Bay Area finally ready to tackle income inequality
Even in the prosperous Bay Area, “there’s this sense that there are missed opportunities by not having a larger cross-section of the community engaged in and benefiting from the economy, And there’s a sense that the prosperity we’re experiencing is not sustainable if we stay on the same trajectory.”
The Federal Reserve, the International Monetary Fund, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Standard & Poor’s and a growing number of economists — authorities the private sector pays attention to — agree.
[...] they say, income inequality is a major obstacle to economic growth.
Though we’re yet to seeing any net decrease in say, corporate compensation, “there’s a lot more discussion and reflection about it in their ranks, and that’s usually a precursor to some sort of action,” said Blackwell, who has participated in some of those discussions.
Last week, AT&T announced a grant program for nonprofit and for-profit ed-tech ventures focused on sharpening students’ employable tech skills.
[...] last week, Wells Fargo donated $3 million to the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ CommunityWINS (Working/Investing in Neighborhood Stabilization) program, and the California Endowment and New York’s Atlantic Philanthropies invested $12.2 million to expand the Oakland Unified School District’s Linked Learning health career training programs.
Given the opening provided by President Obama’s State of the Union speech last week, and the fact that income inequality is shaping up as a central issue in the 2016 presidential campaign, “there’s a lot of opportunities now to work on it in new and creative ways,” said Blackwell, the former Oakland City Administrator and before that executive director of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency.
The San Francisco Foundation funds employment, affordable housing, health, arts and environmental programs in San Francisco, San Mateo, Marin, Alameda and Contra Costa counties.