do I really have to say it???
Posted on 03/20/2013 4:56:55 AM PDT by Sir Napsalot
The so-called creative class of intellects and artists was supposed to remake America’s cities and revive urban wastelands. Now the evidence is in—and the experiment appears to have failed
Among the most pervasive, and arguably pernicious, notions of the past decade has been that the “creative class” of the skilled, educated and hip would remake and revive American cities. The idea, packaged and peddled by consultant Richard Florida, had been that unlike spending public money to court Wall Street fat cats, corporate executives or other traditional elites, paying to appeal to the creative would truly trickle down, generating a widespread urban revival.
Urbanists, journalists, and academics—not to mention big-city developers— were easily persuaded that shelling out to court “the hip and cool” would benefit everyone else, too. And Florida himself has prospered through books, articles, lectures, and university positions that have helped promote his ideas and brand and grow his Creative Class Group’s impressive client list, which in addition to big corporations and developers has included cities as diverse as Detroit and El Paso, Cleveland and Seattle.
Well, oops.
Florida himself, in his role as an editor at The Atlantic, admitted last month what his critics, including myself, have said for a decade: that the benefits of appealing to the creative class accrue largely to its members—and do little to make anyone else any better off. The rewards of the “creative class” strategy, he notes, “flow disproportionately to more highly-skilled knowledge, professional and creative workers,” since the wage increases that blue-collar and lower-skilled workers see “disappear when their higher housing costs are taken into account.” His reasonable and fairly brave, if belated, takeaway: “On close inspection, talent clustering provides little in the way of trickle-down benefits.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
Hipsters Failed Inner Citites And Urban Revival
(More excerpt)
“One group certain to be flustered by this new perspective will be many of the cities who have signed up and spent hard cash over the years to follow Florida’s prescription of focusing on those things—encouraging the arts and entertainment, building bike paths, welcoming minorities and gays—that would attract young college-educated workers. In his thesis, the model cities of the future are precisely those, such as San Francisco and Seattle, that have become hubs of highly educated migrants, technology, and high-end business services.
That plan, though, has been less than successful in many of the old rust belt cities that once made up much of his client base. Perhaps even more galling to these cities, Florida has turned decidedly negative in his outlook on many of those cities—now looking remarkably gullible—that once made up much of his client base.”
Philadelphia. Corrupt & Gullible. ‘Nuf said.
do I really have to say it???
And all that remains of this grandiose flop is some amateurish art and hideous sculpture in public places. When no one buys your junk, you can always apply for a grant and have the perpetually-fleeced tax payer fund your projects.
Stick with the Broken Windows theory and Stop and Frisk.
And LARGE UGLY murals dipicting all kinds Non-Whites harmoniously living in paradise on most of the facades.
Watch Portlandia (streaming on Netflix). You can see the “creative class”.
I think a conservative has to have written Portlandia!
It was an obviously flawed idea to begin with. The most creative people, artists, have a hard time earning enough money to support themselves. Yet they are supposed to generate enough wealth to support others? Not likely.
The truth is on display in Boston. The “creative class” have indeed moved in, but only into special small pockets of upscaled condos in previous slums. The lower classes — esp. blacks — simmer in resentment just outside the walls of these new high-rises. Tensions have increased; money stays strictly within the enclaves and the expensive shops that have appeared to service their residents. Boston is a failed city running on fumes left by ever-higher taxes and the snot-nosed arrogance of a 100% Democrat machine. You will drive by dozens of closed businesses — esp. high tech — every day to and from work in other enclaves of low-rise buildings left over from the boom days of the 1980s, when the late Digital Equipment employed 30,000 people in New England. If you are middle class and have to stop on the way for some errand, you will look fearfully over your shoulder as you hurriedly do what you have to do before you escape. There is a permanent very rich top layer of Boston now accepting applicants who have hit the jackpot in some way, but growth there is glacial. What were older towns outside of Boston have grown as Boston workers — priced out of ever living in the city — buy new homes or condos in places like Clinton, Fitchburg, Berlin. The creative class mixes exclusively with other creatives or the rich it tries to emmulate. Then entire myth of the Creative Class upscaling the cities was absurd to begin with, as if an artist, musician, or author would socialize with a DPW driver or petty criminal.
"What we really need to do around here is to shoot a few more intellectuals." - Attributed to Nikita Kruschev.
creative class of intellects and artists...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.