Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
graph (Florida
2002b
, Fig. 3, p. 64) which shows the relationship between several
levels of education and the bohemian index. Although there is a high negative cor-
relation between the index and low education levels, the correlation shown with
graduate degrees is only + 0.1, hardly convincing evidence of high positive rela-
tionships between the two! Although Florida is careful to note that the correlations
between his bohemian index and other variables cannot be interpreted as causal,
the discussion frequently implies that this is the case, such as by observing that:
“the presence of such human capital concentrations in a region in turn attracts and
generates innovative technology-based industries” (Florida
2002b
, p. 56). Yet there
is no evidence of any analysis which shows such temporal migrant activity. More-
over the aggregation system of Florida's approach means there is no unanimity on
the choice of variables that should be used to measure aspects of creativity or their
combination into various indices. Indeed, different choices of variables and scoring
systems will produce different measures. This can be seen by a comparison made
by Martin Prosperity Insights (MPI
2009
) of Florida's early work with their later
analysis of 374 North American metropolitan regions. This had different results,
placing Seattle (Washington) at the top of the creative index, with San Jose (Cali-
fornia) and Ottawa-Gatineau (Ontario) not far behind. Innovative though Florida's
ideas seemed to be at first, there is a pressing need for researchers to develop more
standard and widely acceptable variable sets and integrative techniques, as well as
temporal change analysis to vigorously review the ideas if the approach is to gain
more widespread academic credibility.
While the methodology involved in defining Creative Cities is flawed, a more
general critique in the popular literature comes from the work of Malanga (
2004
),
who has argued that the Creative City economic evidence is flawed. Using data
from the U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics, he showed that the top creative cities
identified by Florida—San Francisco, Austin, Houston and San Diego—were un-
derperformers in relation to jobs over the period 1983-2002. His least creative cit-
ies—New Orleans, Memphis, Las Vegas and Oklahoma City—were actually job
powerhouses over the decade from 1993 to 2003 adding 19 % new jobs, and show-
ing faster growth than the national economy as a whole. Florida (
2005
) has ad-
dressed these criticisms in part by suggesting that it is not the quantity, but quality
of jobs that should be considered. So while places like Las Vegas may have had
significant job growth in the decade to 2003, the
per capita
income from these
jobs is very low. Nonetheless, the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labour
Statistics (2013) would suggest that even in Florida's top-tier creative cities the
most recent greatest gains in employment have
not
been in high paid jobs. The
major growth has not been in the creative sectors in a city like Austin (Texas) but
in more traditional primary and secondary economic sectors—logging, mining and
construction. In many other U.S. cities, the major job growth in the 12 months from
July 2012-2013 has been in the leisure and hospitality sectors, traditionally low
paid and low skilled jobs.
Other critiques of Florida's Creative City thesis centre on the contexts of the
study, in the sense of where the ideas apply. Many have questioned how new these
