Stories from the Suburbs – A Mayors’ Panel on COVID-19 and its Effects

COVID-19 has been a traumatic and revealing experience for everyone, but in drastically different ways from one community to another. In some, death and unemployment are all too real. In others, the economic slowdown has crippled needed tax revenue for providing government services now and into the future. Race, income inequality, and underlying tax policy play a big part in determining what kind of experience has played out where. This event will explore those dynamics through stories directly from current and former mayors from throughout Northeastern Illinois.

This event is part one of our Understanding the impact of COVID-19 on Chicagoland communities series. Well into a global pandemic, the local impacts on health, employment, tax revenues and government budgets are becoming increasingly clear. While COVID-19 has affected us all, it has not affected us unequally. Some communities have seen tremendous loss of life and unemployment, while others have seen tax revenues dissolve overnight, and many have seen the compounding effects of COVID-19 play out at the same time as residents’ drinking water is shut off, jobs are lost, or neighborhoods are flooded.  This multi-part series from the Metropolitan Planning Council, University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, and the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs will explore systemic changes in governance and tax policy needed now more than ever.