What policy priorities are needed for global cities to drive more sustainable and inclusive prosperity? How does today’s technology revolution affect how cities build a strong, enduring, middle class? How are cities providing access to the skills and training needed for city youth to fill the jobs of tomorrow? Can global cities grow a thriving creative class without a new urban crisis perpetuating small areas of affluence aside much larger areas of disadvantage?
When Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines told an audience in London she was “ashamed” that President Bush came from Texas, she had no reason to think her words would cause country music stations in parts of the United States to boycott the trio’s latest album and their best-selling hit single, “Travelin’ Soldier.”
Richard Florida became famous among people who think about cities 15 years ago with “The Rise of the Creative Class.” He predicted that postindustrial cities would succeed by focusing on the three Ts: technology, talent and tolerance. People in the “creative class” benefit from density, he said, and would move to places where laws are kind to tech entrepreneurs, where museums provide an evening out and where gay people are comfortable. Indeed, New York recovered its private-sector jobs nearly four years faster than the nation after the Great Recession.
The unaffordable urban paradise. Richard Florida says that startups are now tearing cities apart.
On Monday, November 7, 2016, I made what I thought were the final edits to the manuscript of my latest book, The New Urban Crisis, and sent it off to my publisher. The next day, my wife and I invited our American friends to come to our house in Toronto to celebrate what we were all but certain would be Hillary Clinton’s election. We pulled out all the stops. We hung up red, white and blue bunting, and dressed our baby and our puppy to match. My wife’s sisters supplied us with life-sized cutouts of Clinton and Donald Trump, which they had literally “muled” over the border from the Detroit suburbs. At 6 p.m., when the polls began to close, we turned on the TV to watch the early returns. By 8:30, the party had come to a crashing stop. I spent the rest of the night glued to Twitter; I hardly even noticed when the last of our guests departed.
Richard Florida, urban studies professor at the University of Toronto and author of “The New Urban Crisis” joins MSNBC’s Ali Velshi and Stephanie Ruhle to discuss how cities are increasing inequality and how pockets of concentrated wealth and poverty are squeezing out the middle class.
Tech startups helped turn a handful of metro areas into megastars. Now they’re tearing those cities apart.
Observations by Andrew M Manshel about what makes great Downtowns and Public Spaces.The website of PLACE MASTER PROJECTS providing practical advisory services for the implementation of downtown revitalization and the operation of public spaces.
In an interview with Bloomberg TV Canada’s Amanda Lang, author and professor Richard Florida speaks about the evolution of the urban revival and the super crisis of success that’s coming to Canada with Donald Trump as President of the U.S. (Source: Bloomberg)
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.
