The Ultimate Job Interview About Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

In Round 2 of The Citizen’s Ultimate Job Interview of Philadelphia candidates for mayor on Monday night, retired 6abc Anchor Jim Gardner laid out a few unfortunate facts about Philadelphia. We have:

• 26 percent of our population living in poverty, the highest rate of the 10 largest cities in America
• just 2 percent of independent businesses (with at least one employee) owned by African Americans, the lowest rate of Black-owned businesses of any of our peer cities
• the poorest post-industrial job creation rate
• the highest tax rate
• a school system accused of failing students

This was the backdrop for The Citizen’s Ultimate Job Interview Round 2: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs event Monday night, in front of an overflowing crowd at Fitler Club. Five candidates took to the stage one after the other to answer questions about and defend their plan to grow jobs and help Philadelphians build a pathway to the middle class: Maria Quiñones Sánchez, Rebecca Rhynhart, Jeff Brown, Allan Domb and Helen Gym.

In addition to Gardner, the night’s emcee, the candidates took questions from Bill Hankowsky, former president/CEO of Liberty Property Trust and former president of the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation; and Della Clark, president/CEO of The Enterprise Center.