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  • From: Michael Winslow Czeiszperger <michael AT czeiszperger.org>
  • To: internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [internetworkers] inquiry-creativity index
  • Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 09:51:40 -0400

On Thursday, October 10, 2002, at 12:41 AM, Thomas Beckett wrote:

I hear ya, Michael. But on the other hand, there is the typical pattern of gentrification in cities that this Creativity Index seems to springboard from. That is, older and/or "iffy" neighborhoods attract the artists and musicians and "hip" types because of the cheap rents. You get your artist lofts, funky restaurants and boutiques. The hipness quotient increases, which attracts the post-hip professionals who start renovating and upgrading the older structures. With them come more mainline businesses such as Starbucks. The rents go up and the artists move elsewhere.


You're right there. I like older gentrified neighborhoods-- they often are the cultural center of a community and offer a counterpoint to the cookie cutter strip malls. My point wasn't wether having a high "creativity index" was good, but that simply creating an index without relating it to anything else is pointless. The author compiled a bunch of numbers, creating city rankings, which is fun for the local reporting perspective since we're mentioned, but didn't relate that back to any hard figures regarding growth, jobs, quality of life, etc. From my perspective its the linking of an index to measurable qualities of a community like you find in the book Places Rated that is the interesting story.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0028634470/ qid=1034257439/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/103-5773391-9719811?v=glance&n=507846

Another angle on the story was that there was a trend of people choosing to stay in one place rather than move from city to city following the best jobs. At least in my experience people picking an area and staying there is again an age issue, not a trend. When you're young and single its much easier to pick up and move than when you have kids.

I don't want to give them impression I think the actual story idea is bad-- interviewing people who chose to stay in the Triangle would be an interesting read.

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michael at czeiszperger dot org
Chapel Hill, NC





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