Just returned from my home town for a a day in the country — church and then pot-luck dinner. I sampled all of the deviled eggs (one of my favorites), and was especially taken by the one with pickle relish mixed in — and I don’t like pickle relish. In a few minutes, Brenda and I will leave for the Meymandi Concert Hall for the last in a series of concerts of the Triangle Youth Brass Band, along with the adult band, and alums from past bands, including my son.
But I’m writing about a report Brenda told me about on the way to the country, an upcoming Kiplinger ranking of the top cities in the U.S. economically. You may or may not know that Raleigh and the Research Triangle Park consistently tops such listings. But this year it falls to number two, behind Houston.
What I found interesting was the Bob Cook, who evaluated the cities factored in the portion of the population woul were in the creative class. This includes scientists, engineers, artists, and teachers. The belief is, and this is consistent with Richard Florida’s writings, the creative class benefits the economic prosperity of a community as well as culture.
So perhaps one of the challenges of communities today is, “How do we attract creative people?” “How do we convince our creative children to stay?”
And maybe we need to stress / promote creativity more in schools? Just a thought.
Brian