What can data tell you about equity and economic inclusion?
That's what Detroit Future City hopes to learn.
The Detroit think tank that developed guideposts for the growth of Detroit's middle class, and a roadmap for Detroit urban planning, wants to quantify economic equity. Earlier this year, it launched the Center for Equity, Engagement and Research to do that work.
What does equity mean?
If you own a home, you're familiar with this term as a measure of the value you hold in your property; in other words, the worth of the property after the debt you hold against that property is deducted.
Applied to social justice or economic inclusion, it's more or less the same thing.
Equity takes into account the structural challenges individuals may be required to overcome to participate in the workplace.
Anika Goss, executive director of Detroit Future City, says those working to create economic equity in the city "are really trying to create an environment in which everyone, no matter where you stand on the socioeconomic ladder or continuum, has the opportunity to achieve wealth and prosperity in the same place.
"If you live in Detroit and have a bachelor’s degree and you want to be a teacher, you should be able to live in Detroit and be a teacher and make the same amount as a teacher with a bachelor’s degree in Southfield or West Bloomfield," she said, "but right now there’s about a $20,000 pay difference. The inequities, the barriers create too many limitations for Detroiters to be able to thrive, living in Detroit, and that [is] problematic."
Better information, resources, data and support can help the city engage more fully with the creation of economic equity, Goss said.
How?
The new center, Goss said, will do three things: Get all of the relevant players on board with what economic equity means; produce accessible and useful research; and create what she callsan inclusive growth indicator for Detroit.
Between government, business and philanthropy, lots of money is spent on economic development.But if you're not measuring outcomes against an equity yardstick everyone agrees on, it's hard to tell if Detroiters are making progress.
The new center, Goss says, will develop a 2020 baseline delineating Detroit's economic health and existing inequities that will make it possible to measure progress.
"The fixes we are collectively spending money on — Are they helping us or hurting us?" Goss asked. "When a new skyscraper comes in downtown, is that helping? Are we advancing? ...
"Who’s getting mortgages, who’s getting small business loans? If you are getting a small business loan, what are rates of growth of those businesses? ... What is it we are going to use to measure what a healthy business environment looks like? We need to look at how we are achieving in education, and how does that connect to the future of work and investment and growth in Detroit? All of this is really connected."
What it might measure
"Jobs, definitely, at multiple levels, jobs with varying qualification levels, jobs without high school, jobs with diplomas, with degrees ... educational attainment, commuter access to jobs, how people actually get around — that’s also an indicator of economic health, if people are not isolated. The amount of public and private investment, and things that are more obvious, like vacancy rates," Goss said.
New Orleans uses public corruption as an indicator, measuring it against public support for elected officials. Those are also valuable things to measure, Goss said. "How much faith do you have that government can actually do its job?"
"Right now I think it’s really interesting that Detroit has one of highest job growth rates in the country. We lead in job growth rate because we were so far behind before," Goss said. "That job rate factors in jobs in Detroit, but notwhether are held by people who are living in Detroit," she said.
Why it's important
"We have to know more about what's going on," said Angela Glover Blackwell, founder of another think tank, PolicyLink, in town last week for the launch of Detroit Future City's new initiative. "It's not enough to be compassionate about getting people out of poverty. We need more data by geography, by race, within racial and ethnic groups."
Equity requires a lot of data and analysis, Blackwell said, "a lot of specificity around historically, how did we get where we are, and understanding those journeys. If we're really serious, we have to have a way to hold ourselves accountable."
The U.S., she said, is experiencing a demographic shift. "The future is dependent on those who have historically been left behind... That requires to have a different base of knowledge," Blackwell said. "All of that is what Detroit Future City is asking."
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