assistant Superintendent Brian Mentzer said. “People pull up — they can be within about 300 feet of the bus — log in, download the information they need and then they have the opportunity to get their work if they don't have connectivity at home.”
About two weeks ago, Mentzer said, the district surveyed families about their digital capabilities. Although the area for the most part has strong broadband internet access, not everyone had Wi-Fi or enough devices to go around. The school bus Wi-Fi is strong enough to let several cars at once download schoolwork, he said.
“It worked out great. Someone had a great idea, and we made it work,” Mentzer said.
The digital divide, also referred to as the “homework gap,” is wider for teens who live in low-income households — those that earn less than $30,000 a year — with 1 in 5 lacking access to a computer or reliable internet, according to analysis by the Pew Research Center that relies on 2015 census data. It’s wider still for black and Hispanic teens from low-income homes, Pew found.
State Superintendent Carmen Ayala, in a letter to superintendents last week, said, “ISBE strongly encourages all school districts to provide learning opportunities to all students during these Act of God Days through whatever means possible.” The state school code says those types of emergency days don’t have to be made up.
Elgin District 46, one of the largest in the state, recently began giving Chromebooks to students from fifth through 12th grade, aided by a surge of new state funding intended to narrow the gap in resources between schools. By August of last school year, all of the district’s 14,000 high school students had a device they could take home. The district has about 26,000 Chromebooks, and more are being shipped this week; it has cost about $9 million so far.
With the need now more immediate, district officials are distributing Chromebooks from the schools to remaining students who don’t have one at home. Students in kindergarten through fourth grade are getting them this week.
“If this virus had struck three years ago, we would not be able to provide any sort of distance learning,” U-46 Superintendent Tony Sanders said. “We should be able to provide a device for every family to make sure their students can learn.”
TRIBUNE//Morgan Greene
The Lakefront Trail was officially closed to the public Thursday after a sunny day brought Chicagoans out in droves, but the Chicago Park District still hopes to tackle repairs on sections clobbered by erosion starting this spring.
There’s the impact of the coronavirus crisis on any business as usual. And lake levels are at near-record highs and not expected to subside soon. The Park District says its intent is always to get the trail back in shape as early as possible, but asphalt plants utilized for repairs close for the winter and normally open in the spring.
On the North Side, a portion of the pedestrian path south of Fullerton Avenue is sometimes submerged. On the South Side, past 47th Street, the path turns to rubble. Completion of the Navy Pier Flyover bike and pedestrian path has been delayed, as the paths between Oak and Ohio streets remain closed.
Last month, the Park District approved a contract to cover emergency assessments of lakefront damage caused by a January storm that generated waves nearing 20 feet. That storm caused $37 million in damage in Chicago and Cook County, harmed buildings along the lakefront and shut down parts of the Lakefront Trail.
“This winter we got so much damage that we are looking with engineers to make sure that there isn’t another engineering solution that we need to make sure that the trail is repaired in a proper fashion,” said Heather Gleason, the Park District’s director of planning and construction.
“If the best solution is going to be millions and millions of dollars, we’re really going to have to take a look at how do we get the trail open, and make it safe, and really make a determination of whether or not that might be a longer term solution,” Gleason said.
The pedestrian path between 47th and 50th streets on the South Side has suffered extensive erosion damage, with the trail cracked to pieces and, at one point, devoid of any flat surface.
“The lakefront is just the place to be,” said Dorothy Strang, a longtime Hyde Park resident, weeks before the trail shutdown. “And actually I feel safer walking amongst the rubble than I do out there with the bicyclists. I’m a senior citizen, and I’m pretty fit. But I’m no match for somebody on their fast bicycle.”
Strang said she was once among those who squabbled over shoreline protections at Promontory Point.
“But back when we were latching ourselves to trees, issues of climate change, of course, were nowhere on the horizon,” Strang said. “And you know, I might be willing to have a little more concrete revetment because this lakefront is our crowning glory. And it needs to be accessible. Not only safe, but accessible to people.”
That stretch is part of the Chicago Shoreline Protection Project, a decadeslong effort to combat erosion. Following emergency stone placement work along the coast led by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, leftover funding may be used for the trail, according to Army Corps Project Manager Mike Padilla. But work likely won’t start for months.
When the trail reopens, there may still be warnings to heed and detours to follow. Large concrete barriers have blocked the bike path near Fullerton and North Avenue. Runners may have to find other trails.
“I think runners are going to have to be patient over the summer,” said Gregg Hipp, of the Chicago Area Runners Association. “And then with our group training, which is probably about 1,000 runners between multiple sites on the Lakefront Trail every Saturday morning this summer, we’re going to have to find alternate routes.”
On an early March afternoon with sloshing waves that turned the pedestrian path into a pool, one area of the bike trail south of Fullerton had a few cones surrounding a bitten-off chunk.
More lake level rise is expected in the coming months — possibly another 6 inches according to the Army Corps and coastal engineers, Gleason said.
“That certainly could mean that even once we get things repaired, there might be sections that are underwater and will have to go to a shared trail solution,” she said, referring to the trail’s split into a pedestrian path and a bike path. “One of the best things of having two trails is that hopefully we can always keep one section open.”
With climate change and flooding issues, long-term shoreline protection is key, said Kyle Whitehead, of the Active Transportation Alliance.
And, Whitehead said, in this moment of crisis involving the coronavirus, it “reminds people how fortunate they are to have access to that resource and how critical it is to maintain it and invest in it, so it’s here not just through this crisis and maybe the aftermath, but for the long term.”
Undocumented immigrants face coronavirus, looming jobs crisis with no real safety net
SUN TIMES//Carlos Ballesteros
Hector and Sandra are scared. He’s diabetic and she has rheumatoid arthritis, putting them at higher risk of getting sick and dying from the coronavirus.
But since they’re undocumented, they have to keep working — no matter what.
“If we don’t work, we can’t survive. It’s just that simple,” Sandra said.
Hector and Sandra are pushing 50 and have lived in Chicago for nearly 20 years. Both of them work at a warehouse packaging Windex, Clorox disinfecting wipes and other cleaning supplies.
“They’re really busy right now,” Sandra said.
On March 11, the day the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic over the coronavirus, a worker near Sandra on the crowded warehouse assembly line started coughing.
“That worried me,” Sandra said. The rheumatoid arthritis weakens her immune system, she said, “and I already know to stay away from people who feel sick.”
Fearing the worst, she called off work the next week, but her husband still clocked in. The couple makes about $800 a week after taxes, just enough to cover the basics, including the $1,200 monthly rent for the two-bedroom apartment they share with their 13-year-old son.
“We both have to work to make it,” Sandra said. “I’m worried about my health, but what can I do?”
(The Sun-Times agreed not to use the last names of undocumented people quoted in this story.)
One day without work becomes a crisis
There are around 400,000 undocumented immigrants in Illinois. None of them can claim unemployment insurance even if, like Hector and Sandra, they’ve paid into the system for years.
Tax-paying undocumented immigrants were also excluded from receiving $1,200 checks from the federal government in the Senate’s $2 trillion stimulus package passed Wednesday. Those checks are reserved for qualified workers with Social Security numbers.
Nearly half of undocumented are uninsured, according to a recent analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit health care think-tank. That means there’s a high chance many of them who feel sick are still going to work, said Jorge Mujica, an immigrant and labor rights organizer with Arise Chicago.
“There’s no real safety net for undocumented immigrants, not even during a pandemic,” Mujica said. “Most undocumented immigrants don’t have paid time off or sick leave. If they’re sent home, they’re left without an income at all. One day without work for them becomes a crisis.”
Many undocumented immigrants have seen their jobs evaporate in recent weeks.
Maria, 48, worked for nine years as a housekeeper at a downtown hotel before she was fired March 18 along with 20 of her coworkers, most of whom are also undocumented.
“I asked why they were firing us instead of laying us off, but they said they couldn’t give us any more information,” she said.
Maria had health insurance through her housekeeping job, which also covered her three sons and her husband, who works construction. “We all depended on that health insurance,” she said. “Now what are we supposed to do?”
To keep calm, Maria tries to stay off Facebook and watches the news only once a day. But without a job and unsure if she’ll get help from the government, she’s having a hard time keeping her head up.
“It’s really depressing. I want to work, and now I can’t,” she said. “I wasn’t worried that much about the virus. I always took care of myself and bought disinfectant and cleaning supplies. I taught my kids how to wash their hands all the time. But not having a job makes it a lot harder not to panic.”
‘I’m their safety net right now’
As undocumented immigrants feel the pinch, their children are stepping up to keep their households afloat.
Martha Diaz is one of an estimated 35,000 young people in Illinois who have temporary legal status through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The 22-year-old works full time as a digital marketing strategist for an auto parts company in Broadview. She’s also a full-time student in her final year at Dominican University.
Diaz’s classes and her job have moved online, meaning she spends all of her time at her South Side home that she shares with her three siblings and their parents, both of whom are undocumented.
“My dad’s having trouble finding work,” she said. “My mom works with elderly clients as a home health aide but last week they told her not to go in anymore because of the coronavirus.”
“It feels like I’m their safety net right now,” Diaz said. “My parents always told us to save money, so I have some in the bank. But I don’t know if my company will start having to lay off people because there’s no income coming in. I guess we’ll see.”
How recreational weed went from illegal to essential in 3 months
SUN TIMES//Tom Schuba
Throngs of high-minded shoppers started flooding pot dispensaries when sales of recreational weed kicked off in Illinois at the start of the year.
Less than three months later, that type of mass clamoring is strictly forbidden as social distancing measures have been put in place to quell the spread of the novel coronavirus. In the uncertain age of COVID-19, when news and information travels almost as fast as the virus itself, Jan. 1 likely seems like a lifetime ago to many cannabis users.
Unlike thousands of businesses, however, pot stores have been able to keep their doors open under Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s statewide stay-at-home order, which labeled all dispensaries and cultivation centers “essential businesses.” The decision to allow the high times to keep rolling amid the rising public health crisis is an acknowledgment that, for many Illinoisans, buying weed is as vital as doing laundry or grocery shopping.
“People all over the nation are running to cannabis right now,” said Margo Vesely, executive of the Illinois chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, the country’s oldest weed advocacy group.
“People are selling out just like we are selling out of necessities, just like toilet paper and bread. A lot of people are dependent on it,” added Vesely, who noted that alcohol sales are also still allowed.
Similar to ibuprofen
As similar stay-at-home directives are being issued in states across the country, many have deemed marijuana businesses essential. In Massachusetts, medical sales are allowed to continue but recreational operations were forced to shut down on Monday — a move pot advocates said was short-sighted.
Vesely argued that it’s important for people who use the drug for health and wellness purposes to continue to have access to recreational pot. That’s because many of them simply can’t afford to pay for a doctor’s visit to get a prescription or the $100 registration fee for a medical license.
Meanwhile, Kris Krane, president of the Mission dispensary in South Chicago, likened recreational cannabis to over-the-counter medications, like ibuprofen.
“Saying we can’t be open for adult-use but we can only be open for medical would be akin to saying that CVS can only sell prescription medication,” Krane said.
On top of that, Krane noted, many people in Illinois simply need “stress relief in a time like this.”
“People might snicker about it, but it’s incredibly important,” said Krane. “People need some way to chill out, to unwind.”
Political sea change
While recreational weed is now considered essential in Illinois, it was still illegal just three months ago. The about-face can largely be attributed to Pritzker, who ran on a platform to end Illinois’ pot prohibition and made good on the promise.
Months before Pritzker announced his candidacy in 2017, his Republican predecessor Bruce Rauner came out strongly against the legalization of recreational marijuana, which he said would be a “mistake.”
Throughout his single term as governor, Rauner resisted multiple efforts to expand the medical program — though he also signed a bill that decriminalized pot in 2016. When he struck a deal with lawmakers that same year to extend the medical program for three years and add two qualifying conditions, he forced the Medical Cannabis Advisory Board to disband, Chicago Magazine reported.
The Chicago Democrats who led the legalization push, state Rep. Kelly Cassidy and state Sen. Heather Steans, first introduced legislation to legalize recreational weed the following year, but the dueling bills failed to gain traction in Springfield.
By the end of Rauner’s tenure, he signed off on an expansion to the program by establishing the Opioid Alternative Pilot Program, which gives people prescribed opioids access to medical weed. But even when he signed that bill, Rauner said he was “very much opposed to legalizing recreational marijuana.”
After unseating Rauner in the 2018 election, Pritzker championed new legislation introduced by Steans, Cassidy and other pro-pot lawmakers that sought to make the state’s nascent cannabis industry an inclusive engine for social change. In June, just over six months after taking office, he fully legalized weed statewide with the stroke of a pen.
For Krane, who has worked in the cannabis world for decades, Pritzker’s latest move to deem pot businesses as essential — which drew virtually no public opposition — is “a sign of how far we’ve come on this issue.”
SUN TIMES//Rachel Hinton
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle announced Thursday that the county will waive a number of fines and fees and defer the collection of some taxes to aid businesses grappling with coronavirus containment efforts.
“This is no ordinary time,” Preckwinkle said at a Thursday news conference. “The [coronavirus] pandemic is not only a public health crisis, but also an economic, financial crisis. ... We hope this can provide some breathing room for businesses that are struggling. We recognize that you are worried about rents, about payroll about mounting bills — you should not be worried that the tax collector is coming after you as well.”
The county’s Home Rule taxes — which include the alcoholic beverage, amusement, tobacco, gasoline and hotel accommodations taxes — have been deferred for the February and March tax periods until May. No penalties or interest will be applied during the extension period.
Consumers will still be required to pay the taxes when making purchases, but the store or other business will get a break in the time frame for forwarding the revenue to the county.
Fines and fees typically administered by the Departments of Transportation and Highways, Environment and Sustainability, Revenue, Building and Zoning and Public Health will also be delayed or extended, with many not needing to be paid until July or August.
For businesses, the relief plan could free up about $35 million, which is the amount of money the county normally sees from the collection of those taxes.
Ammar Rizki, the county’s chief financial officer, said that the move will hit the county’s pocketbook, but reserves will allow the government body to stay afloat.
“We’ve been preparing for a downturn through ... prudent fiscal management, and so that allows us to be able to manage this stuff and share some of that burden with our businesses,” Rizki said.
Key business groups support the measures.
The relief “allows businesses to have access to extra cash flow that is vital for them to maintain operations and to keep people employed,” said Jack Lavin, the CEO of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.
Tanya Triche Dawood, vice president and general counsel of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, said the plan is “a wonderful example of how local governments can be a great source of help to business owners, at a critical time of need.”
“While our grocery stores are filled with customers, other segments of the retail industry are frankly still just trying to hold on,” Dawood said. “Delaying the payment of taxes and fines and fees and eliminating fines and fees while the delay is occurring provides critical liquidity, which is the number one thing that I’m hearing from business owners that they need right now. They need cash flow, they need access to cash. This is exactly what this measure will do for them.”
Officer among two more CPD employees diagnosed with COVID-19
SUN TIMES//Staff
Two additional Chicago Police Department members have been diagnosed with the coronavirus.
An officer assigned to a district on the South Side and a civilian employee who works at a West Side district tested positive, bringing the total number of confirmed cases within the department to 11, police said Thursday.
Interim CPD Supt. Charlie Beck announced new department protocols Wednesday to prevent the spread of the disease among officers.
A man was arrested Monday night after allegedly entering the 11th District police station and coughing on front desk staff, police said. Another man was charged with coughing in an officer’s face Sunday morning and claiming he had the coronavirus.
On Thursday, health officials announced an additional 673 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the state’s total to 2,538 cases. So far, 26 people have died from the outbreak in Illinois.
Like shootings, Chicago’s anti-violence efforts remain despite pandemic
SUN TIMES//Sam Charles
In spite of a pandemic and a statewide stay-at-home order, shootings in Chicago remain a constant. But so do anti-violence efforts in the city’s neighborhoods most plagued by gunfire.
Albeit with a few tweaks to strategies in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, community outreach work is still being performed in an effort to tamp down the city’s entrenched violence.
“It’s definitely a different dynamic because we’ve never dealt with a pandemic like this, aside from the violence, because that’s a pandemic,” said Deon Patrick, the outreach supervisor at the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago’s site in Austin.
On Wednesday, 12 people were shot across Chicago, making it the most violent day the city has seen since the state’s stay-at-home order went into effect over the weekend.
Over the first two-and-a-half months of 2020, killings in Chicago are up 43%. As of early Sunday, 90 homicides had been recorded in Chicago so far this year, according to a Chicago Sun-Times tally. In the CPD’s Austin District, where Patrick and his team concentrate their efforts, shootings are up 56% so far this year, according to CPD data.
Employees of the institute are considered “essential” under the state order, which allows them to move around, according to an organization spokeswoman.
The outreach teams need to be outside, too. The people who Patrick and his team are trying to reach — those who have a higher likelihood to be involved in violence — are still out and about, he said.
“We don’t actually knock [on] doors, most of our target population is outside,” Patrick said. “So we try to get high-risk individuals in the community that are hanging out and who are most at risk of actually getting shot or being the victim of violence.”
Along with Austin, the institute operates sites in West Garfield Park and Back of the Yards and the three offices work collaboratively at times. Shortly before speaking with the Sun-Times Thursday, Patrick and his team from Austin were assisting the West Garfield Park outreach workers after two people were shot near Madison and Keeler.
Beyond his day-in-day-out efforts, Patrick is deeply connected to his work.
He served 21 years in prison after he was found guilty in a 1992 double murder in Uptown. In 2014, the Cook County state’s attorney’s office dismissed the charges against him. Patrick sued the city, seven CPD officers and two prosecutors. A federal jury awarded him more than $13 million in 2017.
“It’s definitely personal,” he said. “With me, I feel I have a moral obligation to try to change the narrative for myself as well as try to change the dynamic for the kids that are growing up in our communities now.”
Earlier in the day Thursday, Patrick and his team were at Lake and Central to pass out information on how people can best protect themselves from the spread of COVID-19.
“We’ve just been passing out information about the risk and what it takes to get rid of this stuff, what we can do to get it back under control,” he said. “We’ve started seeing less and less people out every day. I think more people are buying in the more it’s being expressed on the news and [in] other avenues that are getting the word out.”
Scooter companies find dockless riding and pandemics don't mix
BLOOMBERG//Staff
(Bloomberg) — Dockless scooter companies charged into cities in 2018, promising a mobility revolution with cheap, clean rides and billions in venture capital backing. Yet they soon faced roadblocks, including shaky business models, safety concerns, and fast-moving city regulators. At the start of 2020, cash-losing operators were shrinking their headcounts and vehicle fleets.
Now as governments around the world fight to slow the coronavirus pandemic, micromobility companies are facing a deeper existential challenge. The two largest global operators, Lime and Bird, drastically reduced fleets by mid March. Several other startups, including Wheels and Jump, say they’re looking at how to continue operating as cities issue lockdown orders and demand plummets. The appeal of sharing a high-touch vehicle with an unknown number of strangers has succumbed to the fear of viral transmission.
Lime’s CEO and co-founder Brad Bao wrote in a blog post on March 21 that the startup is “winding down or pausing” service in all markets but South Korea. Prior to the pandemic, the company operated nearly 120,000 scooters in 30 countries across the Americas and Europe. Bird announced it is removing its fleets in six U.S. cities: Miami and Coral Gables, Fla.; Portland, Ore.; and Sacramento, San Francisco, and San Jose. It had already pulled vehicles from 21 European cities.
Jump, a subsidiary of Uber Technologies Inc., has paused electric bike and scooter rentals in most of its European markets and trimmed the size of its fleets across the U.S. It stopped service entirely in Sacramento at the city’s request. Lyft Inc. has continued to operate its network of mostly docked bikeshare systems in eight U.S. markets. So far, it’s kept dockless scooters available for rent in all urban markets but Miami. Every company with vehicles in circulation said that they have heightened their handlebar sanitation protocols and are encouraging riders to do the same.
The sudden disappearance of scooters and e-bikes comes after months of industry turbulence. Lime and Bird have struggled to raise money from investors, and both cut staff starting late last year. The companies, once singularly focused on growth, have realized their problematic business plans need rethinking.
Last year, talks of an acquisition of either company by Uber didn’t pan out. Some industry watchers said the eye-popping valuations of each—in 2019 Lime and Bird hit $2.4 billion and $2.5 billion, respectively—were a factor. The Information reported on Thursday that layoffs are now imminent at Lime, as it seeks emergency funding at a valuation of just $400 million. (A Lime communications officer denied that layoffs are coming.) Uber and Lyft, both of which went public in 2019, conducted layoffs in their own micromobility divisions late last year, and both recently pulled dockless vehicles from several markets.
Wheels and Lime say ridership was rising before the start of widespread social distancing. The decisions to reduce urban fleets now have been motivated largely by a sense of responsibility for the health of their riders and workers who maintain the vehicles, Lime and Bird say. The economics of the business is also an undeniable factor, said David Spielfogel, Lime’s chief policy officer and a former senior adviser to ex-Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. “If everyone is sheltering in place and not moving around, the business is no longer sustainable,” he said. Tourists, which generate significant scooter ridership in many cities, have also vanished from most markets. While there may be ways for Lime to generate revenue during the crisis, that’s not a priority while people are at home, and “governments are trying to get the virus under control,” Spielfogel said.
Many investors, already skeptical about the viability of the e-scooter business, say the current situation could be the nail in the coffin for an industry beset by financial, safety, and regulatory woes. “I’ve heard a number of people compare the plight of the scooter companies to Uber and Lyft. Like them, scooters are seeing plummeting usage,” says Aaron Michel, a partner at the early-stage venture capital firm 1984 Ventures, which has no investments in the micromobility space. “Unlike Uber and Lyft, though, the verdict was pretty much in on the scooter industry before the virus arrived.” Companies without major backers will go under, he expects, while deeper-pocketed businesses will pare back to bare minimums.
Emily Castor Warren, a principal and director of policy at the transportation planning firm Nelson\Nygaard and a former director of policy at both Lyft and Lime, agreed that the pandemic could be a death knell for scooter businesses with large overhead costs, especially those that were already in an uncertain financial position. “I think it’s pretty dire,” she says. “If these lockdowns persist, they’re going to have to, at the very least, undertake major layoffs to core teams, because the one cost they can’t bring down to zero is salaries for headcount and real estate for their offices.”
The short-term outlook may not be so precarious for every micromobility company. Wheels, a startup that operates dockless electric minibikes in 17 cities in Europe and the U.S., raised $50 million in October in a funding round led by DBL Partners. Scooter operator Spin hasn’t felt the same capital pressure as some of its peers—it’s owned by the Ford Motor Co.
Still, last week Wheels decided to temporarily “stop deploying bikes” until the end of March, according to a press release. And until this week, Spin was the sole scooter provider to maintain normal operations—in its case, serving 66 U.S. cities and 12 college campuses—but it changed course on Tuesday. The company will retain scooters only in Austin, Baltimore, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, Portland, Ore., San Francisco, Tampa, and Washington, D.C.
“We have made the decision to pause our operations, as of today, in all other cities due to significant demand drop off as communities combat the fast-spreading virus,” the company’s co-founders wrote in a Medium post. “This pause will remain in effect until further notice.” Spin’s communications staff couldn’t clarify which specific markets would be losing vehicles, and Ford’s communications team rebuffed multiple requests for interviews with executives.
Molly Turner, a lecturer in business and public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and an adviser to technology startups including Spin, said the cities the company is continuing to serve may indicate where it’s had the greatest financial success to date. The markets Spin is pulling out of may show “where scooters weren’t a viable business or didn’t have enough penetration to succeed without the special partnerships or promotions that are impossible right now,” she says.
That may be the case for all companies in question, as travel right now, no matter what the mode of transportation, has come to a near standstill. Several scooter operators, including Jump, Lime, Spin, and Wheels, are considering opportunities to partner with local governments or essential service providers as a way to continue operations, as residents avoid buses, trains, and other public transit under shelter-in-place mandates. New York City saw ridership on its Citi Bike system jump 67% in mid-March, after Mayor Bill de Blasio announced social distancing guidelines. On March 21, ridership on the city’s subway, the nation’s largest mass transit system, was down 87% from the same time last year.
Some investors view the decline in transit use as one reason for optimism about the mid-term prospects for micromobility. Assuming commuters remain skittish about crowding into buses and subway cars after the shelter-in-place orders lift, scooter and e-bike companies could take the opening to push for looser regulations and the reversal of the scooter bans ordered in some world cities, says Bradley Tusk, a co-founder and managing partner of Tusk Ventures, an investor in Bird, and former deputy governor of the state of Illinois. “With warming weather, better needs, and arguments for legalization and less saturated markets, [and] with companies like Lime contracting, there’s a legitimate opportunity over the next 3-6 months,” he wrote in an email.
An additional upside could come in selling or leasing scooters and e-bikes directly to riders, says Niko Bonatsos, managing director at General Catalyst, an early-stage venture capital fund that hasn’t invested in dockless rentals. “Right now we hate each other and can’t stand each other’s company, and getting an Uber or grabbing someone else’s shared scooter might not be the best idea,” he said. “But if you have your own bike, now is the time to use it.” Bird offers a monthly leasing program, as does the electric moped startup Zebra.
For cities that have come to value shared micromobility services as a sustainable transportation option, subsidizing them may be the only way to secure their existence long-term, Castor Warren says. Some traditional docked bikeshare systems, including those in Boston, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., are owned by local governments but operated by Lyft. “In that model the city has more ability to ensure continuity of operations and ensure that service will be provided to the public, because they’ve extended their own resources, even if the bottom falls out of the economy,” she says.
Such a scenario would prove what skeptics have said about dockless scooters and ride-hailing companies from the start. History has shown that establishing a new transportation service often requires massive subsidies from investors or governments.
For now, even though they may be allowed to continue to operate in many cities, the scooter companies are going it alone. Says Turner: “They’re not getting a bailout from Congress.”
Mayor Lori Lightfoot guarding the lakefront is now a meme
SUN TIMES//Alice Bazerghi
Mayor Lori Lightfoot is fed up.
After seeing throngs of people enjoying a spring day at the lakefront and 606 trail despite her instructions to stay home to stop the spread of the coronavirus, she reached her breaking point Thursday.
Now, the lakefront is closed, along with all its parks and beaches, the 606 is closed, and Millennium Park and the downtown Riverwalk are locked down indefinitely.
It’s no joke: barricades are up, and cops are prowling the streets, turning the rare jogger or dog walker away. Warnings will be issued, and then citations that carry the possibility of a $500 fine to those who disobey. Repeat offenders could even face arrest, police said.
Most residents are now heeding the warning, and the weather is helping: ever since that sunny, 60-degree Wednesday, it’s been much colder and rainy. For most, it’s not even nice enough for a walk around the block.
Now that Chicagoans have nothing to do but stay inside and scroll social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Reddit, memes that only locals would appreciate are inevitably cropping up.
The latest trend pokes fun at the harsh new reality by photoshopping a stony-faced Lightfoot blocking entrance to the outdoor spaces her administration has closed.
In one photoshopped image, Lightfoot stands in front of police barricades blocking the lakefront trail from rule-breakers, emitting the vibe of a middle school principal who just walked into a classroom that’s gone off the rails.
In another, the same photo of Lightfoot is pasted on a stairway leading up to the lakefront trail (taken by Sun-Times photographer Ashlee Rezin Garcia) as a woman jogs by. This time, the photo of Lightfoot was flipped so she appears to be glaring at the runner.
Some versions are less realistic: in another, Lightfoot is standing on top of a police car in a freeze-frame image from Fox 32 Chicago’s newscast.
And in another equally funny image, she’s peering down from her perch on top of a traffic light.
The mastermind behind the now-viral meme seems to be Danny Martinez, who originally posted the photos on Facebook, captioned “Got da Lightfoot OUT HERE out here enforcing.” He wrote in the same post that he started an Instagram account to highlight his meme series. Martinez did not respond to a request for an interview Friday morning.
The mayor, who is no doubt extremely busy, also did not return requests for comment.
BLOCK CLUB//Staff
CHICAGO — With many Chicagoans not practicing proper social distancing as COVID-19 continues to spread, Mayor Lori Lightfoot laid down the law Thursday.
“Your conduct, yours, is posing a direct threat to our public health,” Lightfoot said of people still crowding outside despite the pandemic. “And without question, your failure to abide by these life-saving orders will erase any progress we have made over the past week in slowing the spread of this disease and could lead to more deaths.”
The mayor shut down the lakefront, the Riverwalk and The 606, used her daily press briefing to deliver a stern public warning to take the stay at home order seriously and then sent out an emergency alert text to phones across the city.
The alert, signed “Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot,” caught many by surprise and launched a wave of memes and tweets showing a stern Lori Lightfoot that you should absolutely not mess with.
The most popular memes have been from the @WheresLightfoot Instagram account, in which the mayor, looking stern, is Photoshopped into scenes from the lakefront Wednesday, when police sent people home.
Some examples from the account:
Coronavirus In Chicago: City Becoming A ‘Hot Spot’ As Cases Hit 1,149, White House Warns
BLOCK CLUB//Kelly Bauer
CHICAGO — Cook County is becoming one of the United States’ “hot spots” for coronavirus, a White House official said as cases in Chicago passed the 1,000 mark.
So far, Chicago has had 1,149 confirmed cases of coronavirus, accounting for about 45 percent of the 2,538 confirmed cases in all of Illinois.
The quick growth of cases here means Chicago is becoming a hot spot in the nation for coronavirus, as is New Orleans, Dallas, Detroit and Philadelphia, among other cities, said Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator.
At the same time, Birx dismissed concerns there will be ventilator and hospital bed shortages.
But that’s exactly what local officials are preparing for as cases surge in Illinois.
There are already “dozens and dozens” of patients in intensive care units throughout the city, said Dr. Allison Arwady, head of the Chicago Department of Public Health. And Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Chicago could expect upwards of 40,000 hospitalizations in the coming weeks.
“That number will break our health care system,” Lightfoot said Thursday.
Already, the city is in talks to bring thousands of hospital beds to McCormick Place’s East Building and is renting thousands of hotel rooms in hopes people with mild cases and those who need to isolate can stay there.
The McCormick Place plans are “part of our pandemic planning, but it is not something I have ever wanted to consider seriously in Chicago,” Arwady said. “But we’re talking about it not in theoretical ways. We’re working right now to do everything we can to protect our health care system.”
The city is also talking about how it could set up morgues in parking lots if necessary, Arwady said.
The city has also shut down lakefront-adjacent parks, the Lakefront Trail, the Riverwalk and the 606. Throughout Illinois, people are living under a newly enacted stay at home order and bars, restaurants and schools have been closed.
Officials hope those efforts — among others — mean fewer people will get sick and health care workers and hospitals won’t be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of cases here.
It’s been too soon to tell what impact those measures have had on efforts to “bend the curve” and slow the growth of coronavirus cases in Chicago and all of Illinois.
Illinois is still seeing exponential growth in coronavirus cases, but the caseload is “slightly under predictions” that were made at the start of the crisis, said Dr. Ngozi Ezike, head of the Illinois Department of Public Health, during a Thursday briefing.
Officials doubled down on their pleas for people to stay home on Thursday, saying that’s the best way to limit the spread of the virus.
If you are not social distancing, Gov. JB Pritzker said, “You are spitting in the face of the doctors and nurses and first responders who are risking everything so that you can survive. We are quite literally in the middle of a battle to save your life.”
Pritzker has a press conference at 2:30 p.m.
UChicago Medicine Brings Furloughed Workers Back, Requires All Employees To Wear Masks
BLOCK CLUB//Maxwell Evans
HYDE PARK — University of Chicago Medicine will bring back workers temporarily laid off due to coronavirus precautions and require all employees to wear masks in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus.
The university furloughed asymptomatic workers known to have been exposed to the disease or who had recently traveled to a country with “high infection rates.”
Starting Friday, asymptomatic workers will be brought back, as the furlough policy “no longer provides the right level of protection for patients and other staff.”
Employees with respiratory or flu-like symptoms, a fever or who have tested positive for COVID-19 are prohibited from working until cleared to return.
All employees must wear “some type of facemask when working on the medical campus,” whether that be N95, surgical or cloth masks.
The Centers for Disease Control and Infection list cloth masks as an appropriate alternative during “crisis situations.”
Crises require “strategies that are not commensurate with U.S. standards of care” but “may need to be considered during periods of known facemask shortages,” according to the CDC.
If cloth masks run low, employees will be issued a procedural mask until UChicago Medicine’s supplies are replenished, according to a press release.
“We are optimistic that having a universal masking policy, ending furloughs for asymptomatic employees, and practicing effective social distancing will mean we can protect our workforce from viral spread,” executive vice president for medical affairs Kenneth Polonsky said.
BLOCK CLUB//Staff
CHICAGO — A South Side grandmother who called out a fellow grocery shopper for peddling coronavirus conspiracy theories got high praise Thursday from Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.
“I don’t know if you saw the video of Bonnie from Chicago who made a video of herself and posted it on Twitter about her social distancing herself from somebody, and that person essentially calling her a kook,” the governor said at his daily media briefing. “There are still people out there who don’t believe this is real.”
The governor said people like that need to wake up, look at the facts and know that hospitals are crowded with sick people.
“The point is they should see what’s happening around, and look at the numbers, and they will see that Bonnie right. And that the people who are social distancing and managing that are right.
“So please everybody take responsibility for yourself. If you see the grocery store is crowded, you don’t need to be there at that hour. Grocery stores are open for many hours, they are not crowded at all. And by the way, those shelves are being restocked. … Do the right thing.”
Bonnie Tracy recorded the video and posted it to Facebook on Friday, but it only started spreading widely this week.
In it, Tracy said she recently went to a Mariano’s grocery store and tried to politely get past a woman. She put her jacket over her mouth while doing so because the woman was close, and being nearly 75 years old, Tracy is considered high-risk for contracting the disease.
Experts have said people should stay at least 6 feet away from each other to avoid spreading coronavirus — but the woman didn’t take too kindly to Tracy’s efforts, apparently.
“She proceeded to yell at me and tell me I was crazy, what was wrong with me, this is not a pandemic, this is a political hoax,” Tracy recounts in the video. “And of course she got my South Side Polish dander up — which I should have just kept on walking.
“And I said, ‘Well, if you’re not afraid, then why don’t you volunteer and go to China and take care of people?’”
Tracy, altering her voice to mock the woman, says the woman replied, “Well, goddamnit, why don’t you? B—-.”
That’s where Tracy’s video hits its peak:
“At that point, I had to walk away because I thought about my daughter working in hospitals, trying to save lives with this pandemic, and I thought, ‘Y’know, this woman has no idea that I’m almost 75 — but I’m from Chicago and I will gladly tap her on the shoulder and ask her to step outside and proceed to kick her bleached-blonde, 50-year-old ass.’”
After his press briefing, Pritzker took to Twitter to again praise Bonnie Tracy.
Coronavirus: You have questions, we have answers
TRIBUNE//Elvia Malagon, Grace Wong, and Patrick M. O’Connell
As the coronavirus pandemic continues, new questions about the virus and how to respond in our daily lives arise every day. We took concerns from Tribune readers and started asking experts those questions in early March. We’ve added answers from other settings when experts have answered questions publicly. As health officials scramble to understand the virus, questions that are no longer relevant have been removed. The remainder have been edited for length and clarity.
March 26, Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Lisa Morrison Butler and AARP
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Lisa Morrison Butler, the commissioner for the city’s Department of Family and Support Services, held an hourlong telephone town hall with AARP Illinois, a nonprofit organization, focused on the concerns of the elderly amid COVID-19.
Q: What resources are available to seniors through the city’s family and support services and how can people access them?
Morrison Butler: The city has a line dedicated to senior citizens where someone over the phone can assess to see if the person qualifies for certain services. That number is 312-744-4016. The department is also partnering with organizations to perform “reassurance calls,” where they check on seniors to see how they are doing during the state’s stay-at-home order. Many people also previously went to senior centers to access meals. The city is now delivering those meals to seniors’ homes. Recently, more than 1,000 additional people have signed up for that service.
Q: What guidance do you have for caregivers helping older loved ones who live on their own?
Morrison Butler: The Department of Family and Support Services has several programs focused on caregivers such as counseling services. If you are helping to take care of older family members, make sure they have enough medication at home, and monitor what they eat.
Lightfoot: With my own mother who is 91 years old who lives on her own, between my wife and I we are checking in on her every day. It’s critically important that we maintain a sense of community. That is going to be essential for our physical and mental well-being.
Q: How can people who live in parts of the city that lack grocery stores get nutritious food during this time?
Lightfoot: The city has a whole team, as part of the emergency operations, making sure people are fed. And that includes working with organizations such as the Greater Chicago Food Depository and Meals on Wheels. People can also call 311 to learn more about the city’s food support for residents.
Morrison Butler: People with access to the internet can also use chicagosfoodbank.org/find-food/ to find a food pantry within a 2-mile radius from their home.
Q: What should you do if you feel anxiety about going outside to buy supplies and you don’t have a face mask?
Morrison Butler: If you feel that, maybe being able to share what you are feeling will help. People can call 1-800-950-NAMI. One of the messages we are all being told is to wash your hands every time you come home. Some good soap and water is really effective.
Q: What services are available to seniors who don’t speak English?
Morrison Butler: The same services we provide for anyone, we can also provide to people who don’t speak English. The department is able to offer translation in 100 languages. Please don’t let language be an issue for not getting this information.
Lightfoot: The city is also working with community-based organizations in immigrant and refugee communities to provide services for the elderly.
Q: What do you do if you live with a younger relative who still has to go to work and is using public transportation to travel to work?
Lightfoot: We need to make sure the person is healthy and isn’t experiencing any symptoms of coronavirus. If the person does get a cough or fever, the person needs to contact a doctor to see if the person could get tested for COVID-19. The biggest thing is to follow the guidance on how to protect yourself.
March 24, Dr. Robert Murphy
Murphy is executive director of Northwestern University’s Institute for Global Health and a professor of infectious diseases at the Feinberg School of Medicine. He’s an expert in HIV infection, viral hepatitis, antiviral drug development and global health.
Murphy was part of a weekly, hourlong webinar focused on COVID-19 hosted by Northwestern’s Buffett Institute for Global Affairs.
Q. Have we learned anything new about the virus?
A. Loss of smell may be one of the first symptoms of COVID-19.
Q. When should we expect more serious death numbers?
A. The model shows that the U.S. is in the peak infection stage, but the damage will occur later in the year. The peak damage estimate is during May through June.
Q. How many people should we be testing right now?
A. We should be testing 4,000 people in Illinois daily and 100,000 people in the United States daily. We are not doing that.
Q. Why do we keep hearing experts say that testing is important?
A. Besides identifying those who have COVID-19, there are a lot more people than we thought who have no symptoms but are infectious and are spreading the disease. The only way to prevent this is mass screenings. If we don’t do mass screenings, I think nothing else will work. South Korea has done the most tests out of any country and has seen it pay off in blunting the curve.
Q. Do we really need such an extreme reaction?
A. The more forceful we act now, the shorter the problem will be. Places like South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore have been able to suppress the infection because of their strict measures.
Q. How long do we need to practice social distancing to get us through the epidemic?
A. It’s not 15 days. There are models that show the stricter you are, the shorter the bump. If we stop these interventions and leave it up to the states, I think we’re in a lot of trouble for the next 12 to 24 months. If we all get on the same page, we can start seeing decline in the early to midsummer.
Q. When will we know that shelter in place is working?
A. Public health officials are following the numbers closely. As soon as the number of new cases starts to level off, then starts to go down, we’re going in the right direction.
Q. What would happen to the hospitals if we don’t blunt the curve?
A. We just don’t have the beds. The intensive care units will be overwhelmed with people who need ventilators. People working in the hospitals need masks, gloves, gowns, and we don’t have the capacity today to even provide hospitals with the amount of protective equipment that is necessary. It could lead to the collapse of the hospital system. Don’t forget: Coronavirus cases would be on top of what’s already going on during a normal day in a hospital.
Q. Why is there such a huge test kit supply shortage compared with other countries like South Korea?
A. At the beginning of this thing, we opted to make a conscientious decision not to import World Health Organization-approved tests from Asia and Europe. We insisted on making our own tests. Those tests took weeks to make. Once they were sent out to the states, we realized they didn’t work, so all those kits came back and we had to redo it. We wasted a whole month during a crucial time period as the number of people infected doubled in some places every three days and in others, every seven days. We haven’t been able to catch up since. It’s a war without a general.
Q. Are there any companies in Illinois making test kits?
A. Abbott Labs could test the whole country, but they would have to put all their resources into creating testing kits and forgo everything else. They are making them, but there’s just not enough.
Q. Why is the U.S. so far behind other countries in blunting the curve?
A. The United States is not set up with a strong public health organization. Most are relegated to the states. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gives guidance, and the states have the option of complying or not. The decision-makers are largely finance or business people. They’re ignoring our public health experts. If that continues, we’re in big trouble.
Q. What’s happening on the state level?
A. Governors don’t have the ability to marshal the industrial forces the way the president would be able to. Essentially, their hands are tied, so they’re competing with each other for resources.
Q. What actions could the government be taking?
A. Stricter border control, rapid testing and reenacting the Defense Production Act of 1950, which allows the government to take over industries during war or times of crisis. We could direct companies to make more ventilators or personal protective equipment or reagents or test kits while requisitioning hotels and sports arenas. It’s not popular in certain groups and maybe it’s an extreme measure, but with what’s coming up, I don’t see any way this could not be avoided.
Q. Government leaders and Fox News seem to suggest that a lift on restrictions is coming soon. What do you think of this news?
A. I watched last night to see where this idea was coming from. I was really horrified. If we lift up our guard now, then the coronavirus will become the No. 1 cause of death and completely overwhelm the (hospital) system.
Q. So why stop at the national level? What is happening on the international level?
A. Combined international efforts would be best, but what international authority do we have? WHO can make recommendations, but they don’t have any teeth. The United Nations can make recommendations but again, where is the teeth? The teeth is going to be at the national level, and it’s going to depend on the quality and determination of the national leader.
March 22, Dr. Todd Nega
Nega is an infectious disease physician with NorthShore University HealthSystem.
Q. Since the virus can live on surfaces for some time, how do I make sure deliveries of mail, packages, groceries or newspapers are safe?
A. We believe that the virus can remain on surfaces for several hours and, in some cases, days, but there remain more questions than answers about exactly how long and on what type of surfaces. The chance of getting the virus after touching a surface that an infected person sneezed on, for example, is highest within the first 10 minutes, then diminishes with time. The chance of picking up the virus from mail or a package that was delivered or groceries is highly unlikely. The CDC recommends that people take steps to clean and disinfect surfaces — don’t forget your phones — and continue to do this routinely. Wash your hands after you return from the grocery store — and throughout the day — and wash all fresh vegetables and fruits. Remember that the virus is primarily spread through direct person-to-person contact. As always, continue to wash your hands regularly.
Q. How common are asymptomatic carriers? Is it possible that some people have the virus and never get sick but still pass it along to others who become ill?
A. It’s currently unclear what percentage of the outbreak is being spread by asymptomatic carriers, but it’s very plausible that they do play a role. Scientists from around the world are studying this aspect of the virus because it may contribute to why it is spreading so rapidly. This is why it’s so important for everyone, no matter your age or health status, to practice social distancing and good hygiene as recommended by the CDC.
Q. I am still required to go to work, and I take public transit to get there. When I return home at night, should I wash my clothes? Should I be laundering every article of clothing, even jackets and hats, after wearing it once?
A. The viability of the virus on clothing depends on the type of fabric. For example, germs are easier to wipe clean off leather or vinyl because they aren’t as porous as fabric. Practice routine washing of your clothes on the hot water setting because it will help kill the virus. Use the same process for the dryer. If you’ve been in a crowded area like public transit and could not practice social distancing, it’s a good idea to wash your clothes when you get home or at least put them in a laundry basket until you can wash them.
Q. Does the virus exacerbate conditions like asthma, bronchitis, emphysema and seasonal allergies, or does this mean I may have the virus?
A. It can, just like any other virus. Although many other factors this time of year can also cause an exacerbation of chronic lung diseases.
Q. What factors will we use to determine when the serious health risk of COVID-19 has passed? I’m hearing estimates of normal life activities being on hold for weeks or months, so how will the medical community determine when it’s OK to go back to school, work and eventually hold larger gatherings like concerts and sports events?
A. We will have to wait for CDC guidance on this. In other countries where this has been removed too early, the numbers have started to rise again.
Q. What does “shelter in place” mean? Can I go for a walk or run if I’m not close to anyone else?
A. “Shelter in place” means to stay at home and only go out for essential activities or functions. In general, it is fine to go for walks or runs because it will help with your overall physical and emotional health during these unusual circumstances.
March 13, Dr. Robert Murphy
Murphy is the executive director of the Institute for Global Health at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and also a practicing physician at Northwestern Medicine.
Q: What’s the best way to practice social distancing?
A: This depends on the setting and host (patient/person). High-risk individuals (age 60-plus years, underlying cardiac, lung, cancer, hypertension, diabetes or other immune suppressive conditions/diseases), should limit contact as much as possible with other people. Basically, stay home.
Lower-risk persons should not shake hands, should wash hands frequently with soap and water or use hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol. You should also keep away from anyone who is sick, keep your distance from other persons (6 feet is recommended).
Q: Now that reports of confirmed cases of coronavirus are becoming more common in our area, what happens once someone has been diagnosed?
A: If they have few or mild symptoms, stay home and treat it like you have a bad cold. If ill, seek advice from your medical provider which could result in hospitalization, especially if you have any co-morbidities. (For instance, people with chronic lung, cardiac or kidney disease, those who have already weakened immune systems, who have had a transplant, diabetes, etc.)
Q: Many people have seen the graphic about “flattening the curve.” Can you explain this and discuss whether that is a helpful or accurate way to think about things?
A: The epidemic in the U.S. is growing exponentially (i.e., getting bigger fast). This will reach a high point or peak, then start to decline as public health measures begin to take their effect and/or the at-risk population becomes smaller through social distancing or they all get infected, get immune and no longer can transmit virus. It’s a typical bell-shaped curve with the top of the curve being the peak.
Q: If you have a confirmed case of coronavirus, then recover, is it possible to be diagnosed again in the future?
A: Probably not.
Q: Are there any precautions people need to take when purchasing fresh fruits and vegetables at grocery stores?
A: Wash your hands or use sanitizer after getting home, wash the fruit and vegetables like you usually do anyway.
Q: Is it possible to have influenza AND coronavirus?
A: It is highly unlikely to have both simultaneously.
March 10, Dr. Robert Citronberg
Citronberg is the director of infectious diseases at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge. Citronberg has been in practice for more than 26 years.
Q: How is coronavirus transmitted? What is the incubation period?
A: The incubation period can be anywhere from two to 14 days. The incubation period is the time between the acquisition of the virus and the time that you develop symptoms. The median time is about five days.
There are two principal ways to get it, and it’s important to understand both. The first is the more obvious, which is from droplets, when someone coughs or sneezes into your face. (Or within about a 3- to 6-foot radius.) If someone coughs or sneezes, the droplets fall right to the ground, so you can walk into a room a few moments afterward, and there will be no droplets in the air.
The more interesting and important method of transmission is contact. So even though the droplets fall to the ground, they may also fall on a tabletop and other surfaces, where they can live for at least several hours. So then say you touch that tabletop and then you touch your face, then you can actually infect yourself. I think the key to understanding this, the way to break the chain of transmission is 1) to not cough or sneeze directly into someone’s face 2) stay away from people who are coughing or sneezing 3) be really mindful about keeping your hands clean and washing your hands, using hand sanitizer, all the time.
Q: What exactly are “severe” symptoms?
A: The mild symptoms are body ache, maybe some fever and a cough. And those symptoms last for about a week. If someone has symptoms after a week or so, where they start to get worse, the cough gets worse, the shortness of breath gets worse, that’s a sign they may be developing more severe disease. The severe disease actually doesn’t start right away. Let’s say you have the virus and you’re really not feeling at all better or worse after a week, then you would be at risk for severe illness.
Q: Is there a cure for coronavirus, and if there is not, what exactly are medical professionals treating people with? And how long will it take to recover?
A: There is no cure, no drug. Unlike influenza, we have drugs that treat influenza. There are trials going on around the world.
The treatment is supportive care, by that I mean, IV fluids, medication, things to break your fever, to make you feel better, to support you and give your body a chance to heal. It’s a little frustrating because there is no drug you can get, but in many cases, supportive care is fine. Remember that about 80% of people with this coronavirus infection either have no symptoms or mild illness that doesn’t progress to severe illness. So supportive care actually is important. It prevents people from getting dehydrated.
Usually people who are sick, they recover within a week or so if they have the mild illness, up to about two weeks to feeling back to normal. And remember, some of these people, especially some of the people who are in isolation, people like on the cruise ship who are in quarantine, they have absolutely no symptoms. They tested positive but no symptoms. So it’s kind of hard to gauge when they’re feeling better because they never felt bad. But for the people who do get symptoms, usually about a week and up to two weeks when they could be feeling a lot better.
TRIBUNE//Gregory Pratt
When voters elected Lori Lightfoot to be Chicago’s 56th mayor, she expected to have her hands full with a yawning budget deficit, labor battles with the city’s teacher and police unions, and federal public corruption probes inside City Hall.
But nearly a year into her first term, Lightfoot and her administration instead are consumed with battling the coronavirus, a fast-spreading global pandemic that’s drastically changed daily life for Chicagoans and forced the mayor to take the previously unimaginable step this week of shutting down the city’s lakefront in an effort to save lives.
While dealing with a crisis unlike any faced by her recent predecessors, Lightfoot said she’s driven by a desire to do what’s right, relying on science and lessons learned from other cities across the world “where they haven’t taken the steps that are necessary to keep people safe.”
"Popular or not, you have to do what’s right. ... I’m not aspiring to my next political job. I’m not putting my finger in the air and testing the political winds. I am focused on making sure I do everything I can to keep people in this city safe,” Lightfoot told the Tribune in a wide-ranging interview. “So that frees me up in a lot of instances to make what seem like really tough calls, maybe unpopular calls. But what I’ve tried to do is be very clear and very, very transparent in the way that I communicate and communicate the sense of urgency that we all have to have in this moment.”
The city’s response to the coronavirus pandemic could define Lightfoot’s first term if she seeks reelection. She’s also seen her profile elevated with appearances on cable news shows where she’s criticized President Donald Trump for bungling the crisis.
Lightfoot said she’s willing to take criticism of her decisions, including the lakefront closure.
“Some people will say, ‘Well mayor, why do you need to close the lakefront? Just tell people stay off it. What does it matter if I go for a jog along the lake?’ It’s not about ‘I’m going for a jog.’ It’s about gathering and congregating in spaces that are, the lawyer in me would say, attractive nuisances,” Lightfoot said, referring to a legal concept for tempting risks most commonly illustrated by a child drowning in a neighbor’s unfenced pool.
So far, the city has recorded nearly 1,000 COVID-19 cases while state officials have reported 2,538 across Illinois and a rising death toll that on Thursday hit 26. Schools around the state remain closed, and bars and restaurants are off-limits to dine-in customers. Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a statewide stay-at-home order that took effect last weekend requiring people to remain in their homes except for certain exceptions such as going to work or the grocery store. And now, Lightfoot has shut down the lakefront and major parks.
Public health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady also has warned of the possibility that mobile morgues may be needed to handle huge numbers of bodies if the city doesn’t manage to get the virus under control soon. City officials this week also met with the Army Corps of Engineers at McCormick Place to plan how to convert the giant convention center into a makeshift hospital with beds for thousands of people in case there’s nowhere else to put them.
How long the city’s new reality will last, Lightfoot said, remains unclear.
“Duration, I don’t think anybody really knows,” she said. “We have some projections on when we think we will hit our peak. It’s not a secret that most of them put them sometime in April, but what precise date, what date range, varies depending upon the model and the assumptions.”
The city, state and hospitals are all doing modeling on how the disease will spread. Arwady warned the public on Thursday that the city could face more than 40,000 hospitalizations in the coming weeks if citizens don’t change their behavior.
“When you look at the projections about what our worst case scenario is that could happen if we don’t take drastic steps, (us) having a hospital system that is completely overwhelmed and incapable of responding to the needs of residents in our city, not having enough beds period, not having enough ICU beds, not having enough ventilators, on and on and on, the parade of horribles, it’s very sobering,” Lightfoot told the Tribune. “We know that if we don’t take these drastic steps, and we don’t insist that people stay home, that that’s our future and not far off.”
She added: “We have a sense of best case and worst case scenario, but a lot of it is caveated 20 ways from Sunday because a lot of it depends on our ability to keep people off the streets.”
Even once the city reaches its peak number of cases, Lightfoot said Chicago will need to remain vigilant.
“We’re concerned about not only getting past the peak that is coming, the incline, but there’s a valid worry about, will it repeat itself?” Lightfoot said. “We’re not thinking this will get over and it’ll be done. We’re thinking we’ll survive this wave, but we’re worrying about the potential for a second wave. And what we need to do in between those times to minimize the possibility of a second wave or at least mitigate it significantly.”
Lightfoot said she realized the coronavirus would be a major problem for the city shortly after an early February visit to Chinatown, where she attended the Chinatown Lunar New Year Parade and tried to assure residents that the city was safe from COVID-19.
Lightfoot called on the federal government to provide U.S. cities with clear guidance for dealing with the coronavirus and asked for assurances it would pay for costs related to dealing with the public health emergency.
At the time, there were just 11 confirmed cases of the virus in the U.S., including two in Illinois: a Chicago woman in her 60s who recently had traveled back from China, where she had been caring for a sick relative; and her husband, also in his 60s, who marked the first confirmed case of person-to-person transmission in the U.S.
But then cases began to multiply.
“We started to see what was happening on the coast, San Francisco and King County in Washington state,” Lightfoot said. “Seeing the rapid spread, the intensity of the efforts and how quickly and easily it could be to be overwhelmed definitely caught our attention.”
The most pressing problem going forward, Lightfoot said, “is making sure that our health care system can sustain a surge of cases.”
“That means both limiting the surge but also making sure that we’ve got enough coordination, beds and capacity to sustain what will come our way, because it’s coming,” Lightfoot said. “It’s just a question of how high will the peak be and over what period of time.”
City officials are keeping a tally on the number of available hospital beds, people in intensive care units, the number of ventilators being used and hospital capacity, she said. Public health officials are in contact with hospitals about collaboration and coordination, Lightfoot said, to help things run smoothly.
“Keeping in mind that hospitals are normally in competition with each other, to say that they’re the best, they offer a cure for whatever ails you, but now is the time when they actually have to be really seamlessly coordinated,” she said.
One good thing, Lightfoot said, is that Chicago hospitals generally have a lot of capacity. In ordinary times, that’s a problem for the medical centers’ bottom lines because they’re underutilized. But it’s been a benefit during this crisis because of available space, she said.
Broadly, Lightfoot said, the ramifications of coronavirus are bigger than anything seen in decades.
“The human toll, the death toll, the health care toll, it’s of a magnitude that’s far greater than I think anything that we’ve experienced in our modern times other than world wars,” Lightfoot said.
Throughout the crisis, Lightfoot acknowledged that balancing the need to keep citizens informed without panicking residents is a fine line and a daily concern.
“You don’t want to send people off in a panic, and particularly not send them off in a panic and have no concrete ways in which they can help themselves and in which you are also going to help them,” Lightfoot said. “So I’ve been very, very conscious of that and looking at, I think, some unhelpful things that have come at the federal level that have panicked people without concrete solutions and tools that you can use everyday to help yourself, help your family, help your community.”
Asked whether she’s seen a viral video showing Italian mayors yelling at citizens for not obeying public health orders, including one who threatens to send police to crash graduation parties with a flamethrower, Lightfoot laughed.
“I’ve watched it probably 15 times and I’ve sent it around to a lot of people,” Lightfoot said. “I feel their pain, I definitely do.”
AP//Andrew Taylor, Alan Fram, and Laurie Kellman
Acting with exceptional resolve in an extraordinary time, the House rushed President Donald Trump a $2.2 trillion rescue package Friday, tossing a life preserver to a U.S. economy and health care system left flailing by the coronavirus pandemic.
The House approved the sweeping measure by a voice vote, as strong majorities of both parties lined up behind the most colossal economic relief bill in the nation’s history. It will ship payments of up to $1,200 to millions of Americans, bolster unemployment benefits, offer loans, grants and tax breaks to businesses large and small and flush billions more to states, local governments and the nation’s all but overwhelmed health care system.
“Today we've all acknowledged our nation faces an economic and health emergency of historic proportions,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
President Donald Trump said he would sign the bill immediately.
There was no doubt the House would give overwhelming final congressional approval to the largest economic bailout legislation in U.S. history.
But libertarian Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., was threatening to slow action by demanding a roll call vote. That would force many lawmakers to make the journey to Washington to cast a vote on legislation that is certain to pass anyway, and it infuriated President Donald Trump and lawmakers from both parties.
Trump, who is certain to sign the legislation, tweeted that Massie is “a third rate Grandstander” and said he should be drummed out of the GOP. “He is a disaster for America, and for the Great State of Kentucky!” Trump wrote.
Massie, who opposes the massive bill, was in the chamber during the debate, chatting occasionally with others and checking his phone. He did not respond to reporters’ repeated efforts to reach him. Posting on Twitter, he cited a section of the Constitution that requires a majority of lawmakers — some 216 of them — to be present and voting to conduct business.
The debate was mostly conciliatory, with members of both parties praising the measure as a rescue for a ravaged nation. The lecturns in the chamber's well were wiped down between many of the speeches.
“While no one will agree with every part of this rescue bill, we face a challenge rarely seen in America’s history. We must act now, or the toll on lives and livelihoods will be far greater,” said Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas.
“We have no time to dither," said Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va. "We have no time to engage in ideological or petty partisan fights. Our country needs us as one.”
But still, there were outbursts.
Freshman Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., donned pink latex gloves and yelled well beyond her allotted one minute, saying she was speaking "not for personal attention but (to encourage you) to take this disease seriously." Much of what she said could not be heard above Republican shouts.
Numerous high-ranking Republicans called Massie in an attempt to persuade him to let the voice vote proceed, according to a top House GOP aide. They included House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., whom Trump has chosen as his new chief of staff. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.
Democratic leaders urged lawmakers who are “willing and able” to come to the Capitol to do so. And members of both parties were clearly upset with Massie.
“Heading to Washington to vote on pandemic legislation. Because of one Member of Congress refusing to allow emergency action entire Congress must be called back to vote in House,” Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., wrote on Twitter. “Risk of infection and risk of legislation being delayed. Disgraceful. Irresponsible.”
South Dakota GOP Rep. Dusty Johnson posted a selfie photograph of himself and three other lawmakers from the upper Midwest traveling to Washington on an otherwise empty plane.
Friday’s House session followed an extraordinary 96-0 Senate vote late Wednesday. The bill’s relief can hardly come soon enough.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Thursday the economy “may well be in recession” already, and the government reported a shocking 3.3 million burst of weekly jobless claims, more than four times the previous record. The U.S. death toll from the virus rose to 1,300.
It is unlikely to be the end of the federal response. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said issues like more generous food stamp payments, aid to state and local governments and family leave may be revisited in subsequent legislation.
The legislation will give $1,200 direct payments to individuals and make way for a flood of subsidized loans, grants and tax breaks to businesses facing extinction in an economic shutdown caused as Americans self-isolate by the tens of millions. It dwarfs prior Washington efforts to take on economic crises and natural disasters, such as the 2008 Wall Street bailout and President Barack Obama’s first-year economic recovery act.
But key elements are untested, such as grants to small businesses to keep workers on payroll and complex lending programs to larger businesses.
Policymakers worry that bureaucracies like the Small Business Administration may become overwhelmed, and conservatives fear that a new, generous unemployment benefit will dissuade jobless people from returning to the workforce. A new $500 billion subsidized lending program for larger businesses is unproven as well.
The bill finances a response with a price tag that equals half the size of the entire $4 trillion-plus annual federal budget. The $2.2 trillion estimate is the White House's best guess of the spending it contains.
The legislation would provide one-time direct payments to Americans of $1,200 per adult making up to $75,000 a year and $2,400 to a married couple making up to $150,000, with $500 payments per child.
Unemployment insurance would be made far more generous, with $600 per week tacked onto regular state jobless payments through the end of July. States and local governments would receive $150 billion in supplemental funding to help them provide basic and emergency services during the crisis.
The legislation also establishes a $454 billion program for guaranteed, subsidized loans to larger industries in hopes of leveraging up to $4.5 trillion in lending to distressed businesses, states, and municipalities. All would be up to the Treasury Department’s discretion, though businesses controlled by Trump or immediate family members and by members of Congress would be ineligible.
There was also $150 billion devoted to the health care system, including $100 billion for grants to hospitals and other health care providers buckling under the strain of COVID-19 caseloads.
Republicans successfully pressed for an employee retention tax credit that's estimated to provide $50 billion to companies that retain employees on payroll and cover 50% of workers' paycheck up to $10,000. Companies would also be able to defer payment of the 6.2% Social Security payroll tax. A huge tax break for interest costs and operating losses limited by the 2017 tax overhaul was restored at a $200 billion cost in a boon for the real estate sector.
An additional $45 billion would fund additional relief through the Federal Emergency Management Agency for local response efforts and community services.
Most people who contract the new coronavirus have mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, or death.
Chicago joins New York, Los Angeles with drops in crime as coronavirus and shelter order take hold
TRIBUNE//Jeremy Gorner
Like other major U.S. cities, Chicago has seen a dip in crime with the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting virtually every aspect of the country’s way of life.
Despite beginning 2020 with crime spikes, particularly related to gun violence, Chicago saw a sudden single-week drop of nearly 20% in major crimes in mid-March, records show. That was just as much activity in Chicago was slowing.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker closed schools across Illinois, Chicago bars and restaurants shuttered, and a statewide stay-at-home directive went into effect Saturday.
Since March 18, Chicago has only had two homicides, a fatal shooting on the South Side and another on the West Side.
From March 16 through March 22, the latest compiled period available, Chicago police saw a 17% overall drop from the prior seven days in its seven major crime categories, among them robberies, burglaries and aggravated batteries. That same period also was down from the same stretch in 2019, official city data shows — a 19% decrease.
The current drop comes at a time when Chicago had seen jumps in violence through much of the first three months of 2020.
Through March 22, the city had recorded 90 homicides for 2020, just over one a day. That’s a 34% jump from the same period in 2019. Shootings also were up by 27% so far this year, before the coronavirus started to take hold.
Interim Chicago police Superintendent Charlie Beck said this week calls for service dropped by some 30% and his officers had also made fewer vehicle and pedestrian stops, indications that many residents were in fact following government coronavirus orders.
“We’ve had a difficult first two months of the year, January and February, with gun violence, homicide and shootings,” Beck said, being careful to put the impact of the virus in perspective. “This month we have seen that decline, and I think it’s way too soon to ascribe it to any one particular thing, but we have seen a declination.”
The crime drop has been experienced in other major U.S. cities as well, including in New York City, hit the hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic.
From March 9 through March 15, New York saw a 9% overall jump in its seven major crimes over the same week in 2019, official NYPD statistics show. But the following week, the city saw about a 17% drop, including double-digit percentage drops of reports of grand larceny and rape, and recorded only one homicide.
In Los Angeles, another city hit hard by COVID-19, its Police Department also reported big drops in crime over the last month. From Feb. 23 to March 21, the city saw a 25% drop in the total number of people shot compared with the previous month, according to official LAPD statistics.
Chicago officials have not directly attributed the city’s recent crime drop to the pandemic but acknowledged it has coincided with COVID-19 taking hold across the area.
“We can’t specifically say that the crime rate is affected by coronavirus,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Wednesday at a City Hall news conference. “But obviously what we know and going back many, many years and looking at data...when large congregations of people are outside in neighborhoods where gun violence is prevalent that increases the risk.”
It has only been a few weeks since fears about COVID-19 caused many Chicagoans to adhere to social distancing restrictions and avoid large gatherings — all the more reason for crime experts to caution against reading too much into the lowered crime numbers over such a short time frame.
What’s more, overall, gun violence still vexes a city that leads the nation each year in killings and the total number of shooting victims.
Despite Pritzker’s restrictions, for instance, 12 people were shot on Wednesday — a day that many Chicagoans defied the order and congregated outdoors in the nice weather. All of those victims were shot outdoors, police said.
“There are fluctuations in crime rates that can be quite unexpected and are not predictable,” said Richard Rosenfeld, a criminologist from the University of Missouri at St. Louis. “Let’s hope that (a) series of shootings in Chicago is just that, an exception.”
Crime experts agreed the short-term crime drops could be related to people staying in their homes. But the longer those restrictions are in effect, they warned about possible upticks in domestic and family-related violence.
“Now what you have is a bunch of people cooped up together in confined quarters inside,” said Jens Ludwig, co-director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab.
“We know under normal circumstances that domestic violence and child abuse get dramatically under-reported. ... That is going to be at least as true now under these circumstances and maybe even more true if people become even less likely to be willing to report.”
Complete crime statistics for Chicago the current week were not yet available Friday. But from March 16 through March 22, the city’s burglaries, major thefts and aggravated batteries, each saw drops of 20% or more from the previous year.
The Harrison patrol district on the West Side, traditionally among the city's most violent areas, recorded no shootings that whole week, official statistics show.
The Shakespeare, Near North and Town Hall patrol districts, affluent areas on the North Side that draw large gatherings with their nightlife, trendy shops and tourist attractions, saw sharp drops that week in major thefts, according to the statistics.
Don’t think you’re essential and should be working? The city wants to hear from you.
TRIBUNE//Corilyn Shropshire
Chicago’s 311 system is used to getting complaints about potholes, rats and burned-out streetlights. Now Mayor Lori Lightfoot wants to use it to investigate businesses that are open during the COVID-19 pandemic — but shouldn’t be.
The city on Friday urged residents and employees aware of businesses that may not be consider “essential” to submit complaints to to the 311 system. Investigations by the city could lead to fines of up to $10,000.
Essential businesses include grocery stores, laundromats, pharmacies, and plumbers, among others. Many employees have complained that their companies remain open and they are told to report for work, and questions have been raised about what really constitutes an essential business.
In a news release, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the city’s office of Business and Consumer Affairs also are urging employees who work for businesses that are refusing them sick leave — even if they work for an essential business — to call 311 to report their bosses. Businesses who are determined to be not granting proper paid sick leave could be fined $1,000 per employee per violation.
To enforce the crackdown, the city said it has a team of investigators focused on the stay-at-home order. “We are proactively reaching out to businesses and responding to complaints with in-person investigations when necessary to ensure compliance,” said city spokesman Isaac Reichman.
For paid sick leave complaints Reichman said the focus is on “ensuring immediate compliance and making sure businesses know their responsibilities and rights."
Residents are directed to city’s Frequently Asked Questions on the Stay at Home Order to determine which businesses are essential.
TRIBUNE//Gregory Pratt
The city of Chicago will give one-time $1,000 grants to help residents who have suffered financially due to the coronavirus outbreak with rent and mortgage payments, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced.
Lightfoot announced the COVID-19 Housing Assistance Grant program on Friday, which she said will go toward Chicagoans “who have lost their jobs or otherwise been impacted by the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The city will spend $2 million from its Affordable Housing Opportunity Fund for the payments.
“This program represents a critical resource not only to our communities but our entire city as we navigate this evolving challenge and ensure every Chicagoan remains safe, healthy and secure," Lightfoot said in a statement.
Half the grants will be awarded through a lottery system, the mayor’s office said, and the other half will go through non-profit community organizations that will distribute them. Residents can apply online at the city’s coronavirus webpage.
To qualify, residents must show an unemployment insurance claim, proof of an employment status change, and proof that they make 60% of the area median income.
The grants will be awarded between early and mid-April, the city said.
$747 million. That’s the hit to Chicago’s economy of the 33 conventions canceled so far.
TRIBUNE//Abdel Jimenez
Chicago could take a $747 million economic hit because dozens of conventions scheduled to take place in the city have canceled due to the fast-spreading new coronavirus, according to an estimate from a McCormick Place spokeswoman.
The impact includes lost spending from event attendees at hotels, restaurants, transportation and entertainment venues.
COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, has prompted governors across the country to issue shelter-at-home orders to reduce the spread of the virus. On Thursday, there were more than 82,000 confirmed cases in the U.S., the most of any country.
Conference organizers are canceling events well into the summer, and hotels in the city are temporarily closing as the virus continues to hinder the hospitality industry.
This week, the Sweets & Snacks Expo, the National Restaurant Association, the American Library Association and the American Society of Clinical Oncology nixed their summer shows, bringing the total number of event cancellations at McCormick Place and Wintrust Arena to 33 as of Thursday, McCormick Place spokeswoman Cynthia McCafferty said in an emailed statement.
Altogether, the 33 shows would have brought about 484,000 people to Chicago, McCafferty said. The conferences also accounted for about 533,000 hotel room nights.
McCafferty said about 60% of the shows would return later in the year or next year.
By not having those events, the city will see a decline in the tax revenue it generates from hotels. In its budget overview, city leaders had projected hotel tax revenue of $128.5 million in fiscal 2020.
“The convention industry typically generates about 5 million room nights annually out of 12 million total rooms sold in the central business district. We will probably lose over 20% of those (convention industry) room nights, and that’s assuming few more cancellations and some rescheduling of meetings and shows that have been canceled in the short-term," said Chicago-based hotel consultant Ted Mandigo.
Mandigo said April through June is the prime season for conventions, and the city doesn’t see another spike until the fall.
Hotels, restaurants and transportation vendors are among the companies that depend on convention business.
Chicago-based Continental Air Transport operates a fleet of 45 vans and SUVs under the Go Airport Express brand, which transports passengers between McCormick Place, hotels and O’Hare International Airport.
John McCarthy, president and CEO of the firm, said he is looking at federal assistance programs like small business loans that he could use to help pay employees and fund health care plans. The firm laid off 30 workers earlier this month, most of whom are drivers, McCarthy said.
“This would be a busy time of the year for the business. We carry tens of thousands of passengers, but now we’re only carrying a handful,” McCarthy said.
But federal aid won’t be enough to shore up business, McCarthy said. The shuttle service provider relies on tourists and convention-goers, and with more event cancellations well into the summer, Go Airport Express could continue to suffer, McCarthy said.
“The convention center is an important part of our business… Right now we’ve limited services to private rides, which typically has little demand. We also continue to operate a parking lot shuttle service at O’Hare paid by the city’s aviation department,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy declined to say how much money his firm lost for the month. However, he hopes events scheduled to take place at McCormick Place later this year will make up for some of that lost business.
“I hope this is over soon,” McCarthy said.
2,000 Chicagoans Will Get $1,000 In Rent Relief Under New City COVID-19 Plan, Mayor Says
BLOCK CLUB//Kelly Bauer
CHICAGO — With April 1 around the corner and thousands unemployed due to coronavirus in the city, Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Friday announced a plan to give at least a portion of struggling residents some rent relief.
The COVID-19 Housing Assistance Grant Program will use $2 million from the city’s Affordable Housing Opportunity Fund to give 1,000 Chicagoans $1,000 toward rent or mortgage payments.
Dept. of Housing Commissioner Marisa Novara said half of the grants will be awarded through a lottery and the other half will be distributed by nonprofit organizations working in the neighborhoods.
Applicants must show lost household income and be at or beloe 60 percent of the area median income, which is about $53,000 for a family of four, Novara said.
The department is attempting to raise more money to expand the grant program to help more Chicagoans.
Undocumented Chicagoans, who will not receive relief from the federal government even if they pay taxes, are eligible for the grant program, Lightfoot said.
Here’s what the coronavirus stimulus package will mean for Illinois
SUN TIMES//Lynn Sweet
“Something miraculous has happened in Washington. We’ve actually done something, on a timely basis,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Thursday about the $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill the Senate passed Wednesday night and and earned full approval from the House early Friday afternoon.
About $5 billion of that will be direct federal funding for state and local Illinois governments to help fund COVID-19 soaring expenses. A bit more than half would go to the state government with the rest distributed to local governments.
The measure provides a stream of federal assistance to Illinois: from cash to state and local governments to assistance for Illinois’ struggling hospitals, aviation industry and more. The four absent senators were out because they were diagnosed with COVID-19 or were staying at home because of possible exposure.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo complained during his briefing Thursday that the measure would be only a “drop in the bucket” compared to the Empire State need. Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who has tangled with President Donald Trump over that lack of more federal assistance, did not grumble at his Thompson Center briefing, where he was joined by Durbin.
“This is progress,” Pritzker said, “so let’s at least recognize a win when we see one.”
To get an idea of the enormity of $2.2 trillion, Durbin said that sum is “larger than the federal budget for an entire year in domestic and discretionary spending.”
With no one flying and airports empty, the aviation industry in Illinois and across the country is in dire straits. “These are major employers in our state and nation,” Durbin said, so they have become a “focal point in terms of rescuing the economy of this nation.” Details have yet to emerge about specific airline rescue packages.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., told the Chicago Sun-Times that among the most urgently needed items in the package is the money to provide emergency funding for hospitals. She said a number of hospitals across the state “were all faced with being within weeks of insolvency.”
Here are other Illinois benefits in the legislation, according to a Durbin and Duckworth analysis:
• Hospitals: “Billions” for health providers and facilities in a “Marshall Plan” for hospitals to cover COVID-19 expenses such as staff and equipment and revenues lost from elective procedures.
• Public Health: The senators estimated $16 million for the Illinois Department of Public Health and an additional $9 million for the Chicago Department of Public Health.
• Relief for Transit Agencies: According to the senators, Illinois transit agencies will receive an estimated $1.6 billion in federal transit funding including $800 million for the CTA, over $400 million for Metra and over $100 million for Pace.
• Airports: There will be grants to help Illinois airports; no details yet available.
• Relief for Amtrak and State 209 Partners: “More than $1 billion in funding for Amtrak including $239 million state supported routes that will cover Illinois Amtrak costs.”
• Law Enforcement: “Includes $31.9 million in Byrne-JAG grant program funding for Illinois law enforcement to buy personal protective equipment.”
• Student Loans: The bill suspends student loan monthly payments for 6 months, the senators said.
• Education Stabilization Fund: There will be $30.75 billion to school districts and institutions of higher education, with no breakdown yet for what that could yield for Illinois school districts.
CRAIN’S//Greg Hinz
The Chicago metropolitan area lost population once again in the last year, with metro New York and Los Angeles also joining in the drop. That’s the word from the U.S. Census Bureau in its last official estimate to be released before the decennial count—now underway—is completed.
The bureau estimates in the year ended July 1, 2019, population in the Illinois/Wisconsin/Indiana metro area dipped by about 36,000 residents, to 9,458,539. Most of the drop came in Cook County, which lost an estimated 21,000 residents.
New York and L.A. also saw drops, by about 60,000 and 45,000, respectively. But unlike them, Chicago is below where it was when the last Census was conducted in 2010, when the population was 9,461,537.
While the nation’s three largest metro areas continue to drop, the next seven all were up. The gains were relatively modest, under 1 percent, in Washington, Miami, Philadelphia and Atlanta, but more robust in Dallas, Houston and Phoenix.
Chicago’s position as the nation’s third-largest metropolitan area does not appear to be in immediate jeopardy, with Dallas still nearly 2 million behind.
Census officials have suspended most field operations for the indefinite future. Residents still can and are being strongly encouraged to report their numbers online.
Legalizing pot deliveries gains momentum during coronavirus crisis
SUN TIMES//Tom Schuba
As Illinoisans are ordered to hunker down to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, calls to allow legal marijuana deliveries have increased.
Rep. Sonya Harper (D-Chicago) introduced legislation last month that would allow cannabis dispensaries to deliver marijuana to both medical pot patients and recreational customers. Now, she’s calling on Gov. J.B. Pritzker to take immediate action amid the rising public health crisis.
“I would be happy to see if the governor maybe could make a special executive order allowing that, or us being able to get that legislation through maybe quicker than normal this year to provide for that,” said Harper, who co-sponsored the bill that legalized pot statewide at the start of the year.
That landmark piece of legislation didn’t include a provision allowing deliveries, though lawmakers discussed the prospect while it was being drafted.
Curbside pickup allowed
Harper’s push to allow pot deliveries in the wake of the coronavirus crisis comes two weeks after officials allowed retailers to temporarily sell medical marijuana outside stores to protect patients who may be susceptible to COVID-19. Medical patients can also have a registered caretaker pick up pot products for them.
Harper acknowledged that setting up a system for deliveries would be “more difficult” than allowing those curbside sales.
“It would entail basically giving all municipalities and everybody across the state the ability to open up deliveries,” she said. “It would also be creating a new type of license.”
Pritzker’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment, but state officials appear to be mulling whether to open up deliveries. A representative of a major Illinois cannabis firm, who asked not to be named, said the company has been included in some recent conversations.
“The state has been open-minded to evaluating and implementing new processes for the convenience of medical patients during this crisis, like curbside pickup, and conversations about how home delivery would work have definitely been part of that dialogue,” the industry insider said.
Margo Vesely, executive director of the Illinois chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said her group has recently been lobbying lawmakers to allow deliveries to medical patients.
“I think that we have to really hone in and focus on those that have those compromised immune systems and really look out for them at these times,” said Vesely. “Medical patients, if they have a weakened immune system, can’t be going into the dispensaries. And if they don’t have a caretaker, they’re stuck.
“So it would be really beneficial for them,” she added.
Harper noted that she’s recently seen people waiting to get inside dispensaries and that curbside sales are also attracting lines of cars. As officials institute strict measures to promote social distancing, she said “mobile delivery is probably need in this time more than ever.”
However, Harper said it’s unclear whether home deliveries could be established without legislative approval, like curbside pickups. Passing her bill quickly through the Legislature also seems unrealistic, as the coronavirus has shut down sessions in Springfield for weeks.
“As it stands right now, the bill hasn’t even been heard in committee yet,” said Harper. “So we really haven’t even had a chance to discuss it, to even see any way that the bill needs to be changed or amended to meet the different needs of the different municipalities.”
“I think if we had the political will we could get together in a room and put that together now, but I do see things like that maybe taking time to figure out the details.”
Lightfoot: Stay-at-home order likely to last ‘deep into April’
SUN TIMES//Fran Spielman
The statewide stay-at-home order is likely to continue “deep into April,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Friday, but the final call will be made by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
The governor’s order is scheduled to expire April 7. So does his statewide order that closed all public and private schools. Lightfoot has ordered Chicago Public Schools closed through April 20.
In a conference call with reporters Friday, the mayor was asked whether she has had any discussions with Pritzker about extending the stay-at-home order.
“I don’t want to get ahead of the governor and his team. You’ve seen what we’ve done here in Chicago with schools, with the order that we issued yesterday [shutting down the lakefront and other public gathering places], which is unending until further notice,” the mayor said.
“I think, realistically, we’re looking at something that’s gonna stretch deep into April. ... The governor’s team are very able. They’re looking at similar data to what we are. And I’m sure that is a conversation that is probably under active discussion.”
This is a developing story.
City creates grants to help residents with rent, mortgage payments
SUN TIMES//David Roeder
Chicagoans whose jobs have been affected by the coronavirus can get help with rent or mortgage payments under a grant program Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Friday.
Lightfoot said 2,000 grants of $1,000 each will be made in early to mid April. The $2 million allocated will come from the city’s Affordable Housing Opportunity Fund, which is bankrolled by developers building market-rate housing.
Residents can apply through the Department of Housing at chicago.gov/coronavirus and over the phone through community-based organizations. You must show evidence of job or income loss related to the coronavirus and prove your income was at or below 60% of the area’s median.
Half of the grants will be awarded through a lottery, while the other half will be distributed by community organizations across the city.
“Due to the unprecedented impact the COVID-19 crisis, we have a responsibility as a city to support of our residents and families during their urgent time of need,” Lightfoot said. “This program represents a critical resource not only to our communities but our entire city as we navigate this evolving challenge and ensure every Chicagoan remains safe, healthy and secure.”
City officials sad the program is offered in partnership with the Family Independence Initiative, which helps families out of poverty.
Illinois’ stay at home order likely to extend ‘deep into April,’ Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot says
TRIBUNE//Gregory Pratt
The stay at home order issued by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker realistically will extend “deep into April,” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot told reporters on Friday.
Asked whether she’s talked with Pritzker about extending his stay at home order, which he issued a week ago for the entire state through at least April 7, Lightfoot said she doesn’t want to get ahead of the governor but said it’s realistic that it would “stretch deep into April.”
“You’ve seen what we’ve done here in Chicago with the schools, with the order we issued yesterday which is unending until further notice. I think realistically, we’re looking at something that’s going to stretch deep into April again, subject to change in modeling and so forth,” Lightfoot said. “The governor’s team are very able, they’re looking at very similar data to what we are, and I’m sure that’s a conversation that’s probably under active discussion.”
Lightfoot ordered the lakefront, The 606 trail and adjacent parks and trails closed indefinitely, and has also extended the Chicago Public Schools closure through April 20.
In a separate interview with the Tribune, Lightfoot said the coronavirus could peak in April.
“Duration, I don’t think anybody really knows,” she said. “We have some projections on when we think we will hit our peak. It’s not a secret that most of them put them sometime in April, but what precise date, what date range, varies depending upon the model and the assumptions.”