Florida will both violate and fulfill your expectations

books:


	• Who's Your City?: How the Creative Economy Is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life Richard Florida Basic Books, 2008 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 14 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Location drives nearly everything read why

This is a wonderful book. R. Florida counters the theories of the The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century. At the beginning, he outlines how just 40 Mega-Regions dominate the World economy. While those account for just 17% of the World's population, they generate two thirds of its GDP and over 85% of its innovation (measured by patents and scientific papers). Additionally, the GDP of those Mega-Regions are growing faster. So, the concentration of economic power in those centers is accelerating. He calls this the "clustering effect." Thus, the World is not flat. It is spiky and getting spikier. Risk taking, creative, and talented people represent the "creative class" a concept he introduced in The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life. The creative class members have strong incentives to cluster where the action is (the Mega-Regions). He demonstrates how the main economic scale has shifted from Nations to Mega-Regions and MSA level. The first two Mega-Regions (greater Tokyo and the D.C., New York, Boston corridor) both generate GDPs greater than $2 trillion. They would rank as the 3d and 4th largest World economies second only to the U.S. and Japan.

With other eminent social scientists, he studies the allocation of human resources in the U.S. in many ways. He shares the resulting maps of: a) the U.S. Mega-Regions, b) areas by % of college graduates, c) areas by income, d) areas by % belonging to creative class, e) areas by home prices. He uses similar color coding for each of those five maps that focuses on those different variables. And, the five different maps are very alike. It is as if you are seeing the same map five times, but with different legends. Thus, the high income, educated, creative class clusters within the Mega-Regions of the West Coast and the North East.

Next, R. Florida introduces the reader to the Big 5 Factor psychological model with the factors being: extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, conscientiousness, and openness to new experience. He invites the reader to take the test at a mentioned website. My whole family took it. And, it was fun and revealing. The website captures the anonymous psychological profiles and zip codes. From this data, Florida and his colleagues create a map of personality types that shows where the conscientious types live, etc... Now, we can add a sixth dimension to the map: Openness. Thus, it is the open-minded, high income, educated, creative class that all clusters in the Mega-Regions of the West Coast and North East. And, that's where the most expensive real estate markets are.

R. Florida analysis states that society is increasingly sorting itself by location. His analysis reminds one of Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (A Free Press Paperbacks Book) where Hernstein and Murray indicated that society is increasingly stratified by cognitive abilities. Thus, accountants, lawyers, doctors, and investment bankers all have increasingly higher cognitive abilities vs a few decades ago. The same happens within the mentioned Mega-Regions of the West Coast and North East. Individuals with higher capabilities and income opportunities migrate to those areas and bid up local real estate values. Others find themselves priced out and move out of those "Superstar Cities" leaving room for other creative class achievers to move in further bidding up real estate prices. The creative class achievers need to move to those Superstar Cities to fulfill their potential. R. Florida has all those specialized regions mapped out in Figure 7.3: The New Geography of Work. If you want to be an investment banker you need to be in Manhattan. If you are engaged in hi tech you need to be in Silicon Valley.

R. Florida's work relates closely to another of Murray's book Human Accomplishment : The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950 where Murray develops a regression model estimating how many luminaries lived at any one time in a specific country. The variables included GDP, human capital (top notch universities), networks (# of political and financial centers), and population of largest city (clustering). R. Florida explains how, why, and where people cluster. Murray explains the historical implication of clustering (# of luminaries in various fields at a specific time period).

In the last few chapters R. Florida focuses on the best places to live for various stages of life. He finds that a few cities perform well on many criteria. The San Francisco Bay Area performs well in 20 different categories. Boston is second ranking well in 13.

Within those last chapters, R. Florida shares many interesting insights. He finally addresses the relationship between likelihood of moving and life stages; a 25 year old is three times more likely than a 45 year old to move. This entails that cities that loose the young adults are loosing talent permanently. Once a college grad leaves town, he is unlikely to come back. Young college grads cluster in just a few cities. Those are the winners in the competition for talent. Empty nesters over 65 are likely to move further than their counterparts a decade younger. Where the Boomers will move as empty nesters will impact real estate prices and culture. He anticipates a mild generation conflict between Boomers and the younger creative class that will inhabit the same communities. Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069is an excellent book that further covers generation conflicts.

He shares other interesting statistics. The real jobless rate for black male high school drop out in their 20s including those in jail was 72% in 2004. Within this same group more are in jail then working. On another topic, chance of a high school graduate marrying a college graduate shrank by 43% between 1940 and the late 70s. People mate increasingly within equal education level. This is causing a rise in household income inequality as education is highly correlated to income.

If you find this review interesting, you'll find the book fascinating.

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Very simplistic; however,

The author's view of society (that there are only a few classes, married/divorced, young and single, and gay) is very simplistic. In other words, if you fit into the above categories, this review is not meant for your demographic.

I am informing a very small but ignored demographic - middle-aged (45 plus) single women, never married and no children to circumstances beyond their control. My case was direct caregiver to elderly parents for 20 plus years which prevented marriage and a family. Non-traditional single women as I will refer to this demographic. I will use my current city Nashville, TN as the example.

Talking to non-traditional single women like myself who visit here and ask me about living here and noticed the negative attitude from people -I assure them that they are not misconstruing what your common sense and subconscious is telling you. Once you are asked your marital status(how many times married) and whether you have any children - you are treated rudely when not ignored. Yes, the politicians do promote this negative attitude as well. Crime is high for our demographic because police usually will not take a report from this demographic. If you do protect yourself, you as the non-traditional single woman, will be prosecuted (both socially and literally) instead of your attacker.

Nashville society loves young people who like to party, married/divorced with/without children with like to party, non-married with children who like to party, and/or gays with/without children who like to party and is very, very conservative. Nashville does have a large music presence. The author feels that if a city has a high art(ists) presence then the city promotes freedom and tolerance of everyone. Not true.

Nashville does have a large swinger demographic for the young, divorced and married couples. You can go to any swinger website (straight or gay) and will be able to find Nashville 'listed' near the top as a place to visit/live. There is one positive for gay males looking to relocate here - large gay male demographic. Gay males do have to marry, have kids and practice their orientation privately. The above demographics feel the need to keep their dirty little secret of their lifestyle for whatever reasons. Thus, the promotion of family values here. There are very few heterosexual middle-aged men to date in Nashville for non-traditional single women our age and these men only want to date the young girls. My opinion, people here are just plain bores. No intellect.

Example of my demographic: I do have a high security clearance at my employer (thus the reason I can not use my real name because I will be terminated for speaking out) and cannot date any of the heterosexual or so called 'heterosexual' men in Nashville because they are convicted felons and/or have backgrounds that my employer forbids me to associate with. If and when I dated before my present employer, I discovered these 'heterosexal' men were awful actors. Our demographic does at least get the time to observe since we are ignored, especially on a date. Just watch where their eyes go when another man passes by. No, they are not checking out the `babe' the guy is with. Just keep watching and see who eyes meet and connect.

The reason for my rating is for women in my demographic is that the information is presented in one source, portable, and can be used to rate the real attitude of any city listed. Just remember the author has a very simplistic view of society and its components. Go visit and observe. Your common sense and subconscious can and should be trusted in your interactions in that city. If there is an uncomfortable feeling, then there is a good reason that this feeling persists even after you have left that particular city.

Humor is the most important trait to have living in Nashville and hope when you are able to leave Nashville (my case in about four more years). Nashville is a complete wasteland as far as a non-traditional single woman demographic is concerned. Use Appendix E to rate your city and others.

My rating out of 100 - 29 for Nashville.

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Good insight into relocation and location

I had to pick up this book. I've written about relocation, both as an academic and a self-help writer. My own book, Making the Big Move, was published by New Harbinger. I now sell it from my website as a virtual book and I continue to deal with relocation questions from clients and blog readers.

Florida of course takes an academic research perspective. As a sociologist, he explores broad trends. There he's very good: he emphasizes how place predicts individual success on many dimensions. And he's very good at identifying clusters of innovation and economic growth.

Unfortunately, the book tries to do everything: advise on real estate, help readers choose a place to live, and offer a broad-scale view of trends.

On pages 82-83, Florida describes a dilemma that clients frequently bring to career consultants like me: A move is distinctly advantageous to one half of a couple but not the other. He describes a man who moves back to his hometown for a higher-paying job and lower living costs; the girl friend loses everything. More commonly, one partner wants to retire to Arizona and the significant other wants to keep working in a field with no jobs in Arizona.

As he points out, today most moves are voluntary. He seems to suggest that socioeconomic status makes moving easier, but it's not clear cut. Professional licenses and health insurance keep middle class and even affluent citizens rooted to places they've outgrown a long time ago.

I was surprised to learn that people claim they move for family and wonder if that's changing. My own experience tells me these moves can be treacherous: empty nesters want to be closer to their grandchildren, but their own children often prefer to keep their distance. Giving up a good career can breed deep resentments, too.

On page 87, Florida refers to research pegging the cost of being away fro family at $133,000. He does give the citation but I would have liked to know more about the assumptions behind the research.

On page 105, Florida describes an encounter with a young woman who gave up a career with the government to become a self-employed cosmetologist. It's almost amusing to read as he expresses astonishment: how could she opt for a low-security, lower-paying job? Yet the young woman refers to earning a good income.

These days, government jobs are not 100% secure. Layoffs (RIFs or Reductions in Force in government) happen. Twenty years from now, this young woman could own her own spa or private practice, bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Or she could take her entrepreneurial spirit in a whole new direction.

The best part of the book comes when Florida takes a more analytical perspective, dealing with what he knows. He questions the persistence of home ownership: it's not always a wise investment and it does restrict mobility. I would like to see broader questions raised about issues of mobility.

For example: These days, do we really need state licensing of professions? I realize it's almost impossible to change the pattern, due to stakeholders who gain from this economic inefficiency. For example, a psychologist friend moved to a state with absurd requirements for licensing: she had taught in prestigious programs, yet she was asked to bring recommendations from her own professors of 20 years ago. The state obviously wanted to restrict the supply of mental health professionals.

Health insurance also restricts mobility. Doesn't it seem absurd that a 60-year old can't leave a state where jobs in his field are limited, because he had a heart attack ten years ago? He's self-employed and he can't get insurance if he moves.

Finally, Florida is right about places giving us energy. My own energy has shifted as I've moved and I cringe when someone brings out the old chestnut, "If you're not happy here..." He cites evidence that moving doesn't always bring the rewards that were expected, but I suspect there's a pretty wide standard deviation there. Some people move and blossom.

In my own case, I found that moving from a small town in New Mexico to Seattle not only brought psychic rewards. For some reason, clients respond to a Seattle address. I'm told that direct mail response also varies based on the addresses of the sender.

Bottom line: place is important. Florida has done a great service by writing a book that will be read a lot more widely than most books on the topic. I wish I'd waited to write mine till after this one came out, and I think the research is only just beginning.

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Florida will both violate and fulfill your expectations

Florida tackles an issue so big that we often fail to see it. The elephant in the living room is the city we choose! He helps highlight decisions it affects (mate selection, children & schools, work, commute, and more as well as the tremendous importance of this single choice - your city. Indeed, it is a choice. A must read for everyone.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3

It?s a mantra of the age of globalization that where we live doesn?t matter. We can innovate just as easily from a ski chalet in Aspen or a beachhouse in Provence as in the office of a Silicon Valley startup.

According to Richard Florida, this is wrong. Globalization is not flattening the world; in fact, place is increasingly relevant to the global economy and our individual lives. Where we live determines the jobs and careers we have access to, the people we meet, and the ?mating markets? in which we participate. And everything we think we know about cities and their economic roles is up for grabs.

Who?s Your City? offers the first available city rankings by life-stage, rating the best places for singles, families, and empty-nesters to reside. Florida?s insights and data provide an essential guide for the more than 40 million Americans who move each year, illuminating everything from what those choices mean for our everyday lives to how we should go about making them.

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