Creative Class

“Taken from Seputar Indonesia Daily Newspaper published on Sunday, 14 September 2008. This caricature was the complement of Ayu Utami column titled “Bangkitnya Kelas Kreatif” that inspired by the book titled The Rise of Creative Class by Richard Florida.”

My summer was quickly fading, filled with conference calls and meetings so I decided we needed a fun getaway. I struggled for a long time as to whether we should voluntarily take the risk on a flight to the east coast. Against my better judgment, I booked a connector from YYZ – Toronto to AUK – Nantucket with a connection in BOS-Boston Logan. YYZ to BOS, to my surprise, was smooth sailing – no delays, no thunderstorms. When we arrived in Logan, I was of course peeved that we had to screen security yet again for a connection. But the lines were short and the TSA agents upbeat and jovial (unlike the surly team at LGA). As I approached the gate, my heart jumped when I saw the size of the Cape Air flight. A tiny puddler with nine seats.

Cape Air - Welcome Aboard

I started to reroute us in my head. We could drive or take the ferry, I thought. But I was quickly escorted to the tiny plane and to the co-pilot seat where my legs were pushed up against the second steering wheel.  Any slight movement on my part and any one of the hundred year-old buttons and nozzles could have been accidentally hit.

My legs up against the do not touch buttons!

On my window, there was a small warning sticker with the following scribble, “Do Not Open Window!’

See crazy GPS!

All nine of us got on board, fastened our belts, and were off.  As we went tearing down the runway, the pilot held open his window held to allow for ‘air conditioning’ for the poor suffocating passengers in back, then quickly closed the window as we were airborne.

I could not look down on the beautiful body of water below for the entire duration of the flight as the turbulence was so bad it felt like we were dropping out of the sky. My only solace was the pilot’s cavalier attitude. Every time we fell down, I looked over to see a very bored pilot – which calmed my nerves.

With gas prices on the rise and airlines going bankrupt, remote locations are increasingly getting relegated to these third tier flights.  My advice for all you creative class travelers is to fly into a major city, then find other means of transport to get you to your ultimate destination.

“As far as airlines are concerned, you are no longer just a passenger. You are an opportunity to raise “ancillary revenue.” And when it comes to charging for things that were once free, the sky’s the limit. In just a few short months, the airlines have discovered to their glee that their customers are willing to pay for most everything from checked bags to soft drinks to pillows and blankets — and are doing so without much fuss. With that knowledge in hand, the airlines aren’t about to stop.”‘

Ryan Avent, drawing on the research of Ed Glaeser and his collaborators, suggests that higher energy and transportation costs may spur a great “unflattening.”

In recent decades, global trade patterns–that is the structure of
supply chains and mix of products shipped–have developed in a world of
more or less persistent declines in transportation costs (and, one
presumes, the expectation that those declines would continue). In the
same way, our domestic urban geography has evolved with certain
expectations about transportation cost trends in mind.

Some non-trivial portion of those transportation cost declines,
actual and expected, are likely not sustainable over the long-term.
Depending on just how off expectations were, we could see some
interesting changes in economic patterns. For one, I’d expect a global
squishing of supply chains and cities. For another, I’d expect the mix
of shipped goods to move toward high value items, which have a lower
ratio of shipping costs to sale price. That may mean a return of some
production jobs to service-oriented economies.

He’s got a very good point.

Guest Blogger -Rana

If you’re flying out of Miami International Airport, pack your brown bag and a sandwich. This airport leaves much to be desired on the culinary front. Concourse C & D have a greasy cafeteria-style Cuban restaurant and Concourse E has a CPK asap, Chili’s Too, Au Bon Pain, and Burger King. Thank GAWD for Starbucks in those concourses.  For the full gastronomically delightful list click here.

I love cities and I am ever so fortunate to travel to many. A couple of days ago, I saw that Steven Johnson had posted a list of cities he’d visited in 2007. I liked it so much, I thought I should do my own. Well here it is.

Washington DC
Toronto
New York
Chicago
Philadelphia
Baltimore
LA, Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, Laguna Beach, Long Beach, Anaheim, Santa Monica, CA
Miami, Miami Beach, and Tallahassee, FL
Tuscon and Phoenix, AZ
Savannah and Atlanta, GA
Arlington, Alexandria, McClean, Fairfax, VA
Duluth and Minneapolis, MN
Charlotte, NC
Columbus and Dayton, OH
Columbus and Indianapolis, IN
St. Michael’s, Eastern Shore, Bethesda, Maryland

Columbia, SC
Des Moines and Ames, Iowa
Kona, Hawaii
Waterloo and Windsor, Ontario
Copenhagen, Denmark
Malmo, Sweden
Rome and Positano, Italy
Moscow and Krasnoyarsk, Russia
London, UK
Dublin, Ireland
Essen and Düsseldorf, Germany
Tokyo, Japan
Noosa, Brisbane, Sydney, and Hayman Island, Australia

I have at least five years of on-line calendars, maybe more. So, I’m
hoping to put together a master list of the places I’ve been so far
this decade.  I’ve been to lots of North American, European and Asian
cities, but hardly any in South America, Africa and the Middle East.
Hoping that will change as the decade moves on. I’ve got a book tour coming up this spring. Hope to see you in your town.

Endless Innovation writes:

Hotel brand Le Meridien has taken this a step further – the hotel has rounded up 100 of the world’s greatest cultural innovators and artists and asked them to help make the Le Meridien hotel experience as memorable as possible. The LM 100 includes a mix of painters and photographers, musicians and designers, chefs and architects – including two of my personal favorites: coffee impresario Andrea Illy and visionary chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

Anyway, to celebrate the LM 100, my colleagues at electricArtists have created a new Facebook application that enables fans of the Le Meridien experience to connect with fellow innovators: “Guests of Le Méridien are not tourists. They are travelers. They are adventurers in the world of ideas. Le Méridien is to inspire our Guests to discover more than just a new destination. They discover a new way of seeing things.”

Hotels are very interesting creatures and their evolution quite fascinating. First off, their evolution over the past decade or so has put them in my eyes at the forefront of experience-creation.  (The retail experience – blending art, architecture and neighborhood – what Harvey Molotch calls “place in product” – is also fast evolving as Airoots points out, here). I like to stay in a wide range of types of hotels, and increasingly to stay clear of the loud boutique-club hotel variety.  We visited the Parker – a Meridien propety in Palm Springs last year – and the public spaces, lobby and restaurant were very well done; we certainly did not feel like tourists.  My personal favorite these days is New York’s Gramercy Park. Ian Schrager likes to say he isn’t a hotel developer, he’s a social scientist – a statement which is interesting if nothing else. The choice of art is exqusite and the use of industrial design fixtures – like bare light bulbs inspired. This is all to say the ante has been upped.

At a deeper level, hotels and some airline lounges provide a possible glimpse into the future of third places. When city leaders, real estate developers and others ask me what they should “add” to their projects, I say a truly inspired third place (home is the first place, work the second, cafes, bars and so on third places). Now I like Starbucks just fine, but as a third place goes it’s pretty low on the evolutionary scale. What most people need are third places that are geared up for work. The closest approximation, I can find, is a truly great hotel lobby, or, perhaps an airline lounge. I was literally blown away by the Quantas Lounge in Sydney for its combination of quiet, interaction, great food, and coffee (and wine) and truly inspired design.

It’s more than a customer experience, it’s enabling the human being to be inspired and interact and work as seamlessly and productively as possible. Some hotels and airline lounges are beginning to climb this evolutionary ladder – to create third places that try to do this.  My two cents says that work is at the very core of this: not just coffee or drinks, a great restaurant or nightspot, a great place to interact and work.  Seems to me we need to evolve from the current emphasis on great aesthetics and reasonable functionality to great aesthetics and great functionality. Not just in hotel lobbies, but throughout our communities.

What would the next generation of third places look and feel like?

Business Week says subways are the new global “urban status symbol” (via Planetizen). Well thank God, it’s not humongous stadiums.  And if they are, why isn’t the ever status conscious United States building more of them?

We’re in Australia where nearly everyone we meet, including expats and Canadians, asks why America has seemingly lost the plot on internationalism in a global world. People don’t even mention the Bush administration, but politely ask: “Do you think the American empire is starting to decline?” Ouch. Now Felix Salamon reports that:

I cannot even imagine the experience of being finger-printed while traveling. It’s outside the pale of my imagination and I would certainly think twice about traveling to a country where they put me, my family and colleagues through it.

Since as it has no real effect on security and will only damage the US economy, what could be motivating such patently bizarre behavior?

Wendy Waters asks if bike-friendly cities gain an edge in attracting talent. Dave Writes says Boston is rather unfriendly to cyclists.  I became a cyclist in Boston and loved riding out west of the city. On one of my very first rides on my first serious road bike, some clown in Boston drove by and heaved an orange at me – fortunately his aim was poor and he missed. I experienced similar kinds of things in Pittsburgh – a city I also loved to ride in. Much less of this in Washington DC where Beach Drive is well-trafficked by cyclists – and largely closed to cars on weekends – though navigating kids and dogs on a beautiful weekend afternoon could sometimes be challenging. Even though I haven’t gotten out yet, Toronto seems very bike-friendly. It’s the only place I’ve ever lived that people chastise me for driving and tell me to get back on the bike.

My own take on this is that it is a “class” thing. To some, cyclists on skinny tired road bikes decked out in lycra are “rich folks.”  More than once people have by yelled nasty things at me, including questioning my sexual orientation.  All in all, I take it as class anger and frustration, especially in places where class divides are stark.

Your thoughts?

UPDATE: BikingToronto picks up my post. Their tag-line says it all:

I couldn’t agree more!