Toledo arts plan info from 2003

my jan 6, 2017 toledotalk.com post in this thread:

http://toledotalk.com/cgi-bin/tt.pl/article/208428/Vistula_neighborhoods_reputation

quote=208441

Yes, it was Dr. Richard Florida. I attended his talk at the Peristyle in November 2003. And I read his book The Rise Of The Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community And Everyday Life.

Dr. Florida created the gay index and the bohemian index to rate cities.

About that event from my defunct ToledoArts.com website:

The Mayor's Summit - On the Arts, Education, and Technology, featuring Dr. Richard Florida, who will be presenting "The Rise of the Creative Class in Greater Toledo".
Friday, November 14, 12 Noon - 2 p.m.
Peristyle, Toledo Museum of Art.
Free and open to the Public, but reservations are required by calling 419-245-1494.

November 2003 Talk Talk thread titled Toledo Council tackling building colors that excerpted from a Nov 14, 2003 Blade story that was published the same day that Dr. Florida spoke in Toledo.

The bright palette of Mexico and other Latino cultures might have to be muted under a proposed set of standards for building facades in Toledo. Several buildings in the 1200 block of Broadway are painted in bright colors evocative of Mexico. The colorful storefronts favored by Mexican culture probably would not be permitted under the design standards as now written. The code could make an exception specifically for the Viva neighborhood.

My comments from that November 2003 thread:

The timing of this article with the visit by Dr. Richard Florida at the Peristyle today is amazing. Dr. Florida discussed how communities can improve their economy by harnessing the creativity of everyone. He mentioned the three T's that a city needs: talent, technology, and tolerance.

The Mayor introduced Dr. Florida, and I'm guessing other city leaders were present as well. Hopefully they got the message.

Dr. Florida said cities should stop sprawl. Nice idea, but good luck with that one around here. He emphasized "density" in a community.

Dr. Florida suggested cities shouldn't invest in mega projects. I wonder if the languishing Marina District project counts? He said governments should make a lot of little investments. He suggested leaders should also invest in neighborhoods.

Dr. Florida mentioned the "squelchers" who stifle creativity. Seems this ridiculous city ordinance about the colors used on building facades would be a "squelcher."

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My October 2003 ToledoArts.com post titled Arts in the city, dug out of Archive.org. The post excerpted from a Canadian newspaper.

Richard Florida will speak in Toledo next month as part of the Mayor's Summit on the Arts. Florida spoke recently at a conference in Toronto on how to revitalize cities through the arts.

The top draw, however, was Richard Florida, the American economist whose best-selling book, The Rise of the Creative Class, has provided urban pundits with their idea of the moment: Your city's economic future depends on its ability to attract not mega-industries or major-league franchises but trendoids in funky glasses.

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. While the creative class gets the ink, policy-makers fail to see that the great creativity of the service sector, in jobs from estheticians to landscapers, is underpaid, he said.

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November 2003 ToledoArts.com post titled The Rise of the Creative Class, which mentioned Dr. Florida's visit. This post was also found at Archive.org.

The Mayor's Summit last Friday was interesting. The guest speaker, Dr. Richard Florida spoke for most of the two hours. I recommend reading Dr. Florida's book. I just hope the city leaders in attendance paid attention. This Blade story appearing on the same day as the Summit doesn't seem to go along with Dr. Florida's idea of tolerance.

Here's the Blade recap on Florida's talk, which was about harnessing the creativity of everyone in a community to grow the economy. The Memphis Manifesto 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 Blade recap article of Florida's appearance:

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.

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.

The author of The Rise of the Creative Class said as he looked at a map of the Toledo area, he immediately saw potential in the close proximity of Toledo, Detroit, and Ann Arbor, and their location around Lake Erie.

"If you take that as a broad region," he said, "it could be one of the most creative places. ... That’s the example the world needs."

[Florida] said the city has an incredible history, industrial-age architecture, a great museum, and good universities, but that it will require political will and collective leadership to make the city the kind of place he is talking about. That may mean stifling "the squelchers" who themselves quash creative ideas behind closed doors.

To foster the kind of city where creative energy will be allowed to flourish, he suggested the city not be afraid of its industrial history. The old buildings that are a reminder of the city’s past, he said, are ideal for new ideas.

However, he said a city trying to encourage creativity should view suburban sprawl as the enemy because it undermines the city’s economy. Furthermore, he said, it is dense, compact cities with strong cores that foster innovation.

For the first time, he said, he saw that something strange and different was going on in the economy: jobs were moving to people, not people to jobs.

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.

Here's the Memphis Manifesto

1) Cultivate and reward creativity. Everyone is part of the value chain of creativity. Creativity can happen at anytime, anywhere, and it’s happening in your community right now. Pay attention.

2) Invest in the creative ecosystem. The creative ecosystem can include arts and culture, nightlife, the music scene, restaurants, artists and designers, innovators, entrepreneurs, affordable spaces, lively neighborhoods, spirituality, education, density, public spaces and third places.

3) Embrace diversity. It gives birth to creativity, innovation and positive economic impact. People of different backgrounds and experiences contribute a diversity of ideas, expressions, talents and perspectives that enrich communities. This is how ideas fl ourish and build vital communities.

4) Nurture the creatives. Support the connectors. Collaborate to compete in a new way and get everyone in the game.

5) Value risk-taking. Convert a “no” climate into a “yes” climate. Invest in opportunitymaking, not just problem-solving. Tap into the creative talent, technology and energy for your community. Challenge conventional wisdom.

6) Be authentic. Identify the value you add and focus on those assets where you can be unique. Dare to be different, not simply the look-alike of another community. Resist monoculture and homogeneity. Every community can be the right community.

7) Invest in and build on quality of place. While inherited features such as climate, natural resources and population are important, other critical features such as arts and culture, open and green spaces, vibrant downtowns, and centers of learning can be built and strengthened. This will make communities more competitive than ever because it will create more opportunities than ever for ideas to have an impact.

8) Remove barriers to creativity, such as mediocrity, intolerance, disconnectedness, sprawl, poverty, bad schools, exclusivity, and social and environmental degradation.

9) Take responsibility for change in your community. Improvise. Make things happen. Development is a “do it yourself” enterprise.

10) Ensure that every person, especially children, has the right to creativity. The highest quality lifelong education is critical to developing and retaining creative individuals as a resource for communities.

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November 2003 ToledoArts.com post via Archive.org titled Toledo's strategic plan for the Arts and Culture

Here's the PDF file of that 2003 Toledo arts plan:
http://toledotalk.com/toledo-arts-plan.pdf

From the November 2003 post:

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.