Book Review: "The Rise of the Creative Class ... And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life" by Richard Florida (2004)

This book, originally written in 2002 but issued in paperback in 2004, makes the argument that successful and innovative economies are ones that harness the three T's: technology, tolerance and talent. Together, these three elements create what the author, Richard Florida, calls the "Creativity Index", and are a predictor of forward-looking dynamism.

Using his home of Pittsburgh as a comparison point, Florida argues that cities such as Austin, San Francisco and Seattle, all of which rate excellently on the Creativity Index, are going to draw the most talent in the new economy such as writers, musicians, scientists, architects and engineers - in short, everyone who earns a living by being creative. Those cities are ones which best harness and encourage the three Ts, while cities like Buffalo, Memphis and Grand Rapids do not, according to Florida.

How does one measure all of this? Through sub-indexes for each city, like the High-Tech Index (percentage of technological output as part of the overall economy), the Innovation Index (how many patents are issued per capita), the Gay Index (incidence of coupled gays), the Bohemian Index (the number of artists, performing and otherwise), the Talent Index (the number of university-educated residents), and the Melting Pot Index (the number of foreign-born residents). He takes all of these together and concludes that the cities which are best to live in from both an economic and social point of view are the ones which espouse the three Ts as shown by the Creativity Index.

I have a couple of problems with his research. First, he neglects to include a couple of other key Ts: taxes and transit. People will not live in places no matter how "cool" they are if the tax burden is too high. Nor will they stay there if it is difficult to get around. Secondly, I know a lot of uncreative gay people. Just because they are gay doesn't make them funky and hip. Similarly, there are a lot of underachieving artists out there. We all know various actors, musicians, painters and the like who are still trying to make it, man, but just can't seem to get it together. Finally, why should foreign-born residents be considered more valuable to the economy than non-foreign born? In Canada, we have a lot of foreign-born friends and neighbours who are having a hard time adapting their skill sets, no matter how much they may enhance the cultural landscape. This is not to mention the linguistic and cultural barriers which often take a generation or two to disappear.

Florida's book is interesting but is more tailored to the heady pre-9/11 days of the Nasdaq boom. He also demonstrates his sociologist bias by ignoring the pocketbook factor. All told, it's a good read if you can get it from the library and are looking for something thought-provoking yet not exactly earth shattering to exercise your mind a little bit.

Overall rating: 7/10