Growth of Cities: Where the Creative Class Calls Home

The US census just came out with the list of fastest growing cities since 2000. It is not surprising that most of those in the top 25 were in the west and the south. It continues patterns seen over the last 30 years.

The biggest losers? The rust belt. Again, not surprising.

From the New York Times:

Phoenix, with a population of 1.5 million, officially edged out Philadelphia to become the nation€™s fifth most-populous city, after New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston.

Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Rochester and other cities in the Rust Belt and upstate New York recorded population losses of more than 5 percent since 2000. But, except for Cleveland, these older cities recorded smaller losses since 2005, suggesting that their population declines may have been stanched. Columbus, Ohio, and Indianapolis gained population in the latest one-year period.

As I discussed here before, what is keeping the engineers, lawyers, accountants, web designers and PR folks in cities like Detroit or Cleveland? There is nothing to do so. With many jobs revolving around brain power (instead of on the assembly line) the creative class will take their skills anywhere where it can best be used.

Because, frankly, what does San Jose have that Cleveland does not? (Yes, one has snow and the other does not.) I’ve been to both cities. Cleveland is a pretty city right on the Great Lakes. San Jose, is, well, not on any body of water and not altogether pretty. But yet, San Jose is winning in the game of attracting new residents- and it’s primarily because of its location near Silicon Valley.

Again from the New York Times:

Since 2000, only two cities outside the South and the West €” Joliet, Ill., and Olathe, Kan. €” were among the 25 fastest-growing in the nation.

The gains in the West and the South demonstrate how the nation€™s population has shifted over a century. Only 3 of the 10 most populous cities in 1910 €” New York, Chicago and Philadelphia €” remain on the latest list of the top 10. Three of the latest top 10 €” Phoenix; San Jose, Calif.; and San Diego €” were not even among the 100 most populous in 1910.

Perhaps one of the reasons Chicago and Philadelphia stay on the list of the top ten cities when others like Cleveland are dying is that they have adapted to the change in employment and are striving to attract creative class types. Chicago now has an outpost of Google and was the headquarters for Feedburner (the innovative company that lets you subscribe to blog feeds). These are small steps compared to Silicon Valley but they represent a vigor that is not there in, say, a Detroit.

The universities also play a big role. From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Philadelphia, a city that graduates more prospective members of this creative class than any other city in the U.S., has been tapping this resource. One-third of our city’s workforce belongs to the creative class, and Philadelphia ranks sixth nationally in visual- and performing-arts graduates. According to Richard Florida, author of the groundbreaking The Rise of the Creative Class, Philadelphia and Chicago are the only two North American cities that have used the creative class’ ascent to reinvigorate their economies.

Yet American cities cannot think they have won the game. I was just reading the bios of some of my former classmates from graduate school. Interestingly, at least a dozen were currently working or had been working in a foreign country. They weren’t necessarily content to stay in the United States if other cities were at least as attractive (and they were.)

Globalization has fostered a population on the move. Those with ideas and new products are willing to move anywhere to further their goals.

This is not good news for Detroit.