It’s getting harder and harder for baseball teams to wangle public money for new stadiums.Communities are playing hardball with the national pastime largely as a result of two developments. First, elected officials have begun to accept academic research showing that the economic benefits of subsidizing stadiums doesn't justify the costs. Second, threats by team owners to leave town are losing their potency because it is widely known that there are very few attractive markets for them to move to. Against this backdrop, baseball's supporters may have to turn to a different argument: that the sport is worth subsidizing simply because it is integral to a community’s quality of life.>Link
During the summer of the 2005, Mastodons on Parade intrigued and entertained our community. The parade of prehistoric mammals beckoned many to visit and stroll the streets of downtown Fort Wayne.
The City of the Fort Wayne invites you to share your thoughts in a very brief survey. The purpose of the survey is to gather broad public input on themes about our community and the downtown experience. These themes may then be interpreted by designers, architects and artists and incorporated into the physical streetscapes of downtown Fort Wayne. The intent is to create a more rich and engaging experience as visitors walk between points of destination in our downtown.
Please follow the link below to our website and take a moment to participate:
The survey can also be found on the City of Fort Wayne's Home webpage:
Scroll down, and you'll find the survey under the list of Special Features
A new research paper examines Florida's ideas, focusing on the evidence in British cities, and finds little evidence that 'creative' cities do better.Richard Florida's well-known 'creative class' theory suggests that diverse, tolerant and cool cities will outperform other places. Cities with more ethnic minorities, gay people and counter-culturalists will attract high-skilled professionals: the presence of this 'creative class' ensures cities get the best jobs and most dynamic companies. Much of Florida's research concentrates on American cities. Does it work in the UK?
This paper examines Florida's ideas, focusing on the evidence in British cities. It finds little evidence of a 'creative class', and little evidence that 'creative' cities do better. Businesses look for skilled workers when making location decisions, but skilled people also move to where the jobs are. Buzz attracts young people to city centres for a short time, after which most move out to suburbs.
The paper concludes that the creative class model is a poor predictor of UK city performance. There is other, stronger evidence that diversity and creativity are linked to economic growth in cities, not least through rebranding and boosting tourism. Decisionmakers should focus on the basics: creativity is the icing, not the cake.
[Editor's note: The link below is to a 2MB PDF document.] Source: Insitute for Public Policy Research, Oct 04, 2005 >Link (PDF).
Last fall, the American Planning Association joined the Enterprise Foundation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the American Institute of Architects, in launching the Green Communities Initiative. GCI is a multi-year program with an ambitious goal: to transform the way people think about and build affordable housing in America.
With the support of a dozen prominent philanthropic and financial institutions, the Green Communities Initiative will invest more than $550 million over the next five years to create 8,500 environmentally friendly affordable homes across the United States. These homes may be newly constructed or renovated, single or multifamily, for rent or ownership. The entities that produce them may be for-profit or not-for-profit. But they must all meet rigorous criteria in the areas of energy and resource efficiency; healthy materials and systems; and smart, sustainable development. Housing providers that meet the test will receive design and planning grants, loans, and equity. The initiative will also include training and technical assistance to community-based groups and homebuilders participating in the program.
While helping address the critical lack of affordable housing in the country, the Green Communities Initiative also seeks to engage public, private, and non-profit sectors in an effort to ensure that the neighborhoods surrounding these affordable homes are also "green" in a number of ways: how they handle stormwater, how they provide transportation alternatives, and so forth.
During the life of the program, APA and its partners will work to encourage elected leaders at local, state, and national levels to create a more supportive climate for these kinds of homes and neighborhoods by revising existing regulations and incentives where necessary and crafting new, innovative programs and policies.
That is why we need your help!
Because we know that the low-income housing tax credit is a major tool for attracting private investment into the affordable housing market, the Enterprise Foundation is currently gathering information on the way that every state frames its annual Qualified Allocation Plan for the credits. In some states, the QAP awards extra points to affordable housing projects that will use environmentally-friendly materials, reduce homeowner's monthly energy costs, etc. This research will enable us to celebrate states that are in the vanguard, share their techniques, and identify opportunities for advocacy.
At the same time, we would appreciate hearing from you whether your city or state has additional policies, programs, or incentives to promote green affordable housing -- or green building, landscapes, and neighborhoods in general. We seek to identify states and cities that have such policies in place, as well as those that may be open to adopting them. So please take a few minutes to copy the following questions into an e-mail and send your information to gci@planning.org.
We will compile the results, share the information with our partners in this initiative and also provide it to APA's Merriam Research Library in Chicago, where our Planning Advisory Service staff will be able to make use of it in responding to PAS inquiries from across the country.
In terms of the Green Communities Initiative itself, having an overview of green-friendly state and local policies – particularly those that may be relevant to affordable housing and neighborhood development -- will help inform subsequent activities, including communications, education, advocacy, and, possibly, targeted demonstration projects.
Please note that we are not asking for extensive documentation. If you can simply point us in the direction of a relevant policy or program -- perhaps giving us a web address, an e-mail contact, or the name and number of an appropriate person for follow-up -- that will be a great help.
1. Does your city or state have any affordable housing polices or programs that advance green, smart and sustainable development?
If so, please provide a brief description, a web citation, or any other relevant information.
2. Does your city or state have such policies or programs that are not explicitly limited to housing, but which may be applicable?
If so please provide a brief description, a web citation, or any other relevant information.
3. Have your state or local leaders -- elected or appointed -- identified energy and resource efficiency, healthier environments and/or smart growth and development as priorities?
If so, please provide pertinent citations or contact information.
4. Would you be interested in participating in efforts to make your city's or your state's affordable housing greener, smarter and more sustainable?
If so, please provide us with your contact information and we will keep you informed of the Green Communities Initiative and future opportunities for involvement.
Again, please copy these four questions into the body of an e-mail and send it together with your answers to gci@planning.org. Thanks for your help!
Click here for more information on APA's involvement in the Green Communities Initiative.
For more information on how you or others in your community can submit affordable housing construction and renovation projects to GCI for consideration, see: www.enterprisefoundation.org/resources/green/index.asp.
Copyright 2005 American Planning Association All Rights Reserved
...more traffic and road capacity are not the inevitable result of growth. They are in fact the product of very deliberate choices that have been made (for us, not by us) to shape our communities around the private automobile. We as a society have the ability to make different choices--starting with the decision to design our streets as comfortable places for people. >Link
In his research, Florida does not pay much attention to the environmental attitude of his creative class, other than lumping it into "lifestyle." But while reading an article in yesterday's Christian Science Monitor -- "In Portland, living the green American dream" -- it struck me that there seems to be significant overlap between the creative class professionals and the rapidly growing circle of people embracing green/sustainable design in their lives. People who seek out urban environments with a combination of diverse stimuli and dense connections increasingly also are the people looking for material surroundings with a combination of smart design and high efficiency. The creative class is taking on a distinctly Viridian shade of green. >Link
Creativity is the lifeblood of innovation and marketing, but where does it come from and how should a company nurture this elusive trait? How does one explore creativity on the job—and use it to one's advantage?by Julia Hanna
Inventive, imaginative people are fun, cool, and can be one of a company's most valued assets, agreed panelists at the HBS Marketing Conference on April 9. But first things first: Know the customer, take care of retailers, and cover the fundamentals. Philip Evans (HBS MBA '78), a senior vice president at the Boston Consulting Group, moderated the discussion, opening with a simple question: How do you create creativity? >Link
The Fourth and Final Program in ARCH's 2005 Free Lecture Series
Presented by Don Orban, Historic Preservation Planner, City of Fort Wayne
Date: Wednesday, April 20, 2005 at 7:00 p.m.
Location: Shawnee Branch Allen County Public Library, 5600 Noll Avenue, Fort Wayne, IN
Cost: Free
That do-hicky under the eaves has a name. So does that thingamajig over the window and that row of whatchamacallits along the porch. Trying to identify all those parts that give your home its unique sense of style can be confusing...and then there's figuring out how to paint everything!
If you enjoy looking at historical buildings, or you really do have to paint your do-hicky, stop by the Shawnee branch library at 7 p.m. E.S.T.
April 20th for "Hues and Clues," the fourth in ARCH's free and easy lecture series. Solve the mysteries of architectural style and find out their true colors."
In classifying a whole host of occupations as "creative," our leading pop economist overstates the influence of urban professionals.
By Karrie Jacobs, from Metropolis Magazine
Now cities are back in fashion, thick with new museum buildings, loft-style apartments, noodle bars, and boutique hotels. This trend naturally has its own pundit, Richard Florida, a professor of regional economic development at Carnegie Mellon and swami of the "Creative Class." Like Garreau, Florida has come along to codify and capture a movement already in progress. He seized on a process that's been playing out in American cities really since they hit bottom in the 1970s: the Soho phenomenon, where artists reclaim undervalued real estate, give it a new purpose and value, and make it appealing to the real estate industry again. The influx of artists, culture, and hipster enterprise has now remade so many urban places large and small that it's possible to forget that the Edge Cities and their denizens are still out there (except, perhaps, at election time). But we don't talk about them anymore. Instead we talk about the Creative Class. >Link
Submitted by:
Linda M. Kreft
Director of Regional Services, Arts United of Greater Fort Wayne
The Indiana Arts Commission and its 12 Regional Arts Partners around the state are planning the future of the arts in Indiana and we'd like your input. Please help us shape our future programs and services by taking a short survey. It should take only a few minutes to complete. All responses are anonymous. Just click the link below to access the survey. Please do it today:
[The link has expired.]
by Christopher DeWolf
"You're doing really well," Richard Florida gushed to an audience of business types and government officials at a downtown Montreal hotel two weeks ago. "You've inherited one of the best ecosystems for this kind of creative economy in the world."
Florida, an urban consultant and professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon, was there to tell the audience what they had paid to hear: that Montreal was one of the most promising cities in North America and that, if its creative potential was properly harnessed, it would reap untold benefits. It's easy to be cynical when faced with a speech that so closely resembles a pep talk, but Florida's conclusions aren't pulled out of thin air. He and his colleagues have just completed a nine-month study of Montreal's economic health, and they're impressed with what they found. After decades of near stagnation, Montreal is among the top five North American cities for job growth over the past five years, and ranks second on the continent in terms of "super creative" employment-meaning people who work in education and training, arts and culture, and technology.
But what's so important about education, technology and the arts? It goes back to Florida's wildly successful 2002 book, The Rise of the Creative Class. In it, Florida documented the emergence in the twentieth century of a new "creative class" of workers, defined as people "engaged in science and engineering, research and development, and the technology-based industries; in the arts, music, culture, aesthetic and design; or in the knowledge-based professions of health care, finance and law." According to Florida, the creative class now makes up 30 percent of the American workforce but accounts for half of all income earned. Meanwhile, the manufacturing and service sectors' shares of the economy, along with their portion of the nation's income, continue to decline precipitously, as manufacturing jobs flee to Asia and service-sector employment is usurped by Canada and India.
According to Florida, the creative class now makes up 30 percent of the American workforce but accounts for half of all income earned.
The future, then-at least according to this theory-lies in attracting the lucrative, high-earning creative class. But how? Florida argues that this group is drawn to open, tolerant cities that appeal to a wide variety of lifestyles. To measure a city's openness, Florida and his researchers compile a series of indicators, such as the number of patents issued per capita and the cost of living.
The media, though, have focused most of their attention on Florida's city rankings, including the infamous "gay index," which looks to the number of gay couples in a city as a measure of its tolerance. As a result, they've largely neglected Florida's fundamental message: that cities must move away from funding corporate tax breaks and big-ticket white elephants designed to stimulate the economy. (In one recent example, Washington, DC, convinced the Montreal Expos to settle down by offering to build a new ballpark, raise business taxes and sign over all potential profits to the team's future owner, all on the public dime.) Instead, says Florida, cities need to promote grassroots innovation and small-scale creativity, conditions that have spawned some of the biggest business successes of the past twenty years. "Human creativity," he writes, "is the ultimate source of economic growth. Every single person is creative in some way. And to fully tap and harness that creativity we must be tolerant, diverse and inclusive."
Increasingly, Florida is interested in applying his theories to Canadian cities, especially Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. With more immigrants than most American cities, high concentrations of the most creative types of employment, government funding for small business and the arts, low crime, good public schools and a large urban middle class, Canada's biggest cities seem well poised to take advantage of the trends Florida describes.
Montreal in particular has caught Florida's eye. While outside perception of its language and politics continues to be an obstacle (Florida admits to having had low expectations before he started his research here, then to being pleasantly surprised), it boasts the fundamental ingredients for a creative city: Over half the population is bilingual, and nearly a quarter speak three languages; with four large universities, it has almost as many students per capita as Boston; and it is home to a thriving collection of grassroots arts and cultural projects that benefit from public support (for instance, the federal government's Canada Music Fund, the tax credit given to art spaces and Quebec's Société de Développement des Enterprises Culturelles). That might sound like the kind of fluff a Board of Trade would publish, but you have to admit that Montreal is doing something right. Along with rapid job growth in recent years, the city has attracted a number of prominent companies, including the French video-game firm Ubisoft, which last week announced its intention to double its number of Montreal employees.
In Kotkin's view, it's the suburbs-and suburban Sunbelt metropolises-that now drive economic growth, because of their high birth rates, low taxes and family-friendly environments.
Florida has a lot of fans but just as many detractors. Joel Kotkin-a Los Angeles-based writer and consultant whose latest book, The City: A Global History, will be released this April-is one of them. He doesn't believe the creative class is as big as Florida makes it out to be. Sure, at least part of the American workforce consists of "hip, cool, single, culture-oriented" people, Kotkin says, "but it's not remotely close to 30 percent. [And] if the creative class isn't defined by bohemians, what is it? If it's just the migration of educated people, they're moving to the suburbs, to the Sunbelt." In Kotkin's view, it's the suburbs-and suburban Sunbelt metropolises-that now drive economic growth, because of their high birth rates, low taxes and family-friendly environments. "All of these artistic cities started out with an incredibly vital economy," he says. "Everything else followed afterwards."
In a recent Washington Post op-ed, Kotkin declared inner-city living to be a "niche lifestyle preferred mostly by the young, the childless and the rich." The real action, he said, is now in suburbia and smaller cities like Fresno, California. Some have compared Kotkin's views to those of David Brooks, the New York Times columnist who reduces the American city to a playground divided between such cliques as urban, latte-sipping hipsters, Volvo-driving, liberal inner-suburbanites and-Brooks' darlings-the exurban Patio Man and Realtor Mom, who revel in their frontier paradise with childlike innocence. Unlike Brooks, however, Kotkin has grounded his arguments in real research rather than simply hackneyed caricatures. But Florida is quick to counter Kotkin's findings with his own figures, pointing out that the regions that rank highest in his "creativity index" generated 35,000 jobs between 1999 and 2002 while the lowest-ranked lost 400,000 jobs. Florida also criticizes Kotkin for "divisive thinking" for implying "that a place must either be family-friendly or gay-and-bohemian-friendly, but can't be both."
What this all comes down to is fostering an environment where as many different kinds of people as possible can thrive.
Still, Kotkin-who places himself in the progressive tradition of former New York mayor Fiorello LaGuardia-worries that Florida's findings might be used by cities as a way to neglect mounting infrastructural and social problems: "It's almost like we've taken the ephemeral and put it in front," he says. "It's a way of people saying we cannot deal with urban education, urban infrastructure. New York doesn't need another art museum; it needs a subway that works." Kotkin is an advocate of what he calls "sewer socialism": sound investment in efficient transportation, good schools and reliable public services. "If public-school education was better in [American] cities, it would make a huge difference," he remarks. Above all, he concludes, city governments should listen to their citizens, fixing what makes them unhappy and building on what satisfies them.
Unfortunately, the debate over the creative class increasingly resembles a Fox News shouting match. Florida is portrayed as a big-government lackey who advocates reckless spending on museums and symphony halls, while Kotkin is accused of pandering to a social-conservative agenda. "I blame the media for this," Kotkin says. "There's less intelligent discussion about [cities] and more soap opera." He continues, "It would be of more use to have a discussion on these issues and see what comes out of that rather than have a cartoonish debate."
Ultimately, though, Florida seems to have the momentum. It's easy to dismiss his ideas as a vacuous cash grab that nets big bucks for his research firm and big losses for cities, but that doesn't do justice to his basic message that cities need to invest in people and street-level innovation, not incentives for big corporations or baseball teams. Kotkin is absolutely right when he says that cities must first of all invest in the infrastructure and public services that will maintain a healthy and heterogeneous population. But that's only part of the story. A tolerant and creative environment is also necessary in order to stimulate the out-of-the-box thinking that makes some cities such dynamic places.
What this all comes down to is fostering an environment where as many different kinds of people as possible can thrive. Innovation comes from the ground up, not the top down: that's what cities need to understand.
When not wandering our streets, Christopher DeWolf is the editor of Urbanphoto.net. The Urban Eye appears every second Wednesday.
From: The Fort Wayne News-Sentinel
A column by Kevin Leininger
Men’s Health magazine ranks Fort Wayne at the bottom of its ‘101 smartest cities’ list
Nobody calls the English names just because they can’t spell “colour.” But ever since poor Dan Quayle stuck that “e” on the end of “potato,” it’s been fashionable to question the intelligence of people from Indiana.
Now Men’s Health magazine has done it, naming Fort Wayne the stupidest city in America.
The magazine actually published its list weeks ago but, being a Fort Wayne native, it has taken me this long to investigate and form an intelligent opinion. And that opinion is this: Men’s Health is clearly part of the evil Liberal Media Conspiracy.
Oh, sure, the magazine claims its list of 101 cities is scientifically accurate and completely objective: “We based our rankings on the number of bachelor’s degrees per capita, the number of universities, inhabitants’ SAT scores” and so-called “creativity” scores. “Dan Quayle grew up just outside Fort Wayne,” the article in the January-February issue noted. “Coincidence?”
To which I say: Eight of the 10 supposedly smartest cities in the country can be found in the “blue” states that voted for John Kerry in November, while eight of the stupidest cities were in “red” states that supported George Bush.
Coincidence?
I think not.
Neither does Dan Klopfenstein, secretary of the local chapter of Mensa, an organization for very intelligent people. Which, if Men’s Health is right, gives Klopfenstein a lot in common with the tallest guy in Munchkinland.
Anyway, he suspects there’s a certain amount of cultural elitism at work here.
“My brother was in New York and told somebody I was in Mensa, and they said, ‘You mean there are people in Mensa who live in Indiana?’ We have 70 members, so we must have a few people with brains. But I suspect Indiana is looked down upon. Men’s Health probably doesn’t sell too many magazines here.”
Probably not, since the federal Centers for Disease Control listed Fort Wayne as the nation’s fourth-fattest city in 2003.
But I digress.
Does voting Republican mean you are stupid?
Being a Democrat, Fort Wayne Mayor Graham Richard might be tempted to agree – if Men’s Health had not just named him mayor of the stupidest city in the country. Being a Princeton graduate, he prefers to believe the people who voted for him are equally discerning. More discerning, in fact, than the nameless magazine staffers who compiled the list.
Richard thinks the list is more a snapshot of what Fort Wayne was than what it is today or will be in the future. “It’s a factor of us having been successful in the industrial economy,” he said. “In the past, you could get out of high school and go to work for good money at International Harvester or General Electric. Our universities are the factories of the future. In 20 years, the ranking will be very different because we will have responded” to changes in the economy.
Paul Helmke, who was mayor for 12 years before Richard took office, is a Republican. But, having earned a law degree from Yale, he shares Richard’s Ivy League pedigree. So his opinion should be worth something, right?
“Garbage in, garbage out,” Helmke said. “We’ve been named an All-America City twice, a Most Livable City. We had Philo Farnsworth (credited with inventing television), we have entrepreneurs and defense industries. This isn’t a proper way to measure smarts. I interview kids who go to Yale, and they’re as sharp as anyone.
“Maybe they don’t come back (after graduation), but that’s another issue.”
Stemming Fort Wayne’s “brain drain” has been a priority of City Councilman John Crawford, who, as an oncologist, also has to be pretty smart. In December, in fact, he donated $30,000 to a program that would pay graduates $2,500 a year if they return to Fort Wayne to work after college. According to the Census Bureau, 17,379 college-educated people between ages 25 and 39 moved into Indiana between 1995 and 2000 – but 31,713 moved out.
“Our income was 103 percent of the national average; now it’s 83 percent. So I do think (the ranking) is true, but not quite as true as the article said,” Crawford concluded.
But, of course, if Fort Wayne does have a brain drain, those brains have to at least start out here. Don’t they?
And what about the “creativity” factors the magazine used? Some of them are based on the work of Richard Florida, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh who actually visited Fort Wayne in 2003. Whether that visit influenced the magazine’s ranking is not known.
But this much is known: Florida’s theory is that cities prosper by attracting the so-called “creative class” – young, well-educated people who work in nonindustrial fields such as the arts, sciences and technology.
The key to attracting such people, he said, is the willingness to change. That’s not always easy in a conservative town like Fort Wayne, especially when Florida talks about the “gay index” – the notion that cities attractive to gays will also lure other members of the creative class.
I’ve lived in Fort Wayne most of my life, and it’s no secret the city has changed in many ways since Look magazine named it “America’s Happiest Town” in 1949. At the time, its per-family annual income of $6,757 was second-highest in the nation. Most of those high-paying, low-skill , blue-collar jobs are gone – and are not coming back. Until that void is filled, Fort Wayne will continue to struggle with all the problems the magazine’s list only hinted at.
And, ironically, the national ridicule will only make that task more difficult for people like Rob Young, president of the Fort Wayne-Allen County Economic Development Alliance. As Young scours the country hoping to attract new jobs, the notion that Fort Wayne is the dunce capital of America won’t help.
“I would have preferred the list not run,” he said. “But if it points out the need to do more to help underscore higher education, there may be a nugget” of good, he said.
One other benefit may come soon, Richard said. USA Today Columnist Craig Wilson was in town this week, trying to see for himself whether reports of Fort Wayne’s stupidity have been exaggerated. The entire nation will soon know whether Wilson could visit the Coney Island hot dog shop on Main Street and still consider Fort Wayne the intellectual backwater Men’s Health thinks it is.
So keep your head up, Fort Wayne. Sure, it’s cold, rainy and still a little icy outside. But the weather has got to be worse in Minneapolis, where America’s smartest people live, if you believe the Men’s Health listing.
10 smartest cities:
1. Minneapolis
2. Boston
3. Denver
4. St. Paul, Minn.
5. Seattle
6. San Francisco
7. Madison, Wis.
8. San Diego
9. Colorado Springs, Colo.
10. Portland, Ore.
[...]
1. Fort Wayne
2. Corpus Christi, Texas
3. Laredo, Texas
4. Las Vegas
5. Newark, N.J.
6. El Paso, Texas
7. Greensboro, N.C.
8. Miami
9. St. Petersburg, Fla.
10. Providence, R.I.
Hoosier connection
The other Indiana city to place on Men’s Health magazine’s list was Indianapolis, which came in at No. 69.
Reporter Kevin Leininger has been with The News-Sentinel for 25 years, 11 of which were as an editorial writer. The column reflects his opinion, not necessarily that of The News-Sentinel. To pass along column ideas or feedback, contact him at kleininger@news-sentinel.com, or call 461-8355.
© 2005 News Sentinel and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.fortwayne.com
from Fast Company:
Where do breakthrough ideas come from? What kind of work environment allows them to flourish? What can leaders do to sustain the stimulants to creativity -- and break through the barriers?Teresa Amabile has been grappling with those questions for nearly 30 years. Amabile, who heads the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School and is the only tenured professor at a top B-school to devote her entire research program to the study of creativity, is one of the country's foremost explorers of business innovation.
[...]
Amabile and her team are still combing through the results. But this groundbreaking study is already overturning some long-held beliefs about innovation in the workplace. In an interview with Fast Company , she busted six cherished myths about creativity. (If you want to quash creativity in your organization, just continue to embrace them.) Here they are, in her own words.
[...]
>Link
- Creativity Comes From Creative Types
- Money Is a Creativity Motivator
- Time Pressure Fuels Creativity
- Fear Forces Breakthroughs
- Competition Beats Collaboration
- A Streamlined Organization Is a Creative Organization
by Samuel R. Staley
Samuel R. Staley is a senior fellow at Reason Foundation.
Originally published in the Downtown Idea Exchange
August 15, 2004 -- Can downtowns survive? The gut reaction of many, particularly in the development community, will be "of course." But an economist's eye on recent trends suggests the future of the downtown is anything but certain.
This may seem like unwarranted doomsaying considering the heady years of the last decade. After all, positive reports of vibrant downtowns flow continuously from downtown boosters and development associations. But the real story of downtown performance is much more complex.
Rebecca Sohmer and Robert Lang, for example, studied 24 downtowns for the Brookings Institution and Fannie Mae Foundation. Their general conclusion largely confirms conventional wisdom: All but five downtowns were growing.
The Bad News
A more important statistic, however, is whether downtowns are gaining in market share - are they showing they have a regional competitive edge?
In this respect, the data aren't nearly as compelling: Just 15 of the downtowns gained population at a rate faster than their host city. Some growth was dramatic - Houston, Seattle, Chicago, Denver, Atlanta, and Memphis saw their downtown population increase more than twice as fast as the city as a whole.
Cleveland, Norfolk, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Milwaukee increased their downtown population although their cities continued to decline. The others saw anemic (if positive) growth.
These patterns indicate that downtowns can survive, but the sluggish performance of many others is clear evidence that their survival is not assured.
Survival Skills
What will it take for downtowns to survive and even thrive in this environment?
First and foremost, downtown advocates need to recognize they operate in a fundamentally different environment now than they did 50 years ago.
In the mid-twentieth century, the downtown was the regional epicenter for commerce, politics, and culture. In the 21st century, dramatic improvements in mobility, low-cost telecommunications, two-income families, and low housing costs have fundamentally altered the regional economy. Families increasingly choose their neighborhoods based on lifestyle rather than proximity to work.
In more and more cases, downtowns survive and thrive because they have recognized they can play a unique, but not necessarily dominant, role in the regional economy. They have become, in essence, highly specialized neighborhoods characterized by density and diversity.
Second, downtowns need to be strategically focused. In Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap . . . and Others Don't, Jim Collins found that for-profit companies excelled when they consistently applied a "hedge hog" concept - some product or service that they can be the best in the world at providing.
Downtowns need a hedge hog concept, too, but their focus will be somewhat different. While for-profit companies compete globally and technology is quickly obliterating geographic constraints, downtowns compete on a regional scale and in a spatial context. The 21st century downtown will compete by offering a bundle of services and a lifestyle that is distinct from alternatives offered within the region. More importantly, people will be as important as commerce in the 21st century downtown.
Third, a key component of revitalization efforts will be residential development - downtowns must become real neighborhoods where families and residents make long- term investments in where they live. Fortunately, the demographics are relatively easy to identify: Residents of downtowns tend to be urbane and metropolitan - they prefer density, mixed uses, and access to cultural programs and facilities, and are generally more inclined to walk or use public transit.
This boutique neighborhood concept is important for small cities as well as large ones. While downtowns in large cities benefit from congestion and sprawling suburbs, downtowns in small cities compete much more directly with outlying areas and towns. For smaller cities, then, a focused and targeted approach is even more important.
Despite 50 years of population decentralization, most downtowns can survive and even thrive. Their success will depend on their ability to recognize fundamental changes in the metropolitan fabric and transform themselves into neighborhoods that meet the demands of a more competitive and mobile society. They will need to develop a distinct identity and recognize the market constraints in which they operate. This also means recognizing the limits to their contribution to the local economy - they will be a crucial alternative for businesses and families, not the regional economic engine. >Link
Since its launch in February, 2003, this site has been devoted to supporting and nurturing the creative community of the Greater Fort Wayne area. Its success depends on the user submissions and comments of visitors like you.
To that end, how would you like to see CFW.net go forward? What suggestions for links and new features or web tools (group weblog, wiki, calendar, for example) would you like to see implemented? More/less of? Use the comments link to this post or send us your feedback via email or using the contact link in the navigation menu.
Thursday,September 2
7:30 p.m. in Gunderson Auditorium in Achatz Hall of Science off Leesburg Road.
Experts from two Fort Wayne universities will gather at the University of Saint Francis for a panel discussion about what is, and is not, considered art. "Novelty, Curiosity, and Absurdity End And Art Begins: The Dangers In Defining What Should Be Considered Art" will feature professors from Indiana University-Purdue University, Fort Wayne and the University of Saint Francis as they debate what constitutes a "work of art."
Charles Shepherd from the Fort Wayne Museum of Art will moderate the panel of Kenneth Bordens, professor of psychology at IPFW; Sufi Ahmad, professor of art emeritus from USF; Dr. Art Freeman, Dean of the School of Professional Studies at USF; Esperanca Camara, Assistant Professor of Art and Visual Communication at USF; and Cliff McMahon, Assistant Professor of Art and Visual Communication at USF.
"I have heard the argument that anything can be art and that there is good art and bad art," Professor Bordens suggests. "The distinction between good art and bad art is a valid one . . . the Mona Lisa next to a portrait of Elvis Presley done in shimmering colors on velvet illustrates this point well. However, to classify anything as art as long as it is also classified as bad art diminishes the meaning of art. If everything else is art, then nothing is art."
For more information, telephone the USF School of Creative Arts at 260-434-7591.
by Beth Wittke Callender
Are we doing anything like these other cities are? I love the downtown. There are thousands of artist in this city. We need affordable studio space. We need to keep revitalizing west central. We need to make the downtown more tourist accessible and encourage entrepreneurs to come here. Why not a west central art fest like in Louisville? Wayne and Berry would be perfect. Why have it in covington plaza and not downtown? And Why is the Three Rivers Festival scattered all over the city? Thats a time of year when I want to be able to walk to all of the events, not drive! We want things to be easy, or less people are going to go! In Louisville on Bardstown road they have what looks like optional on street parking. If no one is parked, its a traffic lane. If someone is parked there its a parking spot. it took a small amount of adjustment, but it wasn't hard. I believe that is one of the reasons that their art and culture street is sustainable. You can park in front of or near the store!!!!
Please read my other comments behind some of the articles on this site for further ranting from a 20-30 something frustrated by the lack of culture in this community.
Richard Florida has built a thriving career on the theory that the "creative class" drives urban economic growth. But critics increasingly say his ideas just don't add up. Link
By Christopher Shea, 2/29/2004
THE ECONOMY MAY have been flat for the last two years, but Richard Florida is soaring. The Carnegie Mellon business professor's 2002 book "The Rise of the Creative Class" connected with something in the public psyche. It heralded the arrival of a new breed of American worker: educated, ambitious, hip, probably a mountain biker, ready to dump a job whenever hit with the slightest urge for a "life shift." These workers differ from the old Organization Man in many ways, but this difference is crucial: Creative-class members want not just decent jobs and good schools but "authentic" neighborhoods, Thai food, a happening arts scene, and -- most importantly -- proximity to other "creatives."
Florida's jaunty New Economy tome, a bestseller, set in motion his thriving career as an urban-development guru. Even in the post-boom era, civic leaders are seizing on the argument that they need to compete not with plain old tax breaks and redevelopment schemes, but on the playing fields of what Florida calls "the three T's: Technology, Talent, Tolerance."
The mayor of Denver announced last fall that he'd bought copies of "The Rise of the Creative Class" for his staff and, inspired by his reading, engaged an $80,000-a-year public-relations expert to "rebrand" the city as a more creative metropolis. After perusing the book, Michigan governor Jennifer M. Granholm put on a pair of sunglasses and boasted that, thanks to Florida's ideas, Detroit,Dearborn, and Grand Rapids would soon be "so cool you'll have to wear shades." She has asked the mayors of 250 Michigan cities and towns to form "Cool Cities" advisory boards to brainstorm about hipsterization strategies. Additionally, Michigan is spreading seed money to startups in the life sciences, high-tech automotives, and homeland security.
Florida consults with Granholm free of charge, but he gives about 50 paid speeches a year and also owns a consulting company, Catalytix, that has helped Providence, R.I., measure its "brain drain" and is now assisting upstate New York with a revitalization plan. (Some suggestions: Promote outdoor sports, create "support mechanisms" for artists, and have local families "adopt college students" so they'll stay in the area after graduation.) Last spring, he appeared with leaders of Massachusetts arts groups at a two-day conference in Framingham aimed at making the case for increased state arts funding as an engine of economic growth. Last month, he met with Hillary Clinton's staff to discuss the upstate New York plan.
Now, just as the paperback of "The Rise of the Creative Class" is appearing in bookstores, Florida is internationalizing his argument. In the current Washington Monthly, he argues that places like Brussels, Sydney, Wellington (think "Lord of the Rings"), and Dublin are giving American creative-tech centers a run for their money by hustling for mobile intellectual talent. Meanwhile, he writes, the Bush administration threatens to touch off a "creative class war" with innovation-busting policies like the ban on stem-cell research and increased scrutiny of foreign graduate students.
At the same time, an anti-Florida tsunami is gaining momentum. A growing number of urban-policy commentators question his advice that mayors concentrate on luring "singles, young people, homosexuals, sophistos, and trendoids," as Joel Kotkin, a journalist and professor of public policy at Pepperdine University, put it in the magazine American Enterprise last summer.
Florida is taking political hits from the right and the left -- and battling back on his lavish website, CreativeClass.org. "There is just one problem: The basic economics behind [Florida's] ideas don't work," writes Steven Malanga in the Winter 2004 issue of the conservative City Journal. And in the latest issue of the waggish leftist journal the Baffler, based in Chicago, writer Paul Maliszewski calls Florida's city-revitalization theory "so wrong and backward that it reads like satire." Florida has "mistaken the side effects of a booming economy," he writes, "for the causes of growth." After all, "Potemkin bohemias" are not going to get old steel cities humming again.
. . .
Pepperdine's Joel Kotkin, who runs his own consulting business, says he first had his doubts about Florida's work when he read a Florida paper yoking together the Bay Area's gay-friendliness with its success as a tech incubator. "I started to think, `San Jose is 40 miles from San Francisco and those are really different worlds,"' he says.
Then Kotkin was startled when the leaders of gray Midwestern cities began to ask him for advice on how to lure 25-year-old gay college graduates to their regions. "I'd say, `What do you mean? You don't have a snowball's chance in hell.' " Furthermore, Kotkin dismisses Florida's idea of a 38-million-strong "creative class" -- some 30 percent of the US working population -- that lumps together everyone from ballerinas to software coders to accountants. "I don't see how they are more creative than bricklayers," he says.
In publications ranging from Metropolis to Blueprint, the magazine of the Democratic Leadership Council, Kotkin has been arguing that right now workers and businesses -- including tech firms -- are more interested in affordable housing and labor costs than they are in the availability of lattes. Besides, he argues, tech people actually *like the suburbs.
Kotkin also takes issue with Florida's metrics. According to Florida, for example, San Francisco (#2), Boston (#4), and Portland (#6) are all among America's most creative cities -- past and future powerhouses. But in the current issue of Inc. Magazine, Kotkin presents a list of the "10 Worst Metro Areas" in which to do business, which uses a more blunt measure: job creation in 2003. Boston, New York, and San Francisco, in this view, are the "lost bubble children of the 1990s": pricey and overreliant on tech.
The top big-city job creators last year, meanwhile, were Atlanta, Riverside-San Bernardino, Las Vegas, San Antonio, and West Palm Beach -- none of which are superstars according to Florida. Kotkin is especially hot on Riverside-San Bernardino, California's "Inland Empire" -- a hipster urbanite's idea of sprawling hell on earth, but one which has attracted some 660,000 new residents since 1990.
In his City Journal article, Stephen Malanga adds some fresh attacks on Florida's statistics. Florida's list is self-contradictory, he argues: The Top 10 creative large cities increased their jobs base by 17 percent over the past decade, while his 10 worst (a roster of shame that includes Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Las Vegas, and Memphis) grew by 19 percent. The best remedies for downcast cities, Malanga argues, are the good old conservative ones: Cut taxes and slash onerous regulations.
. . .
But Florida sticks to his guns in the face of these critiques, arguing that his ideas sit squarely in the economic mainstream. He points to a long line of respectable research -- by the Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Lucas and the Harvard sociologist Daniel Bell, among others--citing the rising importance of "human capital" as America de-industrializes. Some cities may bind businesses in excessive red tape, but in the end American cities can't compete -- among themselves, or worldwide -- on cost alone. "Why does New York have to play the same role in the world economy as Bangalore, or Oklahoma City?" he asks.
As for Kotkin's alternate list of hot spots, Florida says: "I will take any day Boston and San Francisco and New York over Las Vegas and Des Moines and the rest of Joel's cities." The latter group, he points out, just end up manufacturing and distributing what the more "creative" cities have invented.
Can hard numbers resolve this debate? According to Harvard economist Edward Glaeser, there are grains of truth -- and great dollops of hype -- in both Florida's and Kotkin's views. Florida is onto something -- but only in the industrial Midwest and East, where "skills are close to destiny," he thinks. (He defines skills largely as a college degree, without all the extras Florida adds.) College-educated workers, he points out, helped Boston reinvent itself after factories were shuttered.
But nationally, Glaeser believes other factors are driving growth: People want to live in sunny, dry climates and -- to the horror of smart-growth advocates everywhere -- they actually like car-centered cities. In place of Florida's "Technology, Talent, Tolerance," Glaeser proposes a different recipe: "Skills, Sun, Sprawl."
. . .
The most biting attack on Florida comes, ironically, on class grounds. When Pittsburgh razes an old factory, the Baffler's Paul Maliszewski charges, Richard Florida gets teary over the loss of future loft apartments, while the steelworkers who've lost their jobs over the last quarter-century are acknowledged "only in passing and as statistics." In Florida's new utopia, the working class exists only to "serve the creatives, cleaning up their mess." In a C-SPAN exchange acidly described by Maliszewski, entrepreneurs with "idle minds and comfortable bodies" whine to Florida that unions and taxes are hampering their deep creative visions.
Florida, who has posted a lengthy rebuttal to the Baffler on his website, calls this attack "really weird." He says he is constantly telling city fathers that they need to harness the creative power of all their citizens, rich and poor. "What we have to do is open up membership in the creative class to a much greater group of people," he says, until it eventually includes "everyone."
So schools need to get better, for starters. Admittedly, that's not quite as catchy as the soundbites Florida was generating two years ago, but at least it's one even squares can get behind.
...the loss of U.S. jobs to overseas competitors is shaping up to be one of the defining issues of the 2004 campaign. And for good reason. Voters are seeing not just a decline in manufacturing jobs, but also the outsourcing of hundreds of thousands of white-collar brain jobs--everything from software coders to financial analysts for investment banks. These were supposed to be the "safe" jobs, for which high school guidance counselors steered the children of blue-collar workers into college to avoid their parents' fate.But the loss of some of these jobs is only the most obvious--and not even the most worrying--aspect of a much bigger problem. Other countries are now encroaching more directly and successfully on what has been, for almost two decades, the heartland of our economic success -- the creative economy. Link
Metropolis Magazine asks designers, urbanists, and city-dwellers to outline their personal best- and worst-case scenarios for the future: one idea they would like to see happen, or one they fear might be on the way. Among the respondents is James Howard Kunstler, author of The Geography of Nowhere: "We are lurching toward the end of the cheap oil fiesta which has pretty much made modern life what it is. We are going to have to downscale everything we do in this country. We'll have to live closer together. We'll have to get very serious about growing more of our food closer to home, without petrochemical 'inputs.' " Link
Fort Wayne, IN: The Parks and Recreation Department is hosting five meetings this month as part of its Comprehensive Plan efforts. Citizens are encouraged to share ideas and concerns, which will play a vital part in shaping the future of the Parks and Recreation Department for the next 10 years.
"We're interested in hearing what citizens want to see in their parks and recreation system *mdash; what areas need to be improved, changed or added," said Dianne Hoover, director of Parks and Recreation. "Future parks and recreation activities will be determined by the citizens of this city, and these meetings are intended to encourage public participation."
The meetings will be held at the following times and locations:
Tuesday, September 9, 6:30 p.m. Pine Valley Country Club, 10900 Pine Mills Road
Wednesday, September 10, 5:30 p.m. Aboite Township Fire Station, 1131 Aboite Center Rd.
Wednesday, September 10, 7:30 p.m. Study Elementary School, 2414 Brooklyn Ave.
Thursday, September 18, 5:30 p.m. League for the Blind and Disabled, 5821 S. Anthony Blvd.
Thursday, September 18, 7:30 p.m. Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, 4700 Vance Ave.
Consultants from Woolpert, LLP have held focus groups with participants from stakeholder groups, including those serving youth sports, the environment, City planning and growth, the arts, and parks advocates. In addition, 3,000 surveys were sent to Fort Wayne residents this spring. The public meetings are one of the final steps in the comprehensive planning process before a final plan is presented to the Parks and Recreation Department in late October.
For more information:
Sarah Nichter Fort Wayne Parks & Rec. Manager - Information & Development Office: 427-6024 Fax: 427-6020 Email: sarah.nichter@ci.ft-wayne.in.us
If there is cogent criticism of The Rise of the Creative Class, it lies within its title. America has always (wrongly) defined itself as a classless society. The very word evokes collective memories of the Monarchy from which we rebelled two and a quarter centuries ago. Yet, no one would argue there is a definite strata at work, we just don’t wear our class birth for our whole lives like our Monarchical European counterparts. The beauty of the American “class” system is that the barriers are porous and traffic moves in both directions. In our system, a sort of through-the-lookingglass financial meritocracy, your status is directly related to the amount of loot in your wallet, or the amount of political influence you could lord over someone else’s loot. But the New Economy argued that capital was also Creative, and that there was a whole new “class” of people who possessed that particular form of capital in abundance. Richard Florida argues that they should be treated like any other minority, and in some cities this has been the case. So, if your class status designates your lifestyle and not your family of origin, what, if any, loyalties to the traditional notion of Class are there? And is it possible for a group of some 40 Million people to posses a common identity, even if their individual politics and lifestyles differ radically?Are we really 40 Million Strong?
Read the rest of Charles Shaw's article
Note: over the next few weeks, we will be posting some of the feedback gathered during the discussion following Richard Florida's March 18th, 2003 talk in Fort Wayne. The following is the fourth of these questions posed. View responses and leave yours by clicking on the 'Comments' link below. Please check back regularly to view more.
How would you describe the essence of Fort Wayne?
Responses from the group discussions that evening:
- Small town ever living in the shadow of Indianapolis.
- Great place to raise a family.
- Park system is fantastic.
- Cultural hub for Northeast Indiana and its recreational opportunities at lakes.
- Big small town. Small enough to get around but close enough to big cities.
- Easy to get from one place to another.
- Different activities here, has to find and seek them out.
- Hot bed of creativity and inventiveness has lost most of critical mass, needs to celebrate that history.
- Take our cultures for granted.
-More resources for the community should be developed at IPFW. This university [IPFW] will strengthen the appeal of Fort Wayne.
- Islands or pockets of innovation and creativity disconnected from one another but in search of networking
Note: over the next few weeks, we will be posting some of the feedback gathered during the discussion following Richard Florida's March 18th, 2003 talk in Fort Wayne. The following is the third of these questions posed. View responses and leave yours by clicking on the 'Comments' link below. Please check back regularly to view more.
What should happen next to keep things moving?
Collected Responses from the 'Now What?' Cards left at the event:
- This evening will only have been worthwhile if long-term change is started by this session.
- A Clay Art Festival: It’s our most important natural asset; (all American clay). Dump a couple of trucks full and sculpt.
- Richard Florida is a wonderful speaker. Thanks. Market/sell Fort Wayne as the best place to live. It takes people to prosper
- Thank you so much for brining Richard Florida to speak with us in Fort Wayne. This forum to begin the dialog is so important. I would like to note that the only reason I heard about the event is because I knew of Florida’s work from other sources and I LUCKILY caught Jean Shaheen’s interview on NPR so early in the morning. AND my husband who works on the campus that helped sponsor the event, NEVER saw or heard an ad for this. Im concerned that your word isn’t getting out as effectively as it could. But I’m SO glad I heard about it.
- It’s great to hear this kind of information going out ot City of Fort Wayne. The word is out! Factories/industry are not what is helping Fort Wayne to grow. Its time to promote and create jobs for the movers and shakers.
- Richard Florida was awesome! Please bring him back to assist Fort Wayne in moving toward a creative community with more implementation techniques. I’m interested involved in Fort Wayne’s creative movement. Please contact me.
- Use the list of attendees to call a follow up meeting. Give people a way to stay involved.
- Let’s have more of these meetings.
- Do a focus group with 20 and 30 year olds to find out what they want out of a community that we’re not currently offering and what they do like here.
Note: over the next few weeks, we will be posting some of the feedback gathered during the discussion following Richard Florida's March 18th, 2003 talk in Fort Wayne. The following is the second of these questions posed. View responses and leave yours by clicking on the 'Comments' link below. Please check back regularly to view more.
How have your plans or attitudes been influenced or changed by what you learned at the event?
Note: over the next few weeks, we will be posting some of the feedback gathered during the discussion following Richard Florida's March 18th, 2003 talk in Fort Wayne. The following is the first of these questions posed. View responses and leave yours by clicking on the 'Comments' link below. Please check back regularly to view more.
What did you learn at the event that surprised you?
Responses from the group discussions that evening:
-In creative communities, there are high levels of stress-related illnesses and divergent salaries.
-Statistics about make-up of nuclear families.
-Attendance – Numbers variety – astounded
-His age – Seemed very young, but was 40
-Common sense – That we do not put into practice – everyone is creative
-Why do young people go? How to bring them back? We need to focus on the return.
-Transient community.
-Yeah, finally. We all knew it, but NO ONE voiced it before.
-Tax abatements don’t mean anything.
-Artists should be incubated like businesses. Art brings dimension to a community. Provide a portal for people to create. Synthesizer of ideas, items blended together.
-No. 1 segregated community in the country in housing.
-Talk about same old issues with same solutions/problems in the end.
-Fort Wayne has an array of things (fine arts) – our daily way of living is great in comparison to bigger areas.
-What are the downtowns looking like of his top 20 cities? Compare to Fort Wayne.
-Coliseum versus downtown issue discussed.
-Compared Fort Wayne to larger cities and how stereotypes are more prominent in Fort Wayne – ripped body jeans and body piercings trigger a stereotype in Fort Wayne
-Creativity is great equalizer. To think with that as a point of reference. Provides base to start from: connect with others, open doors.
-Everyone wants/needs to be validated. Places that are open to "weird" or different people will validate their way.
-New ideas thrive in old buildings.
-"We want a place that is not done."
-Places that were really successful are "Creative Centers".
-Creativity is the sources of economic growth.
-Economic growth is not just technology. "Creative Centers" are where you find more jobs, more innovative businesses/cities.
-We need a ready supply of entrepreneurs – economic creativity.
-Mosaic: take issue with mosaic. Melting pot: lots of blending of skills, background. Everyone learned from everyone else. Need to get back to working together.
-Perhaps mosaic at individual level – not community level.
-Mosaic: see each piece individually, comes together into larger picture. Appreciate color, texture, put together to make a picture.
-Calgary Canada uses arts to decorate concrete, overpasses, depict background of people who make up place.
-Thinking outside the box doesn’t necessarily need to stay the way they are.
-Highest concentration of gays are also most creative cities. People want to live in more liberal community.
-All the inventions out of Fort Wayne.
-The number that showed up.
-Central Soya – didn’t hear ?????
-Need to display our pride.
-Creativity comes from humans. We are the economic raw material.
-Role of community is fundamental part of economics and social.
-Less than 1 year at a job for people under the age of 30.
-Creative people want diversity.
-Places that were open to different people, where people can find their way and validate their life, those kinds of places that creative people naturally gravitate to.
-Authenticity, credible, sense of community.
-30% of workforce in creative sector, but accounts for 50-60% of income.
-Positive message. We are not done.
-People like to live where they can make an impact.
-Rethink ideas of economic development to include creativity processes and activities.
-That the event occurred even at all.
-Nine percent of people in "Leave it to Beaver" setting.
-Florida is a really good speaker. This book is loaded with studies.
-There are so many other places in the world that people in U.S. want to go to.
-That Fort Wayne was picked. Why are we considered a creative city.