Rob Wonderling, President and CEO of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, wrote an op-ed about GPCC’s Roadmap for Growth campaign that appeared in Region’s Business. You can read the text below:
Navigating the Path to Philadelphia’s Future
By Rob Wonderling
Next year, Philadelphia will hold elections for a new Mayor and City Council. The stakes are high. Philadelphia is truly becoming a world-class City. With its extraordinary arts and culture, growing entrepreneurial community and expanding energy and manufacturing enterprises, now is the time to seize upon a unique opportunity.
In an effort to ensure Philadelphia continues to transform into a thriving urban community, the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce has launched a campaign with public and private leaders to develop a shared agenda to accelerate economic growth and create opportunity and prosperity for all Philadelphians.
The campaign is called “Roadmap for Growth,” and we are encouraging everyone with a stake in our region’s future to become involved. Our goal is to find the best ideas to strengthen the economy and then encourage their implementation.
The campaign has four components: a fact-based economic and demographic analysis of Philadelphia; a series of “Listening Tour” meetings in conjunction with City Councilmembers and neighborhood leaders; three Issue Forums and a Mayoral Debate, all which will discuss issues affecting Philadelphia’s citizens and businesses; and ultimately a final report and working group to help implement the best strategies and ideas that emerge during the campaign.
We completed a fact-based economic and demographic analysis of Philadelphia by studying statistics related to the City’s population, employment, household incomes and enterprise creation. The results of this study are mixed.
Pros and cons
While Philadelphia’s population is slowly growing, it is becoming more diverse after decades of population loss. Many of the City’s new residents are millennials, baby boomers and immigrants.
Employment has only grown in a handful of industry sectors—education and health services as well as leisure and hospitality. While “Eds and Meds” employ nearly one-third of all employees in Philadelphia, this sector tends to grow slowly. Jobs must be added in other industries to accelerate growth.
The average household income in Philadelphia has increased in the last ten years, but there are significant income disparities. With a high poverty rate and the majority of the City’s population on average earning less income, the opportunity for real, balanced economic growth for all residents remains a challenge.
Philadelphia is experiencing growth in enterprise creation as people choose to start businesses or nonprofits, and the City’s gross domestic product is increasing by roughly one and a half percent a year. This development is good, but we as a City need to do more to accelerate it.
City involvement
Our campaign is well underway with four Listening Tour meetings in neighborhoods throughout the City completed and more planned. Each has yielded new and interesting suggestions, including:
• Introducing the next generation to technical and trade education to meet manufacturing jobs that are already available;
• Reevaluating if areas are correctly zoned for residential, commercial or industrial given logistical and geographical advantages;
• Connecting young pro-fessionals with community organizations, schools and other residents to strengthen ties and engage on important issues;
• Staging events in new spaces and places to drive economic development in neighborhoods and bring different uses to existing buildings, parks and other infrastructure;
• Becoming a more welcoming place to immigrants, including providing more resources for immigrant entrepreneurs and installing multilingual signs.
Issue by issue
The first Issue Forum is on November 19th at Temple University, which will focus on “Ensuring Philadelphia’s Work-force is Globally Competitive into the 21st Century.” We are convening speakers with diverse backgrounds, including Dr. Neil Theobald, President, Temple University; Daniel K. Fitzpatrick, President & CEO, Citizens Bank of PA/NJ/DE/NY; and Paul Kihn, Deputy Superintendent, School District of Philadelphia. We expect to have a frank discussion about how we ensure that everyone in Philadelphia, regardless of age, is prepared to enter the workforce.
Our second Issue Forum in January 2015 will focus on improving Philadelphia’s competitiveness. Our third and final Issue Forum will focus on innovation and business attraction in March 2015. A Mayoral Debate will be held in April 2015.
We are proud to say that many companies in the Philadelphia business community have chosen to sponsor this campaign. The sponsors of the Roadmap for Growth are Comcast NBC10 Telemundo62, PECO Energy, Dilworth Paxson LLP, ACE Group, Brandywine Realty Trust, Temple University, Econsult Solutions Inc., AT&T, Citizens Bank, United Bank of Philadelphia and Walgreens. We also have nearly 60 partner organizations.
The Greater Philadelphia bus-iness community is excited about the Roadmap for Growth. Please join us in our efforts to ultimately make Philadelphia a better place to live and work. If you would like to contact me directly, please visit www.RoadmapforGrowth.com or email me at rwonderling@greaterphilachamber.com. This website is regularly updated.
Rob Wonderling is President and CEO, Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce.
