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Creative Class vs Middle Class


monsoon

Creative Class vs Middle Class  

31 members have voted

  1. 1. Should Charlotte focus on the needs of the Middle Class or Creative Class

    • Creative Class
      16
    • Middle Class
      15


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I think this attitude is manifested in a myriad of circumstances. The anemic support for alternative art groups in this town being one example. Charlotte Rep is gone, Moving Poets has left and those that remain are struggling.

Then there is the refusal of the city to enact any kind of inclusive zoning to help protect the distinctive nature of neighborhoods such as NoDa or PlazaMidwood from overgentrification as has been done in other cities.

I think things can change but other cities achieved success through partnering with the artistic/creative community and the establishment in Charlotte is too conservative right now to make that change.

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I don't think it's completely alien for cities to get involved in protecting areas of their city that have creative sparks. Preserving and enhancing this atmosphere helps to attract a wide variety of people. The private sector is catching up with this by alloting mixed income sections to projects they are completing. Which will in turn hopefully attract a great mix of people. Why this can't be extended into historic neighborhoods by local gvt puzzles me. Charleston allows for this type of zoning and so does Davidson. This is not to say that all creatives are poor and struggling, they seem to cross all income levels. I agree that a thriving art scene is a great draw for a city. Charlotte's overall fundraising prowess led by the ASC is second in the nation. I guess what I hear the most are complaints about the difficulty in branching out from the corporate top down structure of the ASC to allow for organic growth. Charlotte has several "creative" outlets. But when you are trying to build it in as opposed to being in a city where artistic and creative freedom has always been present it's always going to be an uphill slog. Who knows...when we are all long gone Charlotte may be one of the most creative cities in the country and our time will be looked back on as the genesis of all the great options to be enjoyed in the future. Heck, in barely a decade Charlotte's Uptown will be more attractive to transplants. So once again we have to hurry up and wait :whistling:

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Honestly, I don't think support or lack of support for the ASC is any reflection on how the arts are supported in this county. The ASC has demonstrated in the past that it will use donated money for non-art purposes to protect the organization, and it has gotten itself involved in local politics as well. As a result many people, who support the arts, don't support the ASC, including myself.

One more time. This is not a topic to discuss how money is raised for the ASC. Please read the topic header again.

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I have a copy of the book at home, so I'll check tonight how Florida defines "creative class", but I think monsoon is correct. The High Bohemian category being the gray area. I interpret it to mean a banker who lives in Union County and drive an SUV to work is not in the "creative class", but the worker in the next cube over who lives in the South End and take light rail to work is in the creative class.

With that said, I believe see that the city should support the economy, and with excess revenues to support "bohemian" lifestyles. Better economy, more jobs, higher pay, equals more money trickling down through the economy supporting everyone, and the direct government investment makes sure there are programs in place to attract artists, etc. to the city for that money to trickle two.....it's "bohemian-modified" Reaganomics.

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This is from a Q&A with Richard Florida from Salon.com

I think I actually define the classes pretty narrowly. The creative class is composed of two dimensions. There is the supercreative core, which are scientists, engineers, tech people, artists, entertainers, musicians -- so-called bohemians that are about 12 percent of the workforce, up from well less than 5 percent at the turn of the century. And subsequent analysis by Robert Cushing suggests that the supercreative core is really the driving force in economic growth. In addition to the supercreative core, I include creative professionals and managers, lawyers, financial people, healthcare people, technicians, who also use their ideas and knowledge and creativity in their work. I don't include people in service or manufacturing industries who use creativity in their work.
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I went to my book shelves to be sure of what I am posting. Florida states that the creative class entails knowledge based workers, symbolic analysts, professionals, and tech workers with an emphasis on their roles in the economy. He further devides and defines it as being compremised of two layers--the super creative core and the creative professionals. The super creative core is compremised of scientists, engineers (like my lovely gf), poets, novelists, artists, entertainers, actors, designers, architects (me soon), non fiction writers, editors, cultural figures, thinktank researchers, analysists, and other opinion makers. In the outer group called the "creative professionals" , which includes high tech industry workers, financial service (oh my, the bankers), legal professionals (lawyers), health care professionals (docs, nurses, etc), and business management.

I would now argue that Charlotte does infact have a large growing creative class.

^I should have just read that post. :P

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I think having a strong educational resource in the area is a big help in attracting this workforce. The Triangle happens to have prominent universities and the research park which attracts educated creatives of all stripes to feed off of the intellectual, academic, and tech heavy atmosphere. Bolstering UNCC's credentials and the Kanappolis Biotech Campus acheiving it's full potential should help us here.

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RTP is one factor. However, we should not look at RTP as the only reason or as a good form of research park. I would argue that is is a horrible waste of space. I would look at the research parks/urban facilities in Winston Salem and Philedelphia for better examples. These are primarily fueled by the health industry (the universities).

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This is exactly what cities, including Charlotte, are starting to notice and trying to do something about -- but its a double edged sword. Cities try to find out what would make themselves more attractive to non-traditional jobs and lifestyles, but then they're ridiculed for doing studies of what might accomplish this. Special interest groups promote arts outreach and are criticized for disney-fying what used to be authentic. Builders start offering alternative housing options and are blasted for causing run ups on market prices. Entreprenuers open new shops or destinations and are labeled sellouts who are ruining the character of neighborhoods. I find it a frustrating conflict to hear about how much we want change and how much we don't want change. It's like everyone wants their version of the end result, but doesn't want to acknowledge the struggle and incremental nature of what it takes to get there.
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Comparing what Richard Florida said in the salon.com article....and the article metro posted...they are saying the same thing. They are saying that if you want your city to continue to have a middle class then you have to invest in the things that the "creative class" likes. They both say that investing in large convention centers, arenas, and performing arts centers is not the way to go. They both say that investing in the basics such as transportation, education, and public health should be at the top of the list. They both say that having a favorable tax stucture for people to live in and businesses (particularly small ones) to thrive is the way to go.

I would suspect that if we had both of these guys on a panel discussion they would agree with just about everything the other said.

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