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Description
From the Stated Meeting of Philadelphia City Council held Thursday, December 3, 2020:
Councilmember Derek Green (At Large) details some of Council's efforts to support small businesses during the pandemic.
A
Thank
you,
council
president.
Thank
you,
council,
member
jones,
for
those
comments.
We
definitely
have
some
challenging
weeks
ahead
before
we
get
into
the
new
year
and
we
start
to
receive
that
distribution
of
vaccine
in
our
city,
state
and
nation.
I
want
to
thank
and
give
a
shout
out
to
my
colleague,
councilmember
catherine
gilmore
richton,
who
is
a
proud
graduate
of
girls
high,
along
with
my
wife
and
mother,
who
also
girls
high
grads.
A
They
are
coming
to
the
rescue
the
women
are
leading
and
when
you
talk
about
those
43
000
graduates
of
john
hallahan
high
school
for
girls,
I
would
be
remiss
and
not
talking
about
one
of
those
leaders
in
our
midst
in
city
hall,
my
chief
of
staff
sharon
vaughn
who's
working
with
so
many
other
council
staff
to
help
in
the
fight
to
keep
halahan
open.
So
thank
you,
councilmember
gilmore
richton,
for
those
comments.
I
just
have
two
other
points.
One
today
is
the
international
day
of
this
disabled
people.
A
A
The
thrive
aid
really
focuses
on
a
couple:
major
outcomes
to
raise
awareness
and
discussion
about
disabled
people
and
the
pandemic
to
support
disabled
people
all
over
the
world
with
messages
of
strength,
solidarity
and
progress,
anger
with
non-violent
direct
action
to
celebrate
disabled
people
and
their
achievements
and
to
celebrate
disability
arts
globally.
So
I
want
to
make
that
announcement.
I
hope,
as
many
people
that
can
participate,
support,
disability
pride
philadelphia
is
possible
and
the
great
work
that
excuse
me
vicki,
landers
and
her
team
does
with
that
organization.
A
A
And
then
we
also
learned
that
over
the
summer
that
governor
wolf
and
senator
hughes-
and
I
know
councilmember
parker,
our
majority
leader-
helped
pull
together.
A
number
of
us
on
calls
to
talk
about
that
initiative
of
225
million
dollars,
helping
small
businesses
and
we
employed
the
city
to
provide
additional
dollars
to
help
in
that
regard.
A
When
we
continued
having
hearings
september
30th,
we
heard
from
jim
burnett
and
dan
benicort
many
people
know
jim
burnett
from
the
west,
philadelphia
final
services,
institution
and
dan
bennett
court
is
the
ceo
of
committee
first
fund
and
they're
both
part
of
a
cdfi
network
and
what
they
informed
us.
During
that
september,
30th
hearing
there
was
a
joint
finance
and
commerce
economic
development
committee.
Hearing
is
that
we
needed
to
put
in
additional
money
to
help
small
businesses
to
augment
the
money
that
you
know.
A
Councilmember
parker
told
us
about,
as
well
as
senator
hughes,
to
provide
some
additional
resource
to
help
small
businesses.
Here
in
the
city
of
philadelphia,
we
learned
that
montgomery
county
put
in
10
million
dollars,
pittsburgh
had
put
in
20
million
dollars
and
we
still
work
just
at
that.
Seven
million
dollar
threshold
and
a
period
later
the
administration
put
in
initially
20
and
then
another
10
million
dollars
of
cares
dollars.
A
Commissioner,
and
then
we
learned
a
few
days
later
that
the
administration
was
going
to
provide
some
relief
on
using
occupancy,
because
many
of
our
restaurants
are
not
using
all
of
the
space
that
they
are
leasing
because
of
these
measures.
So
I
just
want
to
take
a
few
moments
to
kind
of
give
some
that
perspective
and
thank
this
body
for
the
work
and
that
you've
been
doing
for
small
businesses
and,
despite
all
the
challenges
that
we
are
seeing.
A
Small
businesses
are
still
opening
this
past
saturday
in
council
member
bass's
district,
a
young
entrepreneur
by
the
name
of
tina,
dixon
spence,
a
graduate
of
central
high
school,
sorry,
kathy,
councilmember,
gilbert
richardson.
But
a
graduate
of
central
high
school
and
spelman
college
opened
up
a
retail
boutique
at
england
and
mount
pleasant
called
buddha.
Babe
and
she's
been
in
business
for
2014,
but
decided
to
open
up
her
storefront
business
on
small
business
saturday,
in
spite
of
all
the
challenges
that
are
going
on
because
of
the
pandemic
and
the
challenges
for
small
businesses.
A
So
I
just
want
to
take
a
few
moments
as
I've
been
reflecting
on
the
comments
made
by
councilmember,
dom
and
johnson,
and
give
some
perspective
on
just
really
quickly,
because
I'm
sure
there's
a
lot
of
other
things
that
this
body
has
done
in
revenue.
Small
businesses
that
I
have
not
had
a
chance
to
mention,
but
just
a
quick
recitation
of
some
things
that
I
remember
that
this
body
has
done
regarding
small
businesses,
I
look
forward
to
working
with
my
colleagues
to
help
all
the
small
businesses
get
through
this
global
pandemic.