Further Accentuating The Benefits Of Thriving Gay & Bohemian Communities To A City's Prosperity
February 14th 2009 08:43
Category: No Category
From here:
Cities gain bohemian boom
It's bohemians and gays that make a town rich, not shopping malls, says a controversial US academic
by Lawrence Donegan, San Francisco, on guardian.co.uk, Sunday 16 June 2002 10.29 BST
Shut down the economic development agency, knock down the shopping malls and conference centres, and welcome immigrants with open arms - according to an American professor, British cities that want to prosper need a happening music scene, tax breaks for bohemians and thriving gay and ethnic communities.
Professor Richard Florida's ideas are revolutionising the thinking of America's civic leaders who pay $10,000 to hear the author of the bestseller, The Rise of the Creative Class, tell them to junk their old strategies.
'My message is simple. Without diversity, without weirdness, without difference, without tolerance, a city will die,' he says.
'Cities don't need shopping malls and convention centres to be economically successful, they need eccentric people who will attract the economically and technologically creative people upon whom economic success depends.'
Florida's thesis is based on what he calls the 'creative class' - computer engineers, entrepreneurs, and scientists. This class now accounts for 30 per cent of the workforce in the US - double what it was 20 years ago.
Traditional economic theories suggest workers settle in the cities offering the highest pay, but Florida believes that the creative classes have different motives for choosing where to live.
Focus groups and research in key American cities show people 'want diversity and an exciting environment, a street-level music scene and a place that is teeming with different kinds of people'.
Florida has developed a 'bohemian index' and 'gay index'. Using census information, they measure the presence of both groups within any given city.
Communities that have a higher percentage of both, such as San Francisco and Austin, Texas, are also likely to attract the most 'creative class' workers.
'Take Minneapolis, which has long been a centre of musical innovation. Prince, Bob Mould, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and the Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus are far more important to that area economically than any new shopping mall or convention centre.'
Some American cities have laws that deny gay people the right to stay in public housing. 'There are also cities which say we don't want music clubs open late at night; we don't want bike lanes. What these cities are learning to their cost is that the creative classes are saying "thanks, but no thanks" when asked if they want to work there.'
Academic opinion about Florida's work is divided, with some, such as Harvard professor Edward Glasser, agreeing that the creative class is important to a city's economic wellbeing. '[But] I don't know if anyone has shown that tolerance is or isn't detrimental to city growth.'
Others point out that there are cities with low numbers of 'creative class' workers, such as Las Vegas, which are also among the fastest growing. Critics argue that social diversity is way behind factors such as world-class centres of education.
Florida's work, however, received a boost recently in a study in Austin, Texas, which examined the claims of competing theories for the city's 10-year economic boom. Robert Cushing, a retired sociologist, said the creative class theory provided the most plausible explanation for Austin's transformation.
'When you hear about cities that have gays or bohos, it doesn't sound scientific. It sounds gimmicky. I started the exercise very sceptically, but I was astonished by the results,' Cushing said.
A picture, not contained within the article:
Cities gain bohemian boom
It's bohemians and gays that make a town rich, not shopping malls, says a controversial US academic
by Lawrence Donegan, San Francisco, on guardian.co.uk, Sunday 16 June 2002 10.29 BST
Shut down the economic development agency, knock down the shopping malls and conference centres, and welcome immigrants with open arms - according to an American professor, British cities that want to prosper need a happening music scene, tax breaks for bohemians and thriving gay and ethnic communities.
Professor Richard Florida's ideas are revolutionising the thinking of America's civic leaders who pay $10,000 to hear the author of the bestseller, The Rise of the Creative Class, tell them to junk their old strategies.
'My message is simple. Without diversity, without weirdness, without difference, without tolerance, a city will die,' he says.
'Cities don't need shopping malls and convention centres to be economically successful, they need eccentric people who will attract the economically and technologically creative people upon whom economic success depends.'
Florida's thesis is based on what he calls the 'creative class' - computer engineers, entrepreneurs, and scientists. This class now accounts for 30 per cent of the workforce in the US - double what it was 20 years ago.
Traditional economic theories suggest workers settle in the cities offering the highest pay, but Florida believes that the creative classes have different motives for choosing where to live.
Focus groups and research in key American cities show people 'want diversity and an exciting environment, a street-level music scene and a place that is teeming with different kinds of people'.
Florida has developed a 'bohemian index' and 'gay index'. Using census information, they measure the presence of both groups within any given city.
Communities that have a higher percentage of both, such as San Francisco and Austin, Texas, are also likely to attract the most 'creative class' workers.
'Take Minneapolis, which has long been a centre of musical innovation. Prince, Bob Mould, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and the Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus are far more important to that area economically than any new shopping mall or convention centre.'
Some American cities have laws that deny gay people the right to stay in public housing. 'There are also cities which say we don't want music clubs open late at night; we don't want bike lanes. What these cities are learning to their cost is that the creative classes are saying "thanks, but no thanks" when asked if they want to work there.'
Academic opinion about Florida's work is divided, with some, such as Harvard professor Edward Glasser, agreeing that the creative class is important to a city's economic wellbeing. '[But] I don't know if anyone has shown that tolerance is or isn't detrimental to city growth.'
Others point out that there are cities with low numbers of 'creative class' workers, such as Las Vegas, which are also among the fastest growing. Critics argue that social diversity is way behind factors such as world-class centres of education.
Florida's work, however, received a boost recently in a study in Austin, Texas, which examined the claims of competing theories for the city's 10-year economic boom. Robert Cushing, a retired sociologist, said the creative class theory provided the most plausible explanation for Austin's transformation.
'When you hear about cities that have gays or bohos, it doesn't sound scientific. It sounds gimmicky. I started the exercise very sceptically, but I was astonished by the results,' Cushing said.
A picture, not contained within the article:
| 86 |
| Vote |
Comment by Morgan Bell
Science News
Deep Pencil
Business News
Movie Train
Artist Quirk
Comment by Optomistic Opportunism
Bohemian Hiphop
Japanese Jazz Funk
Optomystic Opportunism
Comment by Postmodern Critic
Postmodern Critic
Relativity Watch
Padsoc
Morgan - But then, what is weirdness? How can we define 'the weird'?
OptoO - I think you mean 'equalled to'.
Thanks for your comments!
Comment by Morgan Bell
Science News
Deep Pencil
Business News
Movie Train
Artist Quirk
i know all those words have specific individual meanings, but i think "weird" is a compliment in disguise
Comment by Postmodern Critic
Postmodern Critic
Relativity Watch
Padsoc
Comment by Always Eighteen
Always Eighteen
Interesting article. I can't believe how much that guy gets paid just to say that weirdness is, well, good!
Anyway I think any place and every person needs creativity to strive. It's not logical, in fact it's the opposite of logical, but I suppose that's the point.
Comment by skoop
Comment by Lilla
From The Home Front
Enviro Warrior
Dream Herald
Esoteric Bookshop
Comment by Optomistic Opportunism
Bohemian Hiphop
Japanese Jazz Funk
Optomystic Opportunism
'equalled to' makes sense, but my little writers voice is now tossing betwix 'equvalent to' and 'in line with.'
aaah think ah thunk too much...
Comment by skoop
Comment by Postmodern Critic
Postmodern Critic
Relativity Watch
Padsoc
What do you think the most creative places (cities, towns or even villages) in Japan are, apart from Tokyo?
Thank you for your previous compliment on my Obama-supporting ways, btw - I'm so thrilled that he's in charge of the States now!
Hi Skoop,
Where do you live, out of curiosity?
If you were trying to refer to indigenous people, I must take offense to your comment. Indigenous people of any culture bring rich benefits to their communities, and should be treasured. That they often experience social and economic problems is a reflection of wider society, an ailment that needs a more speedy cure than we are currently providing.
Comment by skoop
Experiencing want or need; impoverished. See Synonyms at poor.
Archaic Lacking or deficient.
NOUN:
A needy or destitute person.
that is how i meant it... i'm just not convinced the cities need more hordes of them...i live in a northern rust belt urban big city...they're here a plenty...the suburbs have more advantaged living...and there is a 'living on the other side of the track reality'.
Comment by Postmodern Critic
Postmodern Critic
Relativity Watch
Padsoc
Hey cool, I learnt a new word today - thanks for that!
Do you associate bohemians with low income living?
By northern rust belt do you mean the Great Lakes region in the States (keep in mind that a lot of my readers are from Australia)?
I live in Sydney, Aus, where we have one of the largest gay communities in the world, and have a liberal scattering of bohemians (though never enough, for my taste). Yet I want to move somewhere that's gayer and/or more bohemian, like San Francisco or Santa Cruz in California. Or Barcelona, Spain.
Comment by Optomistic Opportunism
Bohemian Hiphop
Japanese Jazz Funk
Optomystic Opportunism
Never has blandness been reciprocal with being inspiring.
did i spell that right? sorry postie (! - love the ambiguity in colloquialisms), i've been using your site as an English Language Correctional Facility.
Back at Tafe,
Opto
Comment by skoop
Comment by Postmodern Critic
Postmodern Critic
Relativity Watch
Padsoc
You have one of the cooler names on Orble, I must say - it's very smart and creative, and with its own distinctive savvy.
It's great that you want to experiment with language - I wish more people were into doing this kind of exploration!
In this case, though, I don't think reciprocal is the best word, as reciprocity means giving as much as you are given.
The same with colloquialism, which is a casual use of language (like Hi from Hello) - I think you're looking for 'nickname' or 'abbreviated name'.
'Postie' made me think of 'Postman Pat and his black and white cat,' you know the kids' animation? Lol, maybe not what you intended?! Or maybe it was, I never know what to expect with you?! Lol.
Anyway, I wish you luck with your TAFE study and hope that everything is working out mighty fine for you!
Hi Skoop,
Well, dictionary.com defines bohemians as people who think/live outside socially accepted norms. No socio-economic bracket is indicated - they could be below the poverty line, millionaires or anything in between. And I think every bohemian (of which group I regard myself part of) has their own ideology, but I imagine some common bohemian tendencies are towards questioning authority figures, prioritising creativity, innovation and the artistic in their lives, and communicating with like-minded souls. I imagine a well-developed sense of spirituality would also be a common phenomenon.
I am lucky that I am non-Heterosexual, an immigrant (a person of Bulgarian ethnicity, even though I do not think like a typical Bulgarian) AND bohemian - I am encouraged to think outside the box on all these three fronts (and boy, do I ever!).