WATCH: Maria Quiñones-Sánchez and Richard Florida Talk About Philly’s Wealth Gap
The city councilmember and the noted urbanist discussed protests, recovery plans and policing at Philly Mag’s ThinkFest.
Watch Maria Quiñones-Sánchez and Richard Florida speak at our all-virtual ThinkFest.
While the protests of the last two weeks in Philadelphia and across the country have nominally been about police brutality, City Councilmember Maria Quiñones-Sánchez and noted urbanist and author Richard Florida say economic injustice is another major cause of people taking to the streets.
“In the protestors there’s an anger – they want to be heard,” Councilmember Quiñones-Sánchez said during a session on day two of Philadelphia Magazine’s ThinkFest, presented by Bank of America. “As much as the city says it wants to be inclusive, our policies are hostile against poor people.”
Florida, who delivered a report on Philadelphia last fall after becoming the first Philadelphia Fellow, agreed and said the time was now to develop a true plan for more inclusive growth in the city. “This is like a natural disaster hitting the nation on steroids,” Florida said of events of the last several months. “When we have natural disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes, we have recovery plans. And I think that’s what we need here is a recovery plan.”
Watch the full video of Quiñones-Sánchez and Florida’s conversation below.
ThinkFest 2020 takes place through June 12th, with free virtual conversations every day at noon and 4 p.m. Speakers include Mayor Jim Kenney, U.S. Senator Bob Casey, police commissioner Danielle Outlaw, and chef Marcie Turney. See the full schedule and register here.
