Lawrence Donegan: Cities gain bohemian boom
It's bohemians and gays that make a town rich, not shopping malls, says a controversial US academic.
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.
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.
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