TCB December 2025

I've been party to many conversations in the weeks since Mayor Parker’s policy shift that ended long-standing City policy regarding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in the form of "participation goals," which the current administration in DC now declares "discriminatory" against white people. I am not going to comment on the wisdom of either the Mayor’s or the administration’s pivots, except to say this: we have, at best, fooled ourselves and at worst, lied to ourselves for decades about achieving "participation goals" as a meaningful measure of progress in closing the yawning equity gaps in Philadelphia.

The TL;DR: if all of the so-called participation was actually happening, where are the hundreds or thousands of Black and brown millionaires that must have been the beneficiaries of all of this lavish, ‘inclusive’ institutional spending?

It's long past time to focus not on the demand side – the volume of "diversity spend," for example – but on the supply side, that is, how many Black and brown-owned and socially disadvantaged businesses are growing employment and revenues, are spinning off new companies, are creating generational wealth, are building capacity to do larger projects, are improving the lives of those in our region who have failed to benefit from 3 decades of macroeconomic growth. Growth without equity and inclusion is enriching the same folks who have been lapping up the profits while the rest continue to fall behind.

It should give us pause that 4 decades after we have set and supposedly achieved fairly robust participation goals that we can count on one hand the number of Black and brown construction firms (for example) that have created enough capacity through sustained work to build a dorm at Penn or a small hotel as a prime contractor – in a city that is 65% non-white.  Same goes for food service, janitorial, or security firms that could handle a university or hospital contract as a prime – that is, if they were ever given a shot at becoming a prime, in a town where the same big firms snap up all of the major prime contracts in part because they are in the room helping to write the RFPs. You're either at the table or on the menu

It's time to shift focus from outputs to outcomes. We need to measure year-over-year business activity among a representative basket of local, diverse firms as an index of how we are actually doing. This is the theory of change behind the work we at  
the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia are doing through our PAGE and Supply PHL initiatives, each designed to create opportunities for local business growth by leveraging institutional supply chains. Our JPMC-supportedPAGE 100 portfolio of 'institutional-supply-chain ready' firms is a start, an index and a rolodex of local business health that we are tracking year over year.

Measure what matters. Are we growing wealth and opportunity for those who have been systematically and systemically barred from its creation?

We and our partners like the Urban League of Greater Philadelphia, The Enterprise Center/Innovate Capital, the diverse Chambers, among others, are doubling down on our work localizing and DIVERSIFYING institutional supply chains at large anchor institutions via PAGE and the city via SupplyPHL.  
 
Thanks to CM Isaiah Thomas we will soon hold a briefing for City Council that lays out the true state of inclusion in institutional supply chains – spoiler alert, it ain't anywhere near 32% - so we have a data-driven baseline from which to hold the City and all the institutions that call themselves good corporate citizens accountable.  
 
Regardless of what the current federal administration does, our district city council members have a lot of potential leverage they can exert on institutions, at least, to walk their own talk. Our conversations with key district council members lead me to believe that they remain committed to serving their constituents, 65% of whom are ‘diverse.’ 
 
When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Let's stay tough and get going! 
 
Let's set ourselves a tangible goal: 50,000 net new jobs, 50,000 net new residents, and 50,000 fewer Philadelphians in poverty by the time Mayor Parker leaves office. Who's with us? 

Jeff Hornstein, PhD
Executive Director
Economy League of Greater Philadelphia