Two months into the stay-at-home order, nearly every sector of life along the Midpeninsula is moving ahead at a new pace: Real estate activity and consumer spending have plummeted, but so have pollution, traffic and overall crime. Schools and cities are preparing for massive budget cuts while hospitals are seeing an unprecedented outpouring of donations. Meanwhile, unemployment has surged along with local volunteer efforts.
The pandemic is changing how we live and has revealed the community at its best and worst along the way. To show how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted daily life, the Palo Alto Weekly has woven together local, regional and national numbers into a series of interactive infographics, which can be found here.
Small businesses have been among the hardest hit. Only 58% of business owners surveyed in Palo Alto said they are likely to reopen. The community has already seen iconic eateries, such as Mountain View's 75-year-old Clarke's Charcoal Broiler, shutter. It has also seen patrons near and far pitch in to raise $130,000 to save Menlo Park's Cafe Borrone.
Overall, Silicon Valley consumers have decreased their spending at restaurants by 25%, and their retail spending has dropped 59% compared to the same time last year, leaving at least 8,560 service employees at risk of losing their jobs in coming months, according to an April consumer spending report from the Joint Venture Silicon Valley’s Institute for Regional Studies.
In April alone, 20.5 million Americans lost their jobs, pushing the national unemployment rate to 14.3%, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Local unemployment rates in cities along the Midpeninsula now range between 5.5% and 12.4%.
One in 4 residents surveyed nationwide said they could not afford to pay full rent or mortgage in April. Locally, the need for rental assistance has skyrocketed, with one local service agency seeing demand in Mountain View alone increase about five times during the first two weeks after the shutdown. To meet the rising need, a coalition of local companies, nonprofits and public government agencies in Santa Clara County cobbled together $11 million to launch a COVID-19 assistance fund. McNellis Partners, a major commercial property owner in Palo Alto, also stepped up to assist his tenants by waiving rent for the month of April.
Find comprehensive coverage on the Midpeninsula's response to the new coronavirus by Palo Alto Online, the Mountain View Voice and the Almanac here.
Comments
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on May 27, 2020 at 10:41 am
on May 27, 2020 at 10:41 am
The other numbers that must be taken into account are the increases in suicide (or attempts), alcoholism, drug use, depression, domestic abuse, child abuse, domestic violence.
It is a sad commentary that AA meetings are deemed non-essential whereas liquor shops are essential.
Professorville
on May 27, 2020 at 11:50 am
on May 27, 2020 at 11:50 am
Resident - what are the drug numbers compared to the number of lives saved?
And the 100,000 dead Americans?
So far.
Professorville
on May 27, 2020 at 6:34 pm
on May 27, 2020 at 6:34 pm
It is the RESPONSE to the pandemic (Shelter in Place and lock downs) not the pandemic itself that caused massive devastation to the economy and lives as shown in the data.
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on May 27, 2020 at 7:53 pm
on May 27, 2020 at 7:53 pm
D & D
Sorry but the deaths, as bad as they are, are only part of the story. Every life affected whether it by Covid, suicide, drugs and alcohol, abuse of all types, depression, etc. are still valuable lives.
The shelter in place has caused innumerable lives to alter irrevocably. Perhaps we should count each one of these lives also.
Crescent Park
on May 28, 2020 at 7:32 am
on May 28, 2020 at 7:32 am
I agree with the previous posts about the numbers that are not taken into account with these graphics "increases in suicide (or attempts), alcoholism, drug use, depression, domestic abuse, child abuse, domestic violence."
I like Infographics, I would want to see a separate category for health. Real estate, the economy, labor are things that private interests have control over (and make the news every day), but what are we doing as a society about the things that make us sick and the things that make us healthier. Am sure a page can be filled with health metrics and would be great to track those regularly.
College Terrace
on May 29, 2020 at 12:15 am
on May 29, 2020 at 12:15 am
Dr. Sara Cody wants to keep the economic shutdown going in perpetuity based upon her arbitrary ideas of what is best for the well being of the community. In Walnut Creek doctors and nurses have seen more suicide deaths than deaths from the coronavirus over the last two months and more suicide attempts over the last two months than what they see in a year both as a result of the economic shut down.
I pose this question to Dr. Cody, how many people in Santa Clara County have died from suicide and attempted suicide over the last two months compared to the same time period a year ago and a typical year’s worth?
If Dr. Cody were out of job and looking at losing her apartment from lack of resources her position on the shutdown would be the exact opposite of what she is currently promoting.
As of two days ago, May 27, 2020:
The Coronavirus has killed a total of 5,000 people under the age of 65 and 7,500 people under the age of 75 nationwide who ostensibly had no underlying health problems
The average age of life expectancy in the U.S. is 78.5 years old.
The average age of death of a person who dies from Covid-19 is 81 years old.
70 percent of deaths from Covid-19 are people over 75 years old.
80 percent of deaths from Covid-19 are people over 65 years old.
75 percent of all people who die from Covid-19 had significant underlying health issues typically brought on by their own unhealthy lifestyles.
As of today
60 people under 18 years old have died out of 100,000
4,500 people under 45 years old have died out of 100,000
15,440 people between 45 years old and 65 years old have died out of 100,000
80,000 people over 65 years old have died out of 100,000.
70,000 people over 75 years old have died out of 100,000
At least 50,000 deaths or of people over 85 years old.
40 million unemployed and 100,000 small businesses permanently lost.
Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick To No Longer Enforce Public Health Orders
“Yet we continue to see successive Public Health Orders that contain inconsistent restrictions on business and personal activities without explanation,” said Essick. “Based on what we have learned, now is the time to move to a risk-based system and move beyond blanket orders that are crushing our community.”
Web Link
California doctor claims he’s seen more deaths by suicide than coronavirus
DeBoisblanc believes the mental health cost proves “it’s time” to end the shelter-in-place in the county of more than a million people, he told the station.
Web Link
"We've never seen numbers like this, in such a short period of time," he said. "I mean we've seen a year's worth of suicide attempts in the last four weeks."
Kacey Hansen has worked as a trauma nurse at John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek for almost 33 years. She is worried because not only are they seeing more suicide attempts, she says they are not able to save as many patients as usual.
"What I have seen recently, I have never seen before," Hansen said. "I have never seen so much intentional injury."
"Personally I think it's time," said Dr. Mike deBoisblanc. "I think, originally, this (the shelter-in-place order) was put in place to flatten the curve and to make sure hospitals have the resources to take care of COVID patients.We have the current resources to do that and our other community health is suffering."
Web Link
College Terrace
on May 29, 2020 at 12:22 am
on May 29, 2020 at 12:22 am
With a 200 to 300% increase in poverty brought on by the economic shut down we can expect there to be a corresponding increase in the number of deaths from poverty; rising from 291,000 a year to a million a year for the next few years; that's an increase of 600,000 deaths a year a direct result from the economic shutdown.
Poverty can kill, researchers say Poverty kills 291,000 people a year
"If you say that 193,000 deaths are due to heart attack, then heart attack matters," Galea said. "If you say 300,000 deaths are due to obesity, then obesity matters. Well, if 291,000 deaths are due to poverty and income inequality, then those things matter too."
Web Link
Poverty is often cited as contributing to poor health. Now, in an unusual approach, researchers have calculated how many people poverty kills and presented their findings, along with an argument that social factors can cause death the same way that behavior like smoking cigarettes does.
Web Link
Barron Park
on Jun 19, 2020 at 4:28 pm
on Jun 19, 2020 at 4:28 pm
People all over the third world have died of starvation, suicide and not being able to get medical procedures done because of the lock downs. The movie called Plandemic exposing the Conspiracy to shutdown the global economy has been taken off of facebook. They don't want us to know about how we've been played to live in fear and accept medical tyranny where Trillions of dollars will be funneled to big business and big foundations. Gill Bates is not our friend.
Barron Park
on Jun 19, 2020 at 4:32 pm
on Jun 19, 2020 at 4:32 pm
If I wanted to be censored, I'd join facebook. I'm moving to Austin. See you friends later.