[COMM-ORG] Toronto, Richard Florida and community resonses

[Discussion list for COMM-ORG]

[ed:  thanks to Richard and Peter for the discussion.  A bit from me 
after the two of them.]

From: Richard Layman <rlaymandc at yahoo.com>

All hotshot academics are hucksters of a sort..  The ideas behind 
Richard Florida's work derive from Jane Jacobs (both _Death and Life_ 
and _Economy of Cities_), and academic work (urban economics) on 
agglomeration (i.e., AnnaLee Saxenian, Michael Porter).

The problem is that creative development, economic development, and the 
arts as challenge to the status quo, community building and 
self-empowerment, or revitalization is a nuanced process, one that 
artists/creatives don't have a good handle on, and is a process where 
their interests usually are subservient to real estate development.

It happens I just spoke on this topic, in a session on "Theatre and 
Urban Renewal" at the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas 
conference, held in DC last week.

My basic point is that artists and arts organizations have to represent 
their own interests first, foremost and always in the process of 
arts-based revitalization.

Part of my talk is posted here:  
http://urbanplacesandspaces.blogspot.com/2009/07/art-culture-districts-and.html 
; but I have a number of blog entries on the topic of arts and cultural 
development.  The entries are ostensibly on DC, but the points are 
extensible.

The thing is that there is a lot of great academic work on the issues of 
arts and revitalization, but that this work rarely percolates down to 
the level of practitioners, so they get little benefit from it.  (What I 
mean are articles published in journals such as Urban Studies or 
Planning Practice and Research.)  Fortunately, being based in DC I have 
access to both the Library of Congress and local university libraries, 
so this work is readily available to me.

The "Social Impact of the Arts Project" at the University of 
Pennsylvania, in association with The Reinvestment Fund, have produced a 
number of important papers which synthesize a goodly amount of the solid 
academic writing on the subject.

Some of these papers are linked in my above cited blog entry.

Prof. Dreier would probably be interested in the point I make about the 
necessity of developing cultural infrastructure, and that such 
infrastructure isn't limited to buildings, but includes people, 
organizations, and capacity building programs and art and artist support 
organizations.

What is more interesting to me than criticism of Prof. Florida is the 
recognition that his work, in and of itself, isn't enough to fully 
support economic development strategies or arts and artist development 
strategies.

And if I do fully develop the paper, I will submit it to comm-org when 
it is done.

In the consulting work I do on destination planning, we address arts, 
culture, and heritage issues extensively, and when we produce final 
reports, our recommendations support civil society objectives not merely 
real estate development.

Richard Layman
Citizens Planning Coalition, DC
and analyst, Economic Development Visions (a commercial district 
revitalization planning consulting firm), DC

********************************

From: "Peter Dreier" <dreier at oxy.edu>
 
Florida's concept of "creative class" and "creative cities," and his
subsequent writings, aren't just about the arts and culture. He's
pushing an agenda that ignores, trivializes and disses poor and working
class people. If he were just an academic in an ivory tower, nobody
would care. But he gets hired as a consultant by cities, for big bucks,
to advise them on policy and planning.  And so he's part of the problem,
not the solution, Cities waste lots of taxpayer dollars paying Florida
to advise them.

This is a mis-use of academic ideas. We don't need some sociological
theory to figure this out.  He's become a "star" in part because he's
selling an idea that reflects the self-interest and self-image of
well-educated journalists who see themselves as part of  his "creative
class" and city officials who are looking for justifications for
gentrification. But he's just another huckster who happens to be a good
writer and good with Census data.

Plus, his ideas promote the idea that city governments have to compete
with each other to attract the "the best and the bright," the kind of
mindless entrepenuerialism that pits cities against each other for
private investment, allowing business to play Russian Roulette with
local governments, to the detriment of taxpayers and working people.

Bravo to the Toronto Star reporter who, unlike most of his journalistic
colleagues, sees through Florida's bullshit.

Peter

_____________________________________
Peter Dreier
Dr. E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics
Chair, Urban & Environmental Policy Program
Occidental College
1600 Campus Road
Los Angeles, CA 90041
Phone: (323) 259-2913
FAX: (323) 259-2734
Website: http://employees.oxy.edu/dreier
 
"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great
moral crises maintain their neutrality" - Dante

*************************

[ed:  I want to amplify something that I think appears to some extent in 
both Peter's and Richard's posts.  More important to me than the 
question of what the best ideas are is the question of which voices get 
heard.  Whether we agree or disagree with Florida, Richard, Peter, and I 
also occupy influential roles and are always in danger of amplifying our 
own voices rather than the voices of those who have been silenced, just 
like Florida.  That is what is so interesting about the opposition group 
that is forming, because it appears to be forming not just in reaction 
to Florida, but to a deeper problem of how the city and the university 
filters the voices of city residents.  From a community organizing 
perspective, you don't build a great city from the voices of a few 
because their ideas are bad, but because by doing so you silence the 
many people who should be involved and consequently maintain both 
knowledge and material inequalities and oppressions.  I've been part of 
more than a few neighborhood-based groups who want just want Florida 
wants, but want to be included as participants in creative class 
development, rather than sidelined by it.  The problem is with the 
process, as it almost always is. I saw the same thing in New Orleans 
when they brought Ed Blakely in, who pretty much dismissed the 
participatory planning efforts that engaged thousands of NO residents 
spread across the gulf coast (I was an audience member in the convention 
center when he told them he was in charge and the only ideas that  were 
going to be in his plan were the ones he liked).  Now, in the end, he 
included some of those ideas in his own plan, but from my admittedly 
indirect vantage point, the process once again became problematic.]

On 7/22/2009 9:42 AM, Discussion list for COMM-ORG wrote:
> --------
> This is a COMM-ORG 'colist' message.
> All replies to this message come to COMM-ORG only.
> --------
>  
> [ed:  those of you familiar with Florida's work might find the unspoken 
> community organizing issues in this article of interest.]
>
> From:  "Peter Dreier" <dreier at oxy.edu>
>
> Interesting article from the Toronto Star about the hucksterism of Richard
> Florida's "creative city"
> work
>
> http://www.thestar.com/article/656837
>
> Peter
>
> ____________________
> Peter Dreier
> E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics
> Director, Urban & Environmental Policy Program
> Occidental College
> Los Angeles, CA 90041
> Phone: (323) 259-2913
> Email: dreier at oxy.edu
> Website: http://employees.oxy.edu/dreier
>
> "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great
> moral crises maintain their neutrality" - Dante
>
>
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