Death and Rise of the Creative Class

Thanks to various folks who have mentioned the blog here to me in recent months, suggesting it has been, at least marginally, value added in the past.  There is no single reason it has been quiescent here of late, and I'm not quite sure people read blogs any longer, do they?

Alas, I'll post this here for future reference.  Many will have seen this already, but in Sunday's Post-Gazette I had a review of Richard Florida's newest book in the boundless Creative Class series. You can read the review itself in the Post-Gazette here: 'The New Urban Crisis': Richard Florida updates his influential thesis

But for a historical footnote, I really meant it when I said that much of the the Creative Class concept was 'gestated' in Pittsburgh.  If anyone wants to read what may be the genesis of it all see this local report: Competing in the Age of Talent: Environment, Amenities and the New Economy, by Richard Florida, January 2000. You can almost feel that 'eureka' moment that set the path for all that followed.

What I think many younger readers may not appreciate is the economic context when that was written. Most of the 1990s were part of an extended economic boom that had generated jobs and pushed down unemployment across the nation. In broad measure, economic conditions in Pittsburgh were doing ok, but was not keeping up with the regions that were really booming over that time. The nation had sustained so much growth that finding workers was a major problem for many firms. For anyone whose career experiences have been more shaped by the impact of the Great Recession and since, that all may seem like another planet. Still, it's hard not to read back on Richard Florida's earlier work without taking into account the economic history that spawned it.