Our Return to Noosa in April of 2008

Richard and members of our team just spent a great week in Noosa (see more here) and we are now preparing for our team to return there in April to work with community members. There has been a lot of email traffic already about the shire's path toward authentic, sustainable economic growth in the Creative Economy and we are looking forward to more great dialogue on the opportunities and challenges ahead. The last week only confirmed that the people of Noosa are thoughtful and intelligent and we look forward to working with (and hearing from) more citizens and leaders in Noosa during our CCLP in April.

Tallahassee Park and Ride Initiaitve Begins

Congratulations to our KCCI catalysts in Tallahassee on today's launching of their Park-N-Ride Community pilot program. The goal of the program, led by the Greenovation team and its partner StarMetro, and supported by some great sponsors,  is to "offer Tallahassee drivers a convenient, environmentally conscious option for commuting." Catalyst Bill Berlow is participating in the pilot program and writes about his motivations, expectations, and the program in today's Tallahassee Democrat. To sign up as a participant click here. Snippet from Bill's piece below.

posted by David

Psst... Wanna do some Gerrymandering??

From the USC Game Innovation Lab & Annenberg Center ...

The Redistricting Game is designed to educate, engage, and empower citizens around the issue of political redistricting. Currently, the political system in most states allows the state legislators themselves to draw the lines. This system is subject to a wide range of abuses and manipulations that encourage incumbents to draw districts which protect their seats rather than risk an open contest.

By exploring how the system works, as well as how open it is to abuse, The Redistricting Game allows players to experience the realities of one of the most important (yet least understood) aspects of our political system. The game provides a basic introduction to the redistricting system, allows players to explore the ways in which abuses can undermine the system, and provides info about reform initiatives - including a playable version of the Tanner Reform bill to demonstrate the ways that the system might be made more consistent with tenets of good governance. Beyond playing the game, the web site for The Redistricting Game provides a wealth of information about redistricting in every state as well as providing hands-on opportunities for civic engagement and political action.

Link Here

To change something requires that you first understand it.

posted by Kevin Stolarick

Loving Tacoma, WA

Tacoma, WA, one our first pilot Creative Class Communities, is easy to love - it's in the heart of the northwest, right on the port, and its authenticity and beauty just envelope you. That said, members of the community have faced challenges meeting others, finding the cool things to do and making connections with others of similar mind and hearts. This is a real problem for creative communities; connections are key - they're the source of idea sparks and innovation. Enter Love Tacoma, one of our Creative Tacoma Catalyst teams building up the  creative ecosystem in the region.   

Love Tacoma is connecting people with each other and creative events and opportunities around town. In their own words:

Love Tacoma offers what you want to know about the hottest spots in our urban playground. From chill happy hours to next week's most anticipated show, you'll find what you need to be out on the town alongside people like you in Tacoma's urban crowd.

Room with a View

The  Creative Class is seeking authentic experiences wherever they go, and communities are seeking their energy and dollars. One result:  the art hotel.  According to the Washington Post, they're big in Europe and growing fast in the States.  While not an entirely new concept, it does offer some great inspiration to CVB's, art councils, downtown associations and hoteliers looking for ways to support their local artists and promote authentic opportunities for cultural tourism.

Excerpts from the full story after the jump...

The Post also lists five of their favorite art hotels (which are pretty affordable), check 'em out if you're looking for a summer getaway. Let us know what you think!

Posted by Amanda.

Florida in the Northland

Richard is headed to the Northland today to speak at the Duluth,MN-Superior, WI Area Community Foundation's annual meeting. The area is one of amazing beauty, interesting history and familiar challenges:

News story today in the Duluth News Tribune:

Fur trading put what became the Duluth area on the map in the late 17th century.

In the late 1800s, iron ore and timber made Duluth a boomtown.

But in this century, creativity, or the ability of workers to synthesize new ideas and efficiencies, will be the defining resource the Zenith City must mine if it is to flourish.

Read the full article here.

Op-Ed by Community Foundation President, Holly Sampson: 

Let’s make economic development about everyone’s prosperity

...But the Duluth area also needs to address the challenges the community faces: How to embrace territorial assets in a sustainable way. How to tap into resources such as the human capital of those who graduate from Northland schools and then move away. How to build more ties, bridges and relationships across groups that don’t normally associate with one another. And, most important, how to embrace and welcome new people and perspectives.

Read the full op-ed here.

Posted by Amanda.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde on community development

Creative community development in practice is not easy. It takes a perfect balance of changing with the new while staying in touch with the authentic. Linda Krug, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota Duluth and Creative Class Communities Catalyst, has a great op-ed today in the Duluth News-Tribune on her area's effort to strike that balance:

If you listen to all of the well-honed “truths” that whirl around us, you might draw the conclusion that Duluth is a dying city.

On a daily basis, it seems, I read about how we are old and aging, about how our tax base is eroding and the city’s share of retiree health costs is ballooning.

I hear about our shrinking school-age population, and I watch our young people move to the Twin Cities immediately after college graduation. Potential business interests seem to suggest that local costs of doing business are too high, and it’s a well-known fact that area manufacturing jobs are evaporating. Then there are our mayor and city councilors.

And yet, I just can’t accept that all is lost. I know for a fact....

Read the whole article here.
Learn more about our Creative Class Communities projects here.

Posted by Amanda
 

Ann Arbor Lawyers Support Laid-Off Talent

Ann Arbor Law Firms, including ArborLaw.com, are providing free services to downsized Pfizerites that start new tech firms in the Ann Arbor area. The folks at ArborLaw's blog see this as crucial to keeping talent in Michigan.   

posted by David

Creative Class Communities

Our Creative Class Communities program is gaining steam. Here’s a quick update:

We’re working to foster more creative communities with teams of citizens across the country. Using regional data on the 4T’s of economic development – Talent, Tolerance, Technology and Territorial Assets – we help these groups understand their community’s assets and challenges, and based on that, build strategic initiatives to build future prosperity. Their commitment and diverse experience with our hard numbers and national network make a powerful one-two punch.

Partnering with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation we worked closely this spring with Tallahassee, FL, Charlotte, NC and Duluth, MN-Superior, WI. After digging through data, engaging new leaders, hosting seminars and planning creative projects, there are now 18 new initiatives coming along. And our pilot teams in Tacoma, WA and El Paso, TX are hitting their halfway marks too - they started their initiatives last October. Never doubt what a small group of citizens can do!

Check out the teams and their initiatives:
   
Creative Tacoma :: Tacoma, WA – www.CreativeTacoma.com

New Texico :: El Paso, TX – www.NewTexico.org

Creative Capitol Connection :: Tallahassee, FL- KCCITallahassee.wordpress.com

Coming soon: Charlotte, NC and Twin Ports (Duluth, MN-Superior, WI)

posted by Amanda

New Texico Rises

I've spent much of the past week embroiled in intellectual debates with my colleagues in urban sociology and related fields.  So this story in today's El Paso Times couldn't have come at a better time. It reminds me that what's really important is what's happening on the ground  in real communities.  A much smarter thinker that me once said (and I paraphrase):  The point is not to interpret the world, the point is to change it. I want to send a personal note of gratitude to Joyce Wilson, Angela Mora (pictured here), and our energetic team of change-agents in El Paso,  and especially to my own incredible RFCG team:  Rod Frantz, Amanda Styron, David Miller and Lou Musante, who are the force behind our contribution to this effort.   As we expand these efforts at community transformation, Veronica Escobar, one of  the young visionary leaders we met in El Paso, will  be helping us in future initiatives around the country as well as continuing to make change happen in New Texico.

"Economic development isn't just about attracting companies; it's also about attracting and keeping talented people, and that takes a creative city.... A group of 31 El Pasoans has taken Florida's theories to heart, and with the help of the Richard Florida Creativity Group, based in Washington D.C., are trying to find ways to tap into this area's creativity to improve the quality of life here and to stimulate economic growth. The El Paso group is part of the New Texico Creative Cities Leadership Project... El Paso and Tacoma, Wash., are the first cities to be part of Florida's Creative Cities Leadership Project. Last week, Florida's company announced the start of similar projects in Tallahassee, Fla., Charlotte, N.C., and Duluth-Superior, Minn.

For more information on the New Texico project, click here.

Putting It In Words

'Place Branding' or slogans are used by a lot of communities to attract people.

TaglineGuru named these the top 10 city slogans in the US:

    What Happens Here, Stays Here. - Las Vegas, NV
    So Very Virginia. - Charlottesville, VA
    Always Turned On. - Atlantic City, NJ
    Cleveland Rocks! - Cleveland, OH
    The Sweetest Place on Earth. - Hershey, PA
    Rare. Well Done. - Omaha, NE
    The City Different. - Santa Fe, NM
    Where Yee-Ha Meets Olé. - Eagle Pass, TX
    City with Sol. - San Diego, CA
    Where the Odds Are With You. - Peculiar, MO
Click here for the full list and methodology.

Image is definitely important - check out Place Branding's Anholt-GMI City Brands Index, which analyzes how people see different cities.

The question is, can cities effectively craft their image with words?  And if they can, will it lead to more people moving and/or visiting the city?

Here are a few articles/studies for your consideration:

A recent op-ed by Corey Johnson, a doctoral candidate at the University of Oregon, on Eugene’s new slogan.

A study of European City Branding: An Effective Assertion Of Identity Or a Transitory Marketing Trick?

And this study on community slogans in Wisconsin by Professor David Muench. He points out that slogans may in fact be more important for current residents, giving them a connect to local history and each other.

And one more, on branding countries.

What do you think? Has a community’s slogan ever affected your decision to move or visit? Is your community’s slogan helping people connect to each other and/or the soul of their city? What makes a slogan work?

Posted by Amanda. Have thoughts, questions or examples on/of community development strategies? Post them here or write  Amanda@CreativeClass.org. 

The Twin Cities' Strategy

In the current issue of The Next American City Reese Fayde, CEO of Living Cities: The National Community Development Initiative, highlights the powerful economic impact immigrants are affecting in the Twin Cities, especially in new business starts.

Some evidence:

Professor Rob Fairlie of the University of Santa Clara—a leading authority on entrepreneurship—notes that immigrants are more inclined to start new businesses than their native-born counterparts. Based on his research, he suspects that there are over a million immigrant businesses created each year.

Immigrant-owned businesses still include traditional restaurants and groceries like Manny’s Tortas. But they also run the gamut from professional services to high-growth technology companies. As Mayor Michael Bloomberg quipped in recent Congressional testimony on immigration, it is “pure fantasy” to imagine life in a major city without immigrants. According to Michael Porter, chairman of the Boston-based Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, they change the face of entrepreneurship in inner cities, providing “a much-needed shot of economic vibrancy to distressed neighborhoods.” And yet few urban communities have actively sought and supported immigrant entrepreneurs as a revitalization tactic.

And as she points out:

The Twin Cities’ efforts to support immigrant entrepreneurship offers lessons for other urban communities. One of the most important aspects of the Twin Cities’ approach is its celebration of the increasing diversity of the city. The city has reached out to Latino, Somali and Hmong immigrants, taking language, culture and the unique needs of immigrant entrepreneurs into consideration. These efforts to better understand immigrants have led to noteworthy innovations, including the development of on-site technical assistance in an entrepreneur’s native language and the country’s first small business finance tool for Muslims that does not charge interest and is consistent with Islamic banking norms.

Check out the full story here.

Tell us about creative strategies working in your community. Use the comment section below or send Amanda and email at Amanda@CreativeClass.org.

Grown-up SimCity

Last week we attended the Mayor’s Institute on City Design’s 20th Anniversary celebration here in DC. Though larger in scope than most of the initiatives we cover in this section, it was so cool we couldn’t resist.

Here’s how it works: 8 mayors, each with their own community’s city design dilemma – think waterfront redevelopment, downtown revitalization or transportation planning – meet together with 8 expert designers for 2.5 days to hash out specific strategies and overarching planning principals for the mayors’ cities.

The mayors learn what to look for in city plans and work towards in an overall city design, becoming, as the Institute had hoped, the chief urban designers of their cities. Without this sort of training, ‘we don’t know,’ as Trenton, NJ’s mayor Doug Palmer put it, highlighting an interesting dynamic: Mayors and other civic leaders often come from lives in business or law and are faced with far-reaching decisions on planning, architecture, economics and more. To lead and administer productively, our officials need some instruction– specialized, specific and expert training like that provided by the Institute.

We think there are many parts of civic leadership that would be well served by this model of training. And we think city design is a great place to start. Time and money spent to create well-designed cities is a long-term investment in property values and residents. As the Institute’s founder Mayor Joseph Riley, Jr. of Charleston told us, investing in good city design is one thing mayors can do for every citizen and guest of the community.

The Institute is a powerful partnership program of the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Architectural Foundation, and the United States Conference of Mayors. Check them out here.

Tell us about creative strategies working in your community. Use the comment section below or send Amanda and email at Amanda@CreativeClass.org.

Home is where the art is

A truly inspiring story of how public art is being used as a vehicle for neighborhood revitalization and community building in Houston.

"Although it’s hard to tell at a glance, this stretch of Holman may be the most impressive and visionary public art project in the country."...

"Mr. Lowe, a lanky, amiable, remarkably youthful-looking 45-year-old artist from Alabama, moved to Houston 21 years ago and lives here in the Third Ward, where he founded Project Row Houses. In 1990, “a group of high school students came over to my studio,” he recalled. “I was doing big, billboard-size paintings and cutout sculptures dealing with social issues, and one of the students told me that, sure, the work reflected what was going on in his community, but it wasn’t what the community needed. If I was an artist, he said, why didn’t I come up with some kind of creative solution to issues instead of just telling people like him what they already knew. That was the defining moment that pushed me out of the studio.” ...

"Mr. Lowe realized: art can be the way people live. ...And the Third Ward could be his canvas. He was inspired by John Biggers, the late African-American muralist who painted black neighborhoods of shotgun houses like the ones on Holman Street and showed them to be places of pride and community, not poverty and crime. “It hit me,” Mr. Lowe recalled, “that we should find an area like the one that Biggers painted that was historically significant and bring it to life.”

"Behind him as he spoke, a phalanx of 22 gleaming shotgun houses stretched across two blocks. Built in 1930 as tenant shacks, derelict by the early ’90s, they were bought by Mr. Lowe and a coalition of artists and others. To Mr. Lowe they were like “found objects.”

Read the rest of the story in today's New York Times (sub req).

Supporting Tolerance = Supporting Entrepreneurship

Of our 3T’s of economic development - talent, technology and tolerance - tolerance is the one most likely to be ignored, forgotten or written off. In all of our research though, tolerance is what talent and technology turn on in a region. One might not think about it this way initially, but tolerance in a community goes deeper than a diverse population. To build economic success, a tolerance strategy must… first exist, and second include a support infrastructure for self-expression. In business terms, this means supporting entrepreneurship – enabling citizens to turn their creativity into marketable goods. A community that can provide entrepreneurial opportunities and support is a community well on its way to a diverse, thriving economy.

With this idea in mind, our featured community strategy this week comes from Roanoke, VA, where the city is asking its residents - and with strategic scheduling, their far flung native sons and daughters visiting home over the holidays, "Do you want to work for yourself?"  For those that answer yes, the city is hosting a career and lifestyle fair on December 28 featuring entrepreneurial service providers like Small Business Development Centers as well as other employers and lifestyle organizations (think varied arts and culture). “We have all seen job fairs, but when was the last time you saw an e-ship fair?” said Stuart Mease City of Roanoke, Special Projects Coordinator.

Fairs like this seed an environment where citizens feel empowered and supported to be themselves and make their ideas happen. In turn, small businesses grown and the local economy strengthens and diversifies.

What do you think? What’s working in your community? Write in about creative development strategies that are working in your community. Use the comment space here or send them to Amanda at Amanda@CreativeClass.org. We'll post new strategies for discussion each Wednesday.

It's working!

We know people all over the world are building creative communities. It's an organic process and...we're all learning. This space can be used to talk about strategies that really build on regional authenticity AND create sustainable results. So, let's hear what's working - from community projects to government policy to those magical coming together moments - and why.

Write in about strategies that are working in your community. Feel free to use the comment space here or send a note to Amanda at Amanda@CreativeClass.org. We'll post new strategies for discussion each Wednesday.

10,000 Hours Show Wants You!

Check out one of the coolest community projects we've seen, The 10,000 Hours Show  -- a student-led effort to recruit and recognize young volunteers who serve local nonprofits, culminating each spring in a free concert just for volunteers.  As their website says, "You volunteer, you rock."

In Iowa, the organizers, all twenty-something volunteers including our own Amanda Styron, have recognized over 71,000 hours of service in the past three years with concerts by Ben Folds, Guster and Cake.

This year, they are partnering with the United Way of America to help other communities start the program. If you work in student life, the United Way, or another community organization, they would love to hear from you!

To learn more about 10,000 Hours and how to start your own, visit their site or email 10K National Director Mike Brooks.