In The Rise of the Creative Class, Richard Florida explains that creative people choose to live in places that provide a quality of life they are looking for. This is a change from the historical idea of people choosing to live where they had the greatest chance of finding a job.
As the economy became more globalized, location became more important to individuals. People choose to live where they can have the best quality of life rather than simply where the greatest economic opportunities are. Creative people now consider things like diversity and recreational opportunities to be important factors when deciding where to live.
One thing I found interesting was that people choose to live in places that have multiple and varied job opportunities because they don’t expect to stay in the same job for too long. I would have thought that people would choose these places mainly because they increase their chances of finding work. I thought they would be focused on the first job they would take in that particular place. I was surprised that these people seemed almost as interested in subsequent jobs. According to the book, people think that “companies are disloyal and careers are increasingly horizontal.” For these reasons, they want to live in places that “offer a job market that is conductive to a horizontal career path.”
Florida’s book proves how important it is for cities to have institutions that provide the high quality of life the creative class desires. This ties into many other discussions we have had in class as well as the projects we researched. Miriam Greenberg discussed the idea that a city’s success depends on its reputation and related this idea to New York City’s fiscal crisis. This is more true now than ever as people are moving to the cities that they believe will provide the best life. The development projects around New York City that we have studied should improve the quality of life of residents. Therefore, they should make ensure that New York City continues to be desirable to the creative class.
I thought these chapters of The Rise of the Creative Class were interesting to read and complemented the other readings from the class and the topics we have discussed.
