The Creative Class and the Future of Our Cities with Dr. Richard Florida

The best-selling author of The Rise of the Creative Class, social scientist Richard Florida is one of the key forces driving urban regeneration. Renown for his cutting-edge research, he has spent more than a decade helping city planners revitalize communities and convert some of the country’s declining urban areas into inviting places to live. Florida serves as the Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management; additionally, he is a Global Research Professor at New York University.

FLORIDA: The Creative Class includes people who work in science and technology; arts and culture; and business, management, and the professions. These are the thinkers, leaders, innovators, influencers and entrepreneurs who are pushing the cultural and commercial envelope, developing, designing, and marketing the newest products and services.

This class makes up between a third and half of the workforce in the advanced nations and much more than that in great cities. It is the leading economic and trend-setting force in our economy and society. Worldwide there are more than 150 million creative workers. In the U.S., the Creative Class control more than 50% of wages and income and nearly 70% of all discretionary spending. Simply put, the Creative Class is the main engine of future economic growth.

FLORIDA: The other two sectors of our economy include the service sector and working/ production-based workforce. The service sector includes those working in food service, personal services, office and administrative roles and health care support. By far, this is the fastest-growing segment of our workforce. The working/ production based workforce is comprised of those working in construction, transportation, production and building maintenance.

FLORIDA: Cities are economic and social organizing machines. They bring creative people and ideas together, providing the platform for them to combine and recombine in myriad ways, spurring both artistic and cultural creativity and technological innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic growth.

FLORIDA: Location plays an ever more important part in firm strategy and performance. For business executives, this is more than just picking locations where costs are low. The right location can provide business and entrepreneurs with the access to key customers and clients, talent pools, R&D assets and clusters of other companies. Location decisions are not one-size-fits-all decisions; they must be tailored to the specific need of the business and its future strategy.

FLORIDA: That’s a tough question; many cities all over the world are making great strides in improving their quality of place and knowledge-based industries. I’d be looking at places that are working to improve their standing on what I call the 3Ts of Economic Development – Technology, Talent and Tolerance. Technology and innovation are critical components of a city’s ability to drive economic growth. Talented people are absolutely key and the communities that they are most drawn to are open to new ideas and different kinds of people.

FLORIDA: Talent, Technology, and Tolerance – represent what I call the 3Ts of economic development. The 3Ts approach represents a strategy for how cities can compete in the creative age and attract the Creative Class to their communities.

• Talent: The driving force behind any effective economic strategy is talented people. We live in a more mobile age than ever before.
• Technology: Technology and innovation are critical components of a community or organization’s ability to drive economic growth. To be successful, communities and organizations must have the avenues for transferring research, ideas, and innovation into marketable and sustainable products.
• Tolerance: Economic prosperity relies on cultural, entrepreneurial, civic, scientific, and artistic creativity.

Creative workers with these talents need communities, organizations, and peers that are open to new ideas and different people.

FLORIDA: Our cities face deep, deep challenges. Some are becoming increasingly unaffordable to the Creative Class and only playgrounds for the wealthy minority. While the arts are not a silver bullet for cities, they do play a very important role in urban economic development.

My work around my new book, The New Urban Crisis, has found segregation and division within our cities to be at great heights. We will need to act upon a new social compact and urban growth model to ensure our cities are inclusive for all creatives and residents. It is critical to the soul of our cities.

FLORIDA: Given the differences in housing and living costs across U.S. metros, a single national rate makes little sense. In fact, I have made the case for a localized minimum wage that should be 50 to 60 percent of the median wage. While some have argued that raising the minimum wage will drive up prices and could force some people out of work, research has suggested that raising the minimum wage can actually help the economy. A hypothetical 10 percent hike in the minimum wage would have no statistically significant negative effects on restaurant or retail industry employment but could actually reduce poverty levels by 2 percent.

FLORIDA: First, we’ve seen a migration back to our cities, creating a greater investment in our urban cores. Many of the economic forces – the concentration of assets, for example – require that we evaluate our choices and needs more holistically.

Second, we are seeing a greater focus on experiences and less on mass consumption. Today’s Creative Class is searching for real meaning, authenticity and prosperity, creating opportunities for businesses and communities who fully grasp this new path forward.

FLORIDA: I will explore the good and the bad sides of our ongoing urban revival. While the migration back to cities is creating great opportunities, it is also creating great challenges – rising inequality, gentrification and unaffordability, and worsening economic segregation. The creative economy is a rising tide, but it’s not lifting all boats—blue collar and service workers are actually worse off in many places, and there is a hard core of multi-generational poverty that remains untouched. I outline a new urban growth model and a set of policies that can help make our cities more inclusive and resilient.

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To bring Dr. Richard Florida to your organization, please contact Michael Frick at: Mike@Speaking.com.