11 minute read
Investing in Racial Equity Through Small-Scale Manufacturing
INVESTING IN RACIAL EQUITY THROUGH SMALLSCALE MANUFACTURING
BY ILANA PREUSS
How to improve your economic development programs to better support diverse business owners in the future.
What does it mean to have a smart city and create an equitable economic recovery? The personality of the place, the personality of our storefronts, the uniqueness of our community, and the people and places we have left behind in our economies all come together in our downtown and are essential not only to our recovery but to ultimately filling those storefronts and creating the smart cities where people can thrive. Because we can’t have smart cities without an inclusive and equitable economy.
More Black- and Latino-owned businesses had to close for an extended period of time in 2020 than White-owned businesses. We’ve had an enormous impact on our employment; we’ve lost them low-wage jobs. We also have this legacy of a racial wealth gap. And when we look at the impact on Black households, it’s not just because of the lack of equal-paying jobs, but it’s also because of our history of excluding Black households, jobs, and homeowners from a lot of the opportunities that people had over the last 50-60 years.
We are at a transformational moment and an opportunity today to build a strong, inclusive economy and create thriving downtowns for our smart cities. But we need to invest differently. We need to invest with intention and purpose and address our racial and place inequities to create places that people love and that draw in others. This means that we’re investing in the people and businesses that live there now. We need to create a new structure to support all of that and invest in it. And we need to think longterm, but we need to act now. The need to act right now is so extreme that we need to figure out things we can do in the next six months, maybe nine months, that really have an impact on our small businesses, on our people who live in our community, and help people build wealth and become a part of the success that’s their community.
One way we do this is by engaging with small-scale manufacturing businesses. These are businesses that create tangible products that we can replicate or package. Sio Ceramics is one great example. They create ceramic jewelry and different kinds of household ceramic items. Employees work out of a microretail storefront where they do production and retail in the same space. They are selling at street festivals, out of their storefront, online direct to consumer, and wholesale to other shops all across the country. That means this business has four revenue sources, making them incredibly nimble, and in many cases, disaster-proof and able to be a part of our growing economy.
One example of small-scale manufacturing is Woodhaven Custom Calls in Heflin,
Ilana Preuss
CEO, Recast City
Washington, DC
Ilana Preuss is the founder of Recast City, which works with communities to bring smallscale manufacturing into downtowns and neighborhood main streets to create places that are resilient, inclusive, and equitable. And yes, that can be the building blocks of a smart city of the future. She is also the author of Recast Your City: How to Save Your Downtown with SmallScale Manufacturing.
Woodhaven Custom Calls
The turkey call manufacturer has become a downtown destination in Heflin, Alabama.
Island Soap & Candle Works
Kauai, Hawaii
© REINGEIST.COM © RECAST CITY
Alabama, which has a production space that employs a few dozen people. In 2020, people started stopping by their workshop to see the production of their turkey call product. They talked about creating a retail frontage with a glass wall to showcase the production. They became a part of the destination for this community and brought people downtown, even though they’re predominantly selling online or wholesale.
These businesses are all different kinds: They’re hot sauces, handbags, and hardware; they range from artisan producers to advanced manufacturing and everything in between. And in many cases, they are the hidden gem in our community. They’re these missing pieces because they just have their head down doing hard work, but they create a number of benefits for our communities.
We can build more inclusive opportunities to bring wealth into our community. There are people who make things across every different part of our population. These businesses sell inperson and online, and they can fill storefronts by doing their production and retail in the same space. But because they’re selling online, they’re not dependent on the foot traffic that may not be there right now, but they can be a draw to help attract that foot traffic. And when they’re filling vacant storefronts, they’re also helping us break out of these cycles of loss and exclusion and grow those property values.
At Zeke’s Coffee, they have a coffee shop up front, coffee roaster in the back. Wholesale production goes out the back door. And so, when they came into a block that had very little foot traffic, they weren’t dependent on that foot traffic for survival. But they did attract a lot of foot traffic, which helped fill other storefronts along that block.
And when we take care of these businesses with the right kind of real estate space, the right kind of business development support, and the capital for growth, we attract other business owners that want to be a part of what we’re building—entrepreneurs from within our community and entrepreneurs from the surrounding areas that want to be a part of this growing opportunity. And all of these pieces are part of a thriving economy.
We had a chance to work with the business loop in Columbia, Missouri; they recognized very quickly that this was a hidden part of the economy no one had capitalized on. These businesses are in every community, and it’s a question of what kind of opportunities we are creating for them in our community. They recognized a need for commercial kitchen space, and they could only scale their package product to market if they were using a commercial kitchen. The other part of it was to change the zoning. Something very simple, but needed to make sure there was no barrier for these businesses to move into the area.
We have this unique opportunity today to make big changes in our local economies because of the access to the American Rescue Plan Act in the U.S. and other funding internationally, the recognition that downtowns are essential for entrepreneurs, and the understanding that if our small businesses fail, we all fail. They were the entities that kept us afloat last year. Here are five steps to think about right now: 1) How do you create affordable space for a diversity of small businesses in your downtown or your neighborhood main street? That might be micro-retail space with shared facilities behind them. How can that grow home-based businesses into your storefronts to create more opportunities for a diversity of people and energy along the street? 2) Look at how you can fill in the gaps in business assistance. That might be assistance in multiple languages. That’s definitely new partnerships to help you get the word out to people with whom you don’t have existing relationships. That also might mean focusing on existing part-time businesses and helping them scale before working with new startups. 3) Look at how we create targeted investment models—investments for growth, low-cost loans, microgrants—what are the barriers that small-scale manufacturing businesses face and create targeted programs for that and ones that specifically support Blacks, Latinos, women, veterans, and other business owners that have historically been excluded from the opportunities. 4) Look at our policies, including zoning and permitting processes or any policies that might be in place that would prevent a product business from being in a storefront and doing modern manufacturing, where they can be that draw and not create negative impacts on the community. 5) Think about this community pride. What is the programming we can pull together? Think about it as an incubator of your business sector. All these vendors are small product businesses within your community that could be storefront users growing businesses within your community. Use these opportunities not only to bring people together but to also give these business owners access to their own opportunity to grow within your community.
I-395 Bridge
The Florida Department of Transportation selected Archer Western De Moya Group Joint Venture to rebuild I-395 and construct the “Bridge for the Ages” that will redefine the Miami skyline and its connection to Miami Beach.
MIAMI MOMENTUM
© WALSH GROUP
Miami-Dade County was rated the Best Region for Investment in 2022 by World Biz Magazine.
Miami-Dade received the prestigious distinction of Best Region for Investment in 2022 by World Biz Magazine, the global journal for the leaders of international companies. The selection comes after evaluating 50 cities and regions worldwide to identify those with the most compelling value propositions for companies exploring international investment. MiamiDade was selected because of five key reasons:
Business Friendliness
Miami-Dade is a great financial decision. There is no state or local personal income tax, corporate income tax is low, and businesses can rely on a favorable regulatory climate.
Gateway to the World
Miami is the perfect pivot point to manage operations in North and Latin America. The South Florida area is home to over 1,400 multinational businesses staffed by skilled and energetic residents speaking 128 languages. There are over 5,200 financial services and legal and accounting firms. Miami-Dade is also home to the United States’ third-largest number of consular corps, foreign trade offices, and binational chambers of commerce.
Seamless Connectivity
Miami-Dade is easily accessible to all areas of the globe, thanks to the region’s three international airports handling more than 2,000 daily flights. PortMiami, the only Panamax-ready port south of Virginia, plays a leading role in global commerce and is the driving force behind $43 billion in economic activity. Miami is also known as the Cruise Capital of the World.
Highly Skilled and Diverse Talent
South Florida residents are part of a tricounty market of 6.1 million and a combined workforce of over 3 million. They are highly educated: Miami is top in the U.S. for percentage growth of adults with graduate degrees and second for foreign-born residents with advanced degrees. There are more than 250,000 college students and 345,000 K-12 students being trained at award-winning institutions.
A Global Cultural Capital
Miami offers endless opportunities for worldclass shopping, dining, and entertainment. For adventure and outdoor activities, Miami-Dade offers world-famous beaches and an average of 250 days of sunshine annually. For sports fans, Greater Miami is the only metropolis with professional basketball, football, baseball, hockey, soccer, and Formula 1 teams. Miami is a capital for art and culture with world-class museums, performing arts, and music events.
Miami’s success in attracting major corporations while ensuring a friendly business environment for innovative startups and the unparalleled competence of the experienced team at Miami-Dade Beacon council were also strong factors in the selection.
— DANIELLA LEVINE CAVA, MAYOR, MIAMI-DADE COUNTY
MIAMI:
THE NEW AMERICAN CAPITAL
Miami has evolved into one of the most important cities in America
Between creating its own cryptocurrency, MiamiCoin, and being the “world’s best city for entrepreneurship,” according to Globalwire, Miami has a momentum that does not seem to be slowing down any time soon.
The city is booming with revolutionary advancements that make it look like it could become the next Silicon Valley. Forbes declared Miami as the “top city for small business growth where people are now coming to have a career instead of simply for tourism.”
City of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is helping the city rank high with tech-related movements. A study by moveBuddha showed a 145% net migration to Miami, and the city ranked first for tech job growth, as seen in CompTIA Analysis.
Miami is also setting itself up to be the new tech leader by hosting the largest Bitcoin conference in history, along with Smart City Expo Miami. As per Mayor Suarez’s request for climate action, the city is developing a climate technology industry right before our very eyes.
As the top U.S. city in startup activities and venture capital investment earnings, Miami is proving to be a welldeserved top-ranking emerging tech hub.
“We are on the forefront of creating the best and most dynamic city in the world,” declared Mayor Suarez. “The capital of capital.”
— FRANCIS SUAREZ, MAYOR, CITY OF MIAMI
© GMCVB
© GMCVB
