The City of San Luis Obispo launched the Support Local campaign early on in the pandemic, with the goal of promoting small, local business and encouraging the community to invest in a vibrant SLO. We are grateful to have partnered with the City on this effort, and in the last year alone we featured 22 businesses in the “Meet Your Neighborhood” blog series, earned 47 Support Local articles in local and regional media, and created a Buy Local Bonus program that resulted in more than $728,000 of direct local spending in just five months — and that’s just the beginning. View the Support Local recap and stay tuned for much more to come.

The City of SLO’s Open SLO program began at the onset of the pandemic and includes street parklets, sidewalk dining, updates to Monterey Street and activations in Mission Plaza as well as throughout downtown SLO. The support for these initiatives has been overwhelming — and on July 20, the SLO City Council discussed the community’s feedback and possibilities for the future of the program. Watch as SLO Chamber Director of Governmental Affairs, Molly Kern discusses what we advocated for as part of the continuation of these programs and how they can further serve the community as a whole.

The Central Coast Coalition of Chambers has released results from their bi-monthly survey on COVID-19 impacts to business. 14 months after the COVID-19 pandemic forced our lives to a sudden halt — and the term “new normal” became our new normal — a majority of businesses are finally able to be open without restrictions and begin the road to recovery.