Minorities deserve their share of taxpayer-funded jobs

TODAY IS Super Tuesday, and, by day's end, we could know the respective presidential nominees from each major party. But for Philadelphians, that news pales in comparison with Mayor Kenney's intention to embark on a $600 million plan to remake the city's parks and recreation centers.

All politics, after all, are local.

And here's our local political reality. The largely white Electrical Workers Union and its equally white counterpart, the Carpenters Union, have dominated taxpayer-funded construction work for years. Blacks taxpayers who complain about this economic Jim Crow are met with lip service and apprenticeship programs. That can't continue. Not one brick should move on that $600 million parks and recreation project until the city is contractually obligated to hire people of color for that work.

How can we do that fairly? I think the answer is simple. Blacks represent 44 percent of the city's population. So when Philadelphia embarks on taxpayer-funded projects, blacks should get 44 percent of the work. Let's go further: According to census data, 45 percent of the city is white, and the rest are black, Asian, Hispanic and other. That means 55 percent of the work should go to non-whites.

But to make that happen, our politicians must first decide to end the game of racial three-card monte that allows unions and contractors to point fingers at one another when taxpayer-funded construction jobs don't go to people of color. In short, politicians must decide to put the people before their political contributors.

In a city where 26 percent of the people live in poverty, that means taking a close look at the racial math and facing some sobering realities. That poverty rate is concentrated in communities of color. Nearly a third of Philadelphia's blacks and over 40 percent of the city's Latinos live in poverty, according to census data. Black unemployment is routinely twice the rate of whites, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

I'm tired of hearing our leaders lament the fact that Philadelphia has the highest poverty rate of any large city in the nation, while, at the same time, refusing to do what's necessary to change it.

If Kenney is truly serious about tackling the generational poverty that has plagued too many of our city's neighborhoods, he can do so in one fell swoop by making sure the jobs generated by his $600 million parks and recreation proposal go to the voters.

If he's not, he can do what Philadelphia's political establishment has always done. He can focus on his political contributors.

Kenney was backed by a coalition of unions led by John Dougherty's International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98, which now stands as the biggest political contributor in the state. A quick tally provided by the political watchdog Committee of Seventy shows that the IBEW made at least $1.2 million in political contributions in 2015; another tally suggests Kenney benefited from at least $507,000 from IBEW. The New Jersey Carpenters Union contributed at least $725,000 to a separate PAC supporting Kenney for mayor.

The unions should expect to get a return call from Kenney if they reach out. But the voters should, too.

Kenney received 55.8 percent of the vote in the mayoral election. The "landslide" victory was thanks largely to black votes. So Kenney should not expect black voters to stand by and watch as unions collect hundreds of millions of dollars in our tax money for projects that include only token black and Latino participation.

I have spoken to Kenney several times about these issues, and he's told me more than once that on taxpayer-funded projects, the city's goal is to employ people of color in proportion to our population. But goals are no longer enough.

Like many in black and Latino communities, I've watched as taxpayer funded construction has gone on without our participation. I've seen the trucks with New Jersey license plates go in and out of communities where the unemployment rate is twice the statewide average.

I've seen our people frozen out of jobs for decades on end. Not again.

If our city goes forward with a $600 million taxpayer-funded project to refurbish parks and recreation centers, our leaders must make sure blacks get 44 percent.

Or voters must make sure we get new leaders.

Solomon Jones is the author of 10 books. Listen to him mornings from 7 to 10 on WURD (900-AM). Email: sj@solomonjones.com.

@solomonjones1