Here’s a copy of a terrific power-point on immigrants and US regions by Audrey Singer of the Brookings Institution (hat tip: Tian)

Download audrey_singer_immigration.pdf

Download university_and_the_creative_economy.pdf

Here’s a newly revised version of my paper in this subject with Kevin Stolarick, Gary Gates and Brian Knudsen.

The always thoughtful Greg Zachary, author of  Endless Frontier  (on Vannevar Bush and science policy) and The Global Me (on global immigration and blurring racial categories) has penned a new essay on immigrants and cities. More on the intercultural city project here.

Spirited and thoughtful debate on the creative class and politics going on over at Pandagon.

Here’s a piece by me and Gary Gates that ran in today’s New York Daily News.

Some New Yorkers take New Jersey for granted.
Sure, it’s a great place to go to the beach, shop at Ikea or see a
football game. But take people, money and buzz away from the Big Apple?
It’ll never happen.

Yet the Garden State may finally be on its way to turning the tables on
its big brother – thanks to, of all things, a court decision.

Last month, of course, New Jersey’s Supreme Court paved the way for
giving same-sex partners equal rights, giving lawmakers 180 days to
rewrite marriage laws to either include same-sex couples or create a
new system of civil unions for them.

This will be a big deal – not just for same-sex couples, but for New Jersey’s economy.

Why? Because, despite some rumblings in Albany, New York is likely to
be years away from allowing same-sex marriage or civil unions. That
will give Jersey a serious competitive advantage in attracting gay
couples and the economic benefits associated with their calling a place
home.

A forthcoming study by UCLA’s Williams Institute finds that revenue
from weddings and wedding tourism alone (if the Jersey legislature
approves marriage, not civil unions) would add nearly $103 million per
year in business to the state for at least the next few years.

But the economic impact could go way beyond that. Our research on what
makes cities and regions grow shows that urban economic vitality today
turns on openness to new ideas, new people and different lifestyles.
Artistic, technological and cultural innovators and the more than 40
million workers who are part of what we call “the creative class” are
drawn to places that are diverse and tolerant.

And when they settle somewhere, these people, who tend to have
disposable income to spend in restaurants, bars and coffee shops,
attract more of each other and fuel all kinds of economic activity.

Yes, Manhattan has long been seen as a powerful beacon of tolerance and
a magnet of artistic and cultural innovation. That’s what enabled the
city’s rise and resurgence as a world center of not just finance but
art, design, fashion and entertainment.

But success has also brought its costs. Housing and rents have
skyrocketed, and a growing numbers of the foot soldiers of the creative
class have been forced out of Manhattan. Now, people are getting priced
out of Park Slope, Williamsburg and Astoria, too.
Neighborhoods are in a quiet contest, jockeying to be open, vibrant and
affordable alternatives in which this creative class can live and work.

As we speak, much of the shift has benefited Brooklyn, the new creative
hot spot of New York. But what about the next center? Could theaters,
music clubs and Internet startups cluster in Jersey City or Newark?

With its coming leap ahead of New York on gay rights, the smart money just may have moved to New Jersey.

ATLANTA, Nov. 24 — Some cities will do anything they can think of to keep young people from fleeing to a hipper town.

In Lansing, Mich., partiers can ease from bar to bar on the new
Entertainment Express trolley, part of the state’s Cool Cities
Initiative. In Portland, Ore., employees at an advertising firm can
watch indie rock concerts at lunch and play “bump,” an abbreviated form
of basketball, every afternoon.

And in Memphis, employers pay for recruits to be matched with hip
young professionals in a sort of corporate Big Brothers program. A new
biosciences research park is under construction — not in the suburbs,
but downtown, just blocks from the nightlife of Beale Street.

These measures reflect a hard demographic reality: Baby boomers are
retiring and the number of young adults is declining. By 2012, the work
force will be losing more than two workers for every one it gains.

Cities have long competed over job growth, struggling to revive
their downtowns and improve their image. But the latest population
trends have forced them to fight for college-educated 25- to
34-year-olds, a demographic group increasingly viewed as the key to an
economic future.

Mobile but not flighty, fresh but technologically savvy, “the young
and restless,” as demographers call them, are at their most desirable
age, particularly because their chances of relocating drop
precipitously when they turn 35. Cities that do not attract them now
will be hurting in a decade.

Read the rest of today’s New York Times front page story here (most e-mailed story at the Times today).

Over at Davewrites.com, more from Dave Atkins on how and why he chose the neighborhood he did in Boston.

Last week, I posted the story of how we returned to Boston. Here’s a link to the story of how I first came to Boston. When I read stories about how young people today are choosing where to live first, then finding a job, I’m not sure it completely applies to me. The same is true of settling into a particular neighborhood.

As we planned our move from San Jose, CA to the Boston area, we were
fortunate to have a relative here who was a Realtor. She sent us photos
and listings by email in the weeks prior to our whirlwind weekend of
house hunting. This helped us narrow down the choices.

When I first thought of moving back here, I wanted to live in
Jamaica Plain or the South End, because those areas of Boston have a
reputation for being “up-and-coming,” trendy, artsy, areas full of
young people. And yes, true to Richard Florida’s analysis, they are the
“gay enclaves.” I wasn’t looking to specifically live in a neighborhood
full of gay people, but I was thinking I wanted to live in a cool part
of the city.

Read the rest here.

(more…)

Interesting story today in theTimes on the age-old conflict between entrepreneurs and vulture capitalists. The piece makes much of entrepreneurs who are self-financing or going to independent angel investors to get around traditional venture capitalists. This has been going on for a long time.  But venture capitalists bring asssets that go way beyond money and can be critical to building thriving high-tech enterprises–just ask Apple, or google, or virtually any of the successful enterprises that define the landscape of American high-tech. My work with Martin Kenney on the subject leads me to believe that insitutional venture capital, along with perhaps America’s system of research universities and openness to foreign talent, is a key cornerstone of US economic performance.

Shoppers Mob Malls for Holiday Discounts

Important topic, certainly. Sure would be nice they made even a passing reference to the  original report.

Public Colleges as ‘Engines of Inequality’