Revitalize our neighborhoods/communities with the development of small businesses and MBEs
By Terry A. Boyd, Ph.D.
Columbus Candidate for Mayor
OhioMBE – March 1, 2015
The state of the business economy is an indicator of the health of a community and city. Many communities in the city lack vibrant and sustainable small businesses, which provide the greatest percentage of jobs in any thriving city. Take a drive up and down many of the commercial corridors in the city and notice the disparity of sustainable small businesses, the life blood of the surrounding neighborhoods in contrast to downtown businesses.
Big corporations are not the fix for the situation we find ourselves in today: rise in poverty, double digit unemployment in our communities of color, and property values crumbling and falling toward an oppression type state. The essential truth remains unchanged from the industrial revolution; the companies having the greatest long-term impact on any city economy are its smallest! It has been documented that small and emerging businesses are the key to revitalizing our neighborhoods and communities, and many of them should be minority and women business enterprises (MBEs).
I harken back to when I was the City of Columbus’ Administrator of the Office of Minority and Female Business Development. We certified such enterprises so that we could ensure their integration into the main stream of business development and growth. Today, we see so many of our MBEs unable to sustain themselves because they are not included within the change management/supply of our main stream business environment. This must change and the City has to be that change agent to initiate the M/FBE and small business survival.
First, we’ve got to get more small and MBEs certified and operating and generating revenue for our neighborhoods, our communities, and our city. Such business as mentioned above will serve to kick-start the renewing of our neighborhoods and bring the pride and innovation of thriving communities back to their feet. We will teach and encourage entrepreneurial concepts that will create opportunities to foster small business development and provide jobs to those in the community who’ve been retooled and or trained to support such new enterprises.
The city should follow the lead of the state in making equity in contracting for MBEs a priority. The mayor has a bully pulpit and great influence with his cabinet, just as governor Kasich has with his cabinet. The governor has made it clear to his cabinet directors that achieving the 15% spend goal with MBEs is a top priority. As a result in FY 2014 the state spent $165 million with MBEs. As your mayor, I will follow the governor’s lead and hold my cabinet to the same priority. Columbus can and must do better for MBE contracting than 5.25% in construction or 5.96% in goods and services (2013 EBOC utilization report).
The city needs to undergo an economic development feasibility assessment. Where can the city generate revenue? What assets does the city have that can be monetized? The new revenue generated from monetizing assets could be used to fund a community economic development initiative that focuses solely on developing sustainable small business enterprises along our commercial corridors. As your mayor, this will be a major focus of my administration, which will include our big business partners. In addition to this vital initiative, a related focus will be to clean up the blight in our urban communities and create beautiful Retail Centers for our MBEs to have for their start-up enterprises. These will be examples of private/public partnership utilized to bring many of our surrounding neighborhoods and communities back into the light of prosperity and growth!
Terry A. Boyd, Ph.D.
