Creative Class

The Washington Post asks:

Would America open its doors for the next Albert Einstein? Under the new immigration bill, the answer is maybe, but maybe not.

(Hat tip: Rob Greenhalgh)

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You may have missed it but:

A major demographic shift took place on Wednesday, May 23, 2007: For
the first time in human history, the earth’s population is more urban
than rural. According to scientists from North Carolina State
University and the University of Georgia, on that day, a predicted
global urban population of 3,303,992,253 exceeded that of
3,303,866,404 rural people. In the US, the tipping point from a
majority rural to a majority urban population came early in the late
1910s. (Hat tip: Robert Wuebker).

Mayor Mike Bloomberg wants to replace New York’s taxi fleet with hybrids by the year 2012.  In addition to being good for the environment, it’s clearly part of the mayor’s strategy to make NYC a more attractive, cleaner, outdoor-oriented and family-friendly city – and in so doing to improve its position especially viz a viz London in the global battle for talent.

My new book is starting to take shape, scheduled for release March 2008. So now comes the hard part – titling it. The book deals with why place is the central factor in the global economy, how it effects our wealth and happiness, and how to think strategically – and pick! – the right place for you. We came up with a list of titles, but two lead the list and my editor says the publishing team is split down the middle on them:

• The Wealth of Place
• Who’s Your City

These would go with a subtitle like: “Why Place Matters to the Global Economy, Happiness, and Everyday Life.” Though if we go with Wealth of Place, “location” would substitute for “place” in the subtitle.

Others we’ve tossed around include:

• Where
• Location Factor
• Why Place Matters
• Geography is Destiny
• What’s Your LQ (Location Quotient)

All of us would very much appreciate your thoughts and ideas. Feel free to suggest other titles as well, and let us know the ones you love, hate, or are indifferent about -  and their pros and cons.

In marketing circles, green is the new black right? Drive a Prius, buy organic, and now, when home shopping, you must use an ‘Eco-broker.’ Check out this article by Lauren Tara LaCapra at RealEstateJournal.com. From the piece,

"More than 1,000 agents have taken a $395 course offered by a
former U.S. Department of Energy official on the basics of what makes a house
green — one that conserves energy and is close to public transportation, for
example. After taking the course, they then can advertise themselves as "EcoBrokers"
on their business cards and Web sites. Though that’s a tiny 0.3% of all U.S.
real-estate professionals, similar initiatives are popping up to raise awareness
and take advantage of wider public acceptance of issues such as global warming
and growing concern about higher energy costs."

posted by David

For this week’s "By the Numbers," we examine the top talent clusters for medium-sized metros (500K-Million).   Just as we did last week for large metros, we list the top three medium-sized regions for each cluster.   

We ranked metros on three static criteria (2005):

• Size of labor force:  How many individuals are working in each talent cluster?  Metros with larger employment numbers received a higher score.

• LQ: How specialized or concentrated is a metro in a talent cluster?  Metros with a higher LQ or specialization received a higher score.

• Salary: Which metros have the highest cluster salary?  Metros with higher salaries were awarded a higher score.

Next week, we will look at the mid-sized and small metros.   If you would like more detail or a complete list of rankings for regions, contact steven or david.

Download CCGMediumTalentClusters.pdf

Thanks again to Jim Kaminski for his database expertise.

posted by: steven

We all heart rankings, so here’s another one.

WeatherBill, Inc., based in San Francisco, released a study ranking the country’s wettest cities. Here’s the top ten:

1. Mobile, Alabama – 67 inches average annual rainfall; 59 average annual rainy days

2. Pensacola, Florida – 65 inches average annual rainfall; 56 average annual rainy days

3. New Orleans, Louisiana — 64 inches average annual rainfall; 59 average annual rainy days

4. West Palm Beach, Florida – 63 inches average annual rainfall; 58 average annual rainy days

5. Lafayette, Louisiana — 62 inches average annual rainfall; 55 average annual rainy days

6. Baton Rouge, Louisiana — 62 inches average annual rainfall; 56 average annual rainy days

7. Miami, Florida — 62 inches average annual rainfall; 57 average annual rainy days

8. Port Arthur, Texas — 61 inches average annual rainfall; 51 average annual rainy days

9. Tallahassee, Florida – 61 inches average annual rainfall; 56 average annual rainy days

10. Lake Charles, Louisiana — 58 inches average annual rainfall; 50 average annual rainy days

You can check out related story: here.

posted by: steven

Richard is headed to the Northland today to speak at the Duluth,MN-Superior, WI Area Community Foundation’s annual meeting. The area is one of amazing beauty, interesting history and familiar challenges:

News story today in the Duluth News Tribune:

Fur trading put what became the Duluth area on the map in the late 17th century.

In the late 1800s, iron ore and timber made Duluth a boomtown.

But
in this century, creativity, or the ability of workers to synthesize
new ideas and efficiencies, will be the defining resource the Zenith
City must mine if it is to flourish.

Read the full article here.

Op-Ed by Community Foundation President, Holly Sampson: 

Let’s make economic development about everyone’s prosperity

…But the Duluth area also needs to address the challenges the community
faces: How to embrace territorial assets in a sustainable way. How to
tap into resources such as the human capital of those who graduate from
Northland schools and then move away. How to build more ties, bridges
and relationships across groups that don’t normally associate with one
another. And, most important, how to embrace and welcome new people and
perspectives.

Read the full op-ed here.

Posted by Amanda.

Design festivals are not only popping up, but growing fast, all over the world. Jude Stewart writes in Business Week about festivals from London to Belgrade and their effect on business, the design industry and community: 

Full Article: All the World’s a Fair, "Are design fairs really effective in drumming up business, boosting education, and promoting awareness of tomorrow’s next design capitals?"

Two favorite excerpts:

Everyone, into the kitchen:

John Lippinkhof, general manager of Design Platform Eindhoven,
organizers of Dutch Design Week every October. "It’s not a commercial
event. We ask designers to think about the design process… [and] the
public gets invited into the kitchen." This self-organized event grew
from a designers-only klatch 10 years ago to a weeklong public event in
2003, to 50,000 mostly Dutch participants in 2006, split equally among
designers, the public, and industry groups like manufacturers and
distributors.
 

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Ben Casnocha asks: "I wonder if there’s a connection between the number of residents who "do nothing" and the overall creativity level of a city?" and sends along the link to this story.

Who are these people?
At any given hour on any given workday, well, it turns out it’s not a
workday at all. Not for these hordes roaming free, anyway. By rights
our parks and movie theaters and stores should be minor ghost towns
between 9 and 5 — chanced upon by the occasional tourist or late-night
bartender but otherwise peaceful. Instead, they’re inexplicably packed.
I didn’t doubt that the packers had sound explanations. I just wanted
to hear them.It occurred to me last night that you can learn as much about a city from what its people don’t do as you can from what they do do. So I drove to as many parts of San Francisco as I could and interrupted as much leisure as possible to find out.

I often walk the streets of DC, NY and other places and wonder the same thing. You?