Don't Believe the HYPE:Maps Reveal Where the Creative Class Is Growing

“The wood has a story and I have a story and we work together to bring it to reality." 

Gadi Zamir, Israeli born artist and founder of Negative Space Gallery and Studio, Cleveland, Ohio

 

 Here's an article I ran across today from the Atlantic City Log that I thought might be of value. Check it out and see what you think. Below is my comment posting as HRTSmiles, and that of another reader.

Maps Reveal Where the Creative Class Is Growing

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  HrtSmiles 

  I agreed with all4civility's comment. So I checked a dictionary to see if we were off, or missing something in Florida's piece. And this is what I came up with.
  Wow...This is SO DISTURBING. I read this looking for signs or directions to the new mecca for individuals like myself. Throughout history, due to the beauty of the natural environment, the open minds of the indigenous population and their respect that allows newcomers to live by the dictates of one's own conscience - certain spots have attracted sensitive, talented individuals to gather, live and create. These magnetic spots arise, attract life, glorify Life, solidify, nurture, grow and prosper, dissolve, and they move. How disappointed upon reading Florida to discover that he's created a chart, a measurement that would speak about "Creative Centers", and base it upon OCCUPATION.
  "...my creative class metric is based on occupation. About nine in 10
  Americans with a college degree are members of the creative class, which
  is made up of up of knowledge workers in education, healthcare, law,
  arts, tech, science, and business."
  In all of the fields he's listed except for the field of art, by today's common standards and actual practices in the Western world's workplace, I would consider these workers to be technicians. It is extremely rare, when a professional in the field of education, healthcare, law, science, business, is allowed to utilize their imagination, or captures an original idea, in the course of fulfilling their occupational duties. College and university education work hard to dissolve, any remaining imagination of new possibilities out of students. For the most part, college education is all about programming the individual to think and work in accordance with the status quo, so that they may fit in and keep it going.
  Florida needs to research the root definitions and meaning behind the word "CREATIVE". Before I wrote this, I also checked the meaning of the word, 'technician'. He's a professor, so perhaps his references are just steeped in his occupation. But I don't agree, and I take issue, with this article, which presents a bunch of charts and statistics, that are misleading, in the idea, that the places noted are where a 'Creative "CLASS???" of people are relocating.

  
  
  
  
  

  all4civility 

  Florida fails to clearly lay out his definition of “creative class,” making this piece meaningless.