The Race for the Creative Class

I lived in Philadelphia a few years while attending school. It had excellent museums, a great historical area, interesting architecture, good restaurants, genuine ethnic culture, was centrally located (in-between DC and NY), you could drive to the beach in an hour and it was pretty affordable.

Yet I didn’t stay there after I graduated. None of my friends did either. What is Philly missing that San Francisco, Chicago, New York, LA and DC have? Why are some cities thriving and others are dying?

Some experts call it the “creative class”- meaning those young professionals who are making a living off of their creative skills, like web design or internet commerce, rather than, say, starting a manufacturing company. It is these types of young people that cities are desperate to attract. From the New York Times:

Baby boomers are retiring and the number of young adults is declining. By 2012, the work force will be losing more than two workers for every one it gains.

Cities have long competed over job growth, struggling to revive their downtowns and improve their image. But the latest population trends have forced them to fight for college-educated 25- to 34-year-olds, a demographic group increasingly viewed as the key to an economic future.

Mobile but not flighty, fresh but technologically savvy, €œthe young and restless,€ as demographers call them, are at their most desirable age, particularly because their chances of relocating drop precipitously when they turn 35. Cities that do not attract them now will be hurting in a decade.

€œIt€™s a zero-sum game,€ said William H. Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution, noting that one city€™s gain can only be another€™s loss. €œThese are rare and desirable people.€

They are people who, demographers say, are likely to choose a location before finding a job. They like downtown living, public transportation and plenty of entertainment options. They view diversity and tolerance as marks of sophistication.

The problem for cities, says Richard Florida, a public policy professor at George Mason University who has written about what he calls €œthe creative class,€ is that those cities that already have a significant share of the young and restless are in the best position to attract more.

€œThere are a dozen places, at best, that are becoming magnets for these people,€ Mr. Florida said.

Chicago is one of the few cities in the middle part of the country that has been successful at getting young people to move to it. For the last ten years, it has been a magnet for those coming from other, smaller Midwest Towns (St. Louis, Tulsa, Indianapolis, Cleveland). As one mother in Tulsa told me about her daughter who graduated from Columbia University in New York but was now living in Chicago: “It’s close enough to drive or fly home quickly and it’s more exciting than Dallas.” From the Chicago Tribune:

Kenneth Johnson, a demographer and sociology professor at Loyola University Chicago who has studied the trend, estimates Chicago’s twentysomething population at 450,000, surpassed only by New York and Los Angeles, which also are experiencing influxes of new college grads.

The young newcomers, Johnson said, hail from the suburbs as well as cities such as Philadelphia, Detroit and Cleveland.

“Companies are finding that the key asset is no longer the highway interchange, coal vein or port,” said Richard Florida, a professor of urban policy at George Mason University. “Now, it’s this educated, skilled, innovative talent. Companies are moving to be near the kind of people that Chicago is attracting in droves.”

“The city that gets them after college is a big winner because people are likely to stay in the same metropolitan region over time,” said Florida. He said people make three big moves in their life: after college, when they have children and when the kids are grown.

Florida calls Chicago “one of four or five great U.S. talent magnets.”

Call it the “Cubs Factor” in Chicago (as Lakeview, where WrigleyField is located, has become a kind of mecca for recent college graduates.)

Smaller cities are aware of the importance of these “creative” workers. Savannah has the Creative Coast Initiative, where the site lists jobs and posts resumes for “creative” types:

It€™s a proven fact that brainy-businesses €“ like internet/web design, digital media, visual design, architecture, business consulting and software development (to name only a few) €“ are smart businesses that pay smart wages and attract smart people.

So the idea is for Savannah to grow, but in a smart way.

€œSavannah has a clear understanding of where it€™s been, where it is now and a very positive vision for the future,€ said TCCi€™s executive director, Chris Miller. €œBecause of our exceptional quality of life, we know we are going to grow. Our job is to ensure it is qualitative growth, not quantitative sprawl. We can and will grow, but we will do so while protecting and nurturing the unique charm and character that has made us a world-class city. The knowledge economy, both present and future, fits in perfectly with Savannah€™s traditional quirkiness, entreprenurial spirit and long legacy of worldly tolerance.€

Who will succeed at winning the race? Already, you can see some clearcut winners (those in the top five at attracting young people.) Their success will breed more success. It might mean the death of other cities, especially the industrial heartland cities, like Pittsburgh or Cleveland (for those of you choosing to live there, feel free to dispute me.)

Or will they survive once the “chosen” cities simply become too expensive for many young people to live there?

As Frank Sinatra sang about New York- if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. The same is true about the top five cities. Those cities aim to stay on top in the coming decades.