In an April 15 press release, Chula Vista City Manager Gary Halbert announced Director of Economic Development Eric Crockett has been promoted to Deputy City Manager for Chula Vista.
That promotion comes just as elected officials across the nation are beginning to develop plans for reopening businesses in a safe manner following the social distancing measures implemented to slow the spread of COVID-19.
According to the release: “Crockett will lead the city’s efforts in the coming months to assist local businesses through the economic recovery from the current COVID-19 crisis. He will coordinate with regional, state and federal partners to provide the small business community all available tools and resources to help them in getting back on their feet.”
Crockett said he plans to recommend a 90-day transitional program at the local level.
“We have to be nimble and flexible and collaborate with our businesses, but I’m going to be very open to pushing the government out of its comfort zone to help our economy and our businesses,” Crockett said.
Citing the need for creative solutions, he said allowing shops to open with modifications along Third Avenue could possibly lead to temporary alterations in how parking spaces and sidewalks are accessed so patrons could theoretically socially distance themselves while still supporting local businesses.
Two days before President Trump released a three-phase plan leaving authority to open businesses in state hands, California Gov. Gavin Newsom had already noted that California will make modifications in an effort to safely reopen businesses including restaurants utilizing fewer tables and classrooms being reconfigured.
Locally, Crockett also says signage requirements could change, and thinks there is potential for many local restaurants to temporarily reconfigure their layout or add shielding partitions that would allow for in-person dining while maintaining a six- foot space around tables.
Crockett said he talks to staff every day to come up with solutions for local businesses and the answers often have several layers of financial challenges.
“I want to do whatever we can so Chula Vista residents can support Chula Vista businesses. A large part of that is social equity, so everybody is raising everybody else up. It’s not just the capital and the rent that business owners have to pay — they have children to worry about and how do you go back to work when your kids are at home? Are childcare facilities going to be open and how do we pay for that? The Vietnamese restaurant, the little taco shop: the challenges are immense for family run businesses. Some of our locals are really struggling with the whole picture,” Crockett said.
Until schools are open, he says, especially in Chula Vista with the year-round school schedule, employers are going to have to address the fact that 19,000 people leave the city to go to work every day and their kids aren’t currently in a classroom.With 70,000 students in the district and 50% of them qualifying for the free school lunch program, Crockett says that there are bound to be equity issues.
Currently, Crockett is assisting in a major effort with the City’s educational and technology partners to find internet solutions that provide connectivity for elementary and high school families to sustain them while learning is being done from home.
He says this crisis has highlighted a large gap in digital inequality, points to situations where there are families needing four laptops online at once who don’t have a home wifi connection to serve even one student.
“There’s single parents running businesses and helping their kids with homework at the same time, they don’t have the attorneys on staff to spend four hours on a loan, they don’t know how they’re going to pay their bills but they don’t give up.”
