'Rise of the Creative Class' is the bestseller by
Carnegie Mellon Professor Richard Florida. The book is just part of a broader
emphasis on creativity that has captured
the imagination of global economic and management experts. Given that Europe tends to catch
on to most American management trends, it is a good bet
to say that it could be a matter of time before we go down the same route.
Given that the Highlands & Islands face similar brain-drain issues, this strategy could be something worth keeping an eye
on.
The Associated Press
reports.
'BE hip and they will come' is the motto of the new movement in US cities in
the growing tussle for the creative class.
The 38 million members of the
creative class make up 30 per cent of the US workforce and hold the key to the
nation's economic future, say experts.
In the United States, mid-size
cities are going all out to court them, reported USA Today.
YPs is a 21st
century update of the term 'yuppies' - without the focus on upward
mobility.
Today's young professionals care more about quality of life
than the corporate rat race, since companies they want to work for do not have
much of a ladder.
They like start-ups, small consulting firms or research
labs.
'Be hip and they will come' is the motto of a new movement in US
cities in the growing tussle for the creative class.
'Cool cities mean
hot jobs,' Ms Jennifer Granholm, Michigan's 43-year-old freshman governor, said
at the Digital Detroit conference on Wednesday.
She is pushing a 'Cool
Cities' initiative to make people want to live, work and shop in Michigan's
cities, AP said in a report.
The movement encompasses many
other cities across the US, including Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Memphis, Tampa,
Indianapolis, Baton Rouge and St Louis. The reasons behind this are manifold. For
decades, cities spent decades dangling tax breaks and other financial sweeteners
to attract big business.
But their populations continued to shrink and
age, and cities realised they had done little to appeal to the labour force that
will shape their economic future: educated 25- to 34-year-olds.
In the
technological age, the importance of the educated and creative is also
magnified.
Mr Richard Florida, author of The Rise Of The Creative Class,
struck a chord with his theory that thriving cities attract culturally and
ethnically diverse people - artists, gays, people who are physically fit and
open-minded and anyone who thinks and creates for a living.
The 38
million members of the creative class make up 30 per cent of the US workforce
and hold the key to the nation's economic future, the Carnegie Mellon University
professor noted.
He said many creative-class members consider recreation,
culture and ethnic diversity as central to where they move.
'Places also
are valued for authenticity and uniqueness,' AP quoted him as saying.
For
those wishing to boost the appeal of Detroit, Michigan, that means fostering and
publicising its musical creativity, from the Motown sound of the 1960s to its
place as the techno music capital today, officials said.
Cincinnati is
also trying hard to abandon its stodgy image. Now, five of the nine city council
members are younger than 40, and four are under 35, according to a USA Today
report.
Native Nicholas Spencer, 25, is running for the council. He is
the founder of Cincinnati Tomorrow, a non-profit group that wrote a plan to make
the city cooler, including helping black musicians record their work.
And
the city's initiatives seem to be working.
Mr Joff Moine, 30, found
quality of life in Cincinnati. He grew up in Columbus, Ohio, went to the
University of Cincinnati and lived in Chicago for five years. He came back and
founded the Cincinnati Sports Leagues for
young professionals.
'We
don't live next to the ocean, we don't live next to the mountains, but there is
a good homegrown community of people,' he said.
