Mayors Challenge Op-Ed
The content of one’s character, not the color of one’s skin. I’ve been thinking about those words by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., recalling a dream he had for his children. As Mayor, I want nothing more than to help Grand Rapids achieve greater equity so those words become a reality for all our residents. A city achieves equity when, regardless of race, ethnic background, gender and other characteristics, everyone is allowed to participate, work, own, contribute and become part of a city’s fabric. That is when we have reached our shared goal of being a more vibrant, thriving and caring city.
Terrell Daniels, a black male and Grand Rapids native, graduated from Union High School in 1983. After graduation, Terrell continued his education at National Institute of Technology, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering. In 1996, while working from home in his living room, Terrell founded his first company – Modern Fire & Security Systems. At its peak, the company had 19 full-time employees with revenues totaling more than $3.5 million. Modern Fire & Security Systems has been awarded several large projects, including a $2 million contract to install the security system at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
Terrell has always made sure his company is competitive. One way he does this is by utilizing the City of Grand Rapids’ Equal Business Opportunities programs for local projects which helped Terrell build larger capacity through connecting with larger contractors so he could be part of their bidding process packages. These include Micro-Local Business Enterprise Certification and bid discounts. Terrell has worked on local projects with such clients as Grand Rapids Community College, Grand Rapids Public Schools, Grand Valley State University, Meijer, Mercy Health and Van Andel Institute, among others.
As Modern Fire & Security Systems grew, Terrell started a second company – Pride Builders Group – with another local contractor to expand offerings. He then bought out his business partner, becoming majority owner of the company.
Grand Rapids is one of the fastest-growing U.S. cities with a large economy, ranking No. 1 with employment growth at 4.4 percent in 2016. Despite this, we have ranked among the worst cities economically for African-Americans. Our city’s poverty levels are higher than the national average, and unemployment among African-Americans and Latinos is more than double that of white residents, according to a 2014 study by PolicyLink and Program for Environmental and Regional Equity.
Within the City organization we are working hard to embed racial equity into our policies and practices, with support from the Government Alliance on Race and Equity and our participation in the Racial Equity Here cohort. However, the City cannot do this alone and the internal work is not enough to move the needle on economic equity and opportunity throughout all of Grand Rapids. We cannot sustain our city and its economy without giving greater opportunity to those who need it the most. We also cannot allow businesses who are looking for diverse and equitable cities pass us by. Some of the most innovative companies won’t consider cities that aren’t welcoming to people of different cultures, backgrounds and experiences.
Unfortunately, Terrell’s story is not atypical in our city. We must strengthen our partnerships with our businesses — many of whom have joined us — to lead and help us close our equity gap. By doing this, businesses can benefit from the opportunities to acquire greater success, to become even more innovative and to expand beyond expectations. In return, greater equity in our region ensures we are ready for the future and that future workers stay here and go to school and train for the next generation of jobs.
Researchers at North Carolina State University’s Poole College of Management earlier this year found that, based on policies of more than 3,000 publicly traded companies in the U.S., companies with a more diverse workforce were better at developing innovative products or services. In 2017, McKinsey & Company’s latest diversity report looked at 1,000 companies in six countries – U.S., Brazil, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa and United Kingdom – and found that executive teams that had ethnic and cultural diversity were much more profitable than those that did not, with a 33 percent outperformance. The negative impact of lacking diversity, according to the study, meant that those companies underperformed in profitability compared to their peers by 29 percent.
Every year we don’t do a very good job in closing the gap of inequality, we are leaving a minimum of $4 billion on the table. In 2014, according to the same PolicyLink and PERE study, if racial gaps had closed, our economy would have been $4 billion stronger.
To break it down further, people of color in our region earn less than their white neighbors. If these gaps were eliminated, Latino workers would see their wages increase by 79 percent and African- American workers would see an astounding 81 percent increase, or roughly $14,000 dollars annually. Poverty would dramatically decrease and families could buy their daily necessities and healthier groceries, pay bills and save for college.
When people are paid more, they spend more, which only helps the bottom line of our businesses. As companies thrive, talent and capital follow. Business breeds business. And business breeds vibrancy and empowerment – whether the business is retail, manufacturing, a one-person barber shop or a 50-person health technology company. That is the power of economic development done right, with an emphasis on community, collaboration, inclusion, opportunity and empowerment.
Along with strengthening partnerships with our business community to help close the gap, on the municipal government level, we are creating progress by taking advantage of programs that are helping us reach our goals. Our team has been working with What Works Cities and Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Government Excellence (GovEx). The GovEx team is assisting us with providing insight into Grand Rapids’ inequalities and equip leaders with data to assist in the policy decision-making that ensures fair and equitable distribution of services and resources. We are very proud to have recently been selected as a Champion City in the Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge. Through this initiative, we want to elevate the voices of neighborhoods and businesses in policy decisions through enhanced communications, community engagement and data collection. This work, which we hope becomes a model for other cities, will result in publically accessible dashboards that illustrate the community’s voice and empower City leaders with localized, actionable data on hotspots of inequality.
Our work is critical to the long-term success of our community. Equity is the right thing to do. It allows business owners such as Terrell to feel valued and part of our amazing city’s experience. And it’s for the health of our city and our future. Grand Rapids is in a great place to make this happen with a strong and engaged business community to help lead in this important engagement. Providing opportunity through local equity-based programs opens the door for all of our community to be successful.