Tag: InclusiveSD

Future of Growth Forum 2020 hosts Brookings members to discuss inclusive growth

By Taylor Dunne,

On the morning of Super Tuesday in February, leaders from business, philanthropy, education, and the public sector gathered at the San Diego Central Library for the Future of Growth Forum presented by Bank of America. Here, this community heard from members of the Brookings Network for Economic Inclusion (BNEI) on how they are addressing economic inclusion in their own cities across the country.

The panel followed opening remarks from Julian Parra, Senior Vice President of Executive Business Banking in the Pacific South West region at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, on why the bank sees this work as an economic imperative, as well as from Joe Parilla, Fellow at the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program on why inclusive growth matters for regional economic development.

Mark Cafferty, President and CEO of San Diego Regional EDC (EDC), moderated the panel. He opened with an explanation of what BNEI is, and how it has facilitated inspiring relationships between leaders of a variety of organizations, from unique cities, who have found themselves working to address very similar issues. The underlying issue is a modern lack of inclusivity, the long-lasting result of prejudices that existed for years, and still exist in systems across the country.

MarySue Barrett of the Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) in Chicago kicked off the panel by sharing how MPC, a uniquely positioned economic development organization, made the case to their stakeholders that inclusivity was an economic imperative with a tangible cost. MPC’s report, The Cost of Segregation, quantified the economic impact of continuing to allow our communities to be segregated. That cost came out to approximately $4.4 billion. Each year that they continued living in a segregated society, they were losing out on $4.4 billion to their gross regional product. MPC followed this report with a two-part roadmap to equity, through which they outline how the region can address these issues.

Brad Whitehead of Fund our Economic Future in Cleveland, Ohio followed MarySue’s comments by discussing the inception of his organization, and how they are addressing the issue as it relates specifically to employment. Brad stated, “Economic development is too important to leave up to the economic developers.” In other words, this massive challenge across the United States must have the buy in of everyone in the economy – not just the economic development organizations, or just the philanthropies, but rather everyone together.

Following Brad’s comments, Tawanna Black of the Minneapolis Center for Economic Inclusion reminded us of the harsh realities of racial and economic segregation, that exist every single day in her city and in others across the country. As she explain how her organization works with business and philanthropy to “disrupt systems and influence market forces”, Tawanna reflected on a constant reminder of this economic imperative: her own children and their peers who are still today being treated differently because of the color of their skin, or their zip code.

Finally, Michael Huber discussed how the Indy Chamber works in a similar fashion to EDC, and related his own work, getting large employers in Indianapolis involved in inclusive growth, to what we are doing here is San Diego. Michael pointed out that the research Brookings did with Indianapolis served as a kind of myth-buster for them in revealing what challenges their constituents were actually facing when it came to inclusivity and affordability.

EDC would like to thank all of its supporters and partners for making this event, and this work, possible. A special thanks to The City of San Diego for its consistent support and for allowing us to use the beautiful Downtown Central Library.

To learn more about EDC’s inclusive growth work, visit inclusivesd.org, or follow along on Twitter using #inclusiveSD.

If you would like to support EDC’s inclusive growth initiative, contact Eduardo Velasquez.

CSUSM recognized as leader in social mobility

By Bree Burris,

4 graduates in cap in gown from CSUSM looking at the camera

Since its founding in 1989, Cal State San Marcos (CSUSM) has put its commitment to social mobility at the forefront of its educational mission. The university’s dedication to economic opportunity was recognized this week when it was named among the nation’s leaders in social mobility.

The Social Mobility Index

CSUSM ranks 36th nationally out of almost 1,500 schools measured in the sixth annual Social Mobility Index (SMI) by CollegeNET.

The SMI focuses directly on the factors that enable economic mobility. The index is computed from five variables: published tuition, percentage of students whose families have incomes below $48,000 (slightly below the U.S. median), graduation rate, median salary approximately five years after graduation, and endowment size.

“Nationally, higher education is often called out for reinforcing inequality rather than closing socioeconomic gaps,” said EDC Board Member and CSUSM President Ellen Neufeldt “However, our rising SMI ranking embodies our collective efforts to serve any student who dreams of the opportunities that come with a college education as we help them reach their full potential.”

CSUSM improved its ranking in the SMI for the fourth consecutive year. The university ranked 74th in 2015, 62nd in 2016, 54th in 2017, and 52nd last year.

How CSUSM is creating a more inclusive San Diego

As EDC looks to create a more inclusive San Diego, CSUSM and other regional educational institutions are playing a pioneering role in San Diego’s strategy. Afterall, CSUSM is a crucial part of creating a sustainable talent pipeline. Nearly 80 percent of its graduates remain in the region following graduation. In 2018, the university opened its engineering program, creating a technical talent pipeline for companies such as Viasat and emerging regional startups.

CSUSM is trying to correct systematic inequities in that are often ever-present in the educational system. More than half (54 percent) of its graduates are first-generation bachelor’s degree recipients. Additionally, nearly half of its students qualify for Federal Pell Grants. In order to support students from all backgrounds, the university offers community-based learning opportunities, internships, undergraduate research opportunities and more to ensure student success.

Help us create a more inclusive San Diego.

Learn more about EDC’s Inclusive growth work

Related EDC articles and research: 

Inclusive Growth Best Practices: Microsoft pledges $500M for affordable housing

By San Diego Regional EDC,

As part of EDC’s Inclusive Growth initiative, we’re gathering best practices to help uncover unique approaches to inclusion that can be replicated or scaled locally – including actions from employers and regions outside of San Diego. We hope that sharing these best practices will help inspire San Diego companies/organizations to take on their own. Read The New York Times article below to learn how Microsoft is contributing to affordable housing in the Seattle area:

SEATTLE — The Seattle area, home to both Microsoft and Amazon, is a potent symbol of the affordable housing crisis that has followed the explosive growth of tech hubs. Now Microsoft, arguing that the industry has an interest and responsibility to help people left behind in communities transformed by the boom, is putting up $500 million to help address the problem.

Microsoft’s money represents the most ambitious effort by a tech company to directly address the inequality that has spread in areas where the industry is concentrated, particularly on the West Coast. It will fund construction for homes affordable not only to the company’s own non-tech workers, but also for teachers, firefighters and other middle- and low-income residents.

Microsoft’s move comes less than a year after Amazon successfully pushed to block a new tax in Seattle that would have made large businesses pay a per-employee tax to fund homeless services and the construction of affordable housing. The company said the tax created a disincentive to create jobs. Microsoft, which is based in nearby Redmond, Wash., and has few employees who work in the city, did not take a position on the tax.

The debate about the rapid growth of the tech industry and the inequality that often follows has spilled across the country, particularly as Amazon, with billions of taxpayer subsidies, announced plans to build major campuses in Long Island City, Queens, and Arlington, Va., that would employ a total of at least 50,000 people. In New York, elected officials and residents have raised concerns that Amazon has not made commitments to support affordable housing.

Microsoft has been at the vanguard of warning about the potential negative effects of technology, like privacy or the unintended consequences of artificial intelligence. Executives hope the housing efforts will spur other companies to follow its lead.

“We believe everybody has a role to play, and everybody needs to play their role,” said Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president and chief legal officer.

The company’s strong finances, a sign of its resurgence under Satya Nadella as chief executive, have given it resources to deploy, Mr. Smith said. In October, the company reported net income of $8.8 billion in its most recent quarter, up 34 percent, and it had almost $136 billion in cash and short-term investments on its balance sheet. The company’s stock has risen steadily under Mr. Nadella, and Microsoft is now valued at over $800 billion.

A number of other tech businesses have tried to address the homeless crisis. Amazon’s chief executive, Jeff Bezos, has supported homeless service providers through his personal foundation, and the Salesforce chief executive, Marc Benioff, helped fund a proposition in San Francisco to tax businesses to pay for homeless services. Voters approved the tax in November, rejecting opposition from some tech leaders, including Twitter’s chief executive, Jack Dorsey.

Others plan to build housing for their own employees. Such housing may help with demand, but it has also reinforced the impression that the companies are focused too closely on their own backyards.

“This is long-range thinking by a company that has been around for a long time, and plans to be around for a long time,” said Margaret O’Mara, a professor at the University of Washington who studies the history of tech companies.

Microsoft began researching the region’s housing last summer, after the nasty tax fight in Seattle and around a peak of the housing market. The company analyzed data and hired a consultant to decide how to focus its work. The area’s home prices have almost doubled in the past eight years, and Mr. Smith said he learned that “the region has counterintuitively done less to build middle-income housing than low-income housing, especially in the suburbs.”

That squeeze hits a range of workers. “Of course, we have lots of software engineers, but the reality is that a lot of people work for Microsoft. Cafeteria workers, shuttle drivers,” Mr. Nadella said this week at a meeting with editors at the company’s headquarters. “It is a supply problem, a market failure.”

Microsoft plans to lend $225 million at subsidized rates to preserve and build middle-income housing in six cities near its Redmond headquarters. It will put an additional $250 million into low-income housing across the region. Some of those loans may be made through the federal programs that provide tax breaks for low-income housing.

The company plans to invest the money within three years, and expects most of it to go to Seattle’s suburbs.

The loans could go to private or nonprofit developers, or to governmental groups like the King County Housing Authority. As the loans are repaid, Mr. Smith said, Microsoft plans to lend the money out again to support additional projects.

The remaining $25 million will be grants to local organizations that work with the homeless, including legal aid for people fighting eviction. The Seattle Times reported Wednesday that if the $500 million were put into one project, it would create only about 1,000 units, so instead Microsoft will most likely put smaller amounts in many projects to help build “tens of thousands of units.”

The initial reaction to the company’s announcement was positive.

“There is almost no level of housing that isn’t direly needed,” said Claudia Balducci, a member of the King County Council who helps lead the Regional Affordable Housing Task Force.

A report in December by the task force said that the region needs 156,000 more affordable housing units, and will need 88,000 more units by 2040 to accommodate future growth.

A growing body of research has tied the lack of affordable housing to increasing homelessness. A December study from the real estate website Zillow said that was particularly true when households pay more than a third of their income in rent. The New York, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle regions — the country’s largest tech hubs — have all already crossed that threshold.

“The idea that you can live in your bubble and put your fingers in your ears just doesn’t work anymore,” said Steve Schwartz, head of public affairs at Tableau Software, which is based in Seattle.

Amazon in recent years has worked closely with Mary’s Place, a homeless shelter for women and children in Seattle, and is integrating a shelter for about 65 families into one of its new buildings. Amazon has paid tens of millions of dollars to the city’s affordable housing trust fund as fees to build in the core of Seattle.

Amazon declined to comment.

Google supported the City of Mountain View’s plan to add 10,000 housing units in an area it’s developing, with 20 percent designated for lower-income residents. And Facebook has planned to build 1,500 apartments near its Menlo Park headquarters, with 15 percent to be affordable.

Microsoft has begun a major overhaul of its main campus in Redmond, committing billions of dollars in renovations and connecting it to a light rail station under construction. The company helped finance a successful campaign for voters to approve more property taxes to pay for transportation. This new investment in housing takes its commitments a step further.

“This is where Microsoft is going to be, and the region needs to work,” Ms. Balducci said. “I don’t think this is wholly altruism.”