Manufacturing is as good for our neighborhoods as it is for our nation. Indeed, they reinforce each other.
A healthy manufacturing sector strengthens communities with good jobs and opportunities to build wealth while strengthening our national resilience. A robust urban manufacturing ecosystem stimulates economic growth that is more equitable, reduces the impact of climate change, and increases national security.
The Urban Manufacturing Alliance (UMA) works at the intersection of racial equity and urban manufacturing. We developed these policy recommendations as a northstar for federal-level policy makers and leadership in the new Biden/Harris administration. This agenda lifts up the work of our partners in cities across the country who are supporting manufacturing in their communities and recommends how the federal government could better support these local efforts and replicate their success.
These manufacturers are making salsa in their kitchens, 3D-printed widgets in shared makerspaces, and cars in factories. They are companies like LucasPye Bio in Philadelphia, the first African-American, queer woman-founded biotech and pharmaceutical company. And Satori Food Project in Milwaukee, a three-person-of-color team creating family-friendly foods that have mental health benefits. And Diseños Ornamental Iron in Detroit, a Latina-owned metalworking business that was founded by her father.
The policies suggested in this document are supported by programmatic and organizational examples — stories of innovative, community-based manufacturers who are providing jobs and building wealth in their cities.
We provide policy suggestions in five topic areas and describe how federal agencies, Congress, and the executive branch should take action in each one.
Through our work and partnerships, UMA is building a national movement around urban manufacturing as an equitable economic development strategy. These recommendations are a call to action to the federal government to use its investment in the manufacturing sector as also an investment in our communities and source of equitable inclusive growth.