Letters to the Editor
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Rise of the Creative Class
What GK points out about iPoddy innovation in gay-friendly locales is not entirely new. Farhad Manjoo summarized it thusly in a "War Room" posting 5/6/2005: "The kind of people who are drawn to software engineering tend to be progressives on issues like gay rights (that's why, incidentally, the tech economy is centered in California, not Kansas)."
The topic had also been explored further in an earlier Salon review of Richard Florida's book "The Rise of the Creative Class."
http://dir.salon.com/story/books/int/2005/04/21/florida/index.html
"The United States of America is on the verge of losing its competitive advantage," economist Richard Florida wrote last fall in a Harvard Business Review article based on his new book, "The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent." "It is facing perhaps its greatest economic challenge since the dawn of the industrial revolution." Even more provocatively, he later declared that "Terrorism is less a threat to the U.S. than the possibility that creative and talented people will stop wanting to live within its borders."
[ ... ]
For cities to remain strong, or to rebound from postindustrial neglect, Florida prescribed artistic and cultural development; this would attract members of the new flourishing, prospering class. His emphasis on a thriving, music-filled nightlife and a populace of artists and scenesters ignited the imaginations of developers and planners around the country. His book provided tables that ranked cities on the key components that, according to Florida, make up the trinity of successful development: technology, talent and tolerance.
and from http://dir.salon.com/story/books/feature/2002/06/06/city_list/index.html
Top 10 Cities on Richard Florida's Creative Class Index (June 6, 2002):
1. San Francisco, Calif.
2. Austin, Texas
3. Boston, Mass.
4. San Diego, Calif.
5. Seattle, Wash.
6. Raleigh-Durham, N.C.
7. Houston, Texas
8. Washington, D.C.
9. New York, N.Y.
10. Minneapolis, Minn.
Bottom 10 Cities:
39. Detroit, Mich.
40. Providence, R.I.
41. Greensboro, N.C.
42. Oklahoma City, Okla.
43. New Orleans, La.
44. Grand Rapids, Mich.
45. Louisville, Ky.
46. Buffalo, N.Y.
47. Las Vegas, Nev.
48. Norfolk-Virginia Beach, Va.
49. Memphis, Tenn.
The "Rise of the Creative Class" website is at http://www.creativeclass.org/ci.htm