(slow music) - Hey, I'm Aaron Henkin.

- I'm Wendel Patrick.

- And we're the co-producers of the podcast "Out of the Blocks."

- The idea of the podcast is simple.

Each episode we visit one city block.

- And we make it our mission to meet and interview everybody on that block about, you know, life.

- We've been doing this for about 10 years on blocks around Baltimore and across the country.

- Then in 2020, the pandemic hit, lockdowns happened, and you know kind of put the deep freeze on our project as we knew it.

- But we were approached by some independent film producers who were looking for a way to document the impact of COVID on a range of communities across America.

They were fans of the podcast, and they asked us if we'd like to partner with them to try to capture what was going on across the country.

- So they hit us up and they said, "What if you gave cellphones with cameras to folks from different neighborhoods who'd been on previous episodes of the podcast to make video diaries about life during the pandemic?"

- So we went for it, we sent iPhones to people we'd met in West Baltimore and on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

- The Chinatown-International District in Seattle, and the West Side neighborhood in Charleston, West Virginia, and the people in these neighborhoods, they shared their stories with us directly through their personal recordings, and it was like they became partners with us on a project.

- They recorded their lives for a week at a safe distance following COVID protocols.

They sent us the iPhones back, we cut the footage together, and scored it with original music.

- And the result was really powerful and beautiful and surprising, and we're just really excited to share these stories with you this hour.

We're gonna start off in West Baltimore.

(upbeat electronic music) (slow orchestral music) (slow jazzy music) - Another slow day for me, so I am currently making, well, I call it stuffed shrimp.

What it is, I take jumbo shrimp.

I open them up, take all the vein out, and I stuff them with a crab cake.

I'm 54 years old, I live in this city for 15 years.

Now I run a seafood carry-out restaurant, and two doors down, actually, literally two doors down from where I live.

Hey, good morning, how you doing?

- All right, my friends, this is what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna show you a little something of what I do and how I do it.

So here we go.

If you need a tire fixed, come see Gregory Hill, AKA Foots.

That's how I got there.

I spend a lot of damn time working there, from nine in the morning 'til six or seven in the evening.

You know, when I get home, I have a little coffee, sit with my girlfriend, Latoya, take a shower, eat something, and then watch a little bit of news, and guess what, do it again.

And I take pride in my work, and I love my job.

And um...

I take my job serious 'cause that's how I eat, that's how I pay my bills.

- Mainly go like this, "How you doing, welcome, thank you for coming to Urban Jewelers, what are you interested in getting?"

Oh, I'm missing one tooth, or I have two teeth in the back, or I need a whole top plate, or maybe I just want some golds.

My name is Shaniqua, I'm 29 years old.

I work at Urban Jewelers temporarily, and we make golds and dentures, see, like my teeth?

I made them myself, I really did, though.

I'm actually not working right now, but that's only because of the pandemic and everything's really slow, and who wants to pay somebody for doing nothing?

Nobody.

- Welcome to LA Auto Service.

Well, for the past few months, it's been a rollercoaster.

We were losing almost 80% of our business right now, but we're still hanging in there.

My biggest worry right now is uh, how to pay the bills day by day.

It's tough, the government, we apply for the loan.

They give us only $1,000, 1,000.

What am I gonna do with 1,000?

I called my bank, the bank is telling me that, well, they are sorry, that's a whole month they can't give us.

Small business, we are the ones, we are the pillar of this country.

So I don't care what anybody say.

Hopefully we'll stay applied, we'll stay present.

I'm even on the line now, trying to get the SB loan.

Hopefully we're gonna get some more money.

My wife have a restaurant around the corner, so it used to be booming, people walking, and it's African food, we cook fresh food.

It's good for the body, but the attendance down too, because of the coronavirus.

So they have to shut down for a little while until business come back.

- I make sure my customers be happy, and they love my environment.

Yeah, I'm worried about this pandemic because of my children, this COVID-19, because it's not easy for five children, stay inside the house, eating morning, night, so they can eat 10 times a day.

- Let me get a pack of honey bourbon.

It'll be 5.50.

My average day now is I wake up, smoke, eat breakfast, probably do a little exercise, and sit here on the porch, and probably make TikToks with my daughter, that's about it.

- I'm a workaholic, I work 12 hours a day, exercise, hour and a half to two hours a day, every day, seven days a week.

I'll be right there.

So I try and keep myself pretty healthy.

I didn't close my store with the coronavirus, I stay open because I'm carryout, so everything is closed up, so I'd figured I'll be all right.

- [Customer] Salt and pepper.

- You've got salt and pepper, and you want extra salt and pepper?

- [Customer] Just, yeah, just extra salt.

- [Sissy] But taste your food, Mommy, before you put it on.

- [Customer] All right, I will.

- 2015, the riot changed me.

In this front of this building, it's a place we have.

When I saw tank coming through that, that scared me bad, when I was stuck in here, in this third floor, and watch all this happening, building burning across the street, tank coming through, a soldier standing both sides of the street, that scared me.

But there was, (slow piano music) right away, I could see visually.

But this coronavirus, you don't see, so you have to be careful, you have to be clean.

You have to be cautious.

- Business been slow.

And it do affect us and it affected our pay.

To be honest with you, I wanted a stimulus check bad, and I ain't gonna lie, everybody getting stimulus checks.

But I'll keep it real with you, man, I ain't get no damn stimulus check, why?

'Cause I got a dang old hold on the IRS.

I don't get no kind of check from the government.

I do all my money come from here, Scott Tires.

- [Customer] Take care, man, good seeing you.

- All righty, all right, there we go, man.

That's how you check your air pressure.

- I don't have unemployment because I was working under the table, so it was like, he was pressuring me.

He was like, "You have to go on payroll.

You can't just keep working here forever without being on payroll."

All right, cool, I'm gonna go on payroll.

So when the time came and I was about to do it, boom, here's the pandemic.

So no, I don't have unemployment, but I do have family members and I have friends, and also I have a girlfriend.

It's kind of... everything is level.

I'm okay, I'm content.

- [Kemi's Daughter] It all depends on you financially, yeah.

- No, me, I depend on my husband because that is the edge of our sword.

- [Kemi's Daughter] But you shouldn't just say your husband because you, too, you're a hardworking woman, but.

I know, but you've contributed to a lot of things, too.

It's not only Dad- - [Kemi] Yeah, we are doing everything together.

- We have a lot of people that want to work, but that bank is not giving us a loan.

They hold all the money, so we don't have no choice, then, to go to high lender money.

We call it high lender when they, 15, 16, 17 percent.

You know, that's why you see the out and about with the boarded house, board business, every business is done, and we're on life support now.

We're on life support, we need help, so.

- Business become nothing.

Am I paying my bills, no, because I don't have it.

Financially, a very difficult time.

My son-in-law lost his job, but helps out.

My daughter do work, but she doesn't make enough to cover the whole family.

Medical insurance for the family is so high, it's almost half of it.

It's okay, I'm glad I am help inside and I receive inside, so fortunately, I thank God for that.

- I could take care of me.

We're all grown, but I think about my mom, my life.

My mom is my everything.

She works at a nursing home.

And a week by, a week has passed, my father went to the hospital, and um, he would probably see her.

Both of them in the hospital.

So all we can do is just pray for them and just hope for the best, you know.

Believe in faith, man, that's all I hold onto is faith, man.

I got you, faith, that's all, faith.

There's gotta be something greater than me, gotta be, it's faith.

- This is the end of my day, I'm getting ready to close my store and go to my apartment, lights.

(slow piano music) I'm walking out of my store.

(overlapping chattering) Hey, how you doing, Timmy?

- [Timmy] Good, I'll see you tomorrow, Sissy.

- Okay, see you, Timmy.

This is my window, my view of outside, my screen up.

Pennsylvania Avenue at night never dies, meaning there's so many people out on the street, it's not even funny.

- Right now everybody think that the city is messed up just because we have a lot of violence going on and stuff, but we have a lot of good people with us.

I miss making teeth, but I miss the people.

I miss the customers, where we talk and we like to have fun and entertain you, we'll give you music, we'll feed you, and that's just what it is.

It's like a family business, so yes, I miss being at work.

I was like, I need my job.

- You got a mask on today, I'm proud of you, good!

That was a young man who refused to wear a mask, and he bought one today, I gave him three other.

So I told him how proud I am.

Financially, this is crazy.

Coronavirus has changed everything.

What, am I gonna make it, absolutely.

I made it through harder than this.

This is good.

(laughs) - I love working on cars.

It's not about the money.

Everybody in the neighborhood knows that early, you can get it on.

I came to this country in 1995, and it's been good to me.

Hopefully, everything will be fine at the end of the day, everybody will be fine, that's all I know in America, that no matter what, we're down, we're never knocked down, we always get up.

So we should get up, we'll be okay, at the end of the day.

(slow piano music continues) (slow orchestral music) (slow piano music) (slow orchestral music) - My name is Waden Green.

I come to Sali's Market every morning to get free coffee from her.

She know I ain't got no money.

- If it wouldn't have been for Sal, hey, I wouldn't even have got unemployment, 'cause thanks to Sali, Sali helped out a lot.

Other than just being a store in the community, she has been a friend in the community.

- Hi, my name is Sali, I am 25 years old.

I own Sali's Market and Deli.

My shop is located in Charleston, West Virginia, on Central Avenue, it's on the West Side of Charleston.

I've been owning this little shop for about two years now.

I've been in the United States for about 20 years.

I'm originally from Palestine.

I uh, graduated about a year and a half ago with a bachelor's degree of criminal justice, and I am actually studying for the LSAT to get into law school.

My average days are like just going to work now, I literally work every day, and I go to the gym afterward to keep me sane because there's not much to do.

Financially, coronavirus has affected us a little bit, but not too much, like others, I'm very grateful.

The community relies on us, and you can come over here and get some groceries, I sell bread, milk, all that good stuff.

- My name is Lisa Charmaine, Gigi, coming from the West Side of Charleston, the best side of Charleston, of course.

I usually come in here and get cigarettes, pop, occasionally a hamburger when I'm hungry.

(Sali laughs) - How we mop our floors at Sali's.

(laughs) I think it's a nice little neighborhood.

I honestly, nobody really bothers me.

Everybody explains it as the worst neighborhood, and it's not that bad.

It's an okay neighborhood, I think.

There's actually really nice people around here, you just really got to talk to people and really get to know them.

- I was supposed to start a job, actually on March 23rd, same day that they shut down the city, so I wasn't able to start.

And luckily, I was blessed and was able to get the unemployment, so that's how I've been paying my bills.

- I helped some people file for unemployment, stuff like that, 'cause they didn't have access to internet, or they didn't know how to work it.

There's a lot of older folks that live right across the street in Jarrett Terrace, so most of them don't know how to work the internet, or don't have access to it, so I helped them.

I'll try, I'll try to be friends with everyone around here.

- 2020 goes to Sali.

(Sali laughs) (slow orchestral music) (slow music) - Seems like we were getting a lot of momentum for a long time in the recovery community.

There was so much progress being made, and it seems like so many got put on a standstill when this happened.

And so that's my biggest fear, is that momentum will pick back up again, 'cause there are so many people dying right now.

Our overdose rates went up 30%.

They were actually projected to go down this year, but they're actually up 30%.

I've had more people in the ER for an overdose than for COVID.

It's absolutely gripped the state of our, our recovery community.

My name is Fran Gray, I'm the Program Director at Recovery Point in Charleston.

I'm also a person in longterm recovery.

My sobriety date is October the 14th, 2016, so I'll be four years in just about a month and a half, which is really exciting.

I actually lived in these apartments for a year after I completed, which was amazing, 'cause I can stay where my recovery community was, and that's something that's really important.

Your chances go up 80 percent when you stay in the same area that you got sober in.

All in total, we have about 145 women in this little block.

It's been honestly an absolute nightmare from it.

I've had people that have had years of recovery call me, asking for a detox bed.

It's the lack of things to do, it's the lack of meetings, it's a lack of resources.

It's not good for people in recovery to have their hands empty, and it's exactly what was happening.

They're either sitting at home, getting unemployment, which is not good, just for someone in recovery, to just have access to all kinds of money and no purpose with it.

All the meetings were closing down, people were getting bored at home, so they started talking to old people that they probably shouldn't be talking to, and it just manifested.

So what we did is we set up, we have Zoom meetings for AA or NA speakers.

And we've also...

I love this, I hope this continues, honestly, we've started utilizing telehealth, as well, for it.

So all the girls' doctor's appointments have been online, all of their, many of our health needs have been online.

Parenting classes have been online.

At one point, we had, it was 78 appointments a week that were all online.

I try not to focus on myself, I try to focus on the girls here and making sure my family is safe.

But with that, too, I have to maintain my own recovery.

A lot of people get confused and they think just because you work in recovery means that you're just gonna be great and stable, and it's quite the opposite.

It's emotionally, physically exhausting.

But you know...

I just try to go to my meetings online, I try to talk with my sponsor.

I should probably do that for my recovery so I can be there for their recovery.

(slow guitar music) - We still have to put aside some of our fears and make sure our neighborhood and our kids are taken care of.

It's the thought, if we don't feed them, what's gonna happen?

If we don't help educate them, what's gonna happen?

And what kind of trauma and issues will they face down the line?

We're from Appalachia, we take care of each other, as such, but even during a pandemic, it just kind of makes it even harder.

I'm Reverend Michael Farmer.

I live here in Charleston on the West Side with Lauren, my wife, and Kania and Naomi.

I'm the pastor at Risen City Church on the West Side, which also serves as a community center.

- My name is Lauren Farmer, I'm the Executive Director of The Bob Burdette Center.

The Bob Burdette Center is a nonprofit organization that provides after school and summer programming to kids on the West Side of Charleston.

Michael and I work together a lot in some of our endeavors.

- It's been really tough to have to shut everything down, when after school you work with the most at-risk students, and the goal is that you provide them an alternative.

Well, what happens when the alternative is taken away?

- [Lauren] Kids who are in homes where there is abuse or neglect, you know they're stuck there and they don't have the support they would have had.

- But we believe that God can give us wisdom and discernment on how we can expand our reach, even in the midst of this time and stuff like that.

We've been blessed enough that we haven't stopped working.

- [Lauren] Both of our organizations have worked to try to keep most of our staff employed.

Both of our organizations have got PPP loans.

- The church has been an influence in the community, but then when you can't meet you can't fellowship, people are gonna look for other influences and things like that.

I've seen it a lot, a lot of people stressing, like, "Where is God right now?"

We say we want to love God and love our neighbors.

We don't stop doing that because of COVID.

(slow electronic music) - We went from probably about 15, 17 employees to down to me, my daughter, and my son, working at one dishwasher.

It ain't bad, it's just another hurdle that we gotta get over.

I mean, it ain't just me, it's the whole world that's in this thing together.

Get the fire started.

I'm Adrian Wright, owner of Dem 2 Brothers.

I started this business 10 years ago with a hotdog cart and a grill, basically.

It's been a long journey, but it's been good 'cause I enjoy what I do.

This is my pulled pork I start out with, been marinated and seasoned for 24 hours.

Since the COVID-19 hit, it's been rough on my business, on my life.

My business closed down to just curb service, and we went from doing 20 to 15 festivals a year, wedding parties, graduations, to nothing.

We had lost a couple hundred thousand dollars on all the festivals we've done.

On the in-house, we lost one.

- When it first started, we could not get our hands on beef brisket at a decent price.

Our beef prices went from being maybe 2- 2.89 to being almost 7.99 a pound.

When you're buying 5, 600 pounds of meat, it makes a difference when the costs are hyped, and basically the supply chain was disturbed.

It's a tough time for independent restaurants right now.

It's even tougher when you kind of are basically fueling your own dream.

After three rounds of applying, we eventually did get the PPP, so that has allowed us to kind of bring people on and give them some type of stability.

I'm now operating with five to six employees.

That's still not completely fully staffed, but they're here and they're working.

- Now we are allowed to have at least 50% of our capacity, so we get people in and eat, get people from out of town still.

- You are able to dine in, but you seat yourself and dispose of your own trash.

So it's just almost trying to become as contactless as possible, but it's tough because I think barbecue is a community food, so people want to be around people.

My servers want to be able to interact with our customers.

- Seeing there's no touching, there's no love in the world right now with COVID-19.

You can't hug your people, you can't touch your friends, and that's rough.

So you just gotta scale back and figure out a way to get through.

Hold up, let it go.

We could have went out of business, but I don't have quit in my blood, don't know how to quit, don't know how to stop, don't know how to give up.

(slow piano music) (slow electronic music) - [Checkpoint Officer] Good morning.

- [Andrew] Good morning, we're going to No Flesh.

- [Checkpoint Officer] To No Flesh?

- [Andrew] Yeah.

- [Checkpoint Officer] Are you coming from Rochford?

- [Andrew] Yes.

- [Checkpoint Officer] Any signs or symptom of COVID-19?

- [Andrew] No.

- [Checkpoint Officer] Been exposed to anybody with COVID-19?

- [Andrew] No.

- [Checkpoint Officer] Just you two in the vehicle?

- [Andrew] Yes.

- [Checkpoint Officer] Ever go outside of the area within the past 14 days?

- [Andrew] No.

- [Checkpoint Officer] Just you two in the vehicle?

- [Andrew] Yes.

- [Checkpoint Officer] Your name?

- [Andrew] Andy.

- [Checkpoint Officer] Andy, okay, Andy, you guys have a good day.

- [Andrew] Thank you.

My name is Andrew Iron Cloud.

- My name is Arlo Iron Cloud.

- My name is Lisa Iron Cloud.

- My name is Darla, Darla Black, and I'm actually from here.

Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is my homelands.

- [Andrew] I've lived out here among the Lakota... since I was about 9 or 10 years old.

I'm a community organizer for the Indian Collective, a land protector, a father, a grandfather, and a member of this beautiful community.

Welcome to my world.

- My daily routine is having my coffee here and getting online here to watch the news and listen to "Good Morning America."

I look at the news all around the world.

(slow music) The hardest part for me with COVID-19 is losing our elders.

We've been, we lost one here in Pine Ridge, and then we lost another, I think her funeral was today, and they're our Lakota language speakers.

And it's because of the language, it's because of the teachings of our elders I'm able to walk through, if somebody throws a test at me, a challenge at me, I'm able to get through that, knowing that I'm gonna be okay.

- All right, good morning.

(speaking Lakota) We love this radio station, I mean, FM radio is dying all over the place, but here on the reservation, it's our hub for communication.

Relatives, you're listening to KILI Radio, 90.1 FM, 88.7 FM.

So it's very utilized.

Every day, 20 hours a day, seven days a week, we have programming that will reflect upon information that is here, that is pertaining to the reservation, and we've been alive for 39 years.

We've already had elderly pass away in our communities from COVID-19, and that's just knowledge gone.

Got my namesake sitting right next to me.

Lou, say good morning.

- Good morning.

- A lot of my external jobs has to do with social involvement, and I can't do a lot of those.

I need those contracts and I don't have them.

I am the primary provider in our family right now, and I haven't had the opportunity to give as much as I used to.

Friday mornings, I love giving out donuts.

If I'm able to, I'll come around, I'll deliver donuts.

This is a tradition.

I just thought one day, you know what makes people happy, donuts.

The CARES Act money, we got that right away, and as quick as we got it, (snaps) quick as it was gone.

One more time?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

Between me and my wife, we have three credit cards, and they're all maxed out.

I had to redo a loan, and that's jacked out as well, too, and my auto loan, that was one of the hardest, it's like currently behind three months.

They could repo it at any time.

It's just one of those situations.

I need the car, I really do, but... we can't afford it, not right now.

(slow music) (water boiling) - Okay, so this is the last of our corn.

So what I want to do is hang it up, so that there is a gap.

And you can see it's still steaming 'cause it just came out.

When the toilet paper shortage happened, you went to the store and there was no rice, there was no beans, there was no flour, everything started disappearing off the shelves because everybody was panicking, and it was because of the uncertainty, what the heck are we gonna do?

I am trying to figure out how to live the way I envision it when I was a kid, when I was gonna butcher and take care of myself, be self sufficient.

Dump my corn into the Blue Bird bag because it's- I share that knowledge with people in the community.

It's not my job, it's just something that I really enjoy doing.

(overlapping chattering) And they're mashing chokeberries right now.

With the teachings that we do, there are times where we don't even get paid.

I don't get paid.

(sighs) I always think about my babies, and I think I don't want them to be homeless, because I know what that feeling is like.

But how are we gonna make ends meet when I can't even help contribute financially?

We have our rent, we have water, we have natural gas, lights, the internet so Arlo can work, a car payment, and insurance payment.

- This banner has been all over the place.

It says "Honor the Treaties," a real easy message.

The way I look at things in my world lands, my worldview, I feel like how this pandemic has been addressed is rooted in white supremacy.

And we need to call it out for what it is.

We need to call it out.

I'm gonna take you through a ride through my community.

This housing is here because of Robert Kennedy and John Kennedy, it hasn't really been updated since then.

So hang on for the ride.

(car beeps) (slow piano music) This isn't a health crisis anymore, or if it ever was, that the politics of our time have hijacked it for political gain, for profit, for power.

This community is here to say that we choose to be architects of our own future.

It grows its own food here, it has, every home has solar.

They're set up in a circle to represent a (speaking Lakota), or the circle of life, the circle of our families.

Poverty is used as a weapon against indigenous people and people of color.

This is an answer, it was not parachuted in here from anyone else, this is an answer from our own people here.

The street signs are all in Lakota, part of a thought up around bringing back the language.

So when COVID happened, it didn't interrupt this.

It gave us more purpose to do so.

This is a natural cycle that we are in.

We have that understanding, we have that teaching of how to survive pandemics from our ancestors to now.

We have the resiliency of our people to carry us through.

- Today we're on our way to Allen, South Dakota, where we're gonna help one of our mentors process a buffalo.

- [Lisa] I was gonna take a picture of that Confederate flag.

The store we just passed has a Confederate flag and Trump 2020 flags outside their store.

- There are Confederate flags all over the state of South Dakota, and it's quite weird for us.

- We use our van for everything, and it's a great little van, but we'd like to get a truck so we could park our van and take care of it, since it took care of us this long.

If you're lost, aim for the blue water tower, we will be nearby.

(cricket chirps) Pine Ridge Reservation, if you talked to me when I was younger, it probably would have been, I hate Pine Ridge because there's nothing to do there.

We were homeless and (slow guitar music) it wasn't a great experience, having to sleep in cars.

But right now, because of the work that I do, it makes me happy when I think of Pine Ridge.

I really feel that food, preparing food, eating food, I mean, as well as language and ceremonies, songs, food really has a huge part in your connection.

I think everybody has that need.

I mean, it doesn't even matter if you're Lakota or not, but you have that want to belong and that need to reconnect to something.

- It's a beautiful morning.

It's still daybreak, as you can see behind me, and I want to,I want to say a quick morning prayer to the sunrise that's gonna be coming, and ask for good health, good mind, good body for our people.

(speaking Lakota) - We have concepts, methods about living in balance with this earth, that has always been our culture, and right now, the rest of the world needs to look at those indigenous cultures that have always had that relationship, and need to reflect that upon themselves.

(Darla speaking Lakota) - [Andrew] We're gonna get through this COVID.

We're gonna get through this pandemic, and we're gonna transition into a new way.

A normal way should be a healthy way, so let's go toward health.

Let's go towards life.

(horses galloping) (slow music continues) Thank you for visiting my world just for a little bit, little bit of time that we shared.

I appreciate you, be safe out there.

(slow orchestral music) (slow jazzy music) - [Mike] The Chinatown-International District is special compared to other Chinatowns, we're actually more mixed with other ethnicities.

In the area, there's Nihonmachi, which is Japantown.

The other side would be Chinatown.

We have the Cambodians up a little further up, and then further up would be Little Saigon.

- [Verdi] If you're Asian or your grandma's Asian, she's gonna find your grocery stores here, her markets, little retails and stuff.

- My name is Leeching Tran, I am second generation Asian American here, and my family owns Viet-Wah Supermarket.

(slow music) So I found this photo album that has pictures of Viet-Wah, so yeah, the grand opening was a big deal.

So there's my dad, there's my grandfather.

Miss Chinatown was there, too.

It doesn't look too different these days.

My dad started Viet-Wah in 1981.

With the influx of Vietnamese refugees coming to the area after the Vietnam War, he saw a need for people to have foods that they grew up with.

I don't remember a point in my life without Viet-Wah, without just having it so integrated as part of our family.

(clippers humming) - March of 2020, we shut down, and May is when the owner was kind of like, "You know what, guys, I'm just gonna sell it."

So I bought it June 9th and we reopened June 10th.

I was just crazy, I just didn't know what I was thinking.

(laughs) I knew we'd be open again, people need haircuts.

The pandemic can't last forever, so I was like, "Yes, let's sign the contract.

I want to be in this neighborhood."

(slow music) - Restaurant that we're currently located is Itsumono Izakaya.

The previous owner, he had this space for about 12 years.

He wanted to get out, I saw it as an opportunity to go ahead and just buy it to kind of keep the current clientele and the culture within the neighborhood and within our generation.

One year running in, I felt like we were starting to get a profit, actually feeling more confident about running the business.

When we heard the news we were supposed to shut down, we were like, "Well, what the hell are we gonna do?"

- I'm Lei Ann, one of the owners of Momo, a small boutique in Seattle's Japantown.

(slow piano music) When the governor decreed that all non-essential businesses had to be closed, we shuttered our doors, and then decided that we had to do something to generate some kind of revenue.

In this neighborhood, takeout food is really a big deal.

So my idea was to have takeaway gifts.

So for a month and a half, we did Momo To Go, which was gift packs.

But as much work as that was, it was really joyous.

To survive and thrive during this time, boy, you have to be hopeful and creative and embrace the whole mess.

- We stayed closed during that whole time because signing up for a third party, like Grubhub or Uber Eats, I mean, during that time, there were no regulations.

They were charging some of us 30% of our cut, and they wouldn't let us regulate our prices.

They would just control the whole thing, it was Wild West.

When August came around, we were allowed to be open.

We kind of had to restructure a lot.

A lot of the office space workers aren't coming in anymore because they're telecommuting, so we're definitely depending on loyal customers who definitely want to support the business.

We changed up the menu a lot.

We have a new chef that's in here who's actually kind of creating more of a Pan-Asian fusion of food.

Definitely there has been a challenge, but we're making it work.

(slow music) - There are changes in the industry that we, admittedly, have been a little behind in keeping up with just because we don't have the resources necessarily to catch up with all that stuff.

We did have several employees, for their own health and for the health of their families, choose to not work at the stores anymore.

We were really sad to see them go 'cause a lot of them were longtime employees.

So with all the curbside pickup and online shopping and no contact and deliveries and stuff like that, we haven't had enough people power to set that up.

- Before I was just coming to work and doing my job, but now it's like, I have more pride now.

My grandma's Japanese, and when she passed, she left me a little bit of money.

Without her, I wouldn't have had this place at all.

It was really an emotional moment because I knew that she wanted me to be okay.

- If it wasn't for the community and the staff that I have and the people that I work with, yeah, I definitely would be miserable.

Customers and communities, they've been very helpful.

A lot of the nonprofits reached out to us and were some of the first organizations to give us money.

- Our community came around with two grants that we would not have gotten, that amounted to several thousand dollars.

There's been a lot of volunteerism and connection that has come from simply being small business owners, in ways that we never, ever, ever would have been able to imagine.

- There you go, oh.

(laughs) We were able to get two PPP loans.

That has helped us tremendously, just to be able to have that safety net provided to us.

These are our wonderful- - [Ina] Yeah, how are you?

- Produce staff, how are you, Ina, hello.

(laughs) If anything, business picked up a bit because people weren't going out to restaurants, they were staying at home and cooking, and we were actually able to give our employees bonuses, just as a way to say thank you for putting yourself out there.

- No one's coming 'cause they're still scared to come to Chinatown because it came from China, and it just seems so ridiculous 'cause we're Seattle, but I think it was definitely hit a little bit harder than maybe the other districts.

Capitol Hill seemed like it was doing fine.

There was one time where I thought I was gonna have to dip into my savings.

I was like, "Well, this is it, this is the start of it.

I'm about to be broke."

If someone canceled, I'm like...

I just get so afraid, like, "Oh my God, are we gonna be able to eat?

Are we gonna be able to pay the rent?"

- I definitely want to bring all my staff back onto payroll, and being able to feel confident that they're not worried about paying rent the next month, or buying groceries, or being able to feed themselves at the end of the week.

I'm not even talking about luxuries like buying coffee or being able to go anywhere, and I feel like everyone's just trying to live right now.

A lot of the businesses are struggling now, are definitely struggling even more, knowing that we don't know what end is there in sight.

And I feel like a lot of us are kind of on our last string.

- Our revenue has been cut significantly, and therefore, Momo is closing because I cannot see a road ahead.

And a store like Momo, which is so much about in-person experience and that personal, literal touch, well, we're not allowed to touch anymore, and we're not supposed to be face to face.

So the magic of Momo will be gone.

(sighs) (slow music) - I feel that the city isn't helping us enough.

I mean, our City Hall is literally four blocks way up the street this way, they can see what's going on down here.

When's the governor gonna say something about getting unemployment for the people, or rent relief?

- So many people are struggling right now.

That has made me a little bit more conscious about what I'm doing with my money.

If I do have to spend it, where am I spending it?

Ordering takeout from minority-owned restaurants, small businesses, instead of chain restaurants.

- [Verdi] Hey, there.

- [Lei Ann] So my hope for the future comes from the fact that there are so many young people, even during this time of COVID, who are still interested in establishing their mark, their own small businesses in the neighborhood.

- My parents left Northern Vietnam after the war.

They went to a refugee camp in Hong Kong, and they actually stayed there for a few years and they both immigrated to California, coming to a country where they didn't speak the language, they didn't have any support, and that people depended on them.

I honestly don't know how my parents did it.

I find a lot of strength in that.

- My biggest worry is not being able to make it what I want sooner than I'd want to.

When is it gonna feel safe for people just to come and hang out in the waiting room again?

I want to have a big screen TV with a couch and you can play Switch while you're waiting, and that is... you can't do that, you can't do that right now.

- Even if there is no end in sight, I feel very hopeful in terms of community continuing to support us.

We've had the tenacity the last six, eight months.

We will open the first day when we can again.

- I hope to be able to continue making a difference to this neighborhood.

I'm not sure in what way, but I'll figure it out, some way.

(slow music) - [Wendel] Stories from Seattle's Chinatown International District recorded in 2020 during the escalating COVID-19 pandemic.

- [Aaron] We also got a glimpse at life in Charleston, West Virginia's West Side neighborhood, the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, and our hometown of Baltimore.

- Which brings us full circle.

The story goes on and we leave you this hour with a postscript from our participants in West Baltimore.

- We checked in with them recently.

Here's how they're doing today.

- With the COVID, that kind of helped me.

Hey, weird, instead of being negative, COVID become my positive thing.

It changed a lot of the way I do things, business.

Before was on time, on time, 'cause I don't believe in being late.

It's just, I'm very detail oriented with my bills, so.

(laughs) I just put everything pretty much on hold, and just focus on getting myself healthy, without getting sick, taking time off, too.

Actually, I work seven days a week, and I used to take off two, three days end of the month, and I'd do volunteer work.

I was doing more of that.

And I have a lot of 80-year-old ladies, friends, girls, okay, my girls, there's about seven of them, and they're fun, okay?

They told me how to relax, "Stop," that's what they mean, "stop, breathe," that's what they used to say.

And they were so right, I didn't know how to enjoy life.

I was so busy.

I think I'm in better shape now than I was when I was in 20.

I think, I mean, just body and mind, too, in a way.

Physically, I have a six pack.

I didn't know at 55 I can get that, and I realize, I can.

That shocked the hell out of me.

(laughs) And so I like having it.

So I am more healthy than ever, I think.

- The business is coming along, but it's not there to that point yet, but it's better than before, on the business loan.

I think the stimulus check is really helping a lot because a lot of customers are coming out and fix their car now.

Right now we've got our shots, and I got my two shot now ready, so I feel free to go around and I wear my masks, so I believe that is something that we can manage.

And my advice for all my Baltimoreans is, just hanging in there.

I feel sorry for people that lost their life, but at the center, with that we're still here, we're still kicking, and we're still moving on.

Hopefully everything will be better.

- Life is boring, it's boring.

I wish the pandemic was over.

So unless you're taking trips, which means you're taking risk and going outside and things like that, everything's a risk now.

So I just try to live, try to make it like, every day before the pandemic, but it's still kind of hard.

- [Interviewer] I remember you saying you really missed being at work.

Have you gone back to that job?

- I don't go, I haven't been hired back there.

So it's still with the COVID restrictions.

I will eventually go back there 'cause I really do enjoy making dentures and stuff, so.

I don't know, I feel like it's gonna take a while before everything actually gets how it should be.

I'm not gonna say perfect because no such thing as perfect, but until it gets on track how it should be, you just gotta go with the flow, I guess.

It's not like I can go outside and say, "Oh, I don't want to do this, I don't want to do this, I can change this, I can change that," not one person can just change everything.

So you just gotta go with the flow.

- [Interviewer] Did you get a vaccine?

- Me, no.

I don't want one.

- [Interviewer] You're not ready for that?

- No, what I need it for?

I don't need it, I don't even get the flu vaccine, I don't need it, I'm okay.

But I rarely get sick, so it's very rare that I get sick, so I really feel like I really don't need it.

Unless they make it mandatory that we have to get it, then no, I'm not getting it.

(siren wails) - My mom passed, passed on, moved, my mom passed away.

She sure did.

Yep, my mom passed on, and my pops, God bless his soul, he's okay, he's okay.

He got both his shots.

I wish my mama could have got that, right?

- [Interviewer] Foots, tell me who you got here with you.

- Victoria, my wife.

(slow piano music) My wife for 10 years and counting.

I love Victoria.

- And I love Gregory.

My mom passed away four or five years ago, and his mom passed away a year, and you know what, he was always like, "What to do, what to do?"

It's nothing that you can do, it's nothing, we can just roll.

All we could do is get better with it, and I'm just glad he's here with me to get through it.

And I'm gonna help him, and that's it, and that's all.

I don't have nothing else to say.

(slow piano music continues)