Tag: Creative class
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Gentrification, Racism and the Democratic Electoral Coalition
Washington Post headline today: “D.C. has the highest ‘intensity’ of gentrification of any U.S. city, study says. More than 20,000 African American residents were displaced from low-income neighborhoods from 2000 to 2013, researchers say.” Forbes magazine, circa June 2018: “Washington DC is being sued for gentrification. The 82-page class action lawsuit, filed by Aristotle Theresa, brought grievances against…
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Creative (Class) Destruction
In the inaugural edition of the Bacon’s Rebellion newsletter (back before there were blogs), I reviewed Richard Florida’s book, “The Rise of the Creative Class.” I was certain his work would spark a revolution in how Americans understood economic development in the Knowledge Economy, and I became an early follower. The then-dominant paradigm of economic development focused…
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What Charlottsville Needs Is… More Charlottesville
There is nothing else in Virginia like Charlottesville’s Tom Tom Founders Festival, which launched a week-long series of events yesterday. Food trucks, craft beer, music concerts, an art bus, murals, films in the park, street dancing, a capella performances, craft cocktail competitions, a chili showdown, crowdfunding pitch night, and celebrations of arts, innovation and entrepreneurship — it’s all…
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The Rise of the New Artisan Class
Cathy Vaughn took the big leap a couple of years ago of going into business for herself as an artisan working in copper. While fabricating trellises, tryptics, candelabras and chinoiserie, she developed a new technique, which, as far as she knows, is a first — creating images upon copper plate from the chemicals found in leaves.…
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Yes, Richmond Is a True Foodie Town
Richmonders like to think of Richmond as a serious “foodie” town. But we tend to be parochial and prone to self-delusion, so I do wonder if we’re just kidding ourselves. Well, our friends at WalletHub have ranked 150 American cities for foodiness — combining 18 metrics of affordability (weighted 30%) and diversity, access & quality (weighted…
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Big City Advantage in Innovation Not What It Used to Be
by James A. Bacon Maybe the Internet is allowing innovation and creativity to break free from the confines of geography after all. Economists conventionally argue that large metropolitan areas are better incubators of inventions and innovations than smaller cities and rural areas. However, a new study, “Cities and Ideas,” by Mikko Packalen and Jay Bhattacharya, finds that the…
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A New Metric for Under-Employment
by James A. Bacon It is common knowledge that the official United States “unemployment” figure needs to be taken with a grain of salt. It does not include discouraged workers who have dropped out of the workforce. It does not reflect the increase in part-time employment, some of it involuntary. And it does not reflect…
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Housing Affordability for Millennials
by James A. Bacon As the global epicenter of technology innovation, Silicon Valley creates a massive amount of wealth — but the housing supply, hemmed in by geography and zoning regulations, is incredibly restricted. The resulting housing crunch is so severe that Millennials are hard pressed to live there. The median income for Millennials in the San…
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Taxation and the Creative Class
Urban geographer Richard Florida has famously argued that members of the “creative class” — scientists, entrepreneurs, artists and other professions who contribute disproportionately to economic growth — gravitate to metropolitan regions marked by the three “t’s” — technology, talent and tolerance. Now new research suggests that he may have to add a fourth “t” —…
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Richmond as Center of Musical Creativity
New York, L.A. and Nashville are undisputed leaders of the music industry in the United States, while Austin, Seattle and New Orleans garner widespread recognition as important second-tier cities. But Urbanful has highlighted nine other U.S. cities with thriving music scenes where “new local bands sprout every day, and, best of all, you can still…
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In Praise of Organic Tourism
by James A. Bacon Promoting tourism is a major part of Virginia’s economic development strategy for good reason. Tourism supports jobs, expands the tax base and helps pay for amenities — restaurants, arts, cultural institutions — that can be enjoyed by the whole community. But it can create problems, too, such as crowding, traffic congestion, noise…
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The New Wave of Wealth Creation: ThinkGeek
GameStop, the digital gaming retailer, has just paid $140 million to purchase Fairfax-based ThinkGeek, an online retailer of apparel and gadgets to the “geek” market segment entranced with nerdy cultural icons from Star Trek to Minecraft, from Doctor Who to Game of Thrones. The company peddles products as diverse as “Rebel Fighter silk ties” to mini-refrigerators mimicking…
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Measuring Diversity
Source: WalletHub by James A. Bacon A popular body of thought today hails “diversity” as one of the United States’ great strengths. That may be difficult to imagine at the moment, with race relations more strained than at any time since the school busing controversies of the 1970s, but the idea has much to recommend it.…
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In Praise of Whimsical Statuary
Yes, it’s true, London has more statuary per square mile devoted to dead kings, lords, generals and admirals than any other city on the planet. (One cathedral, Westminster Abbey, has more statuary than entire states in America.) It’s all very serious and patriotic, and of considerable interest to foreign visitors. Perhaps the most best known monument is that of Lord Nelson, victor…
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Let Richmond Be Richmond
I delivered this speech last night to a gathering at the Branch House in an event hosted by the Virginia Center for Architecture. — JAB Buffalo, N.Y., a metropolitan region about the size of Richmond, is debating how to pay for a new $1 billion stadium complex for the Buffalo Bills National Football League team.…