Cleveland Officials Tout a New Ordinance to Increase Minority and Women Participation in Development
By Gabriel Kramer
June 27, 2023
City of Cleveland leadership spoke on the steps of City Hall Tuesday to discuss the recently passed Community Benefits Ordinance, which they say will have a "historic community impact."
“We want to continue to restructure our economic development department to be more responsive to the business community, to make sure we can be more aggressive to attract and retain new companies,” Mayor Justin Bibb said.
The ordinance is a legally enforceable agreement between the city of Cleveland and developers, designed to encourage those developers to include Cleveland-based, minority-owned and women-owned businesses in their work and provide "tangible benefits to communities" in exchange for city incentives, according to a city media release.
“We’ve heard from contractors and contractors of color and women for years that they’ve been frustrated that they have not been able to be a part of the market,” said City Council President Blaine Griffin, who represents several East Side neighborhoods in Ward 6. "We’ve listened and now we are taking action."