University of Toronto Professor Richard Florida spoke with USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee’s David Plazas and Lipscomb University’s Kristine LaLonde about his latest book “The New Urban Crisis.” We explored whether Nashville is in an urban crisis and what to do about it.
The Service Class, not the Working Class, is the key to the Democrats’ future. Members of the blue-collar Working Class are largely white men, working in declining industries like manufacturing, as well as construction, transportation, and other manual trades. Members of the Service Class work in rapidly growing industries like food service, clerical and office work, retail stores, hospitality, personal assistance, and the caring industries. The Service Class has more than double the members of the Working Class – 65 million versus 30 million members, and is made up disproportionately of women and members of ethnic and racial minorities.
This is an addendum to a previously published broadcast recorded on May 19, 2017. I explored with University of Toronto Professor and Richard Florida some of his proposed solutions he outlines in his latest book “The New Urban Crisis.” These include how to transform low wage service work into middle-class family-supporting work and how to update the tax code to make it less regressive and more fair. Dr. Florida also shared his blunt observations on how to empower local communities and address the divide in America between urban, rural and suburban communities.
Every time I have visited London over the past several years, I invariably hear the same story from my taxi driver. As we drive past Hyde Park on the way to or from the airport, he will say, “You see that building?” nodding towards a modern glass tower next to the Mandarin Oriental hotel. “Some of the apartments cost £50 million or more. And no one lives there—it’s always dark.”
Richard Florida became synonymous with urbanism a decade-and-a-half ago when he wrote a largely upbeat book, “Rise of the Creative Class,” about the renaissance taking place in major cities across the globe.
In his latest literary work, Florida, director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto and a global research professor at New York University, has taken a more sobering look at some of the challenges facing urbanism.
The US City of developer Richard Florida woke fifteen years ago cities around the world to detect the “creative class” in terms of the opportunities provided by economic success. In his latest work pessimistic Florida to declare the message of the new urban crisis that concerns the inner urban segregation. An interesting question is which indicators this crisis can be accessed and find solutions.
On a recent Saturday morning 30 Nashville residents spent two hours participating in a book discussion on how to solve the city’s growth challenges.
There is no pleasing some people. During the 1960s and 1970s, the wealthy fled the west’s big cities to escape crime and urban blight. In the US it was known as “white flight”. Cities such as New York and London were in headlong fiscal decline.
EDENS partnered with the Urban Land Institute, the Economic Innovation Group and CityLab to bring together nearly four hundred D.C. thought leaders and community advocates. “Discussing inclusive prosperity in an open forum helps us come together and appreciate our communities’ rich diversity,” EDENS CEO Jodie W. McLean said. “EDENS’ purpose has always been about enriching community, and engaging with community leaders, urbanists, neighborhood activists and businesses. It is essential in DC and throughout the country that we all work together to create opportunities for all.”
Dr. Richard Florida, author of ”The New Urban Crisis: How Our Cities Are Increasing Inequality, Deepening Segregation, and Failing the Middle Class—and What We Can Do About It”, and University Professor and Director of Cities at the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto joined the program to discuss the correlation between gentrification and health inequities.
