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Kool-Aid Visions of
Tucson’s Future
If
gays and rock bands are engines of economic development then why isn’t
Tucson a boom town?
Futurism is the
absinthe of ambition. It should be taken, if at all, in small,
infrequent doses. Any greater immersion and the recipient begins to
believe the hallucinations are real. I’m sure that most futurists mean
well, but I can’t escape the sensation that they’re selling Kool-Aid.
And I fear for the proletariat when the ruling class drinks the
Kool-Aid.
For example, one of the
keynote speakers at a convention of educators I attended in Las Vegas
last spring was a futurist. He unraveled a vision of a future careening
out of control, with decisions and their consequences playing out at the
speed of light in a 24-hour business cycle that spun faster and faster
while futurist-influenced entrepreneurs flew madly about the globe from
continent to continent. He advised the educators in the audience to
teach their students to live and compete in such a world. What he meant
was teaching thinking and logic and communications skills that would be
needed by a real-time problem solver. I kept thinking that he should
actually recommend meditation and yoga. Otherwise, I could not conceive
of a human being surviving his hyperactive-attention-deficit-disorderly
future without going quite totally and completely mad. And I was amazed
that he failed to see that the vision he peddled was impossible. The
world civilization he described would collapse under the burden of its
energy needs and waste by-products. The more futuristic the human
species gets, the more energy it uses and the more garbage it produces.
That is the Sisyphus of progress.
I was reminded of the
keynote speaker when I read about another futurist, named Florida --
seriously – who spoke to
a group of 500 of the area's civic, business and social leaders at a
luncheon at the Marriott Starr Pass Resort.
Richard Florida, who is based in Toronto, has written two
trendy books entitled “The Rise of Creative Class” and “The Flight of
the Creative Class.” He has a sophisticated
web site dedicated to his concept of the “creative class” and
boosted by self-promotion. According to the
Arizona Daily Star, Florida argued that “American cities must
cultivate their creative workers and lure them with diverse activities
and attractions...”
An
Australian review of “The Rise of the Creative Class” described
Florida’s premise as follows: “that there is a strong
correlation between a region's prosperity and its receptiveness to
artists, gays, bohemian-types and well-educated, single
professionals...” The Harvard Business Review referred to Florida’s
insight as one of 2004’s “top breakthrough ideas.”
And who
fits into the “creative class?” Perhaps there is a hint in an article
Florida wrote for the
Washington Monthly in May, 2002, which bears the subtitle, “Why
Cities Without Gays and Rock Bands Are Losing the Economic Development
Race.”
If
“gays and rock bands” are engines of economic development then why isn’t
Tucson a boom town?
Actually, Florida’s “creative class” consists of “mostly young,
mobile and ... creative workers — among them artists, engineers and
scientists...” according to the Star.
Wikipedia describes them as “a class of workers
whose job is to create meaningful new forms. The creative class is
composed of scientists and engineers, university professors, poets and
architects, to name a few.”
But the underlying
definition of Florida’s “creative class” is, quite simply, “young people
with money.” Florida told the luncheon that Tucson “needs to put more
energy into luring and retaining workers in their 20s and 30s.” He told
a Star interviewer after the luncheon that “people are the most
mobile at age 24.” His vision of economic success for Tucson involves
keeping young adults here and attracting more of them. “If you lose
them at 24,” Florida told the Star, “no matter what you do,
you’re less likely to recapture them.”
But can Tucson, or any
other city, “capture” a population that is raised in the dawn of the age
of portability? The young and the wealthy might be attractive
residents, but theirs is a transient population. They don’t have
backyards and landlines. They have apartments or condos and wireless
communications devices. Moreover, many of the young professionals that
Richard Florida finds so attractive change jobs frequently, or relocate
because their employment requires it. A young professional is as likely
to make Tucson a permanent home as a McDonald’s All-American is to
graduate from college. It’s not a bet I would take.
I wonder if those 500
business, civic, and social leaders would take the bet. In a town run
by car dealers and homebuilders that would take some awfully potent
Kool-Aid.
Maybe the Marriott
serves absinthe.
© September 28, 2007
by Mike Tully |
