Meet this moment

As the coronavirus outbreak paralyzes the life of the city as never before, the challenges facing New Yorkers appear overwhelming, dwarfing even the days after 9/11. A $2 trillion federal stimulus will deliver direct payments and expanded unemployment insurance, but it’s a drop in the bucket for many New Yorkers walloped by the outbreak and outbreak-containing shutdown. These are restaurant and hotel and tourism workers, theater and film professionals, barbers and nail technicians, cabbies and Uber drivers, nonprofit professionals and so many other middle- and working-class people.

As ever, New Yorkers are stepping up to help one another in scattershot fashion. Those efforts are commendable. But to ensure that dollars are leveraged and prioritized, we can and must do better.

The dark days after the 9/11 attacks can serve as a guide. As Carol Kellermann, former president of the Citizens Budget Commission, wrote last week, the September 11th Fund on which she served as CEO collected millions and pointed aid at individuals and organizations most harmed, including families of first responders and those who lost homes and livelihoods in Lower Manhattan. It collected $534 million from more than two million donors and distributed a total of 559 grants.

Which wealthy New Yorker or New Yorkers will step forward to seed and lead such an effort? Perhaps a former mayor or two who helped the city through 9/11 and in the years ahead might lend their names to help bring back their city to full strength? What say you, Rudy and Mike?