Lockdown during the now (hopefully) waning pandemic hasn't been downtime in Indio.
In that time, the city processed more than a dozen new restaurant applications, welcomed the major supermarket Vallarta on Jackson Street and -- last summer, at the height of the pandemic -- gained a new Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton on Spectrum Street.
How Indio came through has been uplifting, City of Indio Communications and Marketing Director Brooke Beare told Desert Magazine.
City of Indio Communications Director Brooke Beare
| Submitted
"For all the economic devastation leveled on small businesses during the pandemic, as the director of Marketing and Communications, I also got to see how people were inspired by the restrictions that COVID created," Beare said. "This 'pause' gave entrepreneurial types the space online to manifest their dreams in other ways. People turned their homes into workshops, bakeries and think-spaces. I’m so excited that these microbusinesses had the opportunity to be 'born' online."
Beare, a longtime KESQ television anchor and investigative reporter, became Indio's communications and marketing director in October 2019, only a few months before the pandemic began to set in.
Helping to keep area small businesses afloat throughout the pandemic meant Indio handled business support like never before. The city council approved $645,000 for eligible Indio businesses in need of emergency cash flow. Almost 145 businesses have applied for those funds, which provides up to $10,000 for independently owned/operated businesses with physical storefronts in Indio and up to $5,000 to independently owned and operated in-home child care services.
A partnership between Indio Water Authority and the United Way Help2Others's COVID 19 Water Bill Assistance Program set aside $110,000 in CDBG-CV funds for up to 800 IWA customers. That money covers past due water bills between April 1 and December 31 of last year.
The city also partnered with Lift to Rise Rental Assistance with $645,000 approved by the council from CDBG-Coronavirus funds. More than 340 Indio households are on the rental assistance waitlist and an estimated 286 Indio households will receive funding.
The city and the nonprofit Coachella Valley Economic Partnership distributed hand sanitizer, face masks and face shields to more than 1,600 Indio businesses. Forty locals businesses, including Indio Florist, Lala's Crepes and Waffles, and Ciro's, have received through the city's website free "Open for Business" and restaurant banners.
Some of the most impactful challenges Indio and the entire Coachella Valley faced during COVID were the cancellation of the town's signature festivals and the number of jobs lost.
"We are used to more than 1 million people visiting our city every year," Beare said. "That kind of activity provides employment and income -- not to mention entertainment -- to our families, and we felt that loss in many ways."
The pandemic also changed the way Indio-area residents interacted.
"In Indio, we communicate through seeing each other and talking to each other," Beare said. "Our students, families, and neighborhoods were isolated physically. That loss of connection presented other tangible losses."
Rebuilding those connections is a challenge for this year that Beare said she is most looking forward to.
"Reconnecting our students with their teachers on campus and at the Teen Center, at Desert Rec District Programs, and sitting down alongside them at an outdoor movie," Beare said. "Welcoming our seniors back to the Senior Center where they can visit with each other, socialize and reignite their bodies and minds. We can’t wait for residents to return to the jobs they miss doing. Seeing each other will feel special in a way it never has before. We will never take smiles for granted again."
Another goal for the year is a reimagining of the Indio Marketplace and picking up the threads of progress that were developing before the pandemic and growing stronger thanks to lessons learned during that time.
"We were 'this' close to new concepts being presented when COVID hit," Beare said. "We know now that what will actually happen will be thoughtfully and creatively constructed so that whatever punches are thrown next, we know what will keep us all on our feet."
The future is looking bright in Indio.
"We’re excited to dream up new events and get back to the revitalization of Downtown Indio," Beare said.
An especially popular event in early December is on the schedule for certain this year.
"The Indio International Tamale Festival brings everyone back to the core downtown of our city during some of the best weather of the year," Beare said. "We missed the color and smells of tamales and dancing, and shutting down the streets so people could visit and have fun together. Indio’s long history and geographic center is unique in the Coachella Valley. The Tamale Festival is the salt and seasoning of that!"
