No ‘take-out' option: How are metro Detroit's music venues surviving?

United We Stream (UWS) is a Berlin-based collaboration of nightlife businesses aiming to keep their businesses and club culture alive – and keep people entertained – during mandated closures because of COVID-19. With nightlife being hit hard by long-term closures, the collaboration offers live-stream DJ sets and asks for donations for participating businesses, with the hope that after the pandemic subsides, Europe’s club culture will survive.

With COVID19 putting the majority of us in self-isolation or quarantine, LA-based photographers have found unique ways to capture this moment. Without coming into contact with individuals – which is often a fundamental part of their job – they use peoples’ windows to frame the photo, capturing the glare of the outside world as well.

The city of Honolulu has partnered with hotels to offer quarantine housing for those who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 but have nowhere to safely self-isolate. The new units compliment other existing facilities – such as city-owned buildings and hospitals – and provide meals and health check-ins for the patients conducted by the state's Behavioral Health and Homelessness Statewide Unified Response Group.

Restaurants in Providence, Rhode Island are "repurposing parking lots, waterfronts, and any adjacent land where an al fresco meal can be savored, public health preserved, and restaurant profits protected" during the coronavirus pandemic. Collaborative efforts by various elected officials, health officials, and emergency responders are making the idea to repurpose outdoor areas feasible, and some restaurants have already projected a significant success in profits.

As the U.S attempts to reopen, restaurant owners from California to Florida are expanding their restaurants into nearby outdoor space, including sidewalks and parking lots. In doing so, they are able to offer patrons a safer dining environment, as there is more room to keep tables further apart and follow social distancing precautions, and it also helps restaurants earn more revenue than if they were limited to indoor space. Some city governments are streamlining the process, including Brookhaven, Georgia, which made it free to access short-term permits for outdoor dining.

An Islamic organization called Downtown Denver’s Islamic Center is helping members of their community adjust to the quarantine and maintain their spiritual practice. All services and counseling has been moved online, and their preexisting food assistance program is still going on, albeit adjusted to accommodate for the shortage of volunteers during the quarantine. They even have many one-on-one phone calls with people to work through specific issues. It's not perfect, and they still want to do more, but for now they are serving a great spiritual and communal need.

Local, New York City dive bar, Forgtmenot, had to pivot its business in the wake of COVID-19. Once a popular bar, now is a mini-mart, providing access to groceries for the community. With familial ties to a supermarket in Queens, the Lower East Side dive is able to access the supply chain and provide a less crowded, more community-driven alternative to the larger grocery stores.

Quick Response (QR) codes have become a popular way to conduct contactless business, and even contact tracing, during the coronavirus pandemic. Restaurants and retail stores allow customers to order and pay by scanning the codes with their smart devices, which pulls funds from payment accounts like PayPal, or their bank account, debit, or credit card. Public health agencies in the UK display QR codes that people can scan to “check in” and if someone tests positive for Covid-19 at that location people who scanned the code within 21 days are notified. QR codes hold massive amounts of data reliably and cheaply.

In Montana, a handful of manufacturers have adapted their facilities to make products and materials that help healthcare workers safely work on the frontlines of the Covid-19 pandemic. From face shields to liquid transport mediums, these businesses are finding new ways to play a larger role in the efforts to contain the virus, while also keeping their employees working.

Across England and Wales, over 5,000 individuals experiencing homelessness have found temporary accommodations in hotels. Paid for by the government as part of it’s COVID-19 relief efforts, hotels are working with social services to help provide housing, food, and other basic necessities to those going through housing insecurity. Not without challenges, the initiative has seen zero deaths from the pandemic but those working to help this initiative worry about the long-term.