Support Watsonville's Black- And Brown-Owned Businesses

WATSONVILLE, CA — Black- and brown-owned businesses have been hit especially hard by the economic downturn prompted by the coronavirus pandemic, a University of California, Santa Cruz researcher found in May.

Closures disproportionately affected business owned by people of color and were reported in 40 percent of Black-owned businesses, 32 percent of Latinx-owned businesses and 26 percent of Asian-owned businesses, the study found.

As protesters this summer took to the streets throughout Santa Cruz County and across the nation to decry police violence against people of color in the wake of George Floyd's death, many have further called on the public to support Black-owned businesses.

We've created a simple local directory page that Black- and brown-owned Santa Cruz County businesses can use to quickly and easily let customers know their current open/closed status and other details about their business. Business owners can update their information in the form at the bottom of this article.

Patch readers can find the Santa Cruz County directory here.

We're going to publish the directory on Patch, in our local email newsletters and on our local Facebook pages to ensure that as many community members as possible know the status of your business.

We also understand that some local businesses aren't open currently, but are working through contingency plans to open again soon. You can list your business in the directory and update it when you're back open.

We encourage you to share the link with your friends, neighbors and your social media connections, to help support local businesses through this very difficult time. And if you know a local business owner, make sure they get their business on the list by pointing them to this article.