Creative Class

Guess what Google’s  biggest perk is?  Nope, not the gym.  Nada on the chef prepared food. Not  the flexible schedule.  Or the ability to work on stuff you love. It’s the Google shuttle, according to a New York Times’ report.

Google’s shuttle service covers the entire Bay Area moving roughly 1,200 employees over 4,400 miles a day aboard 32 buses with wireless access, bike racks and room for dogs. Reflecting those flexible schedules, the morning service picks up workers from 5:05 to 10:40AM, while evening drop-offs start at 3:40 and run all the way ’til 10:05PM.

The Google shuttle confounds the idea that Silicon Valley is a separate and unique island in the broader Bay Area. Squelchers and skeptics like Joel Kotkin try to put the kibosh on the creativity thesis by saying essentially that Silicon Valley is a self-contained “nerdistan” filled with techies, a far cry from the more outlandish lifestyles and culture of  San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley home to those ever-so-troublesome “yuppies, sophistos, trendoids and gays.”

So much for that nonsense. That’s the route of the Google shuttle, as the map above shows. It’s a point that that did not go unnoticed by the Times which writes: “the hopping cultural and social life of San Francisco remains a magnet for young workers, even though the commute to offices in Silicon
Valley, some 35 miles to the south, can take well over an hour.” And for older workers with families, the shuttle enables them to live in areas which offer more affordable than Silicon Valley.  Like I argued in Rise, the only way to understand the Bay Area is a as a broad commuting shed, labor market area, and set of lifestyle communities which offer something for everyone. Or for the regional analysts out there: that’s why the CMSA is the relevant unit of analysis.

One last thing:  transportation remains a vital component of quality of place.  In doing the research for Rise, young creative-tech types told me outright that the ability to live somewhere with accessible mass transit and the ability to get around without a car was a central factor in their location decision.  Google is in effect privatizing this for its people. If anyone still can’t figure out why, guess what the No. 1 concern for Bay Area residents has been for 10 years running. You got it – traffic!  Or as Bent Hagemark, a 44-year-old software engineer who boards the shuttle in Cow Hollow, an upscale neighborhood in the north end of San
Francisco, told the paper:  Google could cut just about any other perk. But, if  “they cut the shuttle, it would be a disaster.”

The full story is here (hat tip: Kevin Stolarick).

Virginia Postrel ponders the aesthetic authenticity of fake lofts in the latest edition of the Atlantic Monthly.

“Loft enthusiasts debate intensely just which features define the authentic form: How
important is an old building? Must there be high ceilings? Big windows?
What about bedroom walls? A rough industrial space with concrete floors
and few interior walls—a common real-estate definition of an “authentic
loft”—may seem less authentic than a newly built loft if the old
building has small windows and low ceilings while the new loft is
bright and spacious. …

Today’s new lofts were never intended to
re-create the full experience of the originals. Rather, we learn from
the old to create the new, adapting elements that remain compelling
outside of their original context. What makes a loft authentic isn’t
its layout or its history but its ability to give people a true home—a
dwelling that reflects their personalities and aspirations, including
their dreams of urbanity.”

The whole piece is on-line over at atlantic.com for another day or two.

Wonder what you think?

Here’s a curious list of the 10 most digitally connected cities in the world from Daily Wireless (pointer from Planetizen).

1.  Seoul
2. Taipei
3. Tokyo
4. Hong Kong
5. Singapore
6. Stockholm
7. US wireless mesh communities: St. Cloud, FL; Mountain View, CA; Tempe; Corpus Christi
8. Paris
9. Shoreditch, England
10. Silicon Valley

The full list and writeup are here.

Richard and the research team have been doing a lot of work lately investigating particular occupations and particular locations. For example, comparing the aggregate and wages per capita of  financial occupations in NY versus Chicago or Charlotte or D.C. This gives an idea of the spikiness of certain occupations and may give some guidance as to growth rates in various locations.

A great piece in today’s Washington Post (no sub needed via Salon) highlights what life looks like for those on the top of the DC law spike. Titled Bonus Round, this article  looks at the astronomical bonuses being paid to lawyers finishing their clerkships at the Supreme Court (there are only 36 of these people each year).

From the piece,

“Later this spring, elite law firms will again be offering Supreme Court law clerks signing bonuses of $200,000 (last year’s rate) or even more for their first jobs as practicing lawyers. That will be $200,000 on top of a starting salary of $145,000 to $160,000. With so many powerful firms competing for only 36 clerks, it’s no surprise that the high court’s graduating law clerks will soon be staring down the barrel of NBA-grade salaries.”

“Sidley Austin Brown & Wood’s managing partner, Carter Phillips,
agrees that the Supreme Court’s selection system does single out
extraordinary young lawyers. Moreover, “they’re used to working hard,”
Phillips says. “They can’t get through their clerkships without putting
in significant hours, so you know they can put in 2,200 hours at a
firm.” (Billable hours are the six-minute increments by which lawyers
account for their time. If the studies are right, and you must spend
three hours at work for every two hours you can bill, working 10-hour
days you’d bill between 1,500 and 1,600 hours a year. Way low. Hence
the weekends and takeout and no-life to get you up to 2,200.)

Phillips also notes that because of their work considering possible future cases
for their justice, Supreme Court clerks have been exposed to a much
broader set of federal issues even than their colleagues from the
federal appeals courts. As a consequence, they don’t have nearly the
learning curve of other new associates.

But even Phillips acknowledges that the rates in this bidding war have his partners back in Chicago swallowing hard.”

Does your industry exhibit any of the spikiness that this legal case highlights? (ie baseball in NY, acting or managing actors in L.A., or biotech in SF and San Diego)

posted by David

Looks like Forbes has a new list of the world’s billionaires. Of course, bridge rivals Bill Gates and Warren Buffet lead the way once again. Interesting look at US billionaires by state in the Hartford Courant (from eyeballing the list it appears that California, New York, and Texas dominate).  Globally, Russia’s spike is growing rapidly as it added 19  billionaires to the list this year.

From the story,

“It has been a busy year for Forbes’ team of fortune hunters. Strong
equity markets combined with rising real estate values and commodity
prices pushed up fortunes from Mumbai to Madrid. Forbes pinned down a
record 946 billionaires. There were 178 newcomers, including 19
Russians, 14 Indians, 13 Chinese and 10 Spaniards, as well as the first
billionaires from Cyprus, Oman, Romania and Serbia.

Ingenuity, not industry, is the common characteristic; these folks made money in
everything from media and real estate to coffee, dumplings and ethanol.
Two-thirds of last year’s billionaires are richer. Only 17% are poorer,
including 32 who fell below the billion-dollar mark. The billionaires’
combined net worth climbed by $900 billion to $3.5 trillion. That
equates to $3.6 billion apiece.

The average billionaire is 62 years old, two years younger than in 2005. This year’s new billionaires are seven years younger than that. Of list members’ fortunes, 60% made
theirs from scratch.”

posted by David

A Swedish colleague writes:

“I had a discussion over coffee with my very neoclassical economic colleagues. We talked about tolerance. Everyone and I mean EVERYONE around the table  thought this connection was just obvious. They couldn’t really see why anyone would question it. Wonder if this says something about my country.”

Sure does.  Sweden is literally off the chart on Ron Ingelhart’s self-expression or tolerance index. The US is in the middle.  But it’s two countries, really – its leading creative centers and the rest.

The way I see it is this battle between creativity and control is the defining issue of our age. It goes back several decades now. And it crystallized around the sixties when this thing first came to a head.  Have a look again at Daniel Bell’s classic, Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism. He lays it all out there. Economic growth and development is leading to a culture clash. People no longer want to keep in line with the old Protestant work ethic – slave away at their jobs, conform to expectations, save money. They want to  self-actualize, have fun, and self-express. Or as Virginia’s Republican Congressman Tom Davis has taken to saying: “economic development works.”  When people get richer, they demand more out of life.

The rise of self-expression challenges lots of people – middle managers for one, old-school politicians, national leaders.  For them, solution is simply to reinstate control – to squelch self-expression and creativity. Even if it costs innovation and economic growth.  We see it everyday in companies, in countries and in cities and regions.  That’s what squelchers do.

But you know what:  This state of affairs can’t last. The Darwinian nature of economics ensures than somewhere, someplace will latch onto this. Will it be Sweden?  It certainly has many assets – not just in terms of tolerance but also technology and entrepreneurship. But there are lots of other places that can figure this out.

One thing is for certain, the places that get bogged down in squelching and control will sooner or later fall behind. You can bet on that.

How do you think America stacks up in this competition?  What countries or regions do you think have the culture, attitudes, technology and talent to really move forward?

Over at Zillow, there’s a list of the 50 streets with the biggest houses. Beverly Hills sure has a lot of them, but Scottsdale , Tuscon, South Florida, Las Vegas,  Greenwich, Connecticut, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, the Hamptons, Philadelphia’s Main Line suburbs, Birmingham, Alabama, and other places sure have some whoppers. Aside from one street in Rockville, the DC area is  absent from the list. The full list is here.

Irony or ironies, right below it on their blog is this story of empty-nesters leaving their big house for a condo in downtown Seattle.

Gates of Memphis writes: “Why should everyone be creative?  Because the robots are coming.” Hmmmmmmm……

Thomas Fisher, Dean of the University of Minnesota’s new School of Design:

“The
idea of the design economy is that, for developed countries like ours,
which cannot compete in a global marketplace on price or even quite
often on the quality of a product, we have to compete on the basis of
innovation, creativity and imagination, which takes you to design. By
design, I don’t mean just aesthetics but function and cultural
adaptability.”

More here.