Creative Class

I came across this terrific graphic by Peter Durand of Alpha Chimp Studios today.  It’s based on a talk I gave some time ago at PopTech.  I have two of Peter’s graphics hanging in my office.

More than 70 countries will gather in Brazil this week for a summit on the global creative economy. The meeting is sponsored by the United Nations and spearheaded by the great Gilberto Gil, Brazil’s Culture Minister and one of the most interesting musicians of our time.Ponder for a minute what it might mean if say Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen or Lou Reed served in a similar capacity in the USA.  More here (hat tip: Brian Knudsen)

So much new development these days is plagued by “generica.”  Jane Jacobs long ago noted our human quest for the authentic, the historic and the real.

Rockville, Maryland, a suburb of Washington DC, is trying to attract home-grown businesses to its mixed-use downtown redevelopment project, according to this story in todays NYT’s real estate section. “No matter how big we get,” Art Chambers, director of community planning and
development services for the city, said recently, “we’ll need the presence of
homegrown enterprises in order to retain our unique identity. This new
development isn’t about creating just another ‘Anyplace U.S.A.’ ” Amen!

As a working class kid born in Newark New Jersey, getting a full-ride Garden State scholarship to Rutgers College in 1975 changed the arc of my life. For the first time, I could be smart without risking getting ridiculed or beaten up. And, for the first time, I was in an environment that valued academic achievement.  I went off to college, while many of my childhood friends ended up in drug rehab, jail, or worse.  The rest, as they say, is history.

Getting into college has become much more competitive since, and much, much more expensive. State universities are attracting kids from across the country and privates are attracting them from around the world.

As the debate over inequality and economic spikiness starts to gain more traction, what is the role of higher-education.  A new  report from the Education Trust, Engines of Inequality: Diminishing Equity in the Nation’s Premier Public Universities, provides a troubling assessment of the trends (hat tip higheredchat).

That’s what San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom told the San Francisco Chronicle, when asked why talks with the football 49ers ultimately broke down.  “I can’t give up all my time and say I’m going to spend it with you. I’m not going to spend all my time giving up on everything else.” Newsom, one of the most interesting and innovative young mayors around, was recognized by Time Magazine as one of America’s best mayors.

Read the inside story of how it all went down here.

It seems communities can generate more revenue from their stadiums when the professional sports teams. Case in point Oakland California (hat tip David Irwin at Planetizen). Oakland hopes to gain from

What To Do With The Stadium When The Team Leaves?

“Contrary to popular belief, the City of Oakland made very little profit, if any, on having the Oakland Athletics play at the McAfee Coliseum. The baseball team’s pending move within Alameda County frees
the stadium for more lucrative events.”

Cisco Systems and Oakland Athletics officials promising to build a high-tech ballpark of the future in Fremont, Oakland city leaders are exploring how to use McAfee Coliseum without the team.”

“…Ignacio De La Fuente, an Oakland City Council member who also serves on the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority’s board of directors, suggested that his city might even benefit if the team moved.

“To be candid, we made more money in one Rolling Stones concert than the A’s made (us) in a whole year. We will deal with it,” De La Fuente
said.”

“It won’t hurt the taxpayers of the city and the county,” said Mark Kaufman, who works as general manager for the private company that runs the Coliseum complex, adding that it also could benefit his firm, SMG, which doesn’t profit from the baseball games.”

What about using old stadiums as outdoor urban concert venues, outfitting them to suit?

Read the whole story from the San Francisco Chronicle here.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Rude immigration officials and visa delays
keep millions of foreign visitors away from the United States, hurt the
country’s already battered image, and cost the U.S. billions of dollars
in lost revenue, according to an advocacy group formed to push for a
better system.

To drive home the point, the Discover America
Partnership released the result of a global survey on Monday which
showed that international travelers see the United States as the
world’s worst country in terms of getting a visa and, once you have it,
making your way past rude immigration officials.

The rest of the story is here.

A new special issue of the journal Environment and Planning is out on this very important subject. Edited by three leading scholars, Norma Rantisi of Concordia University, Deborah Leslie of the University of Toronto and Susan Christopherson, it includes my study of Montreal with Kevin Stolarick and a host of interesting articles.  The editors’ introduction is here.

Not sure how people in the exurbs are faring on Tyler Cowen’s question, but a recent Brookings Institution report provides the skinny on lot’s of other trends.

“As of 2000, approximately 10.8 million people live in the exurbs of large metropolitan areas.
This represents roughly 6 percent of the population of these large metro areas. These exurban
areas grew more than twice as fast as their respective metropolitan areas overall, by 31 percent in
the 1990s alone. The typical exurban census tract has 14 acres of land per home, compared to 0.8
acres per home in the typical tract nationwide.”

“The South and Midwest are more ex-urbanized than the West and Northeast. South Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Maryland have the largest proportions of their residents living
in exurbs, while Texas, California, and Ohio have the largest absolute numbers of exurbanites.”

“Seven metropolitan areas have at least one in five residents living in an exurb. These metro
areas include Little Rock, Grand Rapids, and Greenville, as well as areas like Poughkeepsie that serve as “satellites” to nearby larger metro areas.”

“Nationwide, 245 counties have at least one-fifth of their residents living in exurban areas. The Louisville metro area has the highest number of exurban counties, followed by Atlanta, Richmond, and Washington, D.C… These exurban counties grew by 12 percent overall between 2000 and 2005, faster than population growth in urban, inner suburban, or outer suburban counties. However, outer suburban counties added 4.5 million people in the last five years, exceeding the 1.8 million-person gain in exurban counties.”

“Residents of the “average” exurb are  is proportionately white, middle-income, homeowners, and commuters.”

Just 6 percent of large metro area residents live in an exurb, and these exurbs vary from affordable housing havens for middle-class families, to “favored quarters” for high-income residents, to the path of least resistance for new development.”

Over at Marginal Revolution, Tyler Cowen asks: “Why do people live in cities?”, writing that:

“Someone I was talking to — no I can’t tell you who — claims that the answer is to enjoy casual or anonymous sex. Now this is not my field of expertise.  The claim was that picking people up in the suburbs, and driving to one of the homes for sex, is difficult. …  In a city, on the other hand, there is walking and the metro or
subway.  An emergency exit is easier, and cars need not come into play at all… Noble readers, is this true?  Do be analytical, facts are fine but I am not interested in risque comments per se.” The entire post and  some very interesting comments are here.

I have a hunch what Jane Jacobs and Robert Lucas would say: What do you think?