PAULIUS MUSTEIKIS
Terry Moss, owner of the Atwood Barbershop, is listed in the Madison Black Chamber of Commerce's Black Business Directory 2018.
Terry Moss, owner of Atwood Barbershop, says his small business was thriving. The place is usually bustling, full of jokes, debates about sports and stories from customers that end up captivating the entire shop. Moss, who deftly conducts the whole scene while he cuts hair, is by every definition a pillar of the community and has a loyal and diverse group of clientele.
Especially this time of year, Moss says the five barbers at Atwood Barbershop see a constant stream of customers nearly the entire day.
Then along came the coronavirus.
“We were doing great. Everybody was making ends meet, taking care of their families. Now we just gotta sit back and wait,” says Moss. “It just sucks. I don’t know how else to put it.”
Over the past 10 days, Gov. Tony Evers has issued nearly daily emergency public health directives to limit the spread of the coronavirus and COVID-19, the respiratory disease the virus causes. First came the closure of schools and restaurants except for delivery and takeout. Barber shops, salons, spas and tattoo parlors were told to stop doing business on March 20.
Although hesitant at first to follow numerous other states in issuing a “shelter in place” order, Evers pulled that trigger on March 25. The economy has slowed to just “essential business,” and uncertainty reigns.
“Somebody has got to freeze mortgages and rent,” says Moss. “How long can we expect people to survive when there’s no money coming because of the shutdown?”
Nearly all of the Madison Children’s Museum 75 employees were furloughed on March 23. Just last month, the museum was voted one of the top 10 children’s museums in the nation by USA Today readers. Deb Gilpin, director of the museum, says spring break and the summer is typically when attendance is high.
“We are dependent upon those earnings to pay the bills. So we can't afford to keep staff on,” says Gilpin. “The museum is our people. We're a very operational kind of site. We serve 210,000 visitors a year and we run over 1,000 programs.”
Gilpin says the museum is doing its best to provide programming online and hopes people who can afford to buy a gift certificate or a membership will do so on its website. At the moment, Gilpin is expecting the museum to be closed until June, maybe August.
“As we come back up into a new world our service will become essential again. At some point, we will be a community place where people are going to come to grieve what they have lost, rebuild connections, and to play and learn together,” says Gilpin. “That's central to creating a healthy society. We know those kids are going to be clamoring to come in the day we open.”
Nick Nice, a popular club DJ in Madison, says his income has completely dried up (except for donations from the Madison Virtual Tip Jar) since the ban on mass gatherings started to take effect last week. Nice is used to performing in front of crowds three to five nights a week and at a handful of weddings each year.
“For people who do this professionally, it's not like we have something to fall back on. I imagine a lot of people in the arts are in a similar position. We have zero dollars coming in. But nobody’s waiving our bills,” says Nice. “What makes it even worse is that we don’t really know how this is gonna play out.”
Evers’ “safer at home” order will be in place until April 24 unless the governor lifts or extends the public health action. Public health officials say the shelter in place decree was needed to prevent up to 1,500 deaths from COVID-19 in the next two weeks.
“I understand that small businesses across the state are struggling. This [shelter in place order] doesn’t make their lives any easier,” said Evers at a March 24 press conference. “The fact of the matter is we have to value human life at a higher level.”
More than 100,000 people in Wisconsin have already lost their jobs and those are just the folks who have filed unemployment claims since March 15. Nationwide an estimated 3.3 million people filed for unemployment insurance by the end of last week, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Restaurant group Food Fight has furloughed 750 employees. Sub-Zero and Wolf Appliances have laid off or furloughed more than a 1,000 workers locally. The Edgewater has let go of 202 hotel staff and The Park Hotel will add 120 workers to the unemployment rolls on March 29.
Jason Stein, research director for the Wisconsin Policy Forum, says even when the mass gathering bans end, the local economy will be battered.
“You look at the scale and speed of the impacts and they are stunning and concerning,” says Stein. “Madison isn’t going to be hit as hard as some parts of the state because of the significant concentrations of government jobs and healthcare jobs. But I don’t want to sugarcoat it in any way. There are going to be tremendous impacts.”
The Wisconsin Policy Forum released a report March 23 examining the readiness of Wisconsin’s economy in facing a recession. The report notes the state, by many measures, is in better financial shape than it was the beginning of the economic collapse in 2007. But Wisconsin still “is no better than average among all states in total preparedness.”
“Whether it's individual businesses or state and local governments, the local actors will be unable to address this on their own,” says Stein. “Only the federal government is in a position to take on something of this magnitude.”
After some initial delays, the federal government is expected to act soon and in unprecedented fashion. The details of a $2 trillion federal rescue bill were agreed to by the White House and U.S. Senate leaders on March 25. The timeline of when the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on the unprecedented aid package is still unclear. Most adults will be eligible for a one-time $1,200 stimulus payment under the current bill. The legislation would also extend unemployment benefits by 13 weeks and cover, for the first time, freelancers and the self-employed.
Under the rules before the pandemic, the barbers at Atwood Barbershop and gig workers like Nice would not have been eligible for unemployment benefits.
The Republican leaders in the state Legislature say they are in early talks with Evers about holding an extraordinary session to take up bills in response to the current crisis. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) told reporters March 25 that “he’d like to cut red tape” but that the state needs to see what Uncle Sam provides before moving forward with an aid package.
"I want to understand the ramifications of what [the federal government is] proposing before we decide to do anything on our side so we can be smart and wise," Vos said at the media briefing. "We can't print money, and we don't have the ability to borrow for day-to-day operations like the federal government does. So we have to make every dollar stretch further."
In February, then-presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg was on a hiring spree in Wisconsin. The billionaire mogul built a team of at least 60 campaign staffers — eight at his Madison office — in just weeks with lavish pay for even entry-level positions. The former mayor of New York dropped out of the presidential race on March 4 and endorsed Joe Biden after a dismal showing on Super Tuesday.
But it was widely reported, including in the New York Times, that the campaign promised workers a job until November even if Bloomberg wasn’t the nominee. Isthmus confirmed with several sources that Madison staffers were also explicitly given this promise several times during the hiring process.
But just as shelter-in-place orders were taking effect nationwide, Bloomberg laid off his campaign team in Wisconsin. According to an email sent to employees obtained by Isthmus, Bloomberg staffers were told their last day of employment was March 20, with their last paycheck coming on April 7.
"As a token of appreciation, we are offering you the opportunity to keep your campaign-issued laptop and iPhone,” states the email to Bloomberg staffers, which did not mention the coronavirus. Former staffers have filed two proposed class-action lawsuits against the Bloomberg campaign. They are arguing that thousands of staffers “had been tricked into taking jobs” they were told would last through the fall election.
Winslow Wise, a bartender at The Caribou Tavern, has been a staple at the beloved dive bar for more than two decades. He feels fortunate that his employer is still paying his base wages through the crisis. Even so, much of his income is dependent on tips. Wise and his partner Genny had saved some money for their wedding in June, which will likely be postponed. They might have to tap into those funds if he’s out of work for a few months.
“This is already very difficult for some people and I’m more worried about them at the moment,” says Wise. “I do miss bartending. Seeing regulars. I took it for granted. Something like this really makes you open your eyes a little bit.”
And Isthmus would be remiss if we didn’t mention how the coronavirus pandemic has affected our staff. Our entire editorial, sales and administrative staff were laid off on March 19 after advertising revenue took a steep dive in a matter of days. Alt-weeklies across the country are facing a similar existential crisis.
Like so many in Madison right now, we don’t know what the future brings, as things seem to change by the hour. For now, we will continue to bring you local coverage of our fair city, as best we can, until the immediate crisis is over and the world can find its bearings again.
