Comments on: The Creative Class Myth

By: Wilgrims

Wilgrims — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 14:45:55 +0000

@Amanda@twitter Truth. Also, I have to call bullshit on this schools thing. Madison consistently is one of the top districts in the country in graduation rates, state exams, ACT scores, etc. For minorities, too, although there are very few of them.

By: Logan Sachon

Logan Sachon — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 02:11:30 +0000

No worries about Portland! I lived there for four years and you can have a super nice life there with like, half a job.

By: stuffisthings

stuffisthings — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 02:02:11 +0000

@MuffyStJohn Well, just make sure you send your kids to Harvard and never let them eat at Red Lobster, or else they’ll never get into Bobo Paradise and will be flattened by an olive tree on steroids. Unless I’m getting my airport bestsellers muddled here…

By: stuffisthings

stuffisthings — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 01:55:46 +0000

@elizabeast It’s OK, I heard someone saw a guy with a mohawk there once, which means all the nurses and middle managers in the city are actually part of the Creative Class!

By: elizabeast

elizabeast — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 01:53:36 +0000

Dear Billfold,

I am moving to Portland next Wednesday. You are not helping.

Love,
elizabeast

By: MuffyStJohn

MuffyStJohn — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 01:53:14 +0000

@stuffisthings Well obviously I would only buy my bacon from a vegan Jew. I’m not some kind of yuppie savage.

By: stuffisthings

stuffisthings — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 01:44:52 +0000

@MuffyStJohn As long as it’s made by creative lesbian, I dunno, vegan Jews, or something, you’re probably fine. I mean, they probably wouldn’t share your coffee with you, since it has bacon in it and all, but rest assured they’re feeding the magic Economics Vortex that causes rents in your city to rise only 6-10 times faster than median income. Creativity!

By: MuffyStJohn

MuffyStJohn — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 01:36:15 +0000

@stuffisthings Now I feel like a fool for moving to San Francisco just to drink bacon coffee.

By: Amanda@twitter

Amanda@twitter — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:23:08 +0000

@wallrock I’m from Minneapolis and I went to grad school in Madison. Minneapolis is definitely more of a real city. But he does make the differences between the two sound a lot starker than they actually are.

By: e

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 21:57:03 +0000

!! I love ripping on Richard Florida!! There’s actually a great series of studies on the relationship between artists and the “creative class” done by a woman named Anne Markusen, debunking the whole puesdo science he uses. Ms. Markusen basically points out that Florida uses the metric of college-educated to equal “creative” but actual creatives often have a lot in common with blue collar workers and industrial land uses (sculptors and glassblowers share more similarity in workspace to buildings that would also work for jewelery plating and box manufacturing, not office space that can also hold accountants and architects).

The reality is Florida is a middle class white collar jobs booster, but indiscriminately, pretending that “creativity” is the shared characteristic of all kinds of workers (he includes lawyers in the creative class!). In reality a city that is strong has opportunities for both highly educated workers and a stable industrial/lower ed job market. Florida sells flimflam.

However this article states that there’s no proof of positive effect on the cities from arts, but that’s also wrong. Markusen also does find economic benefits to cities from having artists- there’s an art multiplier effect that is more real than the sports stadium multiplier, and Americans for the Arts also worked on a number of rigorous studies that show how arts organizations can positively affect a city’s bottom line. However, I don’t think anyone who studies the positive gains of arts for a living would argue that these can fund a whole city. You also need other sturdy sectors. Basically, a healthy city is a complex organism and people like Florida who try and reduce it down are not going to ever get it right.