(2004-05-18) Richard Florida Response

Richard Florida responds to his critics. My book is no paean for more government spending. It unequivocally states that large, Top Down Government Development projects, like Sports Stadium-building efforts and massive downtown revitalization plans, are a major part of the problem. Like Jane Jacobs, I argue that real Economic Development is people-oriented, organic, and community-based. In the preface to the paperback edition of The Rise of the Creative Class, I write, "While certain initiatives may help to encourage (creativity's) Emergence and others will certainly squelch it, the development of environments cannot be planned from above."