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June 06, 2002

The Creative Class and City Scenes

A definite book on my to be read list is Richard Florida's "The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life."
...Salon has an interview with Florida where he explores everything from how the "gay index" predicts a likely home for future entrepreneurial creativity to why Detroit and Pittsburg lost out to Austin for high tech.
...I'll have to read the book, but in all Florida's talk in the interview about the "Austin lifestyle" compared to rigid Detroit and Pittsburg mores, it just seems odd that all the oil and government hitech funds (via the Sematech initiative) flowing into Austin in the 1980s doesn't rank a mention.
...Not that the creative city lifestyles Florida emphasizes don't matter at all, but you have to wonder whether they are more the result of tech growth or its cause. As Florida notes, Detroit had a long tradition of music funk, from jazz to Motown, and if it had ridden the hightech gravy-train, we might be hearing about how that "social capital" was key to its revival.

Posted by Nathan at June 6, 2002 11:27 AM

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