Cycle of creativity
...a growing body of research suggests that the presence of artists and bohemians may be linked to economic productivity and the growth of jobs—ironically, the very factors that lead to gentrification [and the pushing out of the people behind the initial creative impetus]. Richard Florida, a professor of economic development at Carnegie Mellon University, argues in his new book, “The Rise of the Creative Class,” that with the decline of the manufacturing base, what he calls a “creative class” now dominates many Westernized societies.
His theory is simple: creative people want to be around other creative people. Thus a city with artists, a nightlife, diversity, will also draw entrepreneurs, academics, tech geeks—those able to drive economic growth in the new age. “Now because so many of us are called upon to contribute to society with creative thinking instead of physical labor, more and more cities take on the characteristics long associated with creative centers known for the arts,” Florida says. To prove his theory, Florida compiled what he calls a “creativity index.” In the United States, Austin ranked second, behind San Francisco, and had the sixth largest high-tech sector in the nation. Florida argues that the cities that fail to meet the needs of the new creative class will lose out to those that do.