Unemployed Day # 30 ... sob sob sob

I am reading a book titled, Flight of the Creative Class. It's one of these new age books on economics much like Deep Economy by Bill McKibbon which I am also reading.

Flight of the Creative Class is one of the more recent books by the author Richard Florida who gained fame and recognition for his first novel titled Rise of The Creative Class.

One of the main themes he is always stressing is that quality of place is the most important factor in stimulating economic growth. That is why cities like NYC and San Francisco have such huge economies - because they are open cities where gays, immigrants, and people of color can feel comfortable. He argues entrepreneurs follow artists ... note the Silicon Valley after the late 60's and the Seattle boom after the Grunge scene in the early 90's.

I have to admit, I like his books and his insight as well. No more does a city need to focus on building an 'Arch' or 'Space Needle' or any other kind of symbol to seem important. Florida has stripped away the superficiality and said "Hey everyone, if you want a nice city with a great economy you have to make it live up to the American dream of everyone equal and party 24/7!" Perhaps that is why Memphis and Nashville never really took off? My image of those cities (especially after going to them) is of a vibrant arts scene, but then Cletus and Billy Bob are there polishing their shotguns on their front porches waiting to get the posse together! I'd like to think we've moved past those days?

But you have to wonder why Portland hasn't boomed quite yet? Surely we have an awesome arts scene in this town? Surely we have tons of entrepreneurial talent and all of us kids walk around feeling like this is such an open-minded city.

On the other hand, I think Portlanders are lucky to have mayor-elect Sam Adams who not only lives in North Portland, but also seems to have a strong grip on the issues at stake for our city. With his strong support of bike lanes and assorted issues he knows livability is tops on the priority list. He seems to have a strong grasp of the concepts of sustainability and acting locally and eating locally and although I don't know the guy, I think we are lucky.

I originally came to this blog center to write about Richard Florida's book Flight of the Creative Class. How I was reading it last night and saw European countries are giving scholarships to Americans to attend their universities with the hope that when they become business leaders they will strengthen ties with those European countries. After reading that I immediately ran to my computer and found a scholarship that pays you to study in Ireland for a year! Free! With a stipend! With a travel stipend on top of that!

See you later!

Errr, I mean, umm ... let's make Portland nice ... and stuff.

If you are still reading this give yourself a huge gold star. The only other interesting thing I wanted to mention about Flight of the Creative Class is how George Bush's policies regarding post 9/11 terrorism checkpoints at airports, background checks on people of non-European descent, and rejection of Phd candidates from overseas has really hurt our standing in the world, and also hurt our economy. Because those creative entrepreneur's are being rejected from living here and creating the next scientific breakthrough ... America has lost its standing in the world because these intelligent Indians, Chinese, and others are looking more towards Europe for openness ... or they are building universities in their countries that top ours. As the book points out the leading medical school in the world is in India, some of the top tech schools are in Japan ... by having an administration that doesn't embrace science we are crumbling at our very foundation.

Consider this: the biggest entrepreneurs of the silicon valley era are not Americans by birth ... they are Taiwanese, Bangladeshi, Indian, Chinese ... if there were ever a case to NEVER elect a REPUBLICAN(t) ever again - these failed policies crystallize that notion.

In other news I saw the Angelina Jolie movie "Wanted" last night and it was the worst movie I have ever seen.

mjp