Michelle Park Lazette, Senior Writer, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

This story explores the experience of a small, minority-owned business in Los Angeles that received a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan through a community-based lender to keep paying its employees during the COVID-19 shutdown. It is the second in a series published by the New York Fed on behalf of Fed Communities, a project that connects the Fed’s data, tools, and expertise with community-serving audiences that can use them.

Michelle Park Lazette, Senior Writer, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

This story explores the experience of a small, minority-owned business in San Francisco that received a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan through a community-based lender to keep paying its employees during the COVID-19 shutdown. It is the first in a series published by the New York Fed on behalf of Fed Communities, a project that connects the Fed’s data, tools, and expertise with community-serving audiences that can use them.

Anne O’Shaughnessy, Communications Director, Fed Communities Project

Whether they’re serving margaritas to go, providing accounting services on an IOU, or trying to maintain stock at a small market deep in the desert, small businesses are finding creative ways to stay open amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Laura Callanan, Founding Partner of Upstart Co-Lab

Editor’s note: In January, the New York Fed hosted “Transforming Community Development Through Arts & Culture,” a forum focused on an evolving era in community development that infuses art and cultural practice. This guest column was contributed by one of the New York Fed’s community development partners as a follow-on to that program. The views presented are the author’s alone and are offered to contribute to discussions on this topic.

Marisa Casellas-Barnes, Associate Director, Communications and Outreach, New York Fed; and David Dante Troutt, Distinguished Professor of Law & Founding Director of the Rutgers Center on Law, Inequality and Metropolitan Equity (CLiME)

In recent years, the New York Fed’s community development team has focused on solutions for equitable growth — or economic development that aims to maximize resources for underserved neighborhoods, residents, and institutions. The goal has been to identify ways to raise living standards and create shared prosperity in Second District communities. With the coronavirus pandemic, that focus has now shifted.