The Mayor's office
of media and entertainment

Update on Coronavirus
May 6, 2020

     

VIEW ON WEB

Dear Friends,

This week gives us several opportunities to honor many of our fellow New Yorkers on the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis: Teacher Appreciation Week (May 4-8), International Firefighters Day (May 4), Building Service Workers Day (May 5), National Nurses Week (May 6-12).

While our frontline workers continue to ensure public health and safety, please be assured that the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME), along with our colleagues in City government, continues to do whatever we can to keep our media, entertainment and nightlife communities informed about the City's response, available resources and opportunities to assist relief efforts.

As the conversations about restart and recovery continue to develop, as announced last week, Mayor de Blasio has convened a Fair Recovery Task Force with civic leaders, a Taskforce on Racial Inclusion and Equity with officials from across the Administration, and a series of Sector Advisory Councils with industry representatives staffed by city agencies. I am honored to have been asked to serve on the Equity Taskforce, and also to staff, along with MOME's Senior Executive Director of Nightlife Ariel Palitz, the Arts, Culture and Tourism Advisory Council. I look forward to working with our colleagues and partners to build a more inclusive and equitable recovery for our beloved city.

To complement our work on the Mayor's committees, MOME will continue to engage our industry stakeholders in restart and recovery planning through focused sessions with working groups. MOME's "Town Calls" last week drew more than 1,700 workers, freelancers and artists and over 500 small business owners from media, entertainment and nightlife. The sessions featured representatives from the NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, the NYC Department of Small Business Services, the Labor Policy division of the Mayor's Office of Policy and Planning, the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs, and the U.S. Small Business Administration, who shared updates and answered questions about relief programs and services available for small businesses and workers impacted by COVID-19. Video links of the sessions are available on MOME's COVID-19 Resources Page, which also includes links to the resources shared during the sessions.

Our municipal television network, NYC Media, continues to broadcast 24-7 programming and information about the COVID-19 crisis on NYC Gov, including live video coverage of Mayoral press conferences, COVID-19 public service announcements, emergency alerts, and changes in City services. NYC Gov is available on Spectrum 74, FiOS 24, Altice 74, RCN 81 and over-the-air broadcast Channel 25.2.

Finally, I want to call your attention to a couple of updates:

• NYC Civic Impact Funding: NYC Service is offering one-time grants of up to $10,000 to New York City-based non-profits and community-based organizations engaged in volunteer efforts to support COVID-19 relief efforts. The deadline to apply is May 11.


• Census 2020: New York City is lagging behind the rest of the U.S. with only a 44.6% response rate. Census information is used to determine the City's fair share of billions of dollars in funding as well as the number of seats we have in Congress. Now more than ever, we need every New York to participate. Just 10 questions will impact our ability to rebuild and recover. If you haven't already, please fill it out and spread the word.