The impact of COVID-19 on small businesses and the places where they co-locate and concentrate — downtown, Main Streets, commercial corridors — has been immediate and devastating. In their recent report, "Why Erie’s Downtown is a Proxy for the Nation: The Future of Main Street Businesses amidst the Covid-19 Crisis,” Bruce Katz, the Founding Director of the Nowak Metro Finance Lab at Drexel University and a Partner with Accelerator for America, and Jefferson Vice President Ben Speggen, examine COVID-19's impact on businesses in Erie and make the case for how Erie serves as a model for the country in examining the impact and planning the recovery.

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