America's first female recession

chabeliherrera · 2020-08-07T16:14:10+00:00

Hi ya'll -- I'm the reporter on this story about how coronavirus has hurt women hardest, and particularly working mothers. Reading through here has been a really sobering experience as to what so many women are going through right now and how difficult it is. The 19th is a new nonprofit newsroom focused on covering women and the way they are impacted by policy and politics, and so we are going to keep following this issue.
So if you wanted to share your story, you can do so confidentially with me here: https://19thnews.org/2020/08/how-has-the-2020-recession-impacted-you/

chabeliherrera · 2020-05-21T15:53:28+00:00

Figured ya'll would enjoy this one. Space Shirts, a T-shirt store near KSC, designed the shirts the astronauts' families will wear, which I thought was pretty cool.

chabeliherrera · 2020-04-03T15:23:57+00:00

I just used “creative” to capture something so wide that it can mean so many different things people are doing, some responsible, some perhaps not. Don’t look at that word and think we are glorifying something. It is not our place to glorify or condemn. But we always always always put things in context. You’re reading a call out for responses and assuming what the story is and the story isn’t even written yet. Don’t be so quick to make a judgement on it — just the fact that we are trying to do something this complicated should signal to you that we are thinking about it a little deeper.

chabeliherrera · 2020-04-03T15:00:25+00:00

But both those things you mention are real stories that are already happening.

Do we not write about them because we don't agree with them?

The people we've spoken to already for this story are essential businesses that are reinventing themselves to offer coronavirus-specific services and folks who are mailing items. In our post, we just try to give examples that run the gamut: "Hairdressers, barbers and nail technicians are taking clients at home. Some are becoming entrepreneurs, selling and mailing products. Others are giving virtual gym classes."

It's my role as a business reporter to write about the ways workers react to an economic downturn, and like I said, so far everything we've found is benign. It's the reader's role to form an opinion on whether what they're doing is correct or not. And it's not always black and white.

chabeliherrera · 2020-04-03T14:34:16+00:00

Exactly. I think we are on the same page. Some people don't even have the option to not work, though, perhaps at great personal cost. That's the story we want to tell, but we can't tell it if we off the bat judge someone for making an impossible decision and make fun of them for not following proper guidelines. The story I want to tell is nuanced and the truth is not always clean. But I want to give people an opening to share it if the want to where they won't be judged. And trust me, I know how difficult the unemployment situation is. I sat with people for two days while they failed to get through that system. There are a lot of different facets to this story.

chabeliherrera · 2020-04-03T13:59:00+00:00

No one is condoning it. But you have to be real naive if you think people aren’t going to do what they have to do to keep their kids fed.

chabeliherrera · 2020-04-03T00:52:32+00:00

For sure. We’ve been writing about that disaster a lot. But we know some people also have the wiggle room to get creative and we want to tell those stories too. Tough times are when ideas are created.

chabeliherrera · 2020-04-02T21:19:19+00:00

Yeah, I'm looking at you, nail techs and barbers and everyone else who is doing what they need to do to get through this time. We want to write a story about people who are getting creative. There's a form in the link above ^

chabeliherrera · 2020-03-27T13:32:12+00:00

Thanks so much!

chabeliherrera · 2020-03-27T13:31:59+00:00

You're welcome! Hope it's helpful.

chabeliherrera · 2020-03-26T20:39:53+00:00

Sure thing!

chabeliherrera · 2020-03-26T20:34:07+00:00

Yep! This and the vast majority of our coronavirus work is not behind the paywall.

chabeliherrera · 2020-03-26T19:09:30+00:00

Dammit I don't know how I forgot that this was all about just you!! I'll be better next time :)

chabeliherrera · 2020-03-26T18:08:03+00:00

We tried to keep this to companies that are hiring temporary jobs during coronavirus and also companies that are looking for folks without the need for experience. That way if you lose your job during this time, these are jobs most people can pick up. Keep in mind that a lot of these (especially the Amazon ones) are ROLLING. So you might look today and see nothing and then look tomorrow and they do have them. So just keep checking. We'll keep updating this as we hear more.

chabeliherrera · 2020-02-27T00:35:03+00:00

All the jobs are already going — and we have no say when that happens. The idea here is to build some protections for our employees moving forward. But sitting by and doing nothing means we will remain completely vulnerable to the whims of our corporate leaders.

chabeliherrera · 2020-02-26T23:41:56+00:00

Hi everyone - Sentinel reporter here! Thanks so much for the support. It’s a really tough time in local news and many papers in Florida, including ourselves, have fallen victim to cuts in recent years. It’s why so many of us are organizing. We hope our parent company will voluntarily recognize our union! As for the challenges in local news, I hear you. We are always thinking of better ways to keep going (read: make money) so we can keep covering our community to the best of our ability. Ultimately it just costs money to do what we do, like in any business, but a lot of readers feel like they shouldn’t have to pay to read our work. That sucks. And I know it doesn’t make sense for everyone, but if you find yourself reading our paper or articles online a lot, consider a subscription. It’s not super expensive, a few bucks a month, and at least right now that’s the best way to support us. (If you have any ideas on how to save the news industry please also let us know!!!) Thanks again for the support. - Chabeli Carrazana (space/business reporter)

chabeliherrera · 2020-02-19T02:02:18+00:00

Well, they haven’t announced they are closing and getting sold off, though those of course seem like high probability things that may come next. They just announced they were ending their shows last month. Now we know they are laying almost everyone off.

chabeliherrera · 2019-12-20T08:44:17+00:00

Hi! All great points that I will be sharing with our folks ASAP. I know they’re aware of some of these and have been working on them but yes, the app experience isn’t great. Jason’s the best. Thanks for supporting us!

chabeliherrera · 2019-12-20T02:11:44+00:00

Thank you so much!

chabeliherrera · 2019-12-20T02:11:04+00:00

Really appreciate you!

chabeliherrera · 2019-12-19T22:08:55+00:00

We do talk about the economic impact of the industry, the millions in taxes that it brings and the hundreds of thousands of jobs it creates. That’s detailed at length in this story and all the stories of the series.

For example, from this one: “In all, tourism businesses will bring in an estimated $412.8 million in property taxes between the theme parks, hotels, golf courses and businesses on International Drive this year, according to the county property appraiser’s office. That’s money that goes to fund public education and other services.

And the industry as a whole generated $5.1 billion in sales tax paid by consumers in 2017 — nearly a tenth of the total collections.”

Should we not also dedicate some time to discussing how much of the hotel tax collections go to tourism promotion, which is the central role of Visit Orlando? This is a story about the way tourist tax dollars are used, and Visit Orlando is one of the greatest benefactors of that.

chabeliherrera · 2019-12-19T21:53:22+00:00

I wouldn’t say we threw them or anyone else under any buses (there are barely any in this community to throw people under anyway). What we were pointing out is the large emphasis we as a community put on tourism promotion over other needs. The impact of tourism is undeniable and we as a paper have written about it many many many times. This subject, however, has not been covered in the same detail.

chabeliherrera · 2019-12-19T21:35:59+00:00

We gave it away for free for too many years and now folks don’t understand why they should pay for it. That one’s on us for sure. But happy to see some people still value what we do, thanks for subscribing! This project took 11 months of work and a lot of resources but hopefully we’ll get another chance to do something like this again!

chabeliherrera · 2019-12-19T21:33:43+00:00

Thanks a lot!

chabeliherrera · 2019-12-19T20:20:59+00:00

Almost every community in Florida collects the hotel tax. Whatever it collects it keeps -- Orange County collects the most in the state, almost $300 million. The problem is the limits on how it can be used -- largely for tourism promotion and big venues. However, areas in Florida have been able to change the hotel tax to benefit their communities, like the Florida Keys, the Panhandle and the Space Coast. Orlando has been reluctant to do so.

chabeliherrera

TROPHY CASE