On Tue, 11 Jun 2002, lazlo wrote: > > 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."
Well this is just wrong. You want to know what the biggest divide is? Just take a look at the 2002 Presidential Election voting map. For non-Americans on this list, the regions that voted for Bush are primarily rural and cover pretty much the entire country...with the exception of the urban areas. ALL the urban areas are blue--indicating a vote for Gore. The Red areas ARE resentful, and this resentment is largely racial. They don't want to live around black people, they resent the fact that government allots resources to underserving black people, and they are increasingly dependent upon prisons which house black prisoners for their employment. ALL of Richard Florida's "creative spaces" are blue. This creative have/creative have not divide is fictional...at least attitudinally and geographically. Now WITHIN those blue spaces there is variation, perhaps along the lines that Florida addresses....but thinking about this some more let's look at the detroit techno community. If FLorida is correct, and Detroit is the best (worst) example of what can happen if you don't treat your creative class right...then the vast majority of Detroit's techno community should have migrated outside of Detroit. Now Juan Atkins IS in L.A...but what of the others? > 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. This is only ONE variable though...and while it is important, the other variables (political and economic) cannot be ignored. > 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. But this doesn't sound creative to me...this sounds racial. Also I find it interesting that AUSTIN is compared to Detroit, Boston, or Pittsburgh. There are significant problems with this comparison. > 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... A couple of people responding in the pages of Salon.com brought this point up. To a certain extent, as soon as I see someone dog Detroit I get pissed...and some of my critique is based on this. I do believe that Kilpatrick and others must somehow take the artistic vision of the house heads and techno heads, as well as the political vision of activists such as Grace Boggs, in order to create the 21st century city. peace lks --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
