ST. LOUIS (KMOX) -- The next decade now has a blueprint for the region to become a "talent engine and magnet" as well as to expand opportunity.
"We have been a very fragmented, segregated region historically. Here is our opportunity to create access, equity, and inclusion," Greater St. Louis Inc. Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer Valerie Patton tells KMOX.
Inclusiveness is an anchor of the "STL 2030 Jobs Plan," along with a focus on downtown, supporting entrepreneurs, and attracting new industries.
Author Bruce Katz says that acknowledgement is a big deal, because "many jobs plans start with assets and very rarely talk about challenges."
Katz says inclusive growth involves two components.
The first is to grow "quality" jobs, which he says "responds to the fact that the St. Louis metro was stagnating in the early part of the last decade after the Great Recession and was not keeping pace with its peers."
The second part is reducing racial disparities on income and wealth.
"Quality" jobs, by the way, are those which pay 80% or more of the national median wage.
Greater St. Louis Inc. released the final version of the jobs plan Wednesday.
"We have got to be authentic. It's both constructive as well as positive," Greater St. Louis Inc. CEO Jason Hall says of the plan. "There's a lot of truth-telling in here about the industry clusters where St. Louis is a global leader - and we need to act like it."
He says it zeroes in on collaboration to grow quality jobs in "next-generation" industries.
For instance, one facet, Supply STL, encourages companies to buy, hire and invest from the local area.
Another is a push called the "STL Capacity to Act Initiative."
Hall gives a few examples of how and when central coordination can be helpful: "We need to form a venture capital fund around 'X' and catalyze some of that. Or, we need to find the public sector funds that can build the Brickline Greenway in this time of large federal investment around infrastructure. Or, we need to get more philanthropy to help build intermediaries like a Greater St. Louis, Bio STL, and Invest STL.
"Those are a critical part of the ecosystem of how you grow and shape the future."
One revision from earlier drafts came in response to criticism from St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann. The plan now suggests different parts of the area should avoid competing over existing jobs.
Hall summarizes another consultant's observation: "An inclusive economy is the defining issue of our time."
He says the merger of several different groups into Greater St. Louis Inc. fixed one major challenge -- regional leaders constantly asking "Who's on first?"
When asked how to get buy-in and enthusiasm from all the varied corners of this 15 county region, Patton says, "One step at a time."
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