A thought on The Rise Of The Creative Class. 

Since World War II and the saying “How do you keep the boy on the farm after he has seen gay Parie?” - through 1964s Future Shock by Alvin Toffler and his comments on “Diversity of lifestyles” and now The Rise of the Creative Class, resources and outlets for creativity and diversion have always played a role in economic development of communities.  Just look at the history of Colorado.  With Denver, Central City and Leadville, the first thing those emerging outposts did to attract business, and people, was to build an opera house. 

Mayor Hickenlooper has a monumental task in running this city and fostering a cultural environment is just one piece of it and should not be isolated as the saving grace.  There are transportation issues.  If we were civil engineers we would be debating T-Rex and discussing Henry Petroski’s book To Engineer Is Human.  If we were discussing economic development the debate would be over the catch phrase dejur ‘Economic Gardening”. Rome was not built in a day and Denver is still young and a lot has been done to date.  Pena and the airport, Webb’s trips overseas looking for trade partners, Owen’s and Hickenlooper’s trip to California looking for businesses to expand or relocate here.  All are steps to creating a great city and an enticing environment is the icing on the cake, so to speak.  The Creative Class is one tool to help in that monumental task the mayor has.  Is it useful?  For the sake of discussion we can look at the recent Boeing move.  According to Creative Class, Denver and Chicago ranked overall 14^th and 16^th respectively.  Denver only beat Chicago in the “High Tech” category with Chicago ahead in “Creative Class”, “Innovation” and “Diversity”.  Boeing is now in Chicago.

Denver

Ranking Among Major Regions: 14

Creativity Index: 940

Chicago

Ranking Among Major Regions: 15

Creativity Index: 935

ABOVE CHARTS FROM CREATIVECLASS.ORG WEBSITE

What is really good about Creative Class is the subtext or the “between the lines”.  What the “programmers” and “web developers” bring to the art table is the support mechanisms needed. There are managers, executives, board directors and all of the resources and outlets for creativity out on the peripheral of the written words. 

For every 2,800 programmers, web developers and the support mechanism there is a restaurant that stays open.  The restaurant owner is our client.  With every 1,200 there is a dentist that is our client.  For just 300 that build a home a year there is a contractor, that is our client.  Even if they are buying existing lofts and apartments there is another Dee Chirafisi, that is our client. 

So is The Rise Of The Creative Class the gospel or Holy Grail?  Is it a step by step process to guaranteed success?  No.  For governments it is probably closer to the mid-nineties corporate book phenomenon about Process Reengineering.  Reengineering was either the success or failure of a lot of companies during that time and it all depended on whose hands it was in.  Is Creative Class in the right hands?  Who did you vote for?

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