The Rise of the Creative Class in Worcester

From an on-air discussion substituting for Hank Stolz on WCRN in late December 2010

Cities which thrive foster the birth of not yet discovered and new industries and products we don’t yet know:
- by maintaining a free and open culture.
- by making investments in creativity such as higher education, scientific research and culture – especially street culture – i.e. independently owned cafes, bookstores, artsy shops, restaurants, alcoholic and non-alcoholic venues to not just passively go watch an event but to meet, converse and exchange ideas, thoughts and feelings with people new to you.
- by drawing waves of energetic, intelligent and hard working immigrants from all over the world, embracing their differences and different outlooks – not shunning them or being closed off to them.
- have an open attitude toward gay people and bohemian artists types, i.e. musicians, performance artists, actors, painters, sculptors, drawers, people with alternative takes on life, people with tattoos and piercings
says Richard Florida, in The Rise of the Creative Class.
The key is to attract people who want to be activists in their own life – not passive spectators. Florida implies that people who frequent national sports events, multiplex cinemas or generic national franchises are passive observers and participants in someone else’s game. It deprives people of the type of self-expression and the creativity that has always led to American innovation. People’s openness to new ideas, experiences, perspectives, approaches and methods, driven by our spontaneity and everyday search for inspiration, is an energy to covet. People who don’t want to work for “the man” but who want to try to be “their own man or woman,” even if it’s not being a higher-up in a big company are the type of people vibrant urban areas attract.
Our national American trait as optimists, our dynamic can do attitude, our belief that tomorrow wil be better than today, whether we’re super employed or unemployed is our national energy – it’s what we give each other daily. We mostly think about what could go right, not what could go wrong. Though life’s pursuits require both mentalities, if you’re going to only chose one you might as well chose what could go right. Whether it be creating a new and better life for ourselves, families and extension our country we Americans live to create. We are not bound by stifling tradition like older nations and societies. This is our competitive advantage versus more static, traditional and technocratic countries like China, India, Japan and Germany.
Business’ recognize this and move to places diverse, tolerant, open to creativity, new people and new ideas.
Florida’s thesis is that it’s not just counter-culture types who are creative – who comprise this new creative class – it’s also engineers, biochemists, research scientists, software developers, healthcare workers, architects, lawyers, business and manufacture managers and workers, anyone and everyone who has an entrepreneurial and creative spirit.
We Americans thrive on autonomy and strive to be independent even at young ages. Starting in our early teens we often begin to pull away from our parent’s way in order to create our own identity. No one can convince us we don’t have the right skills, emotional stability, ability to analyze and think before acting, proper degree of self-reflection and even self-doubt to be independent and successful.
Earlier generations of Americans could never deal with this movement. Compliance to authority was the overriding value. Many immigrant children, especially from Asia and Africa, still listen to one’s elders and respect their words in an old world way. Many of my Chinese friends at college were told by their parents “you wait to have a social life until you’re finished with your education.” Would any American kid not rebel against that?
One could think it is very bad that we don’t defer gratification. But it is also our strength; it leads to our independent streak. From the westward expansion of the American open plains to the powerful cars we all seem to insist on driving we scream out for our own power to decide, to shape ourselves and our futures. Older America, the America Robert Putnam wrote about in his book Bowling Alone, used to be organized and interdependent. For better or worse, we now value social mobility more than social cohesion.
On display during Worcester’s First Night is both the world of social cohesion and artistic creativity. Immigrant enclaves, where cultural dance, religious services and schools, clubs, civic associations and volunteering brought deep bonds of trust and interdependence to immigrant, ethnic and religious groups who arrived in the US at the turn of the 20th century, still exist today though with a somewhat weaker bonding strength.
On and around Worcester’s Vernon Hill, Irish, Poles, Jews, Italians, Swedes and Lithuanians, all came and built their religious institutions, schools and social clubs, finding each other jobs and knowing each other’s lives.
Today Ghanaians, Brazilians, Salvadorians, Vietnamese, Dominicans and Kenyans all do the same, but like other Americans today the bonds are not quite as close. People don’t want other people “in their business.” People don’t want to be judged by other people, they want autonomy and independence to judge themselves. They want to move into and out of each others worlds as they will, sampling their energy but not being stifled by it.
The current American movement saying “don’t tread on me” (meaning my autonomy) speaks for many. Whether you want to change jobs or employers 5-10 times during your life, or you’re an adolescent, extended adolescent or mid-life crisis type, or even a Tea Party member, your autonomy and ability to self-define is what you’re struggling for.
The ideology of America up until 35 years ago emphasized conformity, organization, group identity, and deferral of freedom’s pleasure. The current ethic favors self-expression, acceptance and encouragement of differences and a desire for many and varied experiences. Richard Florida accurately says we now pack every second full of creative stimuli and new feelings and experiences. We Americans take risks because we like those risk’s stimulating feeling, it makes us feel alive. We sometimes even partially subvert or destroy what exists, in hopes of creating something better. This is what Americans do today. We want to know what’s next, what’s new, what’s out there? Our creativity, our search, is both a magnificent quest and an act of rebellion.
Even forming close ties with too many people often closes us off to our American lives of quest and innovation and the propulsion towards self-definition and a place in the world where we want to be. This is our new America. This also needs to be our new Worcester.