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Date added: 5.3.2015
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The basic thesis of this book is that socially tolerant cities tend to have high levels of education and high-technology employment, which in turn leads to regional economic growth. To my unsophisticated eyes, he appears to have shown some correlation between social tolerance and a high-tech economy. But his analysis raised some questions:*Is it possible to establish which way the causal chain runs? That is, does economic growth cause tolerance or vice versa? Florida writes that declining cities like Pittsburgh and Baltimore are not sufficiently tolerant and open. But are these cities less tolerant because of economic stagnation or vice versa?*Florida shows that there is at least some correlation between social tolerance (defined as a high number of gay couples and people in bohemian occupations such as writing and the arts) and an educated workforce, and that an educated workforce is correlated with economic growth. But (and maybe Im just misreading his data here) Im not sure that he has established the link between social tolerance and economic growth.*Assuming that socially tolerant places have higher income growth, is the advantage of higher income growth wiped out by higher regional cost of living? In other words, if Hipsterville has 2 percent income growth per year and exploding housing costs while Stodgeland has 1 percent growth and small-town housing costs, is Hipsterville really better off?Finally, there are some assertions Florida makes that arent supported by data. He suggests, for example, that environmental quality and natural amenities are important factors in a firms choice of location. But his own table shows that more cities have low environmental quality and high levels of hi-tech employment than have high environmental quality and high hi-tech.Perhaps Floridas most valuable service is peripheral to his main argument: he utterly demolishes the idea that old-fashioned cultural amenities like professional sports, art museums, etc. contribute to high-talent, high-tech employment. The correlations are simply nonexistent. Cities And The Creative Class by Richard Florida
