Keeping the creative class

I didn't think this article was super interesting when it ran in the New York Times a few weeks ago, "Cities compete in hipness battle to attract young." But it does provide some grist for the mill in thinking about the future of center cities.

For example, why is Atlanta, that cesspool of traffic and automobility, the number one city for young creatives?

Perhaps it's better to say that Atlanta is the number one "city" for suburbanites?

And that New York City and Chicago and San Francisco are great places for urbanites? (cf. one ex-DCite hates San Francisco, judging by his blog. Fortunately we still benefit from his great photos regardless.)

Maybe the old manufacturing based center cities need to come together and create another television sitcom like "Friends" which to my way of thinking is one of the biggest reasons why a big subgroup of younger people have warm feelings about the city.

Inside and Outside Central Perk, the coffee shop set for the TV show "Friends." Note that there is absolutely no trash on the street or in the gutter--in NYC!

Of course, I can't imagine a bunch of bureaucrats writing treatments and scripts... But it takes the idea of public health messages and television -- big in the 1990s especially, but still an issue, see "Hollywood Writers Learn Ways to Incorporate Public Health Messages Into Scripts"-- to a new level. We need the same kind of promotion with Hollywood producers with regard to pro-urban messages.

And maybe that Washington is overly shaped by the kind of people attracted to government service, which is about helping people, but in a managed and bureaucratic manner that snuffs out participation and real democracy.

Not that it used to always be that way in DC (so I gather). JFK and LBJ's Great Society, Ralph Nader and his stoking of both the consumer movement and the idea of advocacy based movements more generally, the ferment throughout society because of the Vietnam War, demonstrations, etc.

Anyway, I thought this strategy from the Province of Manitoba, see "Six years in Manitoba buys a free education: Tuition deal offered to university students in attempt to keep graduates in province," from the Globe and Mail is kind of interesting. Sort of like going to one of the military academies in the U.S.

Philadelphia and Baltimore have retention programs aimed at college students, but nothing like this. See "Campus Philly Kick-Off Week, The City’s Biggest Festival Welcoming College Students, Offers New Attractions In 2005," Campus Philly, and the Baltimore Collegetown Network.

Index Keywords: creative-economy