Uncool cities

If a city is cool, it will be hot. Simple.

Joel Kotkin (Uncool cities, Prospect, 10/05) observes that "rather than address serious issues like housing, schools, transport, jobs and security, mayors and policy gurus from Berlin and London to Sydney and San Francisco have adopted what can be best be described as the "cool city strategy." If you can somehow make your city the rage of the hipster set, they insist, all will be well."

He argues that they have been blinded by the false promises made by Richard Florida, the guru on "creative class".

To Kotkin, the "uncool" middle class is more important than the creative class in city development. "Without a permanent middle class, cities through history—from ancient Rome and 17th-century Venice to 19th-century Amsterdam—have lost their balast, become ever more divided by class, and ceded their central role."

----------

Creative Class - Home of the Richard Florida Creativity Group

Cool Cities Initiatives of Michigan

joetsang.net: Research Notes on the Creative Industries