Putting Priority on People. It takes more than tax breaks to promote economic development
| August 23, 2007 |  View for printing |
Richard Florida said cities should focus less on luring big employers than on nurturing conditions that attract creative people. The arts play an important role in his theory. Highly educated workers want to live in communities where the arts flourish, even if they're too busy to ever go to the theater or the museum, says Florida, a professor at George Mason University.
Critics have ridiculed some of Florida's points as a kind of latter-day elitism in disguise - tax breaks for bohemians and software engineers playing Hacky Sack. In the New York Times, Joe Queenan scoffed at the notion that creative people would pick Anchorage over the Big Apple. And yet Florida's ideas have taken root across Washington state.
Florida's message is especially welcome in Seattle, where the arts have long been viewed as an asset in economic development. The city recently trumpeted a study funded by the Paul Allen Foundation that discussed how the arts not only help lure employers and employees, but also play a role in stimulating jobs and investment. The study found that the arts themselves are a big business, generating $330 million in economic activity in 2006. Seattle arts organizations employ 7,992 people.
By: O. Casey Corr
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