Who's Your City? | Richard Florida | Talks at Google
Summary
TLDRIn this talk, Richard Florida, a professor at the University of Toronto, discusses the significance of place in the creative economy. He challenges the notion that technology has made the world flat, arguing instead that geographic location remains crucial. Florida explores how economic activity and innovation are concentrated in 'spiky' urban areas, emphasizing the importance of cities as drivers of productivity and innovation. He also delves into the impact of place on personal happiness and well-being, highlighting the role of social connections and job satisfaction.
Takeaways
- 📚 Richard Florida's work emphasizes the importance of the 'creative class' in the economy, suggesting that creative people are at the forefront of the 21st-century economy.
- 🌏 The script discusses the concept of place and location as crucial factors in personal and economic life, contradicting the idea that technology makes the world 'flat' and irrelevant.
- 🏙️ Cities and urban areas are identified as significant economic powerhouses, despite the belief that technological advancements would decentralize economic activity.
- 📈 The world is described as 'spiky' rather than flat, with economic activity, innovation, and population concentrated in specific urban areas or 'mega-regions'.
- 🤝 Social connections and the diversity of thought in cities are highlighted as drivers of creativity and economic growth, rather than just physical infrastructure.
- 🏡 Housing investment is presented as a significant life decision, with location influencing not only affordability but also potential appreciation and return on investment.
- 🧑🎨 The script touches on the idea that certain personality types, particularly 'open to experience' individuals, are highly concentrated in specific cities and are key to innovation.
- 🌟 The importance of 'quality of place' is underscored, suggesting that the physical and cultural attributes of a location significantly impact residents' happiness and well-being.
- 🌱 The potential for 'domain-specific' networks to form in certain areas is discussed, where the concentration of people with similar professional interests can drive innovation and economic development.
- 🌐 The global nature of cities like New York is highlighted, with real estate markets influenced by global wealth rather than just local economic conditions.
- 🤔 The script concludes with a call for further research into the dynamics of urban development, the factors influencing the concentration of creative talent, and the implications for economic and social policy.
Q & A
What is the main thesis of Richard Florida's talk on 'Who's Your City'?
-Richard Florida's talk emphasizes the importance of geographic location in today's economy. He argues that despite technological advancements suggesting a 'flat' world, where to live is a crucial decision that can significantly impact one's life, especially for the creative class.
What does Richard Florida suggest about the relationship between technology and the significance of place?
-Contrary to the belief that technology makes place less important, Florida suggests that the world is both flat and spiky, with economic activity and innovation clustering in specific, concentrated areas rather than being evenly distributed.
What does Florida identify as the three major decisions in one's life according to Daniel Gilbert's 'Stumbling on Happiness'?
-According to Daniel Gilbert, the three major decisions in one's life are what we do for a living, who we take as a life partner, and where we choose to live.
How does Richard Florida describe the economic activity distribution in the United States compared to other countries like China and India?
-Florida points out that the United States has a more even distribution of economic activity across various cities, whereas countries like China and India are more 'spiky,' with economic activity highly concentrated in specific areas such as Shanghai, Beijing, Bangalore, Mumbai, and Delhi.
What does Florida mean by 'mega-regions' and how do they relate to global economic activity?
-Mega-regions, as described by Florida, are large-scale regional clusters that produce more than 100 billion dollars in economic activity. These regions, of which there are about 40 worldwide, house less than 20% of the world's population but account for two-thirds of the world's economic output and a significant majority of global innovation.
What is the concept of 'urban metabolism' mentioned by Florida, and how does it relate to cities' growth and survival?
-Urban metabolism refers to the rate at which cities use resources and generate waste. Florida cites research from the Santa Fe Institute, suggesting that as cities grow, they need to super-scale to survive, meaning their metabolic rates increase, and they become more efficient and productive.
How does Richard Florida's research indicate that personality types are distributed across different geographical locations?
-Florida's research, in collaboration with Jason Rentfrow, shows that certain personality types, particularly those open to experience, tend to cluster in specific cities known for innovation and creativity, such as New York, San Francisco, and Austin.
What does Florida suggest about the relationship between job markets and geographical location?
-Florida suggests that job markets are becoming increasingly specialized and geographically concentrated. For certain professions or industries, being in a specific city or region can be essential for career opportunities and success.
How does Richard Florida define 'economic and social opportunity' as a factor in people's happiness with their community?
-Florida identifies economic and social opportunity as one of the key factors contributing to people's happiness with their community. This includes the availability of jobs, the potential for career growth, and a supportive social environment.
What does Florida's research with the Gallup Organization reveal about the factors that affect people's subjective well-being in relation to their place of residence?
-The research with Gallup reveals that factors such as the quality of the physical environment, the openness of the community to various groups, and the presence of economic and social opportunities significantly affect people's subjective well-being and happiness with their place of residence.
How does Richard Florida respond to critics who question the validity of his work on the creative class and economic growth?
-Florida responds by emphasizing that his work is empirically based and that he does not have a values agenda. He suggests that creativity is not limited to certain professions or educational backgrounds and that it is essential to unleash the creativity of all individuals for a more prosperous society.
Outlines
📚 Introduction to Richard Florida's Urban Studies
Richard Florida, a professor at the University of Toronto, is introduced as a key figure in urban studies, known for his book 'The Rise of the Creative Class.' The speaker highlights the significance of location in today's technology-driven world and invites Florida to discuss why certain areas, like Google's location, have become hubs of innovation despite the apparent 'flatness' of the global landscape. Florida emphasizes the importance of dialogue and welcomes questions, reflecting on his academic journey and the influence of his students and experiences in shaping his understanding of urban environments.
🌐 The Myth of a Flat World and Urban Agglomerations
The speaker debunks the myth of a flat world, arguing that despite technological advances, geography still plays a crucial role in economic and social structures. He discusses the UN's data on urban population growth, revealing that over half of the world's population now lives in urban areas. The speaker also addresses the concentration of economic activity in cities, using satellite imagery to demonstrate that economic output is not evenly distributed but rather clustered in specific regions, challenging the notion that technology diminishes the importance of place.
🌟 Identifying Global Economic Centers Through Innovation Data
The speaker delves into the analysis of innovation data, including patents and scientific publications, to identify global economic centers. He discusses the concept of 'mega-regions'—clusters of economic activity that, while housing a small fraction of the world's population, account for the majority of global economic output and innovation. The speaker emphasizes the 'spiky' nature of the world, where economic activity is concentrated in specific areas rather than being evenly distributed.
🌆 Spatial Unevenness and Economic Activity in the US, China, and India
The speaker contrasts the spatial distribution of economic activity in the United States, China, and India, highlighting the 'spikiness' of economic concentration in these countries. He points out that while the US has a more even distribution of cities, China and India exhibit extreme concentration of economic activity in specific regions like Shanghai, Beijing, Bangalore, Mumbai, and Delhi. The speaker underscores the importance of understanding this unevenness in economic development.
🏙️ The Economic Growth Puzzle and Jane Jacobs' Theories
The speaker introduces Jane Jacobs' theories on economic growth, which emphasize the importance of people and their interactions in cities as the primary drivers of innovation and productivity. Jacobs challenges traditional economic theories that focus on capital investment and specialization, arguing instead that the exchange of ideas and collaboration in urban environments are the true engines of economic growth.
🤝 The Impact of Urbanization on Social and Economic Mobility
The speaker discusses the impact of urbanization on social and economic mobility, noting the increasing divide between the mobile, rooted, and stuck populations. He highlights the correlation between geographic mobility and economic advantage, the specialization of job markets in certain cities, and the implications for career choices and housing investments. The speaker encourages a thoughtful approach to location choices, considering factors such as housing appreciation and career opportunities.
🎨 The Intersection of Personality and Place
The speaker explores the relationship between personality types and the places they inhabit, using data from a large-scale personality mapping project. He discusses the distribution of different personality types across the United States, noting the concentration of 'open to experience' individuals in certain cities known for innovation and creativity. The speaker suggests that these personality types may play a significant role in the economic and cultural dynamics of urban areas.
🎼 The Role of Bohemian Clusters in Innovation
The speaker examines the role of bohemian clusters—concentrations of artistic and open-minded individuals—in fostering innovation. He discusses the historical and ongoing significance of these clusters in attracting and nurturing creative talent, suggesting that the presence of such communities can serve as an indicator of a region's potential for technological and cultural advancement.
🏡 Happiness and the Importance of Place
The speaker presents findings from a Gallup survey on happiness, highlighting the importance of place alongside work and social connections. He discusses the factors that contribute to life happiness, including job satisfaction, social connections, and the quality of the living environment. The speaker emphasizes the role of 'quality of place' in enhancing well-being and suggests that the physical and cultural characteristics of a location significantly impact residents' happiness.
🌐 Cultural Generalizability and the Future of Urban Studies
The speaker acknowledges the cultural bias in current urban studies and expresses a desire to make future research more culturally generalizable. He discusses the need for deeper samples from various cultures to better understand global phenomena and the importance of broadening the perspective beyond Western-centric views. The speaker also addresses the complexity of creating new hubs of innovation and the potential for places like Waterloo to become new centers of creative and technological advancement.
🤔 Domain-Specific Networks and the Geography of Innovation
The speaker explores the concept of domain-specific networks, which are geographically concentrated areas of expertise in various fields such as technology in Silicon Valley or music in Nashville. He discusses the idea that these networks are not overlapping and are essential for the growth and success of specific industries, suggesting that being part of such a network can be a requirement for success in certain domains.
🏘️ Neighborhood Effects and the Creative Class
The speaker discusses the importance of neighborhood effects on the creative class, suggesting that people's choices of where to live are influenced by the specific characteristics and opportunities of neighborhoods. He highlights the need for more research into these neighborhood effects and the potential for creating new hubs of creativity and innovation by understanding the dynamics of such areas.
💰 The Role of Financial Centers and Creative Occupations in Urban Development
The speaker addresses the misconception that New York is primarily a financial center, pointing out that the city has a high concentration of creative occupations across various fields. He discusses the global market for property in cities like New York and suggests that the city's real estate market is influenced by the presence of a diverse and creative workforce.
🌈 Creativity in All Socioeconomic Classes
The speaker emphasizes the idea that creativity is not limited to a certain class or profession but is a universal human trait. He discusses the importance of recognizing and nurturing creativity across all socioeconomic backgrounds and the potential for innovation to come from various sectors of society, including traditionally non-creative industries.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Creative Economy
💡Urban Agglomerations
💡Economic Output
💡Innovation
💡Spatial Unevenness
💡Geographic Mobility
💡Domain-Specific Networks
💡Quality of Place
💡Cognitive Diversity
💡Open to Experience
💡Subjective Well-Being
Highlights
Richard Florida's talk emphasizes the importance of location in the creative economy and how it impacts life decisions.
Florida introduces the concept that technology does not make the world flat; rather, where we live is crucial despite technological advances.
The talk discusses the unexpected concentration of Google in certain areas, challenging traditional expectations of geographical distribution.
Florida highlights the significance of asking hard questions and embracing dialogue and criticism for the evolution of ideas.
The speaker's background in urban planning and geography shapes his perspective on the importance of place in economic and social life.
Florida references Jane Jacobs' work, emphasizing the role of cities in fostering innovation and productivity through the clustering of people.
The talk unveils the 'spiky' nature of the world, contrary to the popular notion of a 'flat' world, with economic activities concentrated in specific regions.
The concept of 'mega-regions' is introduced, identifying 40 global economic powerhouses that drive the majority of world economic output and innovation.
Florida points out the uneven distribution of economic activity, with some areas like the U.S. being more evenly spread than 'spiky' regions like China and India.
The talk explores the idea that economic growth stems from people and their interactions within cities, not merely from physical investments or capital.
Florida discusses the importance of cognitive diversity in driving innovation, linking it to ethnic, racial, age, and sexual orientation diversity.
The talk addresses the divide between the mobile, rooted, and stuck populations, and how geographic mobility correlates with economic advantage.
Florida examines the specialization of job markets, where certain professions are concentrated in specific cities, affecting career choices and opportunities.
The discussion on housing as a significant investment is highlighted, with the rate of return on housing being a key factor in location decisions.
The talk introduces the psychological impact of place, with research showing that certain personality types are more likely to cluster in specific urban areas.
Florida's research with Gallup reveals factors contributing to life happiness, including job satisfaction, social connections, and the quality of the living environment.
The closing thoughts of the talk stress the need for further research into the dynamics of domain-specific networks and their influence on geographical concentrations of talent.
Transcripts
so welcome to Richard Florida's talk on
who's your city how the creative economy
is making where to live the most
important decision of your life Richard
is a professor at the University of
Toronto and he first exploded onto the
scene in 2002 with his book the roof the
rise of the creative class which
according to his press release isn't IDK
social new social class of creative
people was emerging at the forefront of
the 21st century economy and provided a
refreshing new way to think about how we
live today Richard's new book who's your
city is a book that I think will
resonate with all of us many of us who
made a conscious decision not to be
living in a certain suburb of San Fran's
IM to stole my opening line it's a book
about how while technology maybe makes
the world seem boundless and flat it
really isn't that flat and where we live
does matter and I'm so I'm going to
leave you in Richard to thank you that
thank you well thank you for that kind
introduction so yeah that was the
question I wanted to start with and I
thought about it a lot this morning you
know why here why not that suburb
outside of San Francisco where we're
really excited to go next week but why
here why here for you guys so I want I
want you to think about it why here for
you guys and why here for Google because
it wouldn't be what most people who
study what I study would have expected
they would expected everything to be in
this cluster out on the west coast so I
want you to think about it the other
thing is you know I'll talk for 40
minutes or so you know maybe 45 leave
plenty of times for questions I've been
a professor at Carnegie Mellon been a
visiting professor at thank you MIT I
teach at the University of Toronto I
like questions and I like really hard
questions so you don't have to feel I
know you don't could you work here and I
know where you went to school so but you
don't have to feel shy and you know none
of us has the last word and that's
something I want to say and I think you
know that because you work most of you
in technology if anyone thinks they have
the last word they don't and all of this
is evolving so and all of my ideas are
constantly evolving and I've always been
my best ideas or whatever i've added at
the margin to ideas have come out of
dialogue and from great criticism so
please you should feel free and i look
at this and the other thing is if you
have any cool ideas of what to do with
this stuff like in your own work and how
to make it come alive visually or with
maps you know i'm easy to find I'm
Florida at creative class calm I am
completely addicted you know I live
online if anyone ever has ideas about
that stuff feel free we have a pretty
cool Institute at the U of T and we're
building it out and and and we're in
this for the long haul and then the
other thing by way of starting I want to
say is kind of when you mention the
press release and the biomaterial really
the book that I wrote two books before
this rise of the creative class was
really about the kind of lives that you
guys are leading and have been leading
so in some ways I learned a lot about
this from just interacting with folks in
particular my students and graduate
students at Carnegie Mellon and other
universities and now at the U of T
anyway I've been I went to Rutgers in
the mid-70s and I took a degree in
political science and urban studies I
went to Columbia and I got a PhD in
urban planning in 1986 so that's between
two and three decades of studying kind
of place in geography and location and
after writing like lots of academic
papers and running a research center and
and I can talk about how my wife Rhonda
has traveled with me today who kelp runs
our little company we moved to
Washington DC and we liked it there and
then we got the offer to come to Toronto
and we moved again like two times in the
past five years and also we talked to a
lot of people family members friends who
are moving and I kind of realized and
then and then and then I read dan
gilbert's book stumbling on happiness
and he said you know we make three big
decisions in our life what we do for a
living who we take is a life partner and
where we live and I know there's like a
lot of economics and business and
guidance counseling and advice columns
and biz
this week kind of magazines on what kind
of job in career and how you would do
that and how to navigate it and
certainly my dad growing up in New
Jersey and I I talk about my dad in the
beginning of the book my dad worked in a
factory he had an eighth grade education
he like you have to study really hard
you have to go to college you have to
get a good career and first they wanted
me to be a dentist then they want me to
be a lawyer and I just didn't want to do
that so but then my mom elite and then
other people you know if you think about
this who questioned people say well you
know who you marry is really important
that's imply watch the Today show this
morning and they talked about like
happiness in your life and how your
family and the person you spend your
life with is so important and people who
are married and have happy marriages are
happy and more satisfied in their life
and I thought my mom always said rich
you know even though your dad only had
an eighth grade education I guess I
could have you know gone out with
someone more successful but it was the
best decision I made because I really
was madly in love with your dad and then
I thought about our own moves and no one
ever told me and and even in my field
now 20 years into this field people
write about why locations important and
how place affects things and at why
companies locate in certain areas they
don't really write so much about why we
locate but i thought you know no one has
ever really put down on paper how this
who questioned they talked about the
what they talked about the who the how
this where question how this where kept
question how our location affects our
lives and then I met with my research
group and we toss the idea around and
this young guy who worked for me he's
now he just got back his band just got
back from South by Southwest they're
called these United States they're
really really interesting he left kind
of writing and researching the plate to
have this man he's a good songwriter he
said why don't you call it who's your
city and we all laughed and then we took
it around to publishers like basic books
and they said you can't title with that
you have to title it like the location
factor or the wealth of place or why
place matters and we and I don't have a
big you know at creative class calm our
website we have people who come and
communicate with us and it's not a huge
thing but it's big enough and we had a
little vote
and people like no absolutely who's your
city is a better title because it
resonates with people so once we got
that far I decided to write it up and
and in the few minutes we have you know
and really it's the result it tries to
be easy to read but it's the result of
20 or more years of kind of research in
this field but the first thing that that
we found that's really really
interesting is that what you're talking
about this technology the Internet
computing transportation advances
everybody immediately hears of that
stuff and they think oh that's going to
make place less important that all of
this advance in technology and
communication transportation is going to
make the place you live less important
because you can live anywhere and and
you know that's not just a new story
that's an old story hey guys there are
chairs up here if you want them you
don't have to take them I mean I'm not
trying to make you sit up here this
isn't a bad class it makes you sit up
front um okay and and and so and so yeah
and this is an old story like i was
saying if you go back and read the
history like the telegraph was going to
do this and then the telephone was going
to do it and then the streetcar was
going to do it and then the automobile
was going to do and then certainly the
airplane was going to do it then the fax
machine was going to do it and to what
we did cuz we're pretty empirically
minded oh there's one chair left but you
can stay back there if you want um
because we're pretty empirically minded
we said well let's take a look at this
so the first thing we did is just look
at data and what's really interesting is
there's very little data which is cool
for you guys at Google to most data
that's collected is collected at the
national level now a country may have
data like the United States or Canada or
Australia or your Europe eurostat may
have data on like cities and provinces
and state but nobody collects actual
information on cities so the first thing
we did there is a program at the United
Nations which collects data on
population of cities so we looked at
that data and the first thing that
struck us is that in this past year for
the first time in human history more
than fifty percent of all people live in
what they call urban agglomerations so
more than half of the world's population
is urban and if anything that's been
growing over the past you know all their
human history but certainly over the
past 50 to 100 years that percentage has
been growing and that's when it got
interesting the next thing we had to do
is try to estimate because population is
a crude measure of concentration right
there can be concentrations of people
like New York or San Francisco that are
relatively wealthy or produce a lot of
economic output there could be
concentrations of people in the emerging
economies where people are living and
essentially slum or kind of global slum
situations so we said let's try to
figure out how much economic activity
goes on in these cities so I'm not a
computer scientist but lots of people I
work with are including two or three of
my best research collaborators who are
computer science undergraduates and then
took economics of PhDs and one guy said
who was at the University of Maryland he
said well Richie know their satellite
maps of the world and I said yeah
they're really cool he said you know we
could use them to distill economic
energy so he did this I don't know the
methodology but he basically built some
algorithms that would allow him to
distill from these energy Maps economic
output there's another group bill
nordhaus he's a famous famous economist
at Yale he's done something similar not
with light maps but he did this some
something similar he called it his g
econ program we calibrated against his
work we also went to every country that
has sub-national data so if the United
States had information on the gross
regional product of its 300 regions we
looked at that or if Europe had the same
thing we got the best calibration we
could and then we estimated this for
every kind of you know kilometer of
light across the globe and then we got
innovation data now we would have liked
to had better innovation data or we'd
like to have entrepreneurship startup
data but that doesn't exist but data on
patents do exist so we took the US data
we got them to do a special run break it
down by zip code but they do the zip
code of every inventor in the world
so not just inventors in the United
States but every inventor that files a
US pat in the world they have his or her
location and then we combine that with
data on international patenting from the
world international patent office and
then finally finally we got data on
scientific discovery this guy Mike badi
he's a professor and in London he had
been looking at bibliometric data but
you have better bibliometric data but
nonetheless he had bibliometric data and
we looked at scientific discovery and
publication well what happened is you
know you all know Tom Friedman's work
about the world being flat and how he
says the world is going to be flat it's
going to be a level playing field there
are six billion people competing for
work he talks in that book if you want
to innovate you no longer have to
emigrate the world wasn't flat at all
you know whether we looked a population
or economic activity innovation or
discovery it was actually it was like
this population had a line like this
economic activity had a line like this
innovation had a line like this each of
those lines got steeper and steeper so
what we talked about in the book and you
can see the maps in there is that the
world is really really spiky and and I
know you guys can understand this but
lots of people have trouble with it it's
not like it's actually one or the other
it's both flat and spiky decentralising
and centralizing at the same time so as
the world gets bigger and as more
countries come into play and as economic
activity expands and firms to centralize
their economic activity they don't do
that in a ubiquitous way they do it in a
very concentrated way so there's kind of
a dialectic as the world expands and
grows more global the vehicle of
globalization are these very spiky
places and then we went one step further
we decided that using this data series
we could actually capture we're really
important clusters of economic activity
are we could not only capture a city
like New York but we had the satellite
images we could identify the world
economies real economic centers which
aren't necessarily cities and are
necessary states and provinces and
certainly are
nations but by using that satellite
imagery we could see where there is a
actually observable empirical
concentration of economic activity well
we did exercise we gave all of them kind
of funny names you know we tried to give
them interesting things a fellow named
John Gottman in the 50s he's an economic
geographer described the emergence of
what he called megalopolis right it's a
word we all know but him him megalopolis
was Boz wash he called it the Boston New
York Washington car well that one popped
up right away and then there was another
when he called shy pits that ran from
Chicago to Detroit to Cleveland to
pittsburgh but he didn't do much more
and a few other people had tried to look
at us meg what we called mega regions we
actually identified every single
regional cluster in the world setting a
threshold of a place that produces more
than 100 billion dollars in economic
activity we actually identified that
there about 40 of these things worldwide
so there's 191 nations but actually
there's 40 mega regions which are the
real centers of the economic action in
the world economy they house less than
twenty percent of the world's population
they account for two-thirds of all the
world's economic output and almost more
I was going to say almost ninety percent
about eighty to eighty-five percent of
the world's innovation the world is a
very concentrated place and and the
other thing that struck us and I see
that you guys are a very global group if
you look at the United States you
actually get a very biased picture of
the geographic distribution of economic
activity because the United States is
the most evenly distributed place on the
planet like it has the most number of
kind of interesting cities yeah New York
and Boston and Washington and Chicago in
austin and ann arbor in Pittsburgh a lot
San Francisco in LA Seattle Portland has
lots and lots of cities not that they're
all the same they're diverging
increasingly over time but they're more
or less similar we looked at India and
China and you know people say the United
States is involved in this computation
with India and China I could talk ad
nauseam about that and how silly silly
those arguments sometimes are
you know but the United States isn't
competing with India and China there are
two of the most spiky places on the
planet in China almost all of the
economic activity is clustered around
Shanghai and Beijing and a few other
places that radiates from out from there
and in India it's bangalore to kind of
Mumbai and then Delhi they are much
spikier and I remember meeting with one
of my students we sent since written to
kind of interesting papers on China
using these data but my Chinese student
said to be rich he said he actually
called me professor Florida like no no
no please call me rich and he called me
professor Florida he said you know I
don't want to be insulting I don't want
to be too aggressive he said in Shanghai
I live better than you but the people at
the outskirts of Shanghai live his words
and I quote in the book in pre civilized
conditions so what we got a sense of is
that the world is not only economically
uneven it is incredibly spatially uneven
and that economic activity as it spreads
itself is actually doing so in a way
that concentrates this activity which
leads me to kind of the first academic
point or kind of intellectual point why
would this be so why would why would
this happen right so we have an
empirical observation but then you have
to sit back and go whoa hold on I
thought costs were supposed to matter I
thought companies were supposed to
migrate where there was lower costs I
thought you guys were supposed to all
look for places where you could optimize
your utility and find that dream home
you know that was affordable not living
in a place where you spend two three
four five thousand bucks a month for
rent and live in 500 600 700 square feet
right it makes no sense it makes no
sense so then there is a woman who
actually got to know before she passed
away and I'd encourage all of you if you
haven't to read about her but she was
truly remarkable um she didn't she went
to the University of Scranton she didn't
get a PhD her name was Jane Jacobs she
wrote a fabulous book on this
neighborhood in 1961 she wrote a book on
little bit sad little on her hudson
street in greenwich village it's the
most remarkable book on cities the
she talked about what really makes a
city work and and how urban renewal
these big urban renewal projects were
killing cities and you can see their
legacy not only in New York but
everywhere she actually fought the urban
renewal they were gonna put a highway
right through the Greenwich Village to
highway she fought them in one but she
wrote a several other books I got to
know her late in her 80s she became a
mentor and it kind of idled in my knee
she's now become rediscovered by many
interesting people but she wrote a book
called the economy of cities in the book
called the wealth cities in the wealth
of nations she really in those books and
I'm gonna write her debt to the
anniversary of death is in April I'm
going to write a piece of 750 word piece
about this and just put it down on paper
but she solved this puzzle and and now
economists and social scientists are
catching up and and there's a great
economist Robert Lucas he won the Nobel
Prize and and he said he had he asked a
question in any address after he won the
Nobel Prize he said he lives in Chicago
University I said why would people
continue to live in downtown Chicago and
in Chicago and pay so much rent you New
York would even learn more or London a
more obvious example he said well people
could say it's because it's a fun place
to live or because it has good
restaurants or good shopping centers but
that would be a theory of restaurants
and shopping not a theories of cities
and here's what Jane Jacobs discovered
economic growth doesn't come from
capital investment economic growth
doesn't come from ports economic growth
doesn't come from factories well you
know this look we're at Google the real
source of economic growth comes from
people it's such a novel idea and it
makes so much intuitive sense to think
of it economic growth doesn't come from
where the company locates it doesn't
come from big physical investment it
doesn't come from built steel factories
are auto factories it comes from people
who have ideas and she said what's so
interesting about this is when people
come together in a city or a community
and live near one another they don't
just increase their productivity two
times it becomes self reinforcing and
actually she actually leveled this very
implicit critique at Adam Smith because
adam smith in the wealth of nations said
eckin
the crows come specialization and the
division of labor if you can break
things down into more and more specific
tasks whether that's in a shop or in a
factory you can get economy of scale and
a division of labor and you'll be
efficient Jane Jacob said nope that's a
theory of growth but it's not a theory
of innovation because all specialization
really allows you to do is do something
slightly more efficiently if you want to
understand where real economic
development comes from you have to
understand these massive waves of
innovation that comes from people and
people in city she didn't have google to
call upon her Apple she actually studied
the woman who invented the bra it's a
historic don't want to tell you the
story but it's a historical story about
how this lady invented the brassiere in
New York City but basically what she
said is that cities not only make each
one of us more productive because were
diverse and because we have different
perspectives and she said this in a very
matter-of-fact way later at a young man
named Scott page he was a brilliant
economist at the University of Michigan
prove this if you have cognitive
diversity if you have cognitive thinking
styles that differ you get much better
group problem solving and what Scott
proved is that cognitive diversity is
associated with ethnic racial age gender
and sexual orientation diversity so Jane
gives us this basic theory which says
it's not cost that's driving economic
development it's really the productivity
advantages that come from locating in
cities there's one there's two pieces of
that book you guys might be particularly
interested in one as I did with my
collaborator Rob axle who's a brilliant
computer model or adaptive agent modeler
he actually built models and and I could
get you a link we have some video factor
honor we should we should put this up on
our website at creative class common
who's your city calm but we actually
have little videos he built simulations
of how cities form around this Jane
Jacobs principle the talented and
creative people when they come together
they optimize and they magnify each
other's productivity and we did this
over millions and millions of runs
iterations and what you see is these
giant mega regions forming and it's not
like they lock in it's a continual
dynamic process so you see these little
locations starting to build and then one
gets really big and it stays really big
and then two or three get big and then
they crash and you get other ones the
other piece of research I think you guys
would find fascinating is by the folks
at the Santa Fe Institute would actually
use some of our data and some other data
to quantify what they call urban
metabolism and and I this project is
just mind-blowing and we're going to
spend some time together this summer but
basically they said most species have
metabolic rates and those metabolic
rates are constant across species cities
have metabolic rates they're faster and
they said in order for cities to survive
as they grow back they have two super
scale and so that work is talked about
in the book and I think you'd find it
really interesting but the point is
cities are these in cities or what we
call mega regions are these incredible
economic and social organisms that work
not because they're fun and they're
great places to hang out but because
they make people more innovative and
productive so that's the first part of
the book the second part of the book
says well how does this affect kind of
your economic life two things really
struck me in doing three things really
struck me and doing this research the
first 1i called initially the difference
between the mobile and the stuck I now
call it the difference between the
mobile the rooted and the stock
increasingly in our society economic
advantage comes from two people who are
geographically mobile and and that's
something I want just everybody to be
aware i know most of us in this room are
aware of it but most people in society
are not aware of it it used to be that
you can live in your home town and find
a job in a factory in an office building
and be around your family and friends
and do just fine increasingly what we
found and drawing on a lot of other
researches economic mobility is strongly
associated with geographic mobility so
not everybody moves lots of people
choose to stay rooted they want to be
around family and friends they don't
want to disrupt their community they
find that they get a lot of joy from
that and then tragically there are the
people who are stuck who don't have the
resources to move who own homes and
older cities and in places that those
homes are underwater as they say they
can't sell them and and one of the
things that the book points out is that
mobility is is very highly agree is
increasing
associated with socio-economic mobility
the second thing it finds in related to
that and in technology fields you see it
is that job markets are becoming
incredibly specialized sunny sense to
you guys that job markets most cities
used to have a wide array of the mega
reaches a wide array of employment
opportunities now increasingly if you
want to do a certain kind of thing you
have to be in a certain number of cities
well think about the valley and high
technology that's self-evident think
about la in entertainment in filmmaking
the one example I talked about in the
book and especially since my wife Iran
is from Detroit we spend a lot of time
there and we I kind of like Detroit and
I live in Pittsburgh I like Pittsburgh
the example I use in this book is why
would Jack White move from Detroit to
sink Jack White of the white stripes
this incredibly rich and thriving rock
and roll route scene where he kind of
invents the white stripes why would he
move from there to Nashville and he did
he sold his house in Detroit any move to
Nashville and the question I asked
myself I said okay I understand why
technology people would locate around a
Stanford or wherever MIT you know I
understand all of that that makes all
good sense in the university's a hub of
activity we're good friends with the rim
guys ball silly and why they be around
Waterloo musicians could live anywhere
right I mean musicians don't have to
concentrate and collect themselves
together if anything you would think
musicians would be around big markets
where they could get gigs in fact we
looked at the numbers over 40 years
musicians are more highly locationally
concentrated than techies and M
Nashville is extraordinary in that
almost all of the game in the
concentration of musicians comes from
Nashville and we see this since the end
there's a cute little map in there that
we drop of the different kinds of
regions in the United States where
different kinds of professions
concentrate for all the reasons change
Jacobs mentioned that I talked about
before but the point of fact is if
you're thinking about a career you you
have to be really really
really thoughtful about this and as a
young guy will Wilkinson he writes a
fantastic blog on happiness really smart
guy he reviewed and an early copy of
this and I quoted him he said you know
so you want a nap be an actor and you
don't want to live in New York or LA
suck it up and resign yourself to dinner
theater in Biloxi and realize that your
whole career prospects are going to
change so in the final thing on the
economic dimension that I think it's
worth mentioning especially now when we
talk about expensive housing in New York
City and kind of the housing crisis in
America housing is a single biggest
investment most of us make most people
make and there's a great professor at
Wharton a good friend Joe Gorga he
actually looked at rates of housing
appreciation for American cities over
the past 40 years and he showed quite
clearly he called them the superstars
that there are 10 places over those 40
years that have consistently appreciated
at a level that leaves the rest you know
if you bought a house in Cincinnati this
is this example in 1960 you probably
paid about as much as the one in San
Francisco the one in Cincinnati would
have doubled in value the one in San
Francisco would have went up 10 or 20 or
30 times so the point that the book
makes and it's kind of and again a very
simple point that people don't think
about it when you're thinking about
buying a house affordability is only one
side of the equation so you can afford
to buy a house in one of the non
superstar markets it seems like a good
choice but in fact the investment in
housing isn't about what's the cheapest
it's about what offers the largest rate
of return and then think about that for
the choice of location as a whole it's
not just about the trade-off between
what's the most afford think about your
own location choice it's not just the
choice of the place that seems most
affordable it's the choice of the place
that affords the greatest appreciation
well in your in your housing but also in
your career and and people need to think
a lot harder about that when making this
choice of where to live well
the next part of the book veers from
economics into new territory for me and
I think new territory for my field I
want to qualify that because one
reviewer the book said Florida overlooks
he thinks he knows something new about
psychology but he does and environmental
psychologists have always known the
effect of place and hit they said as a
professor he should know better what
will I do know better I actually and i
wrote my psychological colleagues at
common note the literature on
environmental psychology is is wonderful
and if you know it it's about you know
dude how did the tree canopy and I'm
trying to how does the tree canopy in a
neighborhood make you feel if they're
park benches is that good if the space
is isolated and doesn't have a lot of
people do you feel less disconnected it
doesn't talk about the relationship
between psychology and place and
actually personality that literature is
very slim so we did two projects the
first project was by happenstance I had
been interested in how place effect
psychology for a while I had learned in
my earlier research when I done
interviewing and people have said to me
why did you choose the place you choose
to live well they said because I wanted
to be in a place that has excitement
that has stimulation that has energy was
the cons and I actually give a talk to
the positive psychology conference and I
asked about this constructive I've
talked about this construct of energy
and afterwards it a group of positive
psychologist said no no that's not silly
that's actually really important let's
talk about it well they had begun to
collect some data and I got include into
this one day I saw online on a fellas
blog that there had been a study done by
Sam Gosling at the University of Texas
and Jason renfro at Cambridge University
of how they could tell your personality
by the music you listen to they don't
need to give you a personality
assessment they just go look at your CD
collection or your iPod your iTunes they
can tell exactly what your personality
type is and then they started studying
dorm rooms right exactly by how your
dorm room look they could like read with
almost perfect accuracy your personality
type and then of course they started to
mope around office
and I mean it makes perfect sense so I
wrote these guys a note jason writes me
a nut right back he's a young guy just
graduated the University of Texas now a
professor at Cambridge University he's
like I read your book rise of the
creative class it was really great
that's why I moved to New York City
after I graduated it was like Donna he
said you know I started to collect this
data he had date on 650,000
personalities so he said let's map it so
that's all in the book and and we mapped
it and I had to go through this
incredible learning experience there's
five personality types psychological
personality types there's conscientious
people they work really hard they're
very dutiful there's agreeable people
they like to get along with other people
they don't fight a lot they're not very
aggressive there's extroverts right
people who like other people want to be
around other people get stimulation from
other people they tend to do really well
in like sales jobs there's neurotic
people New York is filled with them by
the way it really is that's not just the
fun it really is and and and also places
even like like pittsburgh in tulsa
oklahoma just really interesting and
then there's this group they called open
to experience many people who would work
in your kind of business and certainly
be innovative and entrepreneurial would
fit this open to experience category the
research on creativity suggests the open
to experience personality is highly
creative the people who are
entrepreneurial tend to be highly
creative they also tend to be more
introverted most highly open to
experience people because okkadu
experience people tend to get
stimulation from their work rather than
from other they're kind of different
from an extrovert an extrovert get
stimulated by other people and open to
experience person gets stimulated by
experiences they tend to be somewhat
disagreeable they tend to be somewhat
aloof no I taught a Carnegie Mellon that
was a visiting professor at MIT I
understand so no but but it's just an
amazing thing and then we mapped them
and I think we actually use some of your
mapping stuff some of your heat map
stuff we and we'd love to do more of
this and we got to do more because
there's a first path we mapped them and
and I feel so bad what when I say this
because everybody the conscientious
people were like a blob the agreeable
people were like a blob the extroverts
were like a blob in and then the open to
experience people were like pinpoints
they were in New York they were in
Boston they weren't watching
a few in southern Florida Austin Texas
Bing and then San Francisco in LA and up
in Seattle and Jason I look at this and
we're now probing it an even more the
talent I speculate on this in the book
most economists and social scientists
have have looked at what's happening in
our country and said what's driving
economic growth are people with high
levels of education and they're becoming
a divergent their locations are
diverging it used to be every city had
twelve or fifteen percent of people with
a college degree Detroit Pittsburgh New
York Sanford that might be a little
higher in New York and Boston San
Francisco now san francisco and
washington DC have over fifty percent in
a place like detroit has fourteen
percent so human capital they say our
education is becoming divergent and all
i said in this is what if education is
only one part of skill and then I
thought about all the people who started
interesting high-tech companies and how
many of them were college dropouts right
I mean you know the list better than I
how many of these people were college
dropouts and then I thought about the
fact that according to other research
thirty to fifty percent of all startups
in the United States today are founded
by someone who came from a foreign
country so I said to myself and no one
had ever look at it what if this open to
experience type of person is not only
the innovative creative entrepreneurial
what if they're the migraine and so what
the book suggests is that there's
another way of looking at this
propulsive dynamic of innovation that is
not just skill based and I want to say
this very gently because my experience
at Carnegie Mellon was probably the best
of my life but I posing the question the
difference between Pittsburgh and high
technology in the valley and I and I
suggest gently that it's not the fact
that Carnegie Mellon in fact in terms of
per faculty productivity it is equally
as productive as Stanford or MIT I
suggest that what might be different is
not just the sunshot that actually there
may be more of these open to experience
types of personalities who've clustered
themselves around the San Francisco Bay
Area historically for a lot of reasons
it was open to new ideas it was open to
new people it may be it had Sun and fun
it had great writers there and I'm not
saying these people all of us went
open to people found you know kind of
sorts oh I want to find another open to
experience person I've got to find what
they kind of just ended up and you know
where else they ended up I mean we're
sitting in the middle of one of the
largest concentrations of open to
experience people and one of the things
my work has been controversial about is
is and I'm doing I hope to write my next
book on music but but one of the things
my work has suggested for a long time is
if you want to think about incubation of
technology and innovation one of the
things you could do is track the
location patterns of artists and
musicians and we called it the bohemian
factor it got a lot of controversy but
one of the things that this work points
out is that these bohemian clusters
these artistic clusters are not just
artists you know strumming guitars and
being in the folk bars in the village
and before Bob Dylan and playing jazz
and you know experimental beatnik
lifestyles but these were places that
somehow found it possible that open to
experience people found it possible to
congregate and then all of a sudden they
just became magnets over time
unwittingly for these kinds of
populations and we did one other thing
which psychological data we partner with
the Gallup Organization we did a survey
of 28,000 Americans we asked people two
kinds of questions what in your life
makes you happy and and and you know is
it the what you do is it who you marry
it's the where you live we're the first
people who systematically asked about
where and then we said with regard to
the place you live what are the factors
that really affect your subjective
well-being in your psychology the first
thing we found in a nutshell and then I
want to wrap up the first thing we found
in a nutshell is that the three factors
really determine your overall life
happiness it's not money you know
although there's a threshold there's a
threshold effect it's not money you need
a satisfactory income below that
satisfactory income in developing an
emerging nation you can be terribly
terribly unhappy and dissatisfied but
there's a threshold and it's not a whole
lot of money twenty thirty thousand
forty thousand bucks over it you get to
miss diminishing returns what makes you
really happy is having a job that you
love and you're challenged by it allows
you to manage your time I mean you
guys all know about that secondly what
makes you really happy in your life is
your social connections your
relationships and one of the very very
devastating things we found looking at
some sociological research is that few
we have fewer and fewer real social
connections in our life in fact the
modal number of people we are closed for
close with close confidants in America
is one I mean that is really object ly
terrifying so so so so but people have a
richer social life they feel more
socially connected I think it's
something many people are striving for
young men decent waters were a great
book on this he called it the urban
tribe and he talked about how in in in
it's peculiar among younger groups
people are actually forging new kinds of
communities very different than
communities in the past alternatives to
coupling into marriage and it gets a
wonderful book but anyway found those
two things are really important what you
do and and how excited you are by it and
then and then kind of your social life
we also have an interesting map in the
book we call it the singles map which
shows kind of the places with the best
ratios for men and women which is
hysterical trust me that's what gets the
most hits on the website but gets the
most dialogue going New York is much
better for guys than girls by the way
just let us let you know that the west
coast is just the opposite which is so
interesting to me but then then we
looked at the effect the place place
really has a huge effect on people's
well-being and it's interesting it's not
only about equal to the other two and
the board talks about the statistics
they're not they're close to one another
what's really interesting when we ask
people where stress comes from in their
lives um their job could be a source of
great stress and even their family could
be a source of great stress around three
percent of people reported that the
place they live was ever a real source
of stress now that is very different in
places where commuting patterns are
horrific if people who have long
commutes are terribly unhappy about that
but on unbalanced unbalanced where we
live tends to act on the positive side
of our well-being ledger but the
question we asked about why was really
fascinating and I had gotten embroiled
in a debate with other urbanist
including some in New York at the
Manhattan Institute and what they had
argued is that all of my work on the
bohemian factor we actually had a gay
index with chill
places that have hired gay and lesbian
concentrations have higher rates of
innovation and entrepreneurship and and
they kind of said this is fluffy this is
frivolous you know does Florida really
believe that places that have street
guitarist and people wear ripped
t-shirts and want to live in the urban
core that somehow you know that's going
to out-compete the great suburb so I
said fine fine fine you guys are and you
know I took that seriously I didn't
dismiss it they also said I had a gay
agenda these are just hysterical things
they accuse me of trying to undermine
Judeo Christian civilization I mean this
is just wild but like okay let's look
into it I'm an empiricist I don't have a
values agenda and so we did the survey
with Gallup and we asked about hundred
questions about what people want from
their community we surveyed every ethnic
group every racial group sexual
orientation income groups age groups and
what we found is that there are five
factors that really are important the
first one is is most people given their
druthers would like to live in a place
that's safe and have good schools very
important second thing we found is most
people would like to live in a place
that has economic and social opportunity
the third thing we found is if you have
a good mayor and good business
leadership people are happier but those
were just three fundamentals at the
margin there were two things that really
elevated people's happiness with their
community we asked a question we said
how open good as your community as a
place for racial minorities ethnic
minorities religious minorities artists
techies entrepreneurs family with
children's poor people elderly people
disabled people gays and lesbians young
college graduates looking for work
singles what was interesting is the
places where people reported that their
town was a good place across the board
everybody's happiness factor and
well-being one up guess which group
people said on balance was the group
that Americans were least likely to be
open to we didn't ask atheists dang
young recent college graduates searching
for a job and and we talked about that
in the question second that the second
that factor we found that is the single
most important factor the second most
important factor we found the first most
important the most important factor we
found was we called it quality of place
the physical characteristics of the
place itself we asked you know do you
have do you have parks that you can use
do you have open space are there trails
is their architecture that you and Maura
are do you like the rivers all of this
stuff about the aesthetic character we
call it quality of place you know the
kind of strength of the place itself
places where people report that they
found the quality of the place to be
high the happiness and well-being factor
was much higher anyway I could go on and
on and on I'm pretty good at keeping to
the time you know we all in the academic
world is you know come from the Fidel
Castro school of public speaking so I
could go on and on but I'll just stop
there and and I very much welcome I
welcome your questions and thank you for
your patience and sitting and listening
thank you how much of this is culturally
generalized we have two sets of data the
economic data is worldwide the cultural
data is highly American and Western
centric we now have a research team that
spans most of Europe Northern Europe
with sprinklings in Asia very few in
Latin American none in Africa my goal in
the institute is to make it more
culturally generalizable but to this
point our work has in the cultural and
psychological piece a Western bias I
could and if we follow up I said my
email is Florida at creative class calm
I could ask my research team to think
about whether we have any data on people
who came from other cultures and happen
to be located in North America my fear
just to be honest with you is that those
are not adequate representations of the
phenomena you want we have to go out and
collect deeper samples in those cultures
and constructs
talking about are you know completely
orthogonal to my experience in India
they just don't apply yeah yeah I hear
you and I think and I think where were
you in India was in bangalore and that's
very interesting to me because bangalore
is a spike and if we find cultural
differences or cultural conflict there
then we found something interesting but
but that's one of the things that goal
of our new Institute is to make these
more culturally generalizable and
actually to be quite candid the other
reason we wanted to move outside not
that Toronto's all that far but by
moving to Toronto I felt I really felt
what you you see that much of this work
is American centric and the need to
bring a greater greater global
perspective and hopefully in the future
we'll be able to do more of that this
work to be quite candid hat shares that
bias oh god I don't I'll try to do you
have an idea maybe tracking or
qualifying something that is a
domain-specific network effect where you
kind of just have to be in a certain
guys or like Silicon Valley is known for
the tech startups you can really not do
a deal if you too far away from Wall
Street yes this is not just because
people want to live here you kind of
have to that yeah and i think that's
that's the point of the work we're going
to dig deeper into that but this domain
specific network and the domain specific
networks are not that much overlapping
they are geographically specific to
Silicon Valley tech network the New York
City or London investment banking
network the Nashville is the same thing
for for music deals and Jack White I
didn't get this interview but it came
out after the book he said the reason I
moved to Nashville I don't have this in
the book is he had Detroit had a
debilitating scene and people were kind
of mean but he said I want to write hits
it's what he said he said I want to
write hits and in Nashville all the
people who know how to write hits and
make its live in Nashville I think this
domain specific network is becoming much
more geographically distinct across many
fields and you had your hand up yeah i
mean my question is related to yours and
i was just wondering if that is the case
of people willing to play with our own
yes then how does one create you hugs
like we did would you do anything like
would you do any research into like how
these let me tell you when I asked Jane
Jacobs this question and she's such a
wonderfully brilliant woman here's what
she said to me when a place gets boring
even the rich people leave think about
that I mean it was the most incredible
remark that there are these Gladwell ian
tipping points you don't know when
they're going to occur but all of a
sudden a place that was exciting and
filled with energy and filled with you
know all of a sudden it just gets boring
and they'll and she said to me she said
Richard look at some of the greatest
neighborhoods in the world that are now
slums that there were the greatest
amateur nestlings at some point they
were one of these networks and then it
was all laws so I think at certain
points these networks either become
rigid they become sclerotic or maybe an
entrepreneurial act occurs in a new area
you know maybe Waterloo is one now I'm
just brainstorming with you maybe we're
seeing the birth of one in Waterloo the
one we track historically is Nashville
nasha was a backwater at night now they
had some country players but it was not
a music hub in 1950 and you can watch it
grow so the question is what ignites it
and and what we believe is that they're
kind of random acts it's not Stanford
that ignited the valley there were lots
of possible Stanford's there was some
ignited act igniting act that allowed
that to take off and then they developed
some advantage for some period of time
if they're nurtured but the other one is
look we just came back from Dayton
Dayton was a tremendous center of
domain-specific knowledge and bicycling
and then car and then planes Ron is from
Detroit I mean you're talking about one
of the greatest agglomerations of
Pittsburgh I mean Pittsburgh was kind of
a silicon valley of its day so we kind
of have a sense of why the decline when
they get rigid we believe they're kind
of random acts and and I talked about
this in the book I say I talk about the
joke they asked Lin venture capitalist
in the valley how do you create another
Silicon Valley they said he said take
one great University add venture capital
you know and add a little sunshine
it's not that simple yeah and and they
really are III would i would hunch that
it's places that start to collect these
kind of highly open highly innovative
people and at some point they reach an
ignition point but that's a question for
that needs a lot more study i'll go to
this side of the room and then we'll
i'll try to get as many i'll keep my
answer short so you mentioned that you
surveyed people without their happiness
and factors that would make them more or
less happy and what factors affect their
happiness and when i hear about these
service i was wondering how it is that
you can rely on people to know these
that's a great question did you take
economics of princeton now for instant
has the greatest group of people and
happiness studies in the world Danny
Kahneman won a Nobel Prize for his his
dear and he actually was a consult not
to me the consultant to gallop on these
surveys you try to ask the best and most
precise questions you can but people
will tell you if you want to want the
most precise answers and they're very
hard to do in Kahneman has done them you
have to track diaries that people keep
every day and regularly during the day
and often times if you do that if you do
that you will see that reported
happiness you know what I'm saying if
that on a survey may differ we we hope
and we believe that the data are is
accurate and we ask the toughest and
best questions we could have but there
are all kinds of problems of subjective
bias but the patterns are empirically
robust so they're suggesting there
suggestive I don't want to say this is
the last word they're suggestive of an
effect and I think the most important
thing in this survey I'm a smart enough
social scientist to know how these
things would be so calibrated most
important thing in this survey says is
that place is important I mean if you
calibrate it that way it says it places
this thing we've not talked about it's
important it's a third leg and then I
think to dig into that we're going to do
more calibrated surveys please so the
first is like I think most of us in this
room could probably probably agree with
like the fact that New York is awesome
and like you take Jacobs you understand
like why is awesome is be no see you
geckos in a lot of detail I'd like other
places hard to find other cities in the
New York that has other than New York
could have that kind of quality yep and
yet New York isn't
at least I think we intuitively feel the
New York is very good for the credit
class except demographically New York
isn't really girl fact it in according
to some services are actually well
there's two things I mean this is a very
in North London or or Nora's the valley
north san francisco and so some of my
critics who are very smart people say
well florida has it wrong because if you
look at big globs of employment growth
or big globs of population growth
they're not in New York there in sunny
sprawling suburban areas and and and
what's really happening and I talked
about this in the book I call the
chapter i think it's where the brains
are if you're having a very different
kind of migration you're having a
migration of highly skilled highly
educated people with high incomes to the
new york's then San Francisco's of the
world and in a sense because our
household sizes are smaller most of us
in his room are in one or two-person
households when we move to a city we
might just be displacing it four five
six seven eight person household and
we're consuming even though our
apartments are small we're consuming
more space so what's happening is
wealthier people are moving into these
areas but the population is a sort it's
not a shift and they're displacing much
larger numbers of lower-income lower
skilled people and and that's the way
you have to look at and we looked at
actually the IRS data the tax data it is
it is terrifying this kind of sorting
process the other thing that's really
terrifying is how unequal these places
are becoming I mean you have the
relatively affluent and the super
affluent and you have people who are
just completely at the other end of the
spectrum so in a sense it's not only
that cross regionally were spiky we're
very spiky uneven within these places
please I see your hand up yes yes yes
that's why she said she saw it I mean
she said to me you already got it she
said when a place gets boring I see her
I'm sorry go ahead want any jumping
yes let's do it oh man let's do it
somebody's got to do it oh my god this
is such an interesting because you know
we think I even wrote about in this book
I wrote on my blog about in the valley
the bus and how a lot of my critics said
oh no no no all the gay and artsy people
live in San Francisco all the techies
you know you guys are disproof that
techie people don't like this kind of
neighborhood but it's it's like okay
rich you got it completely wrong all
that one are these conservative Nets
there wasn't more conservative engineers
who want to live in a ranch house and
then all the crazy people your people
the crazy people live in San Francisco
well the bus to me was just the disproof
I think you've identified a great
research project and I don't know if we
could do it together I don't know if the
data is available but simply to plot the
neighborhood locations in in this
location and on the west coast of the
Google people would be I think a quite
remarkable project we really want to get
to these neighborhood effects you almost
need company data or you need somebody
who really knows how to distill census
data but but we believe that it's not
just people moving to New York or just
people moving to Sam they're living in
specific neighborhoods the book tries to
name some of these and we came up with
these funny names like the hipster Haven
or the urban mosaic or like this new
york like parts of New York turning into
the stroller ville you know we tried to
create a typology no data for that but
but but we believe that the data if we
could absolutely app absolutely and in
Crete and if they're not accept is that
they may be our similar income group but
they don't necessarily are similar
ethnic a racial makeup or or or a
similar career pattern but similar
income group did you a question
oh man another another financial firm I
asked them this question I was asked to
address their partners I used this quote
in the book they said Oh Richard we're
not the effect of the real estate bubble
where the cause I mean that's what the
guy no another financial from were the
cause I mean it's our people bidding up
the price of real estate I think there's
two answers to that question one New
York is mistakenly seen as a financial
center it's not we look at the 50
location quotients that are the top
location quotient in New York for three
to four of them were in the financial
markets the rest of them were things in
entertainment design all of the
quote-unquote core creative fields and
then there were three other ones and I
call them kind of the support
occupations of the creative age it was
like entertainment lawyer podiatrist and
personal coach I'm not kidding you and
so there was six out of 50 that were
either financial six or seven out of 50
/ financial or other 43 or 44 that were
kind of creative so I think New York
isn't it is has been a combo
collaboration in the financial industry
the thing is I'm not sure prices will
come down here and the reason is this
market is global it's not a local market
so you're competing for property in New
York City with a bunch of rich people
from the app around the world that said
I think if it comes down at all it'll be
one of the best investments you can ever
make no you know of any of the search
that's being done and creativity is
because I feel like coping mechanisms
promote innovation in a very different
way than the way we perceive the
creative class yeah okay this will be
the last question I can take questions
offline rip Florida at creative class
calm what about creativity and
low-income slum neighborhoods I didn't
talk about rise of the creative class
but there's some misinterpretation to
that book here's the core of my theory
every single human being is creative and
actually one of the companies i use as
my examples of creative companies not
just google it's toyota and and when i
use toyota is an example it's because
it's all the factory workers as the key
source of technological and
continuous innovation not just the
engineers and the folks in the product
development lab what that book really
argues and my subsequent work has argued
and this book talks about a little but
this books about finding your place is
that really the key to building a more
prosperous society has to be unleashing
that creativity and using it in
economically the most productive ends so
no longer having this divide between
those of us who have the fortune and
good luck and perseverance to use our
skills but to make and I'll tell you
guys growing up working class in New
Jersey this all in the smartest people I
ever met were there they were in the
working class tough neighborhoods and
all 99 percent of those kids were left
behind so I resonate with that there's a
growing literature we hope are instant
it's been great to be with you guys
thanks for questions and i'll be happy
to hang around and take a few more
offline thank you
関連動画をさらに表示
Daron Acemoglu – Inclusive institutions, democracy and the key drivers of economic growth
Teori Interaksi Desa Kota dan Dampak Interaksi Desa Kota
Innovation in the legal industry with Prof. Bruno Mascello
'Real friends are useless': Arthur Brooks on true happiness and goals for your tomorrow
Rethinking Cities | Documentary
Spatial Concepts [AP Human Geography Review Unit 1 Topic 4]
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)