LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Craig Cates talks about transition from city to county government - A man smiling for the camera - Cow Key Channel

Residents of Monroe County

We are in an unprecedented time in our country today. We will get through this, but it is going to be difficult on everyone. We all understand that we need to have social separation to stop or slow the spread of the coronavirus. So, with the closure of bars, night clubs, theaters and attractions, there will be a slowdown and, to some, a complete end of any income.  This will have a devastating effect on our workers and business owners. We are all worried and not sure of what we can do to get through this uncertain time. 

Some of our residents have jobs that will continue to pay them through this shutdown period, but many of our residents don’t, and live paycheck to paycheck.  Many of our small and large businesses are still recovering from Irma and haven’t built up enough reserve yet to survive this shutdown. So, as a community we must pull together like we did after Irma and help one another. So, I ask landlords to abate rents if they can afford to, discount rents or at a bare minimum defer rents until after this crisis passes. Because if your tenants go out of business and your properties go dark it could take months to rent the commercial space to a new tenant and I bet it won’t be anywhere near the amount you are getting now. I ask residential landlords to do the same if they can afford to, because when the businesses close there are no jobs and the workers will move away, so they won’t be renting housing. This is going to be very difficult on our amazing community, so it’s very important we pull together to help each other. 

We need to hold our community together, our families together and when this crisis is over, we can open back up for business quickly and start our recovery much quicker.  We need to help the nonprofits like SOS and others to help feed families and residents while they are out of work. Shop locally, give an extra tip, call nonprofits to help with your time or money because there will be many needs in our community. 

If we come together as a community and live by our One Human Family motto, we will get through this crisis and come out of it with more love and respect for one another.  

 

Craig Cates
Monroe County Commissioner District 1