Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Molly Martin and I'm the director of New America Indianapolis on behalf of New America Urban American urban America forward and the National Urban League I'd like to welcome you to the first installment of this series on COVID-19 and equitable relief and recovery New America and urban America forward are so proud to come together and join the Urban League in this programming We believe it's of utmost importance that Brown and Latinx neighbors and Brown Latinx residents and leaders are at the forefront of Conversations about how to make racial equity a principle of recovery and relief in the face of COVID-19 Elena Beverly will lead us through the conversation and talk more about how today's conversation will proceed that being said We cannot see you in the audience and we cannot hear you in the audience But we'd love to hear from you in the chat if you see me go off screen You will find me over in the chat where I will be looking at your questions your comments and your ideas about how equity and Racial equity in are at the center of recovery and relief or not in the cities where you are joining us from we have folks today From across the country with that I'm so proud and pleased to introduce Elena Beverly who is the vice president of Urban Affairs at the University of Chicago and Leads Urban America forward Elena over to you Thanks, Molly. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining Urban America forward COVID-19 equitable relief and recovery Especially because this is our launch. It's the first of our four-part series I want to thank new America and our partners the National Urban League and also Provide a generous. Thank you to our sponsors who have been with the Urban America forward program from the beginning the Kresge Foundation And the Annie E. Casey Foundation The Urban America forward program is an initiative of the University of Chicago office of civic engagement and since we launched in 2015 our goal has been to provide a learning exchange among practitioners across a range of Disciplines who are all committed to furthering equity in America's cities Urban America forward for there's one of the university's goals of Convening the best and the brightest to ensure we're having urban impact and improving quality of life We specifically designed this webinar series to bring together a network of Practitioner experts to share their efforts and learnings in this critical moment of COVID-19 crisis relief and response efforts We know that COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on our communities We know that the pandemic has exacerbated existing racial disparities That has taken a disproportionate toll Both physically and economically on African American and Latino communities in America cities So as we navigate what you could call the dual pandemics both of Institutional racial injustice and the impacts of COVID-19 We felt that there was a need to develop Equitable relief efforts and share those efforts in this moment while working toward fashioning a more equitable and inclusive recovery We have no choice really to harness our collective power in this moment To share what's working to provide essential relief and to work together to envision and engineer tools to build a more inclusive economic recovery That's what this program seeks to do and seeks to begin walking us down that road The equitable relief and recovery webinar series will bring together practitioner experts from eight cities the city of chicago Atlanta baltimore detroit indianapolis Minneapolis new orleans in washington dc We ask these experts to share their experiences partnerships practices policies challenges and lessons learned in this work to prioritize racial equity and COVID relief And response. So let me outline the program for today We will begin with our distinguished speaker at the top of the program who will set the table for the discussion followed by A panel of practitioner experts who are going to delve more deeply into the work and lessons learned We will then have questions and reflections from our featured respondents And finally, we will have q&a with questions selected By new america from the viewing audience now while you are with us don't forget to engage in questions by sending them into the chat or Taking this conversation online and following us with our hashtags and tweeting us out But now to kick off our program I'm thrilled to welcome mark morial president and ceo of the national urban league who's also A dear friend and mentor of mine The national urban league is the nation's largest historic civil rights and urban advocacy organization Mark was previously the mayor of new orleans president of the u.s conference of mayors and a louisiana state senator He's a leading voice on the national stage For the battle for jobs education housing and voting rights And he's been recognized as one of the 100 most influential black americans by ebony magazine One of the top 50 nonprofit leaders by the nonprofit times and one of the 100 most influential black lawyers in america We have a Star-studded uh fully fully impactful lineup for today Um, but without further ado i'll turn it over to mark morial for his opening remarks and context setting mark Thank you for joining us. Hey Elena, thank you very much and let me say how much i appreciate that Generous introduction and to all who are listening today Let me thank uh urban america forward and new america And certainly the university of chicago office of civic engagement for hosting This uh this important learning event today And i also want to say how much i appreciate the support of the kresky foundation and the anne kasey foundation always Two institutions who are thinking about the future of our country I would offer the following. We're dealing with three pandemics in the nation On one hand COVID-19 Has devastated our nation Is disproportionately impacted black and brown communities It's challenged our public health system. It's rattled Our leaders it's forced Mayors and governors to step into the breach It's necessitated An economic response which is tantamount to a self-induced coma We're now we've lost one third of our gdp some 40 million people out of work Unemployment rates nearing great depression levels The second pandemic is the economic pandemic that we face and the third Of course Is the pandemic and the virus That has been with us since the founding of this nation and and been with us since this nation Was simply a set of colonies back to 16 19 And that is the pandemic of racism And each and one of these Have confluenced to make 2020 Perhaps the single most impactful year in american history since 1968 But for each and every one of you for me and for the work of the urban league and the work of All of us who are toiling in the vineyard Who are working in the hot kitchen who want to Instructively address these issues the question is what will we do? How will we respond? What is the call for the nation? As people have protested across the nation They've used a time-honored american tradition the right a peaceful assembly And the right to raise their voices And their cries and their outrage in support of meaningful change What we cannot do Is believe that we're going to confront a set of 21st century challenges with 20th century policies with 20th century ideas And that all we need to do is dust off yesterday's ideas and We enact them in the 21st century And we are going to be able to deal with this effectively. No We must on one hand If we are to rebuild our public health system It should not be put back together again. Humpty Dumpty should not Be put back together again. The public health system should be built in a more equitable way It should be built with a direct intention to deal with health disparities from pillar to post from cradle to grave in every respect As we look at the american economy We see two things. We see those americans Many of them black and brown who cannot work from home They're essential employees They're necessitous employees or they have Employees who are saying you come back to work or else And we have in addition to that the Those who have been laid off Because they've been in front line jobs in the hospitality and service sectors, you know The story and then we have racism which hit The screens of televisions and internet all across the world when George Floyd was killed we have to Muster up the wheel this conversation today We should challenge ourselves. You should challenge yourself. We're challenging ourselves. What is the correct approach? to rebuilding The health public health system in america. What's the correct approach? To building the economy of the future Is it increases in minimum wage to ensure that everyone has a living way? Is it universal basic income? It is an it is it is it an infrastructure program that doesn't just build highways and byways Which also build schools and community centers and focuses on affordable housing. Is it a new approach? Is it a new approach to? To public safety in our communities that places emphasis on holistic avenues and holistic approaches investing in young people building strong schools dealing with mental and community health that's what this moment is And for practitioners and those who are in the policy world it is putting If you will the flesh on the bone it's putting the rigor behind The ideas and and then for activists and politicians and opinion leaders. It is about building the public will I think that is what this discussion Is going to be about And I think this discussion today is a part of a new Beginning a new beginning of how we think about these problems and these issues Finally We're also witnessing An absolute assault on american democracy questioning vote by mail Knocking wide gaping holes into the voting rights act none of this is possible If america slips to become a totalitarian style regime All of it is possible if we preserve the civic system the system of democracy And putting people's voices first so alaina. Thank you so much for having me today. We urban league appreciates The opportunity to be involved have a very powerful meaningful discussion I look look forward to seeing everyone again soon. Thank you Thank you mark. Thank you for that context. Thank you for your leadership. Thank you for those remarks Now we'll turn the conversation over to our panel of experts to delve more deeply into the question of how they Are answering the question What will we do and how they are not dusting off the old playbook? What fashioning new relief efforts to meaningfully address the economic needs Of communities of color in response to covet 19 specifically We're going to discuss their work to ensure family economic stability in this moment to reinforce minority owned business To support low-income workers and essential workers and other efforts to shape a more inclusive relief effort That will lend toward a more inclusive recovery It's my honor to introduce our panel dr. Helene gale ceo of the chicago community trust james fagan ceo of projects of in people in detroit Lynette white collin vice president a small business growth growth For the new orleans business alliance in case the bill brahman president of demos Now it's only fitting that we begin for me. It's only fitting to begin with dr. Helene gale Helene joined the chicago community trust as president and ceo In 2017 she began her illustrious career as a physician before entering the public health and global development fields Helene has worked for the senators for disease control the bill and melinda gates foundation And then the global humanitarian organization care Under helene's leadership the trust has embarked in a 10-year strategy to close the racial and ethnic wealth gap in the chicago region In march when the corona virus pandemic struck the trust partnered with the united wave of metro chicago to launch the chicago community covid 19 response fund Which has raised more than 34 million dollars to meet the emergency needs of the region's most vulnerable residents The trust also partnered with the city of chicago on the small business resiliency fund A 100 million dollar fund offering emergency emergency loans of up to 50 000 dollars In partnership with the city of chicago And other philanthropic partners the trust is launching a together now fund Which will focus on equitable recovery for black and Latinx communities that are most economically impacted by the covid crisis Helene I want to begin with you by asking just a table setting question I've shared some of your work, but tell us what you're observing We know that covid 19 has dramatically affected the economics ability of black and latino families in terms of employment and business ownership housing And other pillars of wealth accumulation to say nothing of some of the wealth Extracting mechanisms like fines and fees. So what is the economic impact of covid 19? On the city of chicago and the chicago land region What are you observing and what types of relief efforts has the trust fashioned? Thanks so much and it's great to be with everyone and it's great to hear mark morel some kind of table setting comments I think that it helps to put This in in perspective and you know, as you mentioned my background is as a public health physician I kind of thought I had moved past the public health and was squarely in Working on economic development and here we have this crisis that puts the two together and so Um, you know, it has been a very interesting journey for us And I'll put it in the context of the fact that about a year ago we had Launched our our long-term strategy for for the trust which was focused on closing the racial and ethnic wealth gap and you know in many ways, um as we went through the crisis related to covid 19 It really amplified a lot of the things that that Had made us think that focusing on the racial and ethnic wealth gap was an important focus for our organization And as we all know, um, this crisis has highlighted the both the health but also the economic fragility That exists in those communities and I think that the george floyd Um murder and aftermath kind of Stiffened our resolve so I think covid highlighted the impact and then I think you know post murder of george floyd There was really I think a different commitment and an urgency to these issues that I think allows us to have Um a moment of opportunity. I think to really push hard on these issues So in that context as you mentioned we helped to launch a fund To provide emergency response to the community's most hard hit by covid and we said that this should be Really focused on critical urgent immediate needs and stay focused on that because as we know We we were talking about communities that that were already Financially insecure, but we wanted this to really focus on the acute needs. So we looked at food. We looked at Housing we looked at support for paying bills and getting cash into people's hands, particularly Some for the cash looking at populations who would not have had access to Cares act funds undocumented for instance because they didn't have the Identification to allow to get that and we know that the undocumented population was a huge part of who was impacted by this So food how shelter cash Basic needs and we have continued to do that although as as this has evolved We have continued to be more specific and pinpoint the communities where the needs were the greatest So we started out relatively broad still with an understanding that communities of color were being most impacted But then increasingly focused that to where the needs were greatest as well as which organizations Could best meet the needs of their residents who were the smaller Organizations led primarily by people of color who could really get into the neighborhoods while we continued to To provide support to some some of the larger broader organizations Like food banks, etc. Who were across the city? So we really tried to balance this How do you look at these large umbrella organizations while we really looked at the hyper local Organizations that could meet those needs I'll talk more about what we're thinking about as we come into more of a recovery phase But that's where how we responded to what we thought were the most immediate needs for the populations that we felt We're hurting the most in this crisis Thank you so much Helene and i'm also glad that you mentioned Sort of the distribution mechanisms mechanisms of how you are working with both the larger entities and the hyper local organizations In a future urban america forward Relief webinar we are going to be talking about so that mechanics those mechanics of public private partnership. So thank you for that Next it's my pleasure to welcome james fagan the ceo of projects and people He's an urban practitioner with a passion for inclusive economic development James's client roster includes the new economy initiative rock ventures the night foundation Wayne state university and the detroit economic growth corporation james has contributed to programs as Ne ideas Motor city match detroit demo day the night cities challenge and detroit revitalization fellows These efforts have helped to redefine detroit's entrepreneurial ecosystem shift the flow of capital Diversify the region's talent pool and create a more connected city james was a 20 2017 aspen ideas festival scholar And also served as the inaugural inaugural entrepreneur in residence for board-board company's fund And an economic mobility hub station in detroit public schools His firm's current local projects include the cork town neighborhood Framework plan the city of detroit's pan transportation master plan and in good company detroit Welcome james And i will ask you i'm going to ask you the same or a similar question to that of what i asked haleen What's the impact of co of covet 19 on the city of detroit? What type of economic uh observations are are you seeing? And what type of relief efforts has your organization spearheaded? Well, the first even before you get into any of the work of my organization or my clients is when you just look at What we have now come to know about who this virus affects um It has a disproportionate effect on african-americans and folks with three existing health conditions Detroit is an after 80 african-american city So when you just look at that data and how that has played out on Our citizens are people which includes our entrepreneurs But also it includes our first responders our professionals our hospitals our practitioners I've lost colleagues. I've lost friends. So in addition to our community Some of the brightest and best minds that would be applying themselves to problem solving We're sidelined either in death or in in in health challenges And we continue to face that today. So it's just been you know Exponentially, compoundingly challenging Uh to move forward as a region um, that said There are a lot of things that we have been able to persevere and do here in detroit as we always do um And often, you know in all of our days work, right? We can sit here We can read our bios we can look at the stats and we can we can uh, you know Step out and feel good about some of the things we've done. But when we're in it day to day We're simply working to gain more ground or cut more ground. And so that's usually the mode I'm in here in detroit, but I think it is important to you know as we're all kind of stepping back from the last You know four or five only how many months it's been now. It's feels like a couple of years, right? Uh, and just breathing and for the first time maybe Taking a sunday without your laptop or or breathing and not just constantly being in this grind You know, we can look at some of the things that we've done and give ourselves some of that space that dr. Helene talked about of Coming out of this disaster crisis response and ourselves moving into recovery Um, you know and then starting to have that long-term look both within our work or organizations as well as our communities and so You know some of the things that we look at are You know I had the opportunity to go to attend the funders network conference down in houston in the early 2018 And they were having a lot of conversations about climate resiliency And disaster recovery and the economics of it and one of the things that really stuck with me. They said Your your community your recovery will only be as equitable as your community the day before the the storm hit and so When this disaster hit It was it was it was a gut check And in a reality check on where is your community? What were your priorities the day before kovat? Really came to lay bare because that determined what infrastructure you had in place What your investment priorities were what? Uh information networks you had to get information of folks and what you prioritized on the on the other side And so we're fortunate in detroit as much as you know, we have our challenges and we have folks who would criticize things We haven't haven't done today There was not a question about the the economic importance of black businesses Um, it's not a feel-good story here. It's not The right thing to do it is the right thing to do but it's a critical part of our economy And so I think folks understand it from that perspective And then they also you have a lot of good folks in leadership from The mayor's office to our philanthropic community on down That have demonstrated that community that commitment And to in the ways that we've invested in creating access to capital creating new dynamic unique models um creating community really building an ecosystem and a lot of that has been supported and stimulated through um One of my primary clients over the last seven years new economy initiative, which is itself A demonstration of that commitment. It was born out of our last major economic crisis The financial crisis back in 0607 still going on today depending on who you ask And to date they've invested over 160 million dollars in our economic in our entrepreneurial ecosystem With a focus on creating opportunity for underrepresented Small businesses and really pushing that work out into the neighborhoods And so one of those programs you mentioned any ideas Was part of our demonstrated commitment to while we were continuing to invest in the infrastructure the large major organizations The planning courses the ta the you know, the the funds That we also started investing directly in small businesses The community foundation here You know worked with uni to make it possible for grants philanthropic support to go Directly to small businesses not through a filter, but just directly to because of their importance in stabilizing communities providing Goods and services and creating jobs at their neighborhood level Uh over that program in the last You know five years of that program We're able to invest about three million dollars in direct grants to over 144 small businesses Um and had about 3 000 applicants what became a data pool And also a group of folks that we could then funnel to some of these other service providers through that program we were also able to Catalyze a lot of other programs and investments like motor city matching Detroit demo day Where you now had on any given month or year in Detroit You know several million dollars that were up for grabs for small businesses in Detroit in neighborhoods Then weren't just the next facebook or the next uber Where people began to believe and access But there was information there was capital there was there were resources available for them So when the crisis hit Part of me said oh my god this thing we spent the last 15 years building It's going to get wiped out in in 90 days But the other part of me said We've got people that are used to talking to each other We've got programs that have capital already allocated that now we just need to figure out how to pivot and reallocate We've got a commitment region-wide To making these businesses be open and survive and thrive and create jobs And now we just have to continue to pivot those things into it So even when you had challenges and then we'll get into later in the conversation about You know some of the structural challenges of sba and the cares act and the federal government And just the reality of how the bigger the ship the harder it is to turn We had some things that we could do on the ground here on day one in real time Rather it was the mayor's office The the economic development engines here like the de gc our philanthropic community and even our churches And uh community centers. We were always working and talking with each other And able to pivot in real time and do the best we could to write the ship James thank you so much for that one thing that really strikes me as as central to your experience is That you've had that infrastructure in place as you said with with any ideas You had that infrastructure in place and then you you know as you said you pivoted and reallocated And so whatever is fashioned in this moment in any individual city is what can carry The city through potentially for the next crisis You said that you began this this infrastructure development back In the economic recession period and moved forward from there and so Um, so I think that that's that's an important theme to lift up Uh, I also I I really resonates with me that Your city your relief effort is only as equitable as your city was the day before the storm hit I think that that is um that is prescient and something that might Open us up to our next speaker Um, uh, Lynette white white collin who i'm pleased to introduce She's the vice president of small business growth at the new orleans business alliance Which is a public private partnership with the city of new orleans It delivers economic development for the city Um, Lynette develops and implement strategies toward alleviating barriers for growth for business owners of color Um, she leads invest nola, which is a small business growth accelerator focused on scaling high growth potential businesses owned by ethnic minorities And prior to joining the new orleans business alliance Lynette directed economic development programming at the urban league of louis Louisiana Directing the women's business center and bounding the contractors resource center and the women in business challenge So welcome Lynette. Uh, I know that you understand that relief is only as equitable as your city was the day before the storm And new orleans certainly is no stranger to storms So could you tell us a little bit about the economic crisis or what you are experiencing? in terms of economic impact of covet 19 and um and what your organization is doing to fashion relief There are sure so I'll just say that you know, this pandemic could not have have happened at a worse time for new orleans Um, let me just apologize for my voice because my allergies have kicked in and i'm about to lose my voice So bear with me a little but this um pandemic happened at a time Where we were about to start our festival season our tourism season And new orleans as big as the economy is tourism And the majority of the 60 percent of african-americans here, you know, a large Uh portion of them work in the hospitality sector, you know in the restaurants in the hotels And so marty gra happened on february 25th And leading up to that that two weeks before that We had parades that lined the streets for miles with people standing shoulder to shoulder screaming and having a great time Which you know for this pandemic Was a perfect storm. It was just a perfect, you know opportunity for this virus to spread throughout the city unbeknownst to people here that it was spreading um And so leading into what would have been the festival season for many of our culture workers For many of the hospitality workers We have these huge festivals that bring in a lot of tourists Many of the cultural workers This is like the bulk of their annual income that they make From, you know, satay into february through, you know, the essence festival in july And so of course when this happened we were hit pretty hard With people having been on the street Um, we became a hot spot very quickly which meant, you know, our city, you know Quickly, you know started testing Um, you know, and I think we did that well to to work on on that part of it But of course the city had to shut down And that meant that all of these workers, you know, and we have I have to share of gig workers and cultural workers um Were out of work your restaurants closed, you know, all of the businesses closed that they normally would have been working in um, so We recognized early on, you know, even in the the medical healthcare part of this that black people were being affected disproportionately um, and This pandemic just basically worsened the disparities that had already existed So in the work that, you know, I was doing at nulla b a we were focusing on Certainly all businesses of color and trying to close the racial wealth gap. You know, we focused on those of high growth Uh potential but, you know, very quickly we saw You know that african-americans were being disproportionately affected by this virus So knowing that, you know, we have such a high gig Um gig worker economy here nulla b a my organization. We stood up a gig fund Where eventually, you know, that fund grew to almost a million dollars. Well, we were able to serve Um, probably 1700 gig workers, you know with grants Um, and this was like before the the federal response came in So that was, you know, just an unneeded resource for them Um, and of course, you know, as james said earlier New Orleans, you know has we look at where we were before this pandemic, you know, and new orleans families here household incomes where Disproportionately to white families median income household income here was $25,000 Um, compare that to, you know, a white family here was $68,000 and we are well below the national average So those things were already happening when we look at the cash that is available to, you know, Families in new orleans, um black families only equate to about 27 cents to every one dollar For white families. So all of this was happening before this virus, you know Hit new orleans and we had to shut down our hospitality economy And so, you know, in addition to the gig fund I think the city came out with an 18 million dollar fund that addressed food insecurity And started to help some of the restaurants, you know, that we knew we would have to reopen in a very limited capacity But one of the things that the city did as well was they they started a three day a week meeting with Business stakeholders. Um, and so on that meeting every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, we addressed The issues that were coming up, right? So in real time, you know, we have people from all over the city In different industries, you know, different organizations from philanthropy nonprofits And we were addressing, you know, the real issues real time as they were coming up as to, you know, what we could do to To help Folks that were dealing with with many of those crises Um, so I'll I'll stop there because I know we've got a lot to discuss and a lot of people to To talk to Thank you so much Lynette and I appreciate the idea of real real time meeting with business leaders and Pivoting to adjust to what their needs are in the moment Um, next I'm thrilled to introduce K. Sebel ramen the president of demos a dynamic think think and do tank that powers the movement for a just Inclusive multiracial democracy. Sebel is also an associate professor law at Brooklyn law school and the co-author Most recently of civic power which looks at how to build a more inclusive and empowered bottom-up democracy His first book democracy against domination won the doll prize for scholarship on the subject of democracy He has his academic research focuses on democracy economic power law and inequality He has an extensive bio His popular writings have Have appeared in venues like the atlantic the new republic the boston review and so on he earned his law degree and doctorate at harvard university His master's at oxford I'll where he was a road scholar Sebel, thank you for joining us You bring a slightly different perspective I'm hoping that you can speak to us about some of the critical policy levers For stabilizing the economic circumstances and sort of writing the trajectory Of wealth accumulation that we're seeing in communities of color Certainly coven 19 requires acute Relief responses, but demos has been speaking to a larger economic Justice agenda and i'm hoping that you can speak to which policy levers you believe can help with relief And what can be more helpful to longer term more inclusive recovery? Yeah, great. Thanks alina and thanks so much for this incredible discussion Really grateful for the leadership and all the work that Our co speakers and panelists today on the call have been doing in this critical moment. We're glad to be here with y'all so Let me speak to that question first by just kind of reconnecting us to the through line of what Where I hope everyone is hearing today right that the covet crisis the economic crisis This is compounding a pre-existing structural crisis of racial violence and racial inequity Right, we have an economy and a and a democracy that have been that has been premised on The extraction and exclusion of black and latinx communities in particular From our polity from our economy and all of that is sort of coming to a head coming due And becoming visible in this moment. I also want to just Ground us in as we all know I think on this call just the This is an ongoing dynamic escalating crisis in real time, right? We're at the as the pandemic continues as the economic calamity continues We're at the cusp now of the kind of beginning of what is going to be a cataclysmic wave of eviction and homelessness as 30% of families more at this point couldn't meet their couldn't pay their rent or their mortgage in the last month That was a month ago. It's now august 3rd, right? We're going to see what happens This week, but it's not going to be good for our communities. And so We all know this but I think just the stakes of your question elaine about what the policy levers are Are so so great and the scale of the crisis is so great that actually think We start to blur the line between recovery and reconstruction that actually they're I think in a lot of ways Those are the same thing in order to actually speak to the level of devastation in black and brown communities in particular We're going to have to rebuild from the ground up as mark morel sort of Charged us to at the top of the call So I want to lay out three areas in particular that We need to be thinking about policy-wise and I know my other co-panelists will have a lot to add to this First is around households then thinking second around businesses Businesses and the economy so in the marketplace and third around government and our sort of larger infrastructure of Of social services and and public stability So on the household front, you know, the most critical thing here is First lifeline for families and households. We the senate has let our the 600 dollars a week unemployment insurance Policy that was enacted early in the summer laps This is Already devastating is going to continue to be devastating especially for black and brown communities that lifeline has to be extended Sort of negotiations happening in real time on the hill right now But this is also where we need to think about what the new safety net looks like right? We're going to need to keep people protected from eviction We have proposals around mortgage moratorium rent relief and Whole bunch of new ideas around what the new safety net could be a central worker bill of rights proposed in the congress for example So these are all things that are going to be critical to keep households afloat and ideally to build a more equitable And inclusive economy going forward The second pillar is around business and the marketplace and we already heard a bit about this from from james and lanette in particular we Part of this is about the lifeline for businesses, especially black and brown businesses I think something about something like 90 percent of black owned businesses. We're not able to access the ppp protection Kind of payroll protection that congress passed earlier So there's going to need to be immediate support there But then how do we channel that into a longer term access to capital to investment? To the kind of supports that a lot of big corporations have had Over the years There's also a parallel challenge here that the pandemic actually is creating winners in this economy And they're not the winners that we are going to be the basis for a long-term inclusive economy going forward Right amazon is doing great And that is on the backs of essential workers and on the backs of A whole ecosystem of small businesses and retailers who are basically being exploited by the platform So we're going to have to have an answer for the new types of the new kind of oligarchs of the economy That are coming out of this moment as well The last plank here is about government and because we're talking about urban policy I know this is going to be near and dear to a lot of folks in the call here But we have over a trillion dollar shortfall when you look at state and local budgets And we're going to need an answer to that in the in the short end in the long term That accounts not just for the critical social and public services that you've heard about already Lots of public sector on a public sector employment is at risk right as this continues And the whole ecosystem infrastructure Delivering services to communities what alien started us off talking about that's good That's the survival of that infrastructure Which if anything needs to grow in this moment right is premised on The combination of resources public and private that are flowing in to the front line. So There's a lot to dig in there. Let me toss it back to you For this next round of discussion Thank you so much to be all so I know that it's it's taking us a while to unpack all of these issues And present all of the great work that you're doing So I'm going to ask I'm just going to ask one general follow-up question And I'm then I'm going to turn it over to the respondents because I think our goal here is to really Invite a dialogue amongst the practitioners and engage our audience So, uh, you know, Helene, I'm going to come back to you because I know that you have a new initiative and building off of What Seville has mentioned with helping to Fashion and engineer new approaches to move from relief to recovery Can you tell us a little bit about what you think we need to do to ensure that our recovery efforts are more equitable? We know that relief was was building the ship and and sailing it or building the plane and flying at the same time But given a moment to think about where we're going to go forward and knowing this crisis is going to continue to escalate What does recovery look like? Yeah, well, you know, I think all of the comments that people have made kind of Follow into what should recovery look like so, you know, first of all If we're going to have an equitable recovery It needs to be grounded in the reality of the lives of communities and families who have been left out of economic opportunity for far too long and who were The most hard hit by this crisis and so, you know in in chicago, uh, where we have Um Essentially one third white one third latinx one third african-american It's the african-american latinx communities that have been hard hit and that ultimately if we want to move forward as a City in a region you can't do that if two-thirds of your Population is left out of economic opportunity. So, you know, we see this as an imperative not only because we believe It's the right thing to do And that we that that we really ought to be focusing on those communities, but it's also just kind of Economically the only way that we're going to continue to move forward is if we do Make sure that all communities have the opportunity and particularly two-thirds of your population are black and brown We've got to pay attention to that, you know, and I think um, one of the things that Is encouraging if you will coming out of this Experience is that we're doing things differently That we said we couldn't do before so getting cash into people's hands Um, it has made a huge impact, you know data are coming out now to show that we're not having the debt and credit prices that we might have had or had in the the recovery of 2008 Because people actually had money to spend to pay for their basic necessities And so, you know, why not build on that and look at what does that mean for recovery? And what does that mean for longer term policies around cash as an important part? To shoring up households that have financial Instability so, you know, I think Efforts around getting small business getting loans to small businesses. We all know that they were not Perfect to say the least but it's got us started on looking at what are the kinds of systems that we need to build So that small businesses are able to take advantage of programs like this And so I think going into a recovery We've started already building these ecosystems that help small businesses get access To banking relationships that they didn't have as an example. So let's you know, let's build on that you know, we're We've done a lot of things here in Chicago around the digital divide because of so many children who were out of school and needed The ability to Have distance learning. So we have set up a whole infrastructure for getting hot spots out to neighborhoods that didn't have Internet access along with making sure that that children have the equipment We could do much more around that and we know that as we've gotten Internet access to kids. It's also given their parents internet access so that they can do some of the important things that they need You know protection for Part-time and gig workers that came with this where we have always looked only at people who have w2 payroll As ways of supporting so, you know, I could go on and on but I think if we look at, you know Put is our is our focus as we go into this who's been most hard hit What are some of the immediate kind of programmatic things we can do? But what are the policy levers because we know that Poor public policy is why we are where we are today And I think there's so much possibility to take some of the lessons that we learned And the things that we were willing to do in an emergency situation and then start extending those longer term Those are such great and important points. I I think What we should do is Go ahead and because we're a little bit past time. I think we should go ahead and turn it over to our respondents I'm hoping that they'll ask some of the questions that I would have otherwise asked our panelists So we're going to ask our our Respondents I'm pleased to Introduce Vincent ash who's the director of economic development at the indianapolis chamber of commerce Lauren counts who is the senior director and head of national programs at capital impact partners Ashley guardier who is the senior advisor to the president and ceo uh an director of all in cities at policy link and samuel Nedley Nedley Who is the director of employer inclusivity at the center for economic inclusion in many? Um Vincent i'm gonna turn it over to you for a question and for some reflections on the experience that you have have had in indianapolis Really, thank you. Um, and thank you for allowing me to be on here today. Um, I could say From an indianapolis standpoint. Um, we we have seen Our hospitality service industry hit hard similar to everybody else here on this call I would say I think the benefit from us is that we are a pretty diverse from an industry standpoint across the board So while hospitality industry did um in service industry restaurant industry did did take a hit logistics Life sciences, you know was was able to stay Um pretty well and able to grow during this time What we think really that affected the most was small businesses and we knew that going in right when You know, we had orders, you know to shut down stay at home and quarantine That small business was going to be affected to most as indy chamber We're wholeheartedly, you know want to work with businesses and support businesses and give them access to as many resources as possible Um, so we did launch a few things we want that we launched a response hub to be able to give businesses resources in a timely manner in all in one fashion or even to get detailed questions answered from You know i i u kelly school business or indiana bar association for pro bono for free And we did also launch some loan loan programs. So we did do a traditional loan program Very low interest 3.75 percent And we was able to do that in a pretty equitable fashion Um 64 went to xb businesses with 29 of those being black businesses. Um as well Once, you know the first round of ppp kind of uh went out We did start strategizing and being strategic about how we can participate in the second round of the payroll protection program So we did do a partnership with a cdfi In um in our city To be able to and with the city of indianapolis to be able to administer payroll protection loans overall we We have put out about seven and a half million dollars for a little bit over four in our traditional lending and then Right about 3.5. Um in our payroll protection plan in program 76 of the loans that we have for our payroll protection program Went to xb ease with 37 of that being black owned businesses. Um, so I think overall from an equitable fashion We did we did a pretty good job. There's definitely a lot more to do Um, but we was able to do that by concentrating on very small businesses 15 employees or less Um, and we was able to capture a lot of sole proprietors And then I really think that's what really helped us with our demographics In our and our loan price lines. Um, so I believe that's the note by indianapolis. So my question is really to the panel is As we as I spoke on, you know, the payroll protection program And we all we are aware that a lot of black and brown business minority business owners was left out of that process What do you think could have been done differently from a federal level or from a financial institution level to basically give Access to this program to a lot of black and brown business owner I'm going to let anyone And the panelists who Jump in to respond to that question. What could have been done Better or as we were thinking through going forward What can be done to make sure that we are that the funds are reaching the intended community members or the ones We would intend to receive the benefits Sure. I'll jump in. Um So I know a lot of us know these stats as practitioners, but I'll just kind of throw out because we Delt with this in real time in Detroit as the facts were coming out and the realities of how this capital is going to be deployed um If you work in this work, you know that pre-covid nine out of 10 sba loans Went to white male led companies. That's just the data that they share um The loans also As the distribution channel is set up We're going to be distributed through banks not directly through the sba And banks were only going to work with their existing customers As a way for them to handle the deluge of applications and processing that was coming in And so when you look at how most black and brown companies start they don't start with bank loans We know why but they don't um, so that that just set of facts Just put in motion certain things that weren't going to happen in in on the onset of this crisis not right or wrong just structurally we realized early on that that We were going to advocate as much as we could but even the bankers I talked to that were friends were like This is how this is how we're doing it and and so that was the challenge so, you know long term you've got to work to Make the sba and those pathways, you know address those barriers systematically as to Why those stats are the way they are why those relationships aren't there And what infrastructure do we need to help create either within the businesses or at scale so that every sole proprietor Or two or three person business doesn't have to become an sba lending expert and that was just kind of a I don't call it a blind spot of our ecosystem but of the steps of the many things that we were addressing I think for a lot of those quite frankly sba just wasn't at the top of our lending pool because Of some of those challenges that we had to overcome and we were kind of creating our own lanes But when you look at the own lanes, you know, like I worked with new economy initiative We're you know 160 million over 13 years Which sounds like a great amount of funds But we just deployed through two rounds of the cares at four trillion over six months And so if you took every philanthropic endowment across the nation kresky night's Rockefeller all of them, you know Do you even get to one trillion? No over a lifetime of giving and so when you just have to now You know, you've gotten election year You've got you know, we had senators and congress folks come to the table and say well What can we do when they host the webinars and all these things but you know At what point do we actually we as the practitioners present the game plan for saying? Here's what happened. I understand you couldn't change it in april But if this still happens over the next two three four five years Here's what we're going to look like as a community And so, you know, and that's one part of it the other part of it. I think which goes beyond these loans Is what are we loaning into? because We have businesses right now that we have to also do some of the other stewardship on of How do we not just loan them into a cliff? But prepare them to participate In the new economy as it Is created and as we created as uh case the bill mentioned There are winners right now in this disaster recovery A lot of us weren't Prepared to pivot or didn't know how to pivot or where to pivot We were still trying to convince a lot of folks to claim their google plus listings And we were fighting to bring more, you know residents to the neighborhood for local mom hop brick and waters If if our businesses are dependent on that economy and that revenue stream to survive They will die So we have to quickly at scale Get folks prepared to understand how to deal with shifting demographics in the neighborhoods How to deal with shifting consumer habits, you know, not just ordering online or curbside or e-commerce But how do you have an expanded customer base? How do you create? Different types of revenue streams for your business. How do you understand how to restructure your business? You know, we have so much shame about failure within our community Or even something like taking unemployment or or filing for bankruptcy You know, look at sacks with avenue look at Nordstrom's look at men's warehouse Look at all these different major corporations that understand different financial tools You know of how to restructure eliminate that Create effective balance sheets pivot their business models when needed, you know, we've got to not just teach to Being competitive 10 years ago with understanding that what being competitive looks like is going to change Month over month you over you're going into the future. Yeah, that's the short version Yeah, I just want to jump in really quick really Echo and agree with all of what james is laying out. It's so important two additional Uh data points to add, you know, with the with the way the the ppp Program was structured it flowed through banks banks as james described Banks claimed anywhere from 20 to 30 billion dollars in fees just on the processing alone So not only did the money not make it to the communities that need it most That is just skimmed off the top if we were building from scratch, right? We would have what would it look like if you had If every small business and back and brown owned business had an account at the fed That where they could get that money directly the way all the big banks have been able to get Support bailouts, you know under the table. What would it look like if we had that infrastructure built, right that 24 billion dollars? That's you know, we can do the math, but that's you know, half a million jobs over the next year It's it's a lot of dollars, right just on fees alone. Um, and then the the last thing to add here Mentioning about sort of getting our businesses up and up and running for the new economy What you're saying james, uh, they're you know private equity is is waiting poised in this moment, right? There's been a lot of coverage about a lot of venture funds and private equity funds that are Trying to buy up businesses that are failing in this moment to sort of add to their portfolios And that's another pool of capital that actually, you know, is being used to further Extract wealth from black and brown communities that those dollars need to be going into businesses the way james Is just describing a moment ago And I would just add to you know, what both have said totally agree I think that if there were clear goals set out for this We would design the right program and there were no real goals There was just the notion that we not need to get dollars out and I think it's one of the things And then whoever was best positioned to get those dollars got those dollars And I think one of the things moving from kind of this response to recovery Is really thinking about what metrics do we put in place? What are the goals of these programs so that what we do really designs for the the audiences that we really want to reach And I think that's you know something that we can do as we think about recovery is being much more deliberate About making sure we're designing programs that meet the targets that we feel will will bring the most equity into this And and we've got to make sure that our we have to make sure that our legislators are you know Keen as to you know Who these policies have to work for right because you know as as you said the fees That the banks generated from doing these loans It made sense for a bank to do one ten million dollar loan That they would have gotten the same fee for doing 50 You know less than a million dollar loan So it just made perfect sense for that to happen You know and there's not too many small businesses that have a five million dollar a month payroll Which is what this this program equated to you know a ten million dollar cap So if the intention was really for small businesses There should have been a much smaller cap, you know The the fee should should not have been structured the way they were to make it favorable for the banks to go after much larger loans Okay, thank you And i'm going to turn it over to lauren for lauren counts with capital impact partners for her question and reflections on experiences in washington dc Thank you, and thanks so much for having me today and inspired by all of your work listening here today In washington dc We have seen a lot of response from the local and regional governments and our jurisdictions so we've seen DC had 25 million dollar micro grant program Montgomery Fairfax Arlington counties in virginia and maryland Came came up with some very fast money and As a community development financial institution I have seen how critical those funds are in addition to the federal response And cdfis that we work with actually channeled 10 million dollars in the last few weeks Through ppp and micro grant programs which have been essential And helping these struggling small businesses stay afloat And we've seen also particularly the retail and the food sectors have been so impacted by this crisis Just struggling to keep keep their doors open while they're also dealing with the same child care issues that we're all facing You know having to deal with their lives as well as keeping their businesses afloat And we've seen businesses pivoting, you know from being Selling baked goods to selling flour, you know buying trucks to get the food to communities And then some nonprofits who have been channeling micro grants and donations So i'm particularly interested James and Lynette what you've seen in your communities With these high performing nonprofits And how do we in the next iteration in the recovery? Ensure that they're part of the conversation Ensure that they're getting funding so that they can Really provide that distribution channel For the funding that's going to need to continue Thanks Yeah, so, um We work Fairly closely with with our cdfi community here as a matter of fact in the program that I run we have a consortium of three Cdfi's here that are all led by people of color Um the intent of of this program was really to be able to loan more money to the businesses that really needed it And to come up with a product, you know that would You know help them in the way our businesses operated Um, and so, you know, we've seen that the cdfi's have definitely come to the rescue, you know even Um with these ppp loans we actually partnered with a couple of our cdfi's Here in addition to that we also part brought in our um, esos our entrepreneurial support organizations Where we actually paid them To help our business owners to put together those applications and then those applications were submitted through these cdfi's So we were able to make sure that over 250 You know very small minority owned businesses were able to get access to that ppp Which we know if we had not done that concerted effort That wouldn't have happened So we we really do have to make sure that they are at the table because it is critical We cannot rely on the banks to make sure that our businesses are getting the resources, you know And the and the monies that they need But these cdfi's are also standing up, you know other loan funds That, you know are are proving to be very beneficial to the business owners here So, you know my organization with the businesses that we've worked with, you know, we have worked with them around pivoting strategies Um, we actually have developed a new training program that we're deploying next month To really focus on those critical issues that the businesses should be focusing on right now, you know pivoting strategies You know cash management Even exit strategies this may be the time for you to look at whether your business should be filing bankruptcy Right, or maybe you should be positioning your business to be bought by another company Um, so those strategies that I don't think our businesses are really focused on You know is where the nonprofits can really step up and provide that kind of training and information and resources And then working with our neighborhood communities to make sure that we we have a pulse on what's happening in the communities So that we're able to address those immediate needs So, I try to share a lot of stuff really quickly. Um, one of the things there's a couple of again back to infrastructure Um, one of the things that we had lost in Detroit in the last two years was co-act Which is our center for non-profit innovation where there was actually incubator focused on providing information technical assistance and coaching to nonprofits and so Again when the crisis hit we had that infrastructure that could focus on ppp access pivoting Scaling coaching for nonprofits and that was closely tied to our entrepreneurial ecosystem as well um One of the things that you know of the myriad of things that we're able to do you had some kind of strong performers Like our tech town which is tied to our university. So it's got some funding base in place They were able to really, you know, kind of take the helm on focusing on um I don't want to say low income, but they they developed a grant product that was quickly available for Uh entrepreneurs with 80 area am i so it was really focused to say okay We know ppp is going to be happening up here Let's develop some quick funds right now for folks right here at the sole proprietor level at the you know Just you know really getting started level um, we were in the midst of Um, this was going to be really a kind of a banner year for detroit of kind of a victory lap of sorts And we had a campaign going called in good Co Detroit, which was Storytelling campaign about all of our great entrepreneurs. We you know over the years and their success stories And it quickly came clear to us in march. Nobody wanted to hear about success stories Nobody even wanted to be inspired people needed to know how to survive So we pivoted this into a place for real-time pivoting so we can provide peer-to-peer Information on how entrepreneurs were handling the crisis And also a source for information. So we developed a covet 19 landing page to just put up front Here are all the different changing daily And if you remember, you know in march and in april every day We're getting a new announcement a new grant program and a lot of our front line service providers We're trying to provide services but also aggregate this information every day And so what we were able to do through any eye and a good call is just take on that aggregation role We had the infrastructure We had the tech and I could host a weekly call and they just tell people send me stuff Be a message screenshot text message, whatever We'll put kind of the daily bill up here the grants here the webinars Here's the great latest analysis of the cares act Oh, here's a great resource from the kenzie co that you might not have heard of and here's the Goldman Sachs investors call info And so we were able to kind of service that intermediary for Gathering information as well as helping folks understand what other people were doing in real time So everybody could have their own lane and solving the problem Um, perfect. Um, james. Yes, I'm going to interrupt you there only because we have a little bit less than 20 minutes left Two more questions to ask from respondents and also questions from the audience But I hear you about the importance of the repository of information that information is key and power in this moment So thank you for sharing that and lifting that one up um I before we turn to our remaining two respondents samuel samuel nidalee From minneapolis and ashley gardier with policy link molly. I'm going to ask you if you could Share a couple of questions that have come in from the uh, the chat from our audience and the chat Sure, thanks so much and to everyone in the chat if we don't get to your questions on air We'll make sure and share them with the panelists offline and share the responses across this whole community. We're creating So very quickly. I actually have like a visual poll for everyone on the panel speakers and respondents alike dory rand raised the issue of bias and Discrimination and small business lending and ppp that ncrc has done Some match pair testing and some studies on that. So I'd love to see a show of hands How many of you are thinking about or supporting kind of further testing or litigation? To kind of really flesh out whether or not this discrimination is happening We believe it is and how it's happening Is anybody pushing on that give me like a wave of the hands if if litigation around discrimination and ppp is on your mind I see some nodding. I see some nodding Um, Sabeel you seem to be furrowing your brow anything you want to add to that that's specific Yeah, I mean, I don't want to take up too much time, but I think um There's you know statewide. There's a lot of room I think there's going to be a lot of need for this kind of statewide innovation I think that's true But this goes back to some of the public sector budgeting questions that I was mentioning earlier, right that We're state governments and local governments are also seeing their resources crater and and so this is part of the thing to balance Right is that we need to leverage all the creativity We can at the local state and local level because it's the scale the problem demands it And we're going to need national scale resources to even do that type of innovation, right? So ideally we would have that one to punch local creativity with federal resources flowing right into Our state and local policymakers and and sort of the public private infrastructures that we've talked about here But you know, it's not going to be something that even the the most Creative local leaders are going to be able to handle without those federal dollars eventually Sure And we'll hope that the panelists can add to that after the After the event but one last question from the audience before we pivot back to our respondents And actually Lynette, I'm going to come to you because you talked a little bit about kind of the Social and emotional toll that all of this has taken at hitting New Orleans just when it did And we've had a question about the the mental health of entrepreneurs Especially entrepreneurs of color who are getting it from all sides. Do you know of any programs? Do you have your site set on any programs that are supporting people's mental health as they also try to maintain their business? Yeah, and and we we have discussed that quite a bit. Um, you know on our business committee meetings Just because we know it it's it's a real issue There are a couple of organizations here in New Orleans, you know that Have taken that on you know and have reached out to Individuals and the business community, you know to come in and and seek help For for those, you know mental health issues that they may be having but you know being an entrepreneur is a lonely life Anyway, right and so when you add this, you know covid situation, we're on lockdown You're in your home, you know It's panic time because you've got a business to run you don't have income coming in you don't know You know, there's so many uncertainties that you know, you can't control And you're feeling out of control and and it is you know critically important And it is one of the places that you know, we've we've been talking a lot about but there are two organizations here an institute for mental hygiene and The metropolitan human service folks here They've reached out. They've done some public service announcements, you know to make sure that people know that these resources are available You know and like james, you know, we set up a repository on the website to you know Be able to let people know where these resources are and where they can go To tap into that Thank you so much Annette. Elena. I want to come back to you for the other respondents Okay, and I want to thank our viewing audience I know those questions came in from dory ran from chicago And mike tamale from minneapolis st paul to Two partners and supporters of urban america forward over the years I want to turn that over to samuel net lee The director of an employee of employer inclusivity at the center for economic inclusion in minneapolis Samuel, can you be try to be brief in explaining the experience? But also if you can share your question with uh the panelists. Thank you Yeah, uh, thank you. Um, elena. Um, so yes, um, I am Born and raised in minneapolis, minnesota and as you all know, um, this is the incident where this is the epicenter of where George floyd and and all of the uprising and things have happened during our covet period There's been many issues with police brutality prior to that moment But I think that with considering everything that was going on tipped everybody over the edge and and now we're in this moment um, and it's a minneapolis is also a very unique place when it comes to Having a number of fortune 500 companies headquartered here. We have about 17 headquartered here in the twin cities area Um, and there's a lot of opportunity. However, there's we're one of the cities with the largest disparities between whites and blacks and um, one of the things that I wanted to ask the uh And at the center of economic conclusion, um, really what we are we're a cross-sector organization That's committed to strengthening the um, the region's infrastructure Um to with collect with collective capacity to disrupt these systems that are set up that created these disparities um, so really what I wanted to ask the the the group of uh, panelists is um in your city, um, have you Do you have relationships with these companies? um That are employing a lot of our a lot of people in our community Um, robert smith, I forgot to mention this part of my apologies. I'm trying to make this question as brief as possible Robert smith, um had put out on the forbs. Um, he talked about a two two percent um, um initiative which essentially is companies providing two percent of their net profits to um, cdfis we talked about cdfis and black home banks Which have those relationships with these black entrepreneurs? Um, do you have you ever thought about how we can get more of these companies involved in and maybe something like that? I'd be happy to say a couple words about that. I mean, I you know, um One of the things I was going to come back to From one of my earlier statements is you know, we've put a lot of focus on Public policy change and I think that's critical on the other hand I think there's a lot more that the the private sector can do um to really Make a difference and have an economic impact at this moment So, you know, one of the things as we've been thinking about the, um recovery fund that that that we're envisioning It isn't just a dollar fund. It isn't just how many dollars can we raise for Programmatic efforts, but it's also how can we incorporate the private sector? To really be part of the solution and thinking differently around how they can interact and engage with communities of color And so, you know, you give the example of robert smith There's a lot that corporations could do Based on how they spend their dollars and you know, he has some very specific things around dollars to cdfis and um procurement and use of um services, um that are Businesses owned by people of color, etc. And I think there's a lot that could be done on that side But you know, we also know job creation and looking at, you know, are we making sure that jobs that are the jobs of the future and high growth Jobs are jobs that are being prioritized for communities of color Lending we've all talked about, you know lending consistently. Well, that's banks, you know, that's the private sector How do we get banks to think differently? About how they lend, you know, we know that insurers in communities of color don't ensure in ways that um, you know Allow businesses that have hard times to have the same kind of insurance coverage So, you know, could we work with insurance companies? So, you know, there's there's a whole agenda if you will for the private sector And we are working very closely with the private sector here in Chicago We have a a coalition called the corporate coalition, for instance That is trying to look at how what they do can be more aligned With some of these broader initiatives and so I you know Definitely There's a whole agenda that needs to be thought through as we look both at the public sector and policy levers But also how the private sector can enter into this And obviously we know that private capital Besides taxes is the only renewable source of capital we have and if we can use that and deploy that in ways That really focus on this equity agenda. You know, I think that we can accomplish a lot Do I have a second Elena or just one? Okay Three quick examples of how we have done that here Case ability mentioned earlier about banks and in the fees collected So tcf bank here took a billion dollars in the fees that they collected through pvp loan processing And created a loan fund for minority entrepreneurs. So that's a billion dollars. They put on the table We've got to be short needs business consortium right now Where all the major corporate partners in the region are at the table Working to invest their time talent and treasure They're moving small businesses forward from procurement to all the different ways that they can support And then the rock ventures is now in their fourth year of detroit demo day Where they're investing a million dollars in zero percent interest loans to these short small businesses I've helped build that program. I was a participant in it In helping some of my clients exceed funding and I've also served as a juror It's one of the few funding sources that you know, no guarantees no personal guarantees very low barrier You just show up you compete And and the winner circle they've created really speaks for itself. So a lot of old things could be scaled But they've been it's a lot of folks who have done a great job in creating those access and good models that exist We can share Thank you. Thank you very much james. And so next next i'm going to turn it over i'm sorry Lynette if you if you wouldn't mind let me let's turn it over to ashley gardier with policy link She's going to ask for a final question, but I think it will provide an opportunity Both to share her reflections about what they're seeing at policy link with all in cities and also some ideas for Some final remarks about bold moves For next steps. So ashley gardier senior advisor to the president and ceo and director of all in cities at policy link Awesome. Thank you guys so much for letting me listen and participate in what has been a truly an inspiring conversation at policy link we Focus on advancing liberating policies and we center the hundred million people of people in America who are living in or near poverty most of whom are people of color The panelists have outlined Really from the beginning that the racial wealth gap Was created by design Through policies and systems which mean that Our focus on equity and our ability to get to a just economy Requires that we change the rules and then create equity by design Essentially, this is going to require us To respond to the immediate needs. I call them the right now demands of the more than a hundred million While we work aggressively Towards structural changes that our founder angela glover blackwell Tells us requires radical imagination. So my questions For the panel How can we provide access to health care? Food and emergency supplies and advocate for delayed evictions due to coveted like our partners in Contra Costa county while we build a shared agenda for full access to health care And housing and technology In our economy work, can we stabilize incomes for hospitality and gig workers? And provide relief funds to entrepreneurs of color while We build a shared agenda for a federal job guarantee that invests in our region's next economies delivering good jobs And living wages for all in our democracy work. Can we demand inclusive processes? Excuse me To help shape the equitable deployment of covid resources While we build power to change the rules of the game and ensure voting rights for all Last week our housing team published two papers with recommendations to ensure racial equity And inclusion in the deployment of public resources i'll put that in the chat box But finally in our corporate sector, can we make the near-term investments in movement leaders and design new HR uh policies and practices that are actively anti-racist While we write new rules of capitalism Really establishing diverse investment teams making investments in black entrepreneurs and businesses that benefit black markets So at policy link, we believe that we can and we must address both the right now And the radical aspirations because of the scale that our poor will not for Uh, the very strong policies that this country has been built on Require So shifting from fixing people and small policies And systems to now deliver at a scale that would serve the hundred million in america who are living out of your poverty Thank you so much for letting me listen and respond Ashley, thank you for that. I think what we're going to do is allow your question to be a rhetorical one And to serve as our challenge as we move forward because I think that each of the panelists has has shared how they are How they are implementing implementing acute relief efforts, but also aiming toward that That the renewed infrastructure and infrastructure that actually serves All of our the members of our community who are vulnerable and thinking through New and different and better not just building the same or rebuilding the same fabric That got us in the situation in the first place So i'm going to leave leave your question as a rhetorical one for us all to consider as we move forward in these conversations And i'm going to thank uh I'm going to thank all of our panelists and all of our respondents for their expertise For their time and importantly for their great work on behalf of the communities that we care about in urban america I want to I want to thank our our partners New america indianapolis and the national urban league And I also of course want to thank our sponsors the kresge foundation any ekc foundation I invite you all to uh to participate in this ongoing conversation the uh the urban america forward COVID-19 equitable relief and recovery series will take place every three weeks from now until october 5th So mark august 24th september 14th and october 5th on your calendars The next program will focus on some of those critical questions that you raised ashley with regard to housing and eviction moratoriums housing relief and rental and mortgage relief On september 14th, we are going to focus on public private partnerships and what we are doing with and through public private partnerships to invest in lives and lively Houses and that will raise many of the questions that um that helene shared with us or many of the solutions that helene shared with us and Exploration of the ways that corporate america as well can come to the table and on october 5th We'll be talking about the future of urban america. What will it look like post-covid as we are seeing migration out of our urban centers as we're seeing our innovation economies uh Pack and run to places where they can provide distance uh distance work And and at cheaper rent And we're seeing some young professionals move out of our cities. What will that mean for tech space our services? Our uh security and safety and our education. Uh, so please market calendars and plan to join us for those conversations And with that, I believe that takes us to the close of our program Um, I want to let you know that this video the video of this recording will be Featured on the new america youtube site and on urban america forward Our website, uh, we will also be sure to share a summary brief uh in the highlights from this conversation with you Um, and again, thank you to our partners. Thank you to our illustrious panelists and respondents Um, and everyone thank you for the work that you are doing to ensure that cobit 19 relief is equitable And and get us to a more inclusive uh economic recovery Thank you very much


We are happy to introduce Andrew Logan and his Defcon 30 and his parents, I want to mention his parents, are happy to have them here. He will be talking about ghost helicopters, so please give a big round of applause for Andrew Logan. Thank you all so much. It is an honor, and I'm so thrilled to be here at Defcon, my first Defcon. So I want to talk to you about tracking the military ghost helicopters of Washington, D.C. And I'll start by taking you on a tour of Washington, D.C., where you can see the Army National Guard practicing their rotor wash techniques over peaceful protesters, or the Park Police practicing the same techniques on ice skaters on the National Mall. If you want to spend a quiet day inside, well, if it's around inauguration, you can enjoy the Department of Energy sweeping for background radiation at 150 feet above your dwelling back and forth all day. And if that wasn't enough, we also have a top secret Army mission, and the night vision and electronic sensors directorate is based in nearby Fort Belvoir, so they stay pretty busy even at night. These are just a few of the helicopter operations over the district, but so began my helicopter obsession. Kept up late at night finding a little historical information the following day, but finding a lot of Twitter users with the same questions who could not identify a helicopter if they saw one. When I looked at libraries that would help me work with aircraft data and Twitter, Python was an obvious choice. There are many flavors of Python, as you know, but as a novice coder. I decided to go with bad Python. Some of the tenants of bad Python use an outdated version. God, I shouldn't tell you guys this. Command line editor is always good.  This does help when you're debugging on your phone. And with that, I built a basic ADSB bot, not dissimilar from the famous Elon jet, originally using free data from open sky API and mapping with matplotlib. Now my wife has a master's in geography, and when I asked her what she thought of this map on the left, she said, looks good. She's very generous person. Now we're using Google map static API, custom icons, and we use data from ADSB exchange, which is much better. I highly recommend ADSB exchange. Anybody in the audience knows them. They don't filter military, and they don't filter private operators for profit. And a little background on ADSB, if you don't know, it's a transponder protocol that has been required in many of the busier air spaces since early 2020. And it's part of FAA's next gen plan to pack more flights into smaller spaces. It stands for automatic dependent surveillance broadcast. Automatic in that it does not require the pilot's intervention. Dependent on a number of sensors. Surveillance in that it reports those sensors via broadcast on 978 or 1090 megahertz unencrypted for reception by ground stations like us. Well, it's actually intended for reception by the tower and rebroadcast to other planes, but we can receive it. So at the bottom we have a chart on the evolution of transponder codes and their capabilities as taken from this DOD and Government Accountability Office report on the risks to military using these transponders. So it's no surprise also in this report you'll find the code of federal regulations, exemption from transponder use for agencies missions for national defense, homeland security, intelligence, and law enforcement purposes. And I asked the Government Accountability Office directly. This is how I got on my first watch list. Who makes the decision as to whether a flight is sensitive or not? And they told me the FAA defers to the agency to make that designation. So as you can imagine, with the military self-exempting itself from transponders, it leaves very little for flight trackers in the DC area. What we normally get is in the triangle, medical, news gathering, state and county police, and park police. Everything else is a ghost helicopter for the purposes of this discussion. And so our flight data pyramid emerges with ADSB at the top with the highest data quality, and only in the DC area is it true that this provides the lowest data quantity when we're talking about helicopters. And it didn't feel right having a pyramid about government surveillance without this, so you have that. Now, we can start to chip away at this pretty easily by looking at the President's daily schedule, which is public. And we can scrape this with beautiful soup or selenium, but they let you download a CSV, so we just do that every morning at 8 a.m., parse for relevant terms like joint base Andrews, where the helicopter flies to, and then convert those into cron jobs that tweet later in the day. And voila, you have automatic presidential arrivals and departures, unless they take the motorcade, which does happen. Now, this type of tracking what's publicly announced is also useful for things like military night at the Loco Ballpark. And when you're surveilling the military, and before we go any further, it's good to set some ground rules. In researching this, I relied on a talk by the National Geospatial Programs Office on how they make the decision to redact data from public data sets. So they consider first, is this data potentially useful to an adversary? And second, is this data unique before weighing the risks and benefits of redacting that information from the public? They note, efforts to safeguard useful information that is readily available through open sources or observation are unlikely to reduce vulnerabilities. On the other side, we have basic tenants of good journalism. I try not to do things automatically, ADSB bought aside, provide proof of user specific interest whenever possible, and thus establishing the public interest, and source good data and link to primary sources whenever possible. In 1997 court case defined what a journalist is for the purposes of journalistic shields, and our use case is a little different, but I find it informative. So they say a journalist is engaged with the intent to use material sought, gathered or received to disseminate information to the public, and that such intent existed at the inception of the news gathering process. All of this is to say, as long as there is no smoky back room discussion where we're trading helicopter secrets with no intent of surfacing this information to the public, I should be within my First Amendment rights for the duration of this talk. And I do a lot of reporting on helicopters and often the military. These are two of the most infamous, famous. They're the most popular operators in the DC area. The Air Force First Helicopter Squadron responsible for VIP evacuations, but well known for flying very low and making emergency landings on local playgrounds in these Vietnam era Hueys. And on the right, we have the Army 12th Aviation Battalion who's responsible for transporting three and four star generals to and from the Pentagon, as well as the aforementioned night flights. Now, I want to try and exercise at this point. The event on the left was a diversity recruiting event, and we recently saw the operator on the right doing an honorary military flyover at Arlington Cemetery. I'd like you to raise your hand if you believe either of those would require an exemption from transponder use as a sensitive flight. Oh my God. Okay, that's what I thought too, but no transponder on either of those. So it would be easy to look at what we're doing so far on Twitter and say, well, you have an enormous data problem if you can't see these aircraft. But I wanted to approach this differently. I thought if we have hundreds or thousands of people looking at our Twitter feed on their phone that is sensor rich and high quality camera, and we could just get them to square their hips and raise the phone above their head and crane their neck back, well, we could solve the data problem. And it might actually have health benefits too. So in October 2020, we started CopterSpotter, which is a platform for DC residents to self-report helicopter activity over their location. They do this with a couple pieces of data. The time, date, and geolocation provided by Twitter and either a photo, video, or the type of helicopter if they know it. Now, this is a typical copter spot on the right, and you all could be forgiven for thinking that this is a black-hawk helicopter carrying armaments over a civilian population. These are, in fact, auxiliary fuel tanks, but it is a common concern amongst DC residents. And our bot retweets a spot like this with a map, a corresponding icon, and probable operators, in this case for a black-hawk helicopter. There are several. And this creates kind of a rolling feed of helicopter activity throughout the area. And I'm sure you all would all say, that's great, but how do you get people to actually do this? Well, you make it a game. And here's a recent leaderboard. Our users frequently joke that one day this could be tradable as copter coin, a pseudo-currency that can only be earned by taking photos of helicopters. It puts it much more in the tangible realm compared to a lot of cryptocurrencies. Quickly, I want to tell you how Twitter handles location tags now. Used to be that you could tag a specific latitude and longitude on a map. And since 2019, they've in favor used four square locations, which gives you a bounding box by default, your city, which is too large for our purposes. So we ask users to tag a specific park or building, and then we make sure that that is no wider than two miles in either dimension. Here is just one of the few problematic locations, a park where the bounding box far exceeds the bounds. And once you have all of this location data, you can start to solve some of those problems. This is the copter spotter map by my colleague Sam Reese, and it lets you filter our dataset by time, date, and operator. So you can find out who that helicopter was over you last night, last week, or last month, even if it was the military. This also lets you submit directly to our dataset via a form in case you don't want to give your Twitter location to whoever our Twitter overlord, maybe by the time you're all watching this on video. So residents really took heart with this project over the pandemic. One of our spotters, Cassie, told us that it made her feel like she was included in a group that she didn't even know existed. And I recently found out how that felt here at my first DEF CON, so thank you all. Don Bayer, one of the members of the Congressional Quiet Skies Caucus recognized my efforts, and we even got a spot from a guy in a Black Hawk helicopter. That's pretty cool. Not everyone was so excited, but when someone calls you an anarchist and says the FBI needs to be watching you because of what your project is doing, everyone in this room knows you're on the right track. And we collected over 10,000 copter spots in 2021. At the top you can see the small portion that would normally be available with ADSB data. The gray area is the unknowns after we looked at the photos and tried to correlate operators to have all of them. And then 50% of our data is military operators. We do acknowledge a shortcoming with our dataset, which is that they are voluntarily submitted, so they do not represent a measured random sample. However, you can reasonably expect that the actual number of events is higher than what is being reported. We did notice a drop-off, however, over several months. Unique users were going down and unknown spots were going down as well. So people were getting better at identifying helicopters, but we were serving more of a core group of spotters. And I wanted this to engage the whole DC area and serve them, and I looked for ways to use the existing data to that end. And of course, once you have thousands of photos of helicopters submitted from the user's perspective, the next step's pretty obvious. You create a computer vision program to automatically identify the helicopters. These are two V-22 Osprey, part of the Marine Presidential Squadron and our computer vision program identified these with a 73.9% confidence when selecting from 19 distinct operators. If the user also includes location, we add them to the dataset and map it, as we did with this Coast Guard MH65, part of the Blackjack Flight Interdiction Program that keeps small planes out of the NCR. This is done with the aid of Roboflow, which is a great startup and has been a great partner for us. They help beginners and small teams get started with computer vision and they have amazing tools for collaborative annotation and they can even train and deploy your model nearly code free. They also have a Roboflow universe that is a repository of open source models that you can use for your next project and our data is included. So I look forward to seeing all of your helicopter identification program soon. So with that, there's one box missing from our flight data pyramid here and it has to do with the fact that visual identification is not that usable at night. And so we looked for someone who has more data that we could access and we started capturing radio calls. Now, we thought about doing this with Live ATC, but turns out separating by silence is not quite the same as squelch on a radio if you're trying to get individual calls. So instead, we deployed a Raspberry Pi on a balcony near DCA, volunteers. He knows what we're doing. And we use the excellent open source app RTL-SDR Airband to capture individual radio calls, upload them to an FTP server and tweet them at a sub-account from a sub-account called UFOs of DC. They're unidentified, but you get to identify them and someone did below noting the call signs, waypoints, routes and zones that were mentioned in the radio call. Now, the main account picks this up, builds a map of the described features and adds operator information and then uses FFMPEG to tie the original audio file to this image to create a video in what I think is a really powerful tool for citizen journalists to create stories from a difficult to use data set. Quickly, I wanna show you guys our Raspberry Pi. This was a very early version. We've since upgraded to an AirSpy HF Plus. And the main thing I learned is that you cannot trust the Raspberry Pi's built in Wi-Fi at all. So instead, we use a GL Inet router and the good cloud interface allows you access a layer above the Pi and you can use something like this Shelly command line accessible switch accessed from the router to hard reset the Pi in the event that it crashes. And with the completion of that box, we've completed our flight data pyramid. Yay, where do we go from here? Well, I'd like to look at connecting disparate data sources, whether that is the DC police tweeting an incident report that includes location and tying that to ADSB data to say this helicopter's above you right now and this is what they're looking for. Similarly, I'd like to look at news gathering helicopters and scrape local news sites just for the trending stories and identify aerial photos with computer vision so that we can say this is likely what they're over your house for. We're elevating helicopter air to air radio directly to the main feed as well. This is often two news gathering helicopters talking about how they're covering a story or two police agencies talking about an active pursuit. And I'm interested in noise monitoring. The DCA airport has a noise monitoring program but it's only along the river and it's not publicly accessible via API. But I'm really curious to ask you guys how would you apply something like this to crowdsource a difficult to use data set or give citizen journalists the power to make stories from that data. And we have a demonstration this weekend. If you go to helicopters of LV on Twitter, you will see the ADSB bot in action mostly covering sightseeing helicopters over the Las Vegas region but you can tweet your photos at it for automatic identification. And I'm gonna hang out at five PM right outside Caesars by the sign and if you wanna come do five minutes of copter spotting say hello, maybe look at code and give me your ideas. I would love to hear them. Thank you all so much.