The city of Atlanta has the biggest airport on earth, with concession procurement worth $3.3 billion. As in Philadelphia, the airport is owned by the city. And when you spend a dollar there, 46 cents goes to a woman or a Black person, who own the businesses at Hartsfield-Jackson International.

That is the result of a deliberate effort by Kasim Reed when he was mayor of Atlanta from 2010 to 2018 — and it is just one of the reasons why the southern city has the highest concentration of Black businesses anywhere in the country.

Reed relayed this story, among other bits of wisdom and cheerleading, to a full audience on Tuesday, as part of the first ever live taping of The Citizen’s podcast How To Really Run a City, which was the opening event for the African-American Chamber of Commerce of PA, NJ & DE‘s third annual National Convening of Black Mayors.

On stage with Reed for a conversation about how cities can grow Black business and wealth were his podcast co-hosts, former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Citizen Co-founder Larry Platt;  Newark, NJ, Mayor Ras Baraka; and Bruce Katz, director of the Nowak Metro Finance Lab at Drexel University.

The full podcast episode — the 5th of the season — will be released in early June. Follow the podcast on Apple or Spotify to be notified when it drops. Meanwhile, here’s a glimpse of what we saw:

How to Really Run A City launched last fall and was recently named one of  the top 10 city-related podcasts to stream by Bloomberg Cities. Episodes have featured mayors David Holt of Oklahoma City, Kate Gallego of Phoenix, Libby Schaaf of Oakland and David Muhammad of the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform. Listen to all the episodes here.

The event at the African American Museum in Philadelphia included a cocktail party catered by Details By Ms. Dawn, the chance to explore AAMP’s current exhibit, Rising Sun: Artists in an Uncertain America, and to mingle with Black mayors from around the country.

Dr. Ashley Jordan, president and CEO of AAMP, and Regina Hairston, president and CEO of the African-American Chamber, welcomed the standing-room-only audience to the taping. Hairston and Platt set the scene by citing a recent Pew study reporting that as of 2020, African Americans had a majority stake in less than 3 percent of businesses nationwide. This is despite Black adults making up 12.4 percent of the U.S. population.

This disparity is even starker in Philadelphia, a city that is 44 percent Black, yet Black-owned businesses with payroll represent less than 3 percent of all businesses in our ecosystem. And only 1 percent of Pennsylvania procurement contracts are with Black-owned businesses.

Trust us when we say: There were great ideas. There was great hope. The OGs dropped truth bombs — and inspired belly laughs. (One favorite quote from Mayor Reed: “There has not been a better time to really go for it than right now.”)

But before we spill all the tea, some photos of the good-looking, great-thinking thought, city and business leaders who were there.

HOW TO REALLY RUN A CITY, THE PODCAST