Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. Well, let's head back down south.
Speaker 1: We checked in with Rob pro Wine down in Atlanta.
Speaker 1: Let's do a little bit north of there to Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Speaker 1: The mayor of that fine city joins us. Andy Burke
Speaker 1: is his name, joining us, Andy, Mayor Burke, I should say,
Speaker 1: nice to have you with us. Great to be there, Andy,
Speaker 1: Andy is just fine. We're about two hours north of Nashville,
Speaker 1: I mean north of Atlanta. For oh, I know, I've
Speaker 1: I used to live down in Atlanta, spent a lot
Speaker 1: of time in your fine city. Have an amazing aquarium,
Speaker 1: and just that whole area around, their rich history of
Speaker 1: Coca cola bottling and and all of that. You're a native,
Speaker 1: So tell us, you know, in your seat, how do
Speaker 1: you deal with something like we're dealing with now, this
Speaker 1: global pandemic that obviously plays out at a very local
Speaker 1: level as well. Well. We're seeing it in real time
Speaker 1: and it is extremely concerning. UM. In January, Force magazine
Speaker 1: said that UM that Chattanoogo is predicted to have the
Speaker 1: number one job growth in the country in I really
Speaker 1: did not think on March the eighteenth that I would
Speaker 1: be having a conversation about how we're dealing with, you know,
Speaker 1: business closures. Um, this is just the reality that we're
Speaker 1: adjusting to. And uh, you know I heard, you know,
Speaker 1: we're doing calls with restauranturs and they're they're saying they're closed. Um,
Speaker 1: their rent might be seven thousand dollars a month plus
Speaker 1: a thousand dollars utilities. So they're saying, is this is
Speaker 1: gonna be one month, two months, three months? Because if
Speaker 1: it's gonna be six, how do they you know, or
Speaker 1: or four or five? They don't know that they're gonna
Speaker 1: be on the other side, So white pay month one
Speaker 1: and and that's really the kind of real time issues
Speaker 1: that we're seeing in our community. I did see also,
Speaker 1: or heard earlier about mayors around the country requesting about
Speaker 1: two billion dollars for their cities. As we you know,
Speaker 1: continues to see news out of Washington, the Administration and
Speaker 1: Congress about programs to help you know, individuals, cities, states,
Speaker 1: big business as well, small business as well. Tell us
Speaker 1: a little bit about your thoughts on that. Well, the
Speaker 1: we have to have Washington response, and it's got to
Speaker 1: put dollars in people paying immediately. I get that they're
Speaker 1: debating today, and I thought they just passed this package
Speaker 1: that was I guess done last week by the House,
Speaker 1: and you know, the urgency just could not cannot be
Speaker 1: overstated because is Washington missing, That is Washington missing the
Speaker 1: urgency of all of this. I I do believe they're
Speaker 1: missing the urgency of this because we're on day sixty
Speaker 1: or whatever from the first case um of this in
Speaker 1: our in our country, and we're now passing things that
Speaker 1: I think address issues that we had weeks ago and
Speaker 1: in our city. Like I try to remind people, today
Speaker 1: is Wednesday, Like a week ago at two o'clock, the
Speaker 1: NBA season was still theoretically going on. I mean, it
Speaker 1: doesn't feel like that's been a week. It feels like
Speaker 1: that it was a month ago. Um. But but the
Speaker 1: real time daily uptick of here's what's going on, and
Speaker 1: we see the numbers climbing and we see the changes happening,
Speaker 1: the urgency is there to say, we gotta be quick,
Speaker 1: we gotta be nimble, we gotta figure out where people are,
Speaker 1: and we've got to really help them so that they
Speaker 1: can both make it through this time, and in a
Speaker 1: consumer driven economy, how are we gonna come out the
Speaker 1: other side? So, uh Andy, tell us about what you
Speaker 1: are hearing from your constituents, from residents of Chattanooga, because
Speaker 1: you know, we're here in New York City or in
Speaker 1: the environs of New York City and it's playing out
Speaker 1: you know, maybe a little bit differently. I mean, is
Speaker 1: their food on the shelves? Are there people you know,
Speaker 1: essentially staying home? What does it look like there? Well,
Speaker 1: we're we're working hard to um do social distancing, have
Speaker 1: a lot of people staying home? Um the grocery stores
Speaker 1: are are very empty? Uh from on the shelves, even
Speaker 1: though we don't have the numbers that you all have. UM,
Speaker 1: I think what you would. What I try to, you know,
Speaker 1: make sure people understand is you know, y'all are the
Speaker 1: trailer for the movie we're about to be in. So
Speaker 1: you know, we're just a few weeks behind you, and
Speaker 1: we've got to make sure that we're preparing and watching
Speaker 1: all the things that New York is going through so
Speaker 1: that we have the capability to the quicker and responding
Speaker 1: the day that it happens to us. Right, I do
Speaker 1: wonder and you know, we've talked about the importance of
Speaker 1: sharing information around the globe, around the country so that
Speaker 1: people can learn from maybe past mistakes, UM from elsewhere. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, any final thoughts. I we've only got about
Speaker 1: thirty seconds here, But as we face what's going to
Speaker 1: be probably one of the most difficult moments in our
Speaker 1: nation's history, I think that we just have to be
Speaker 1: UM more responsive to the UM, to the changing environment. UM.
Speaker 1: It is going to continue to be the least among
Speaker 1: us who are the most affected. And so we we
Speaker 1: are dealing. We're trying to figure out when a homeless
Speaker 1: person gets UM has of coronavirus, not just what do
Speaker 1: we do with them, how do we transport it's that
Speaker 1: micro and so the thing are really severe, oologize. We
Speaker 1: have to go. But Mayor Burke come back after we
Speaker 1: get through this, because we'd love to hear about more
Speaker 1: that you're doing in your city. Andy Burke, Mayor of Chattanooga, Tennessee,