Chief Strategist: My Public Diary (July 2022)

The World Games, Narrative Change, and Possibility Government

“We get the government we invent” — Mitchell Weiss, Author, We The Possibility

Everything is not what it appears to be.

What appears before you is the result of algorithms. Many of those algorithms are still rudimentary, tickling only parts of your brain prone to trigger the next thumb scroll. In the meantime, there are things happening around the world that are not truly invisible, just ignored. As promised in my first public diary post, I am sharing more about my work which can be invisible to the naked and untrained eye.

To be clear, my job is not to make the “trains run on time.” That is the job of our very capable Chief of Staff and Chief of Operations. My job is to help drive the Mayor’s agenda by building our capacity to do more through public-private partnerships, civic innovation, storytelling and strategic communications.

I’m busy in all three lanes, but I am spending a lot of time around long-form communications designed to shift the narrative on Birmingham. My projects these days include a new radio show and podcast, a new city blog, a documentary film and books.

For instance, the City’s unprecedented partnership with Courtney French Broadcasting includes the Mayor’s new radio show, Magic City Spotlight. The live Saturday morning public affairs show features the Mayor with special guests and subject matter experts addressing issues that matter most to our residents, expats, and tourists. Check out this page and be sure to subscribe to our podcast via Apple, Google, or Spotify. Or, listen on the V94.9 FM app.

The documentary film we are helping to produce in partnership with the Deep South Solidarity Fund will explore Black excellence, partnership, policy advocacy in relation to Birmingham, specifically, and the South, in general. We are doing this in context of The World Games 2022. I’ve compared the perspective to the Wattstax documentary which told the story of a singular music concert, but it was really a time capsule of a film; a snapshot of what Black folks were thinking and feeling five years after the Watts riots.

Mastercard “Buy Black”

We recently hosted Mastercard executives on the two year anniversary of their “In Solidarity” partnership with the City of Birmingham. Mastercard is another key partner that has taken their efforts up a notch in the City of Birmingham by putting their money where their mouth is. Within the past few months, they have granted nearly $3 million to Urban Impact and the Birmingham Business Resource Center. They have also launched a first of its kind program that will offer 20% cash back to Mastercard holders that patronize black-owned businesses in Birmingham during the time of The World Games.

If you hold a Mastercard, then visit this page and find a business to patronize. Participating businesses were enrolled with the support of the Birmingham Business Resource Center, a key player in black-owned business advocacy in the City of Birmingham. Behind the scenes, leaders at Mastercard pushed the boundaries of their typical project team structures, legal compliance standards, among other global policy considerations. Anyone who has worked inside of a major corporation will appreciate what it takes to get organizations of this size and industry to “flex”.

Harvard Business School Field Immersion

We also recently hosted more than 75 Harvard Business School (HBS) MBA students, 20% of which are international students, as a part of Harvard’s domestic FIELD Immersion Course. They were here for a week, learning about the City and served as practicing teams of consultants with ten (10) local small businesses and economic development agencies, including Woodlawn United, Fleetio, among others. And, they had a tremendous time! Quietly, Birmingham’s own, Lee Styslinger III, CEO of Altec and HBS board member has steered many connections between his alma mater and the City of Birmingham. I facilitated a panel discussion and met many of these students directly. This was their first visit to Birmingham and, equally significant, to Alabama. Needless to say, Birmingham’s biggest image problem is ‘Alabama’ because these students were confounded by our image and our reality.

Apple

I recently visited Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California along with a small delegation of education leaders in Birmingham. They did not allow photos to be inside the campus. Needless to say it was a design marvel and cool space to be. The City’s journey with Apple is an story that deserves much more space. Just think — within 60 days of the Mayor’s 2017 election a Birmingham delegation of leaders went to Chicago for a best practices excursion. Two years later Apple CEO Tim Cook was in Birmingham cutting the ribbon on Ed Farm, an entity that has attracted nearly $10 million in direct funding from Apple in support of revolutionizing the way Birmingham City School teachers and students engage technology. Our goal is to grow our partnership with Apple, among other partners.

I have said all I have to say about the World Games in this post. But, even as The World Games has taken up the lionshare of mindshare, headlines, calendars, and energy, there are a number of things that continue to move related to the Mayor’s overall agenda. We will not stop — cannot stop — driving progress for our residents. In fact, several of the Mayor’s initiatives will be leveraging the Games as an opportunity to drive the agenda forward.

For instance, our Civic Design Team, led by Amelia Muller, organized a civic design studio experience for the Mayor, executive leadership team members, city planners and community development department leadership to re-imagine connectivity in a city full of bridges, railroads, and streets in need of repair. The exercise took place on, under, and around the 100-year-old “rainbow bridge” in downtown bridge which was recently closed to vehicular traffic due to safety concerns. The cost of repairing the bridge would be tens of millions of dollars. Amelia’s goal here was to present more substantial questions — while in the relevant physical environment — like “do we even need this bridge for vehicular traffic? is it worth the cost?” In a city built for 340,000 people that now has 200,000 people, where should we really be investing and thinking about infrastructure for 50 years from now?

We have a one time injection of millions of infrastructure dollars thanks to federal recovery funds spawned by the pandemic. Amelia and other members of our recovery team are responsible for delivering both necessary and innovative solutions in support of the city’s needs and the Mayor’s agenda, in partnership with the City Council.

Solve this classic 9th grade math word problem: With a 2021 population of approximately 200,000, what percentage of year-over-year net population growth would be required for Birmingham to return to a city of more than 340,000 by the year 2050?

Amelia and her team of FUSE fellows and undergraduate interns from UAB and Harvard University have planned a series of research engagements around the World Games to test systems and strategies related to issues the Mayor is most concerned about such as public transportation, economic opportunity, digital equity, and food access. The World Games provides a unique opportunity for us to better understand our systems, or the lack thereof, especially when our infrastructure is stressed. Similarly, better understanding how changes in transportation and transit systems affect residents’ ability to access food, medicine and other essentials.

Beyond that, our work related to the $70 million in American Recovery Funds continues in partnership with the Birmingham City Council. Our MGI-funded (Mayors for Guaranteed Income) Embrace Mothers guaranteed income pilot continues to put an unprecedented amount of unrestricted cash in the hands of single mothers across the city. As of May, more than $123,000 had been distributed on debit cards on the black-owned credit processing platform, MoCaFi, a technology that is supported by our partners at Mastercard.

Other City News

Birmingham City Council passes Woodfin’s Budget Untouched (source: WBHM.org)

Birmingham Celebrates Restoration of Historic A.G. Gaston Motel (source: Bhamnow.com)

Birmingham Mayor Announces Cooling Shelter for Homeless During World Games (source: al.com)

Skip the misinformation and visit the official City of Birmingham newsroom for official city news and updates.

On the personal front, I have never experienced so many consequential graduations all at once. Many of my closest friends had children graduating from college, high school and middle school over the past two months. My godson was the very first baby I ever held in my life. I remember the trial and challenges and triumphs of my friends as parents and, as they say, it goes by fast. I have mixed feelings about it going fast given that I will not be attending my youngest son’s high school graduation until 2036. Jesus, be a fountain of youth.

I wrapped up season two of the historical fiction series, Godfather of Harlem, featuring Forest Whitaker and Vincent D’Onofrio. I started a book titled We The Possibility, written by Mitchell Weiss, a Harvard professor that is facilitating inter-city dialogue across the globe, including the City of Birmingham.

This book is speaks my language. I get excited by the idea of the City as a platform through which residents, social change agents, entrepreneurs, and corporate citizens can all tap in to derive value and add value all at once. Possibility government is about ‘both-and’, not the sort of ‘either-or’ ethos we find too often in local politics. It is about taking public risks, including residents and businesses to buy into our experimentation.

Yes, we are out here taking risks and taking in our big wins, especially The World Games.

I hope to see you at the Games. Buy your tickets!

Honestly,

Ed.

Read my previous public diary posts.

• May 2022: Discovering God, Winning Big, Over Communicating, and Game of Thrones
• April 2022: Food Strategies, Public Surveys, Single Parents and Creflo Dollar
• March 2022: A sneak peek into my role, my calendar, and my projects

Ed Fields is an essayist, marketer and strategist. He currently serves as Senior Advisor and Chief Strategist for the City of Birmingham Mayor’s Office. Follow him on LinkedIn, Medium, or Instagram.