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Smithsonian Magazine: Does Creativity Breed Inequality in Cities?

In 2002, Richard Florida became America’s best known urbanist with the publication of his book, The Rise of the Creative Class. In it, Florida posited that the “creative class,” a group which included artists, scientists and engineers, as well as educated knowledge sector professionals such as lawyers and finance workers, was the main driver of cultural and economic flourishing in America’s cities. The theory was enticing to many urban planners and municipal politicians, and cities across the country aimed to follow Florida’s advice on becoming “creative cities.”

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May 3, 2017
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Miami Herald: Fifteen years ago he helped propel the U.S. urban revival. Now he’s plumbing its dark side.

It’s been 15 consequential years since urban evangelist Richard Florida first helped popularize and propel the U.S. urban renaissance with his gospel of the creative class. It held that the tech-consumed, enterprising hip young people flocking back to cities were the nation’s new economic driver, and that luring more of them to every burgh was the key to broad prosperity.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/in-depth/article147246494.html#storylink=cpy

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May 3, 2017
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KPCC: He predicted the revitalization of urban centers like Downtown LA, but Richard Florida now sees the ills

Urban theorist Richard Florida’s 2002 book, “The Rise of the Creative Class” has been both prescient and prescriptive for many city centers in America.

Florida’s book predicted that a class of young, educated millennials who are employed in mostly creative fields would flood deserted urban cores looking for inexpensive housing, thereby changing the fortunes of these neighborhoods.

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April 27, 2017
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Wired: Tech Made Cities Too Expensive. Here’s How to Fix It

IN 2013 PROTESTS broke out in Oakland, California, directed against the private buses that shuttle tech workers from pricey homes in the city’s gentrifying areas to jobs in Silicon Valley. “You live your comfortable lives,” read a flyer that protesters handed out to passengers, “surrounded by poverty, homelessness, and death, seemingly oblivious to everything around you, lost in the big bucks and success.”

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April 26, 2017
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Detroit Free Press: Author Richard Florida now says ‘creative class’ not enough for cities

Back in 2002, urban theorist Richard Florida set the agenda for numerous cities with his book “The Rise of the Creative Class.”

The book made the case that educated millennials in fields such as software design, technology, art and education were the future of cities. They would enhance prosperity and bring the middle class back into urban cores in districts such as Detroit’s Midtown and downtown.

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April 25, 2017