Another sep 16, 2014 tt comment

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I attended that 2003 event at the Peristyle to hear Dr. Florida speak, and I've read his book, "The Rise Of The Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community And Everyday Life."

His group's current website: http://www.creativeclass.com

Excerpts from my November 2003 Toledo Talk post:

Dr. Florida suggested cities shouldn't invest in mega projects. He said governments should make a lot of little investments. He suggested leaders should also invest in neighborhoods.

From that November 2003 Blade story:

Richard Florida has some advice for Toledoans who want their city to be a hotbed of creative energy: Don t try to be another San Francisco.

“The world does not need another San Francisco.”

What it does need, Mr. Florida said, is a city that has become a creative place by being itself, making use of its own history and resources.

From January 2003 to July 2004, I managed a message board called ToledoArts.com. Here are a couple posts from that defunct website that have been pulled from the Wayback Machine.

October 2003 post that excerpted from a story by The Globe and Mail:

[Richard] Florida made newspaper headlines last year when his book appeared because his research revealed, among many other things, a relationship that journalists devoured: A city's prosperity can be measured by a gay index -- the more gay-friendly a place, the higher rates of economic growth it enjoys. He also noted, which is what has caught the arts community's eye, a bohemian index that similarly suggests a link between a city's wealth and the presence of artists.

It's not simply the fixer-upper syndrome in which gays and artists move into a decaying neighbourhood and raise property values with their renovations, he believes, but the desire of the creative class -- a group in which he would include not just artists on one hand and computer programmers on the other but almost all professionals -- to live in energetic places.

"This book says every single human being is creative," he said, calling creativity the great equalizer that defies gender, race, age, appearance and sexual preference.

"You don't know where creativity is going to come from."

So, the point is not merely to attract the creative class but to harness the creative powers of all people.

My Nov 16, 2003 post

The Memphis Manifesto [pdf file] summarizes Dr. Florida's ideas. View the good doctor's creative index rankings for Toledo and other cities.

If I understand the rankings, Toledo is ranked 103 out of 267 U.S. cities for creativity. San Francisco is ranked number 1.

Toledo rankings for the variables that make up the overall rating (the lower the better):
Creative Class Index = 132
High Tech = 116
Innovation = 43
Diversity (Gay Index) = 148

The top creative places: San Francisco, Austin, Boston, San Diego, Seattle, Raleigh Durham.

Columbus had an overall creative ranking of 33, Cleveland 44, Cincinnati 52.

From the book and talk, Dr. Florida said cities and states should save their tax breaks and infrastructure-building promises. The new thinking is companies will move to where the most creative people live.

Another one of my Nov 16, 2003 posts, pulled from Archive.org. This one was titled Toledo's strategic plan for the Arts and Culture.

I cannot find a digital version of the strategic plan on-line. The final draft of the plan was handed out to those attending the Mayor's Summit last Friday. The Blade said 800 people attended the summit. 5000 copies of the plan were created, so there are more available some how. Maybe contact the Arts Commission for a copy. It's a worthwhile document to read. I'll provide some highlights from the 20-page document.

Greater Toledo's Strategic Plan for the Arts and Culture

Prepared by the Mayor's Task Force for the Arts and Culture
November 2003

Executive Summary of Strategic Priorities

A. Collaboration - We must promote partnerships among organizations and interested individuals.

B. Leadership - We must improve its leadership by promoting visibility for the arts wherever possible.

C. Prosperity - We should develop stronger connections with economic development organizations and initiatives.

D. Visibility - We must develop a marketing plan.

E. Spaces and Facilities - We must assess the capacity and mix of area venues available to accommodate growth.

Mission and Vision

Mission Statement - Greater Toledo enriches life, work, and play for all by fostering the arts and culture as the heart of an attractive, progressive, and prosperous city and region.

Vision Statement - Greater Toledo aspires to be a world-renowned community that supports high quality arts and cultural experiences that are affordable and accessible to all.

Where are we now?

Strengths - The region has a tremendous diversity of arts and cultural activities.

Weaknesses - When compared to other regions, Greater Toledo has had a history of poor funding for the arts.

In the document, there's a timetable for the five priorities listed above. The timetable chart lists the functions within each priority and their purpose, who's responsible for implementing the function, the proposed means for implementing it, the timeline, and cost.

---- end nostalgia ---

So that was a little of the thinking back in 2002-2003.

And here's a copy of that arts and culture plan that was released in the fall of 2003.

http://toledotalk.com/toledo-arts-plan.pdf