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| The Rise of ......? |
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In his national best seller, The Rise of the Creative Class, Richard Florida makes a persuasive case for a different understanding of why communities grow as they do. He builds upon past research and classic theories. His studies and observations add new insights, texture, and complexity to accepted principles. In the process, he suggests more sophisticated considerations for growing urban areas as he strives to inform the public and decision makers how to best invest in the future of their chosen communities.
This newsletter article is one of several that will look at excerpts from the book that imply some relevance to greenways. You can decide their significance, and how well your community is responding. For example: “All of the factors that go into Creative Class location decisions are, together, so powerful that I have coined a term to sum them up: quality of place. I use the term in contrast to the more traditional concept of quality of life. It refers to the unique set of characteristics that define a place and make it attractive. Generally, one can think of quality of place as having three dimensions:
So key questions may be, what does it take to attract the creative class, does the Triangle region have what it takes, and if not, how can what it has be enhanced? The region’s built environment has few world class elements, but its diversity belies expectations for an area of its size population. Its natural environment is devoid of mountains or ocean, but it includes species representing both northern and southern climates, and landscape features that modestly reflect both mountain and coastal conditions. Thus, taking advantage of the region’s built and environmental assets will not be a simple or quick fix. Can the region create its own attraction from its existing assets? It will require the comprehensive integration of these assets into attractions that are unavailable elsewhere. Perhaps a world class, regional greenway network could be that unifying attraction. According to the book, the region’s diverse kinds of people rank 1st in super-creative core employment and 2nd in creative class employment, as well as 4th in innovation and 14th in high-tech, but it is low to unranked in other measures. The result is that the region drops to 6th in the cumulative Creativity Index. While this provides a critical mass to build upon, the cause and effect relationship requires that this come from positive change in the setting [paragraph above] and available endeavors [following paragraph]. The vibrance of available endeavors [art, music, culinary, outdoor activities, etc.] in the region are again diverse, but modest, and for the most part unspectacular. Thus, expanding and taking advantage of the region’s available and potential endeavors will involve some heavy lifting. It will require an enlightened and dedicated approach of regulatory amendment, effective incentives, adequate funding, and public support. Greenways have a role in establishing the region’s quality of place. Whether they will play a major or minor role is not yet determined. If their positive public attributes are optimized then they will be: (1) wide enough to maintain ecological functions, (2) continuous and interconnected enough to create systems, (3) integrated enough to reach all communities and potential users, and (4) resilient enough to accommodate multiple objectives/purposes without degradation. Greenways have the potential to improve the region’s quality of place by providing nonmotorized access to built environments, by conserving the natural environment, and by increasing opportunities for a broad range of outdoor activities. This is more community enhancement for the investment than can be gained from any other action. The outstanding question is: what does the public want and what is the community leadership prepared to do to assure a quality of place that will support its future? “People today expect more from the places they live. In the past, many were content to work in one place and vacation somewhere else, while frequently getting away for weekends to ski, enjoy a day in the country or sample nightlife and culture in another city. The idea seemed to be that some places are for making money and others are for fun. This is no longer sufficient. The sociologists Richard Lloyd and Terry Nichols Clark of the University of Chicago note that “workers in the elite sectors of the postindustrial city make ‘quality of life’ demands, and … increasingly act like tourists in their own city. One reason is the nature of modern creative work. Of course people still go away at times, but given their flexible and unpredictable work schedules, they want ready access to recreation on a “just-in-time” basis. When putting in a long day, for instance, they may need an extended break in the middle to recharge their batteries. Many who do this tell me a bike ride or run is a staple of their day-to-day productivity. And for this, a beach house or country getaway spot doesn’t do them much good. They require trails or parks close at hand.” [Page 224] Greenways are the public infrastructure that provides the quality of place opportunities required to support the lifestyle of a productive modern workforce. They should be expected in a quality and quantity throughout the region to not only meet today’s needs, but also to attract a future creative class workforce. Since greenway programs have existed for no more than thirty-one years, they have not yet caught up with their community’s current lifestyle needs, let alone the futures. They must compete with other local government priorities for attention, staff capacity and budget. To address this reality, and the undeniable requirement for greenways and their multiple public benefits, then the public’s interest in them must be equally undeniable. “In the late 1990s, the Richard King Mellon Foundation commissioned me to study the role of lifestyle amenities in the location decisions of talented and creative people. The foundation was concerned about the outflow of young talented people from the Pittsburgh region and wanted to see if it could use its funding for arts, culture and land conservation to help turn it around. Previous studies had found that lifestyle amenities were a powerful draw for companies that require higher-skilled, more talented labor. The reason seemed to be that such people had higher income and thus could afford a higher quality of life. [Page 258] It is also clear to me that cities have long used amenities as a tool to spur economic development. Mayors and city leaders often tout the “high quality of life” their cities have to offer. Cities across the country have spent countless billions of dollars to build stadiums, create cultural districts and develop urban retail malls to boost their image. And from my focus groups and interviews, I know that people value lifestyle amenities very highly in the choice of locations. But my research was pointing me toward a different bundle of amenities. I was finding that the Creative Class preferred a more active, informal, street-level variant of amenities. [Page 259] Working with Gary Gats and my graduate student team, I undertook a series of analyses to try to test this view. I began by looking closely at things like climate, professional sport, outdoor recreation and cultural assets of various sorts. In particular, I wanted to distinguish between the smaller-scale, street-level amenities and the traditional big-ticket attractions like professional sports teams, museums, and symphony, opera, ballet and other things that cities typically promote to lure people and firms and cement their major league status. This early research, outlined in my 2000 report Competing in the Age of Talent, found that certain types of cultural amenities are better than others for attracting talented people and generating high-tech industries. Most significantly, I found little evidence that big-ticket attractions were very effective at this. Much better were the small things, the things my focus groups had mentioned --- vibrant street life, readily available outdoor recreation and a cutting-edge music scene.” [Pages 259 & 260] Communities throughout the Triangle region invest in lifestyle amenities. Some are established, ongoing programs and some are one-time special projects. Greenways, like other major community wide infrastructure will typically be a combination of both. There are recurring budgets and activities, as well as periodic bond issues for specific expansions or improvements. Each community sets priorities, based upon their goals, and most want to draw new business and industry. You can make your own determination about whether your community only pursues traditional big-ticket amenities, or whether there is a better balance that includes readily available outdoor recreation. Hopefully, the public and each community’s leadership will begin to recognize that greenways are much more than a parochial issue. As a lifestyle amenity they are an asset for research, business, and industrial recruitment. Also, once a critical mass of greenway quantity and quality is reached, they will also be an asset for tourism. Once elected officials, chambers of commerce, and visitor bureaus understand the quality of place significance of the opportunity, greenways will have a chance to reach their potential for the region. “As I tell city and regional leaders around the country, the key to success today lies in developing a world-class people climate. While it certainly remains important to have a solid business climate, having an effective people climate is even more essential. By this I mean a general strategy aimed at attracting and retaining people---especially, but not limited to, creative people. This entails remaining open to diversity and actively working to cultivate it, and investing in lifestyle amenities that people really want and use often, as opposed to using financial incentives to attract companies, build professional sports stadiums or develop retail complexes. The benefits of this kind of strategy are obvious. Whereas companies---or sports teams for that matter---that get financial incentives can pull up and leave at virtually a moment’s notice, investments in amenities like urban parks, for example, last for generations. Other amenities---like bike lanes or off-road trails for running, cycling, rollerblading or just walking your dog---benefit a wide swath of the population.” [Pages 293 & 294] Every community has a people climate, that might be strong, weak, or somewhere in between. Every community also invests in lifestyle amenities to a greater or lesser extent. As a result, the public may or may not get what they really want and will use frequently. Greenways can provide multiple public benefits. Directly they are linear open space, and they can offer trails for recreation and nonmotorized transportation. Whether the public ever sets foot in the greenway corridor, they will still benefit from their flood damage avoidance, water quality protection, air quality improvement, ecological system conservation, increased adjoining property value, enhancement of supporting businesses, etc. Investing in greenways is an obvious strategy to benefit a broad cross section of the population. You can decide how serious or successful your community may be in this regard. In the final analysis, the region cannot have an interconnected greenways network unless each community does its part. |
Greenways meet an ever growing need, a need to leave the hectic city (if only for a moment) and to experience earth beneath your feet and fresh air in your lungs – to feel life and to feel alive.
— VICTORIA LOGUE
— VICTORIA LOGUE
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