Cities pitch diversity to Amazon
Goal to push businesses to tap a variety of talent
Some cities and regions are highlighting racial diversity along with positive business climates, competitive tax rates and available land in pitches to lure highpaying jobs to town.
Places such as Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Detroit are touting their populations of people of color to corporate officials as part of being open for business.
“For Pittsburgh and southwestern Pennsylvania, ethnic and racial diversity has been an integral part of our history and a rich part of our narrative,” said Stefani Pashman, CEO of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development.
Pittsburgh and Philadelphia are among 20 cities under consideration by online retail giant Amazon as locations for the company’s second headquarters.
Pashman said to succeed as a player in a global economy, Pittsburgh “must be a place where there’s a base of talent that looks and thinks like the world because the world is the customer in today’s economy.”
When Seattle-based Amazon sought proposals for its second headquarters, more than 240 cities and regions submitted pitches about what they could offer. Many bids came with sleek, professionally filmed videos of bright and busy downtowns, historic landmarks and recreational opportunities.
But some also featured snapshots of racial diversity in neighborhoods, shops and classrooms. Companies generally are looking to employ a lot of millennials and those hires are saying they “want to be able to work and live in a place where there are these interesting and diverse cultures,” said Matthew Quint, director of Columbia Business School’s Center on Global Brand Leadership.
But tech-based corporations are lacking in diversity, according to some data.
High-tech employment of blacks in the U.S. was 7.4 percent compared with 14.4 percent employment of blacks in the public sector overall, according to 2014 data collected by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Hispanic high-tech employment was 8 percent compared to 13.9 percent in the public sector overall.
The data also showed that less than 1 percent of executives at some leading Silicon Valley tech firms were black and less than 2 percent were Hispanic.
“All tech companies are under this lens, presently, for their lack of diversity,” Quint said. “CEOs are talking about ‘we know we need to change.’ ”
Meanwhile, he said, cities recognize the racial diversity they offer is attractive and they’re telling companies, “You are going to have this diverse population to choose from as you’re looking to change your brand.”
About 202,000 of Pittsburgh’s 305,000 residents are white and about 74,000 are black, according to census data. An additional 16,000 are Asian.
In its pursuit of Amazon’s $5 billion second headquarters project, which could result in 50,000 jobs, Pittsburgh’s video entry is titled “Future. Forged. For all.”
In Philadelphia’s pitch to Amazon, a half-dozen or so nonwhite professionals tell why it would be the best place for the company’s new headquarters.
And a video that’s part of Dallas-Fort Worth’s proposal shows a boy of eastern Indian heritage holding a sign that reads: “Diversity.”