Earlier today I received a press release from the mayor’s office touting the addition of 69 new jobs to Philadelphia by a group called Aberdeen Asset Management. According to the release, Aberdeen’s world headquarters currently occupies space in the Mellon Bank Center at 1735 Market Street where 123 full-time workers already toil away in their cubicles.

However, thanks to $386,000 in grants and tax credits from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Department of Community and Economic Development, Aberdeen is expanding its Philadelphia presence and bringing 69 of its employees to Center City. They also promised to hire an additional 60 employees over the next 3 years.

Here’s the kicker. The 69 employees being transferred to Philadelphia from Aberdeen’s other office are not coming from its London offices, or its office in Kuala Lumpur or even its office in Aberdeen. Nope, they’re making the move all the way from Five Tower Bridge in West Conshohocken.

So, essentially, today’s announcement can be summed up with the following picture:

Regional cannibalism explained

Imagine what the press release from Donna Frankenfield, the mayor of the borough of West Conshohocken must have looked like:

(Cue dream sequence…)

For Immediate Release
October 9, 2008

Commonwealth of PA gives local company $386,000 to move out of our town

West Conshohocken, PA - In a stunning example of robbing Peter to pay Paul, our own state government actually paid the folks at Aberdeen Asset Management to take 69 of their employees out of Five Tower Bridge and move them 6 miles east on I-76 to Philadelphia. Mayor Donna Frankenfield was at a loss to explain why the Commonwealth’s Department of Community and Economic Development would do such a thing.

“Seems to me,” said Frankenfield, affecting the countenance of a small town mayor not schooled in the ways of these big city transactions, “that using our own tax dollars to take 69 tax paying jobs out of our little borough and move them to Philadelphia is the opposite of developing community or our economy.”

That mayor vowed to be more vigilant in the future when Philadelphia’s Mayor Michael Nutter comes knocking on the door wearing his “Regionalism Rulez!” baseball cap.

“Turns out he was just trying to get an idea of which jobs he could bring back with him,” said Frankenfield, “fool me once, shame on me. I won’t get fooled again.”

The mayor said that she would do everything in her power to lure some new jobs back to the borough, including affixing a giant red “Unisys” sign to the side of Five Tower Bridge.

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By my count, this has been at least the third press-release-worthy new job announcement since Nutter took office in January. Verizon moved 403 jobs from the suburbs to the city back in January. We all know how the Unisys story unfolded - with that company putting its proposed relocation a couple hundred jobs to Two Liberty Place on hold for want of some signage. But let’s remember that those jobs were originally coming from Blue Bell, not Chicago or Los Angeles. And now the latest… cannibalizing another one of the region’s businesses.

If gas prices and energy costs continue to climb and more folks find the density and access to transit of urban areas more desirable, it’s likely that a lot of these suburbs to city moves will happen naturally. I give credit to the Nutter team for making the city a viable alternative to companies that already have a presence in the region. Just a few years ago, they probably would have considered moving to Boston or New York before consolidating jobs in Philadelphia. I also acknowledge that the firm in question is promising the region (Philly is in the region after all) a net gain of 60 new jobs over the next 3 years but I wonder if there will be any press releases or stories in the media if those 60 jobs don’t come to be.

All I’m asking is that we hold off on the big announcements until we actually succeed in changing the nation’s attitude toward Philadelphia, making it a desirable place for companies headquartered outside of the region.

mmm kay?