Philadelphia: the innovative city

Philadelphia has been the latest stop on my tour of cities in the United States which are responding to economic decline. The people I have spoken to at the City of Philadelphia would never talk of the policy approach being a response to economic decline; instead the dialogue is one of responding to economic opportunity. Decline in Philadelphia has not necessarily been about the closure of a single industry, but a consequence of shifts in the global economy across a range of sectors.

Philadelphia is based in an extremely strategic location, half way between New York City and Washington DC. It is seen as affordable, liveable and becoming increasingly attractive for young people and fledgling entrepreneurs and businesses. It does however face significant challenges. Compared to the other 10 largest cities in the United States, Philadelphia regularly reports the highest levels of poverty, crime, unemployment and ill-health, with one in four of the population living below the poverty line.

The City of Philadelphia is the largest city government I have come across here with some 25,000 workers and its approach to responding to economic opportunity has been one framed by strong mayoral leadership and priorities; innovation in the way in which city government employees operate; programmes and initiatives which seek to stimulate entrepreneurial potential; and a balanced approach which also seeks to address the abject poverty.

When you meet with representatives across the city, in this case largely City of Philadelphia employees, what becomes clear is the strong stewardship role of the local state in stimulating economic change.

My host has been Story Bellows, who runs the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics (I also met with the co-founder, Jeff Friedman). Sponsored through the Bloomberg Foundation, it is seeking to adopt a new approach to service delivery through innovation. The Office is facilitating procurement reform and adopting approaches to service delivery whereby problems facing the city are repackaged as market opportunities. It then sponsors ideas and fledgling enterprises to create activities that can respond to those problems.

With an emphasis on public safety, the City of Philadelphia is seeing the creation of innovative services that respond to issues such as reoffending and the poor take up of food vouchers in impoverished communities. The hope is that these fledgling enterprises will subsequently deliver activities for city government and other institutions through a reformed procurement process.

‘Philadelphia works because of its geographical location, strong civic leadership, innovation and risk taking, emphasis on collaboration, philanthropic capital, and the ability to think economically, socially and environmentally’

I also met Luke Butler, the chief of staff to the deputy mayor, who explains the approach to economic development has not been about offering big tax breaks to large corporations to encourage them to base here. Instead it has been about creating the conditions that encourage organisations to want to base here organically. This has been done through improvements to the public realm, creating shared working space, taking advantage of the high class university and health institutions already based in Philadelphia, and by supporting fledgling enterprises. The Philadelphia economy is growing and over 90% of this growth can be attributed to existing business as opposed to inward investment.

There is also a strong emphasis on realising economic opportunity – twinned with a mayoral priority to ‘support the wellbeing of residents with a particular focus upon the most vulnerable’. Philly Rising is therefore a grassroots initiative operating in the 19 most deprived neighbourhoods in Philadelphia which is seeking to promote community organising, clean up those neighbourhood, address issues of dilapidation, and upskill communities so they are linked into the wider benefits associated with growth. This is a long-term approach about both stimulating communities and ensuring the corporate sector leverages the assets associated with more deprived areas.

My final meeting was with Andrew Buss, who has responsibility for innovation management within the City of Philadelphia. This is broadly about ensuring the workforce of the City of Philadelphia approaches work in an innovative and creative way, bringing subsequent benefits in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. Employees are encouraged to change their behaviour through three themes: people, place and process. In turn, it is hoped that this approach will be passed across to other institutions, the corporate sector and communities.

We can take a number of lessons from Philadelphia. First and foremost, the importance of a strong local state and its role in stimulating economic opportunity. Second, mayoral leadership is important at a city level where the approach is about balancing economic growth with addressing inequality. Third, economic development is not just about inward investment and tax breaks; instead it is about growing from within a local economy and offering existing business and entrepreneurs the opportunity to innovate. And fourth, risk is important and places need approaches which are reflective of local circumstances and where people working in local government take risks.

Philadelphia works because of its geographical location, strong civic leadership, innovation and risk taking, emphasis on collaboration, philanthropic capital, and the ability to think economically, socially and environmentally. However, like Cleveland and Pittsburgh, there remains much to do to address the inequality experienced by its residents.

Next up is New York before my final case study visit in Providence at the end of the week.