As I was reading the first part of “Believing in Individuals: The Moral Case for Free Markets” by Robert Doar, the head of the American Enterprise Institute, one line stood out to me: “If structural inequities rendered individuals and communities powerless, only government action could end poverty.”
In his observations of New York City, Doar was recalling President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society and the necessity for posing alternative civic solutions in the rebirth of New York City in the 1990’s and 2000s.
Today we must ask, are we as communities building the right construct for individuals to succeed and contribute their part to the societal challenges we face? Or do we find ourselves waiting for government and business leaders to be the total solution?
During the period of advancement that took place in New York City over the tenure of City Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg, governmental investments in the workforce and immigrants required individuals to meet government half way which resulted in big workforce development shifts to fight poverty and immigrants becoming small business engines. These are but a couple of the successes.
Today, I wonder if Memphis can learn these lessons of believing in people to better build the right constructs for success which result in dramatic growth for our individuals, small businesses, and nonprofits. In some areas, we are moving forward and in others we still have work to do. For example, our small minority and women owned business (SMWBE) community has not been materially supported for decades; and although there are some recent strides post pandemic, our self employment rates are extremely low compared to the national average highlighted by a 4.9% black self employment rate versus 10.1% overall national rate. If New York City saw success in their large immigrant population being a catalyst to their economic and community output, can we foster something similar for our SMWBE community? I suspect many more engines of small business can be grown here increasing our communities economic growth.
Looking to other barriers, transportation and mobility have been a struggle for our community for decades as a result of urban sprawl and low population density. Our transit system is making significant strides to improve infrastructure assets through bus rapid transit, electrification, and facilities upgrades; however, could we as a community better harness the talent of individuals and our SMWBE community to collaborate and build solutions in tandem? Here again, we can take a page from New York City and believe in the power of individuals who are in the community, experiencing, ideating, and have a hunger for solving challenges within their own neighborhoods. At Start Co., we’ve observed it firsthand. We’ve held focus groups around Memphis and found individuals standing ready to experiment and implement new and innovative transit options to empower themselves, students, members of the workforce, and general citizens.
The idea of seeking more individual responsibility is nothing new. In former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith’s book, “The Power of Social Innovation,” he cites it as a key catalyst of civic growth. But more than believing in the individual, what Goldsmith really highlights is the real challenges individuals face in breaking down pre existing barriers in communities that prevent new innovations from taking root including aversion to risk and new ideas, prescriptive funding, and the power of incumbent providers.
That’s where we are trying to make a change. At Start Co., we work to support individuals and other partners as they build new ideas to solve business, civic, and economic challenges here in Memphis and nationally. Recently, we launched with 13 local partners the Ford Urbanite Mobility Innovation Challenge, right here in Memphis. With this program, we are empowering individuals and entrepreneurs to be a solution to civic challenges in transportation that have plagued our community for decades. Memphis is only the 10th city chosen by Ford Motor Company for this opportunity. With their support, our City’s Explore Research Report has been published, which outlines the opportunity areas in mobility that need solving in Memphis. We are now seeking innovators to step up and submit their ideas to receive both funding and business and technical assistance to implement their solutions. These paid pilots, along with other resources, are how we are believing in the power of the individual and meeting them halfway to bring prosperous change to Memphis.
Learn more at our challenge website: https://memphismobilitychallenge.com/