Update on Project Activities:
Last Tuesday, we administered the survey to the first 25 respondents; we followed up with these initial 25 respondents on Friday. As of Monday, October 19, we have received 18 responses (72% response rate). This past Wednesday, we selected 6 interview subjects, as well as backup interview subjects, and will reach out to them Friday afternoon/evening. For the geospatial analysis, Gabi advised us to use StoryMaps, a GIS feature. We are looking into the possibility of incorporating these into our analysis. We have also made some progress towards producing a map to analyze the areas around the microenterprises that are receiving grants. Alex asked for a comparison between 2008 and 2020 demographics within a half-mile buffer around each of the businesses. So far, we have been able to link census data from the 2008-2012 ACS 5-year estimates and from the 2014-2018 ACS 5-year estimates (which is the most recent census data available) to shapefiles for the census tracts that make up the City of Milpitas. We have focused on demographics related to race, income, employment, poverty status, and country of origin, which is the best proxy for immigrantion data. We have also imported coordinate-locations as point features for each of the first 25 businesses that were approved to receive their checks. What We Observed and Learned / Critical Analysis: The first several weeks of our project were at a standstill due to delays in dispersing grant checks, but when checks were made available to grantees this week, a vast majority were picked up within days. Given this rapid turnaround, we have quickly learned about the significant, continued need for financial assistance ever since applications were sent in. At the same time, 72% of businesses filled out survey responses within days of our e-mail, so we are also rapidly learning more about the demographics and priorities of Milpitas businesses who applied for assistance. Regarding how quickly checks were picked up, one business returned Alex’s email saying that this assistance had come at the “perfect time,” when “outstanding vendor bills, rent and insurance [were] all coming due.” This positive reception was definitely a source of reassurance and helped to further ground the purpose and intention behind this project. As our project picked up pace, we also began to discover more complexities in the process of selecting interviewees, creating interview questions, and intentionally establishing a comfortable space for businesses to share their personal experiences. We recognize that in order to analyze a diversity of perspectives in our report, we need to sample businesses from a range of sectors and demographics. The difficulty in constructing meaningful and adaptable interview protocols harkens back to our understanding of Baylor University’s “Intro to Oral History,” which encourages open-ended questions, the use of silence, and genuine focus on the storytelling of our narrators, local Milpitas businesses. Regarding our survey design and responses, we quickly realized how important it would be to make every relevant field a required response, since we can never assume that someone will provide us pertinent information unless it is required. From here, we quickly made adjustments to our survey so that we could monitor business responses on the backend without prompting business owners to name themselves. As survey responses trickle in, we are also gradually growing our understanding of current business needs in Milpitas and garnering important answers to some of the inquiries that Alex and Nicole voiced. For instance, every single business who answered that their business owner would be retiring in the next 5-10 years also answered that they do not know who will take over the business. Out of the businesses who chose to answer our question on technical assistance, every one of them answered that they were either unaware of technical assistance being available to them or were aware and chose not to utilize the resource. Out of the 18 businesses who responded, ⅓ were immigrant-owned businesses and ½ were minority-owned. Furthermore, most of the people who said that the grant funds would be going towards rent/mortgage costs also indicated that 80-100% of the funds would be used for this purpose. These answers provide us key insights into who’s behind these businesses, the future of Milpitas’ economic landscape, and which parts of the grant program are not as well utilized. These survey responses also provide us an opportunity to discuss subjects we might want to explore within interviews. In the “Racial Equity Impact Assessment & Implementation Guide,” we repeatedly saw mention of rising real estate costs due to growing gentrification in the Bay Area, and given that many respondents will be using grant funds to front real estate costs, this issue will be of central concern as we move through our interviewing process. Moving Forward: Our next steps are to send the survey to the remaining 13 recipients who have not taken it yet and analyze the further responses. Unfortunately, Alex said those remaining 13 recipients will not receive their checks until at least next week, but we may send the survey prior to their collecting the check since we can still collect some information about their experience with COVID and how their needs have changed. Additionally, we will begin scheduling and conducting interviews over the next two weeks. We plan to have two group members in each interview, where one conducts the interview and the other takes notes with their camera off and steps in if the interviewer has technical difficulties. Additionally, we have created a list of questions to ask the interviewer. Finally, we will continue the geospatial analysis, incorporating insights from the interviews if need be. Comments are closed.
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