Richard Florida admits that his career trajectory as an urban theorist owes as much to luck as it does to smarts. The author of the best-selling and widely influential The Rise of the Creative Class says, “I’d actually published three books beforehand, but nobody talks about those. My publisher thought that this ‘creative class’ idea might catch on in some way, and as it turns out, newspaper and magazine editors thought so, too.”
For more than a decade, the transformation of blighted urban areas into glistening global beacons for trendy coffee shops and well-heeled whites has commanded national headlines. Rarely do the articles reveal the behind-the-scenes machinations that result in the systematic displacement of tens of thousands of often black and brown poor, working- and middle-class people who vanish, seemingly overnight, followed by their churches, cultural institutions, beauty salons and other haunts.
Sky-high housing prices. Rising inequality. Segregation. Gentrification. The back-to-the-city movement that has revitalized urban areas and driven growth also has a dark side, according to Richard Florida. He joins The Agenda to discuss his book, “The New Urban Crisis: How Our Cities Are Increasing Inequality, Deepening Segregation, and Failing the Middle Class – and What We Can Do About It.
Richard Florida is the 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.” Here, the urbanist explains how to choose the best place to live for your career. Whether you’re fresh out of college or you’ve just had your first child, Florida has an idea of where you should be looking to live. Following is a transcript of the video.
Keeping cities affordable for all
Author Richard Florida talks about ‘The New Urban Crisis’
Once the province of American tech hubs like California’s Silicon
Valley, venture capital has gone global. This report by Richard Florida and Karen King uses detailed data
from Thomson Reuters to chart the world’s leading centers for venture capital investment.
(Audio Link : http://www.creativeclass.com/richard_florida/multimedia_showcase#wharton_ Americans seem to be curbing their love affair with the suburbs as millennials move to major metropolitan areas for the excitement and amenities of city living. But this shift is creating challenges of its own — increasingly unaffordable housing, rising inequality and strains on aging infrastructure, among other consequences. Author Richard Florida, a professor at the University of Toronto, calls it The New Urban Crisis, which is also the title of his book. He discussed his findings on the Knowledge@Wharton show, which airs on SiriusXM channel 111.
Americans seem to be curbing their love affair with the suburbs as millennials move to major metropolitan areas for the excitement and amenities of city living. But this shift is creating challenges of its own — increasingly unaffordable housing, rising inequality and strains on aging infrastructure, among other consequences. Author Richard Florida, a professor at the University of Toronto, calls it The New Urban Crisis, which is also the title of his book. He discussed his findings on the Knowledge@Wharton show, which airs on SiriusXM channel 111.
