The Toronto Community Foundation released the latest edition of its annual Vital Signs report. The report finds Toronto to be weathering the Great Reset in relatively good shape with relatively high levels of creativity, innovation, and wealth. But the report also finds that Toronto is becoming more segmented and unaffordable – reflecting the spiky nature of development that affects all global centers. Check out the full report here.
This headline over at Bloomberg today – “Wall Street Cedes to Toronto’s Bay Street” – sure caught my attention. Here’s the gist.
Henry Michaels spent 25 years as an investment banker with New York-based firms such as Merrill Lynch & Co., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Citigroup Inc. When the financial crisis deepened this year, he abandoned the struggling U.S. companies for a job at Royal Bank of Canada. “In this crisis, strength and stability matter,” said Michaels, 48, who resigned as co-head of Citigroup’s banks and diversified financials group in May to join RBC Capital Markets in New York. “RBC is in growth mode, and it’s nice to be playing offense.”
Canadian banks, bolstered by their reputation as the world’s soundest, are adding investment bankers even after rivals slashed almost 316,000 jobs worldwide since the collapse of the U.S. subprime market in 2007, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Lenders including RBC, BMO Capital Markets and CIBC World Markets have hired more than 700 investment bankers, analysts and traders in the U.S. and Canada this year, including from rivals such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and Citigroup.
“The profile of the Canadian banks on the global scale has been heightened exponentially over the course of the last year,” said Rose Baker, a managing partner in Toronto with executive recruitment firm Heidrick & Struggles International Inc. “They look more powerful and are able to attract talent that was historically not available to them.”
Canadian lenders, based in Toronto’s financial district known as Bay Street, have remained profitable amid the crisis because of tighter restrictions on lending and higher capital requirements. As a result, Canada’s biggest banks posted about $20.4 billion in writedowns and credit losses since 2007, a fraction of the $1.62 trillion taken by global financial- services firms in the period, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The World Economic Forum last month named Canada as home to the world’s soundest banks for the second straight year. The resilience allowed the Canadian lenders to climb the ranks of global firms. Three Canadian banks now rank in the top 10 among North American lenders by market value.
Canadian banks are taking on experienced bankers as larger firms trim ranks. North American banks and brokerages cut 9.9 percent of their workforce in the past two years, according to Bloomberg data. Bank of America Corp. eliminated 46,150 jobs, while Citigroup cut 38,900 positions and Lehman fired 13,390 employees. By comparison, Canada’s five biggest banks pared 3,135 jobs, or about 1.1 percent of their staff, in areas such as consumer banking, according to company filings.
With its housing market on the mend and its ability to attract global talent growing, Toronto seems poised to come out of the Great Reset in much better shape than anyone could have expected.
Richard Florida photographed with the Mayor of Ottawa, Larry O’Brian, October 2009.
What determines the level of attachment people have with their communities? And how does that level of attachment and community satisfaction affect local economies? These are big questions that cross the boundaries of urbanism, economics, sociology, and psychology.
For the past several years, the Gallup Organization, in partnership with the Knight Foundation, has conducted a substantial multi-community survey called “Soul of the Community.” I worked on earlier versions of the survey and reported some results in my book Who’s Your City? Here’s a link to the study’s website.
The survey covered 14,000 Americans across the 26 Knight communities each year and asked questions about 10 key domains of community attachment: basic services like infrastructure, the economy, safety, leadership, education, aesthetics (physical beauty and green spaces), education, social offerings, openness, civic involvement, and social capital.
The newly released findings indicate that while the economic crisis is the top community concern of Americans – supplanting crime – the economic crisis did not have a significant effect on community attachment. This is because even though factors like jobs, economic trends, education, and basic services matter to community attachment, they are not predominant factors that matter in people’s community attachment.
The top three factors were openness, social offerings, and aesthetics. Matt Thompson, who edits the Soul of the Community blog, summarized the key survey findings this way.
3. Aesthetics In each community, Gallup researchers asked residents two questions about its attractiveness – how they rated the area’s parks, playgrounds, and trails and how they rated its overall beauty and physical setting. It turns out a pretty city is a lovable city.
You might have suspected this. After all, an area’s aesthetics are one of the first things we talk about when we say why we love a place. Urban design has become a huge topic nationwide over the past few decades, well-reflected in the online conversation through popular sites like Inhabitat and Worldchanging. We intuitively thrill to projects like Manhattan’s High Line – turning an abandoned rail line into a public park – because we recognize that these aesthetic enhancements are important for a community’s well-being.
But would you have expected that our feelings about our community’s aesthetics play a bigger part in our attachment to a place than public safety or highways and freeways? That surprised me, and it suggests to me that as much as we talk about urban design and green space, we might still be underestimating its impact.
2. Social offerings
It sometimes seems as though every city in America is working on a never-ending downtown revitalization project. In recent years, a lot of emphasis has been placed on creating vibrant social cores for our communities, dense places where diverse groups of people can interact. Our study suggests these efforts are valuable.Researchers asked residents questions about how fun and social their communities are – Is there vibrant nightlife? Is it a good place to meet people and make friends? How much do residents seem to care about each other?
Responses to these questions did a lot to indicate how attached people are to where they live. I think this is especially interesting considering the study covers residents from a number of demographics, not just the young, single urbanites that we think of when we hear words like “nightlife.”
To be a top-three characteristic overall, social offerings had to be important to people of a wide range of ages, marital statuses and incomes. And in fact, it’s an ascendant community trait whether you’re looking at a relatively older community like Bradenton, Fla., or a relatively young community like State College, Pa. – both areas where social offerings are actually the leading indicator for community attachment.
1. Openness
The number one trait we identified as decisive in determining residents’ attachment to a community was openness. To get at this trait, researchers asked whether the community was a “good place for” different groups of people – senior citizens, racial and ethnic minorities, families with kids, gays and lesbians, college graduates, and immigrants from other countries.In community after community, residents’ responses to these questions told us the most about how attached they were to their community.Urban scholars such as Richard Florida have been talking for years about the economic benefits of tolerance – a community’s friendliness to different groups of people. Our findings underscore the value of these characteristics and add some strong empirical weight. B ut this leaves me with some questions.
Openness might be the most significant trait in determining community attachment, but of all the areas researchers asked about, this is also one of the most personal and subjective. After all, civic leaders can fix up highways and freeways, create parks and bike trails, make housing more affordable, encourage the development of fun nightlife corridors, and work to lower crime – we have recognized public policy levers to address all of these community needs. But how does a community make itself more welcoming? Laws and policies can only go so far in addressing this perception.
Quite a scene in Pittsburgh last night in the wake of the G-20 on Forbes Avenue, in front of the Carnegie Museum, a block or two away from the campuses of the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. It’s literally two blocks from my old Heinz School office, a block from my favorite coffee shop, and three blocks from where I lived.
Picture by Radder Photos, flickr
Here are some eyewitness reports from the Post-Gazette.
Drew Singer, editor of the student newspaper The Pitt News, watched the events from a window in the William Pitt Union, which has a view of Schenley Plaza. Two Pitt News photographers were among those arrested. “There were way more police than there were civilians, nonpolice,” he said. He said the police gave a loud order to disperse. He said police usually arrest people who are especially unruly, but Friday night, “it seemed like anybody who didn’t leave immediately was being arrested even if they were just kind of watching. Technically, they did not disperse.” He said some Pitt News reporters saw people passing out note cards earlier in the day at the permitted “People’s March to the G-20,” which announced a rally that night in Schenley Plaza. While there may have been protesters, he said, “I personally didn’t see a single protester. There was absolutely nothing like Thursday night. It was overwhelmingly spectators and people who just wanted to see what was going on. It seems like just after Thursday night, [police] just weren’t taking anything. They just weren’t up for any funny business. They gave the orders to disperse, and I guess anybody who didn’t immediately disperse they were going after, it seemed like.”
“It was all students and no protesters — it looked like any Friday night in Oakland but with more people,” said Nathan Lanzendorfer, 23, of Mt. Lebanon. He went to Oakland out of curiosity to see the protests. Shortly before midnight he was caught on Forbes Avenue, with police deploying OC gas from two directions. He was hit with a rubber bullet in his right leg and his left, started to run, and was then hit in an arm and his lower back. “I never heard any warning to leave the area — all four [rubber bullet] shots were within five seconds,” he said. “All the wounds on my back. If I was opposing [the police] at all you’d think I’d have a front wound.” Mr. Lanzendorfer went to UPMC Presbyterian for treatment of his contusions, one of which is softball-sized, he said.
Post-Gazette reporter Sadie Gurman, 24, was among those arrested on the Pitt Cathedral of Learning lawn.”I was arrested on the cathedral lawn while truly trying to get out of the fray,” she said. Ms. Gurman said she had gone to Schenley Plaza because of news alerts she received on her cell phone. At Schenley Plaza, she was talking with colleagues and others she had met while covering G-20 events. In the plaza, she said there was one person on a loudspeaker. Others were standing around talking, running or playing games, such as duck-duck-goose. She estimated the number of civilians in the plaza at about 200.
Much of the plaza was flanked by police officers. “There was definitely an energy that was very ominous at that point,” she said. Even as police ordered the crowd to disperse, Ms. Gurman said some people in the plaza stayed and chanted, “You’re sexy, you’re cute, take off your riot suit.” Ms. Gurman said she left the plaza and went onto Forbes Avenue.”I was trying to move in a way that would not be in their perimeter. I was walking on Forbes toward Craig Street to get out of it. Another police van pulled up. Additional officers in riot gear jumped out and said to ‘move back, move back’ and were pushing us the opposite direction back toward Bigelow.” She went that direction and ended up having to jump over bushes on the Cathedral lawn to get out of the way of police. “I thought I was OK there. The cops jumped over the bushes, too,” she said. She said a helicopter was overhead. With the cathedral behind a group of people, the police made a half circle and ordered people to lie down on the ground. “Some of the girls were hugging each other and crying, saying to the police, ‘Tell us how we can get out of here peacefully. We don’t want to be here, but you’ve trapped us.’ “She estimated about 30 people were put into a police vehicle. She was released about 10 hours after her arrest.
Ellyanna Kessler, an 18-year-old freshman, said she had been watching from her dormitory in Forbes Hall when police shot OC gas canisters onto the balcony of the residence. “Everybody got tear gassed,” she said.
Tracy Hickey, an 18-year-old freshman, said she had been arrested while watching the protest as an off-duty ACLU legal observer. When she realized that many of those being ordered to disperse had “nowhere to disperse to,” she saidheld open the door to a dormitory, ushering a crowd of screaming students into the residence. She said police then arrested her … By about 10:50 p.m., K-9 units and police with plastic shields had surrounded the plaza began to make arrests. Police fired OC gas canisters into a crowd of mostly students on the corner of Forbes and Bigelow. Many people ran down Forbes Avenue, coughing and screaming, as a line of police several officers deep stretched across the road and marched down the street, ordering the crowd to disperse. Some protesters taunted the police, he said. “How do you feel shooting students,” one yelled.
Peter Shell, co-chair of the Thomas Merton Center’s antiwar committee, said he had gone to Oakland Friday night to celebrate the day’s successful and peaceful People’s March to the G-20, which his organization had sponsored. When police made Mr. Shell leave Schenley Plaza, he was forced onto the Cathedral of Learning lawn. When he tried to leave via Fifth Avenue, he was surrounded, trapped and arrested, he said. “We tried going left, we tried going forward, we tried going right,” he said. “We wanted to disperse and they did not let us disperse.”
Molly Shea said she came to Pittsburgh to protest at the People’s March but wanted nothing to do with Friday night’s demonstration, she said. A 22-year-old senior at Ohio University, she was studying at Kiva Han coffee shop until about 10:45 p.m. Friday, when she left to look for her friends. She walked to the lawn next to the Cathedral of Learning to find them and soon realized she was surrounded by police, she said.”We kept asking them how we could leave, or if we could leave,” she said. “Most of them were unresponsive. Some of them just said no.”She was on a police wagon and then a bus for about five hours without water or a bathroom break, though many girls with her were asking for both, she said.”A few police officers were nice,” she said, “but for the most part, they were not.”She said one of the officers was “taking a lot of pride” in taking mug shots next to female detainees, and that other officers frequently used profanities specifically derogatory to women.”Some of them were making jokes when they were moving around from paddy wagon to paddy wagon about ‘getting the hot ones out,’” she said.She was released Saturday morning after being detained for about 10 hours, she said.
A 24-year-old member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Army Sgt. Jeff Bartos had been deployed to Iraq as a medic in 2005. When he came to Pittsburgh this week from New Britain, Conn. to protest the G-20 summit, it was also as a medic.Friday night, he was helping to treat a reporter who had been exposed to OC gas near Schenley Plaza when he realized he was surrounded by police on all sides. He said he was corralled with about 40 “pretty nervous, ‘What-are-we-doing-here’ protesters” as well as “random college kids,” including a girl who had been jogging through the park when she was trapped. He said he was charged with disorderly conduct and released about 6 p.m. Saturday.
Jordan Romanus, 22, who lives in South Oakland, a 15-minute walk from campus, was among those arrested Friday night on the Cathedral lawn. He said they were told to lie face down on the ground. “I feel pretty horrible. I think 99 percent of the people that were arrested had never been arrested before. The anarchists who did all the damage, none of them were there … It was absolutely atrocious.” Mr. Romanus, who said he was released around 12:30 p.m. yesterday, said police kept the detainees handcuffed all night. “My wrists are really sore. I didn’t get any sleep. They made us sit in chairs. They [the handcuffs] were on really right. One kid’s hand was bleeding by the end.”
A former student of mine said in an e-mail:
“The police went totally haywire last night. this article only gives a partial account. they were bashing people, pretty much indiscriminately. Nothing to do with protests, or vandalism, or anarchists. Just people going to get Primanti’s (a Pittsburgh institution famous for its sandwiches piled high with french fires and coleslaw) its , and then they get teargassed, or billy-clubbed, or arrested.”
Update: Here is a video clip from in front of the University of Pittsburgh.
Creative Class Exchange blogger and Martin Prosperity Institute affiliate David Eaves has made it happen in Vancouver.
A wealth of city knowledge is now online as Vancouver becomes one of the most open cities in the world. The information means a click on your smart phone could get you to an open parking space, or a free drink of water.
David Eaves helped city hall create the open source motion, the first of its kind anywhere in the world, “For hundreds of years, cities have been collecting all sorts of data, everything from what the maps of the city are to the location of drinking fountains, but it’s always stayed locked behind city wall because it was written down on paper and so you actually had to go to city hall to access it.” While much of the information seems innocuous, web developers can use it for all sorts of applications. …
When Vancouver passed the open source motion in May, it became the first city to do so, though cities like Washington and San Francisco have already been providing similar information.
The full story is here. Vancouver’s website here. And Eaves’ own report here.
The Talking Heads rank of one of my all-time favorite bands. In this Wall Street Journal essay on what makes for a ”perfect city,” David Byrne shows he’s a pretty fine urbanist.
Size – A city can’t be too small. Size guarantees anonymity …The generous attitude towards failure that big cities afford is invaluable—it’s how things get created …
Density – If a city doesn’t have sufficient density … then strange things happen. It’s human nature for us to look at one another— we’re social animals after all. But when the urban situation causes the distance between us to increase and our interactions to be less frequent we have to use novel means to attract attention: big hair, skimpy clothes and plastic surgery. We become walking billboards.
Chaos and danger – To some, security means rigid order and strict rules. I do believe we do need some laws and rules to guide and reign us in a bit, and I don’t just mean traffic lights and pooper scooper mandates. … A little touch of chaos and danger makes a city sexy.
Human scale – Scale is important. … Some sort of compromise might be more ideal—the tall towers mixed in with the modest-sized shops and restaurants.
Parking – To be honest, available parking doesn’t matter to me. Parking lots and structures are dead real estate—they bring no life into a city … parking structures are simply dead zones, which hurt the businesses around them.
Mixed use – A perfect city is where different things are going on, relatively close to each other, at different times of the day. A city isn’t a strip of hotels and restaurants on a glorious beach; it’s a place where there are restaurants and hotels, but also little stores, fashion boutiques, schools, houses, offices, temples and banks. The healthy neighborhood doesn’t empty out at 6 p.m … In my perfect city there would always be something going on nearby.
Public spaces – In my perfect city there are ample public spaces—parks (not just vacant land, but common areas that people pass through and use), plazas (not just slabs in front of corporate towers) and, if possible, public access to the waterfront (if there is one). We don’t necessarily need massive acreage in our parks. Bigger is not always better, but we do need periodic breaks from buildings. … In some seaside towns there is no public access to the sea, which to me seems a self-injuring situation. In my perfect city there would be public access to all these areas.
The perfect city isn’t static. It’s evolving and ever changing, and its laws and structure allow that to happen. Neighborhoods change, clubs close and others open, yuppies move in and move out—as long as there is a mix of some sort, then business districts and neighborhoods stay healthy even if they’re not what they once were. My perfect city isn’t fixed, it doesn’t actually exist, and I like it that way.
Richard gave the keynote speech at the Jim Blanchard Leadership Forum in Columbus Georgia this week, along with Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, General David Petraeus, Commander, U.S. Central Command, and Norah O’Donnell, Chief Washington Correspondent for MSNBC. The topic was “Leadership in Uncertain Times.” The event took place in a restored iron works building. Amazing reuse of space.
What changes, if any, is your organization undertaking to enhance the skills of today’s and tomorrow’s leaders?
Norah O'Donnell, Chief Washington Correspondent for MSNBC
Richard Florida
Richard Florida, Rana Florida, and Jim Blanchard
Richard Florida with General David Petraeus, Commander, U.S. Central Command
Richard Florida and Rana Florida shaking hands with General David Petraeus, Commander, U.S. Central Command
Richard was the keynote speaker alongside Governor Charlie Crist at the 42nd Annual Governor’s Conference on Tourism in Miami Beach last month. Several business, state, and regional officials turned out to discuss the future of Florida. According to Visit Florida, “Tourism is one of Florida’s top industries. In 2007, approximately 84.5 million visitors to Florida generated $65.5 billion in taxable sales, $3.9 billion in state taxes, and employed 991,300 Florida residents.”
What are your thoughts on Florida tourism given the state of the economy?
Governor Charlie Crist
Richard Florida Keynote address at the 42nd Annual Governor's Conference on Tourism
State Representative Joe Gibbons
