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Description
Mayor Hamilton spoke about his Recover Forward initiative for the city at Monday's meeting of the Bloomington Press Club and took questions from some of the area's veteran journalists.
A
A
I
I
identified
four
major
challenges
that
are
right
in
front
of
bloomington
right
now.
First,
the
health
crisis,
the
pandemic,
which
has
turned
upside
down
so
many
of
our
lives
and
every
city
employee
works
differently
today
than
they
did
in
february.
And
of
course
it's
had
a
huge
impact
in
our
community
from
fatalities
to
disease.
To
changing
how
we
operate.
That's
one
huge
challenge:
the
health
pandemic.
A
second
related
is
the
economic
recession.
A
As
we
shut
down
the
community
under
state
orders,
under
local
orders,
we've
had
thousands
of
people
thrown
out
of
work.
We
have
had
a
huge
disruption
to
our
economy
and
that's
a
major
challenge
for
me
in
the
mayor's
seat
to
think
about
how
do
we
deal
with
that?
What
how
how
do
we
try
to
recover
minimize
pain
and
damage
so
that
second,
was
the
economic
recession?
A
A
third
big
challenge
is
racial
justice,
the
issues
of
race
in
our
community,
those
those
of
course
have
been
with
us
for
generations
and
continue
to
be
with
us.
They
really
bloomed
erupted
a
rose
in
great
energy,
with
george
floyd,
lynching
in
minneapolis
and
others,
and
then
actually
kind
of
took
a
local
turn
q
on
the
july
4th
weekend,
when
we
had
an
episode
of
lake
monroe
and
others,
and
that
issue
of
racial
justice,
the
20
million
or
so
americans
that
have
marched
enormous
numbers
of
people
saying
it
is
enough,
is
enough.
A
A
It
has
taken
a
back
seat
in
a
way,
but
it
is
not
going
anywhere
and
and
the
challenge
of
climate,
justice
and
climate
change
is
kind
of
churning
away
in
the
background,
as
a
big
challenge
to
to
all
of
us
in
bloomington
and
the
country.
So
any
one
of
those
four
any
one
of
those
four
is
an
enormous
challenge
to
a
community
to
government
to
mayor,
and
then
I
just
kind
of
would
have
to
add
in
the
extraordinary
national
divisiveness
and
disarray
and
lack
of
of
pulling
together
on
these
in
so
many
ways.
A
A
If,
if
government
does
that,
that's
often
a
good
description
of
what
we
should
do
now,
I
will
note
sometimes
we
pick
problems
and
sometimes
problems
pick
us
we've
certainly
seen
times
when
problems
have
picked
us
and
and
at
the
highest
level.
I
would
also
just
say
from
my
seat
for
my
seat
and
as
mayor
and
looking
at
community
at
the
highest
level.
A
lot
of
what
we
try
to
do
is
help
our
community
be
the
place
that
we
want
to
be
help.
Our
community
reflect
the
values
that
infuse
most
of
us.
It's
a
democracy.
A
I
do
think
those
four
challenges
do
reflect
the
values
of
our
community
generally,
that
they
are
things
we
want
to
address
respond
to
humanely,
and
I
also
think
that
we
want
our
government
to
be
a
strong
partner
in
this
that
we,
as
we
try
to
imbue
our
values
and
live
our
values
that
we
want
our
government
to
be
a
partner
in
that.
So
so
that's
what
recover
forward
was
really
talking
about.
How
do
we
be
a
partner
from
government
in
reflecting
those
values
better?
A
In
our
community
and
I'll
just
mention
a
couple
things
and
then
and
then
we'll
be
ready
to
open
up
for
questions,
one
to
be
a
strong
government
partner
to
try
to
help
accomplish
these
things.
We
need
to
be
fiscally
responsible.
We
need
to
manage
our
our
our
balance
sheet,
our
income
statement,
our
our
fisc,
our
financial
situation.
Well,
so
we
can
be
a
strong
partner,
we
need
to
be
active
where
we
can
be
and
and
where
we
need
to
be.
A
There
are
places
where
government
needs
to
act
and
there
are
places
where
we
can
act
and-
and
particularly
in
my
view,
in
these
days,
we
should
be
active
in
that
way.
So
recover
forward
really
gave
a
fiscal
outline
of
what
is
our
fiscal
situation?
What
can
we
do
now?
As
a
government,
we
have
very
strong
reserves
and
I
tried
to
talk
about
the
rainy
day
reserves.