Whose Your City?
May. 21st, 2008 09:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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calgarians
So I saw Richard Florida, who has a great many ideas about human potential and economics last week. He was the last speaker in ACAD's Stirring Culture free lecture series. I'm so glad ACAD has the foresight to put on this series, because sometimes I think there isn't enough of an exchange of ideas, and it's always interesting to hear someone not from Calgary speak. Florida is the author of Whose Your City, which breaks cities down into the things that makes them good places to live. The Canadian version is going to be published in the fall. Some of his points were:
* old buildings bring new ideas
* close conection and respect for the environment make people happy
* cities that invest in arts and culture are happier, especially those that make them accessible to everyone (people can be too intimidated to participate if they feel that art and culture it high brow and not for everybody)
* cities with good public transportation also have happier people
* cities that were open minded and tolerant of different cultures and lifestyles are more attractive
* beware of "squelchers" - people, policies and things that supress rather than encourage
* re-think prosperity to include emotional and/or spiritual prosperity, not just money
* lastly, and I thought this was the most important one, cities where people felt free to be themselves and express themselves were also pretty happy
Florida was a very engaging speaker. While he couldn't give specifics on Calgary, and indeed, he would really need to know Calgary well to do that, his main advice was that we were doing good (not sure what quantifies good - it seems we can always aim for better - I guess we'll see when the book comes out :-)) and not to squander
our natural resources (which is easy to say when the average person can't control this). He was not very good at answering a couple of audience questions, but again, it would be hard for someone who doesn't know Calgary well to say what would motivate Calgarians to make their city a better place. He did say that change has to come
from the ground up, which says to me, don't count on government to do it for you. Part of his overall message was that if people are resigned to the status quo and held back by squelchers, neither they nor their city could reach their full potential.
calgariansSo I saw Richard Florida, who has a great many ideas about human potential and economics last week. He was the last speaker in ACAD's Stirring Culture free lecture series. I'm so glad ACAD has the foresight to put on this series, because sometimes I think there isn't enough of an exchange of ideas, and it's always interesting to hear someone not from Calgary speak. Florida is the author of Whose Your City, which breaks cities down into the things that makes them good places to live. The Canadian version is going to be published in the fall. Some of his points were:
* old buildings bring new ideas
* close conection and respect for the environment make people happy
* cities that invest in arts and culture are happier, especially those that make them accessible to everyone (people can be too intimidated to participate if they feel that art and culture it high brow and not for everybody)
* cities with good public transportation also have happier people
* cities that were open minded and tolerant of different cultures and lifestyles are more attractive
* beware of "squelchers" - people, policies and things that supress rather than encourage
* re-think prosperity to include emotional and/or spiritual prosperity, not just money
* lastly, and I thought this was the most important one, cities where people felt free to be themselves and express themselves were also pretty happy
Florida was a very engaging speaker. While he couldn't give specifics on Calgary, and indeed, he would really need to know Calgary well to do that, his main advice was that we were doing good (not sure what quantifies good - it seems we can always aim for better - I guess we'll see when the book comes out :-)) and not to squander
our natural resources (which is easy to say when the average person can't control this). He was not very good at answering a couple of audience questions, but again, it would be hard for someone who doesn't know Calgary well to say what would motivate Calgarians to make their city a better place. He did say that change has to come
from the ground up, which says to me, don't count on government to do it for you. Part of his overall message was that if people are resigned to the status quo and held back by squelchers, neither they nor their city could reach their full potential.
