> If we say that X=the time it takes to see potential diversity...then I'd > argue that Detroit's "X" is smaller than the X of other cities. This is > where the author is wrong. He's arguing that the causal variable in > making Detroit resource poor is the way it treats its creative class, when > the causal variable has more to do with the intersection between race and > a whole set of political factors.
Um, yes and maybe not entirely. Take this graf from the end of the article: "The basic challenge is that the society is splitting into the creative haves and have-nots by region. We're getting regional winners and losers. As the creative class migrates to the places that provide the economic and lifestyle options they desire, this could be very threatening to national unity. As the creative class concentrates in ethnically diverse, racially diverse ways, the people that are left behind are resentful. And that's a powder keg." While Mr. Florida does make the error you point out, he also implies that intelligent regional planning/administration is a function of understanding and planning with the creative class in mind as a significant variable--something no city does deliberately but which some have done intuitively or accidentally. Living in Austin, I can say that there's some truth to how regional planning/adminstration on an intuitive level helped the city rise to prominence among creative types; I moved here from Tulsa for many of the reasons Florida cites in the article. However, as the above-quoted graf outlines, there still isn't enough deliberate regional planning/administration taking place that considers the factors he points out. One visionary (Kozmetsky, Mayors Todd and Watson, etc) doesn't affect systemic change and that's something that Austin is having to contend with now that the bubble has burst and the tech (or creative) lifestyle is no longer the imminently attainable holy grail. There's such a strong and clearly marked line between the creative haves/have nots here that you wonder when East Austin is going to *officially* adopt Spanish as its commercial language, and when non-lilly-whites will be banned from the hill country to the west of town. I think the Florida article was less about what's bad with Detroit (or any other city) than what changes have to take place in the minds of our country's city managers/mayors/bureaocrats--in how they envision economic and community development--to affect a region's vitality. It's not all roses here, lemme tell ya... Heath --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
