Richard Florida

The American Lung Association's State of the Air report on America's most polluted cities is out. Here's one summary (pointer via Planetizen). More »

Toyota's Scion brand is turning to hipster culture in its attempts to lure Gen Y (h/t: Ian Swain). More »

Here's the real map from the Social Science Research Council's American Human Development Project. MapScroll and Economix clear up any remaining confusion about an earlier, problematic map. Check out the project's website and terrific interactive maps. More »

The U.S. unemployment rate is nearly nine percent but varies widely by gender, race, and also by state and metropolitan region. Last month, 106 U.S. metros reported jobless rates of 10 percent or more, while 90 had rates below seven percent, according to data released today by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. So Charlotta Mellander and I decided to take a look at the factors that are associated with higher levels of regional unemployment. In the graphs below, we compare the year-over-year change in unemployment to human capital levels (that is the percent of a region's residents with a bachelor's degree or above) and the occupational and class structure. More »

Ludovic Hunter-Tilney elaborates in the Financial Times noting the shift from the shredding solos of Hendrix, Clapton, Page, and Beck to the "shimmering" contextual tones of U2's Edge or Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead. What about Jack White? More »

Too many cities have mortgaged their futures on big-time sports, letting their parks and high-school ball-fields go while pouring public dollars into big-league stadiums. But some communities are reaping myriad benefits by focusing on smaller, local sports, according to Next American City (pointer via Planetizen). More »

Anti-immigration sentiment may be growing in some parts of the country, but this Philadelphia non-profit welcomes immigrants as part of a new urban future. More »

We all know the power of an Apple or a Google to create new business models and generate massive new wealth. But, long ago, the great economist Joseph Schumpeter argued that the formation of new entrepreneurs lies behind the great "gales of creative destruction" which set in place new firms and industries and revolutionize old ones. The last couple of days, we've looked at how class effects economic growth and innovation. We now look at the relationship between… More »

Two members of rock-n-roll royalty are getting married. A couple of weeks ago, news broke that White Stripes drummer Meg White and guitarist Jackson Smith (son of legendary MC5 founder the late Fred "Sonic" Smith and singer-songwriter Patti Smith) plan to tie the knot later this month. While both are born-and-bred products of Detroit's legendary music scene, their nuptials will take place 500 miles south in Nashville, Tennessee. A few years ago, Meg's ex-husband… More »

Wendell Cox writes: "Most suburban growth is not the result of declining core city populations, but is rather a consequence of people moving from rural areas and small towns to the major metropolitan areas. It is the appeal of large metropolitan places that drives suburban growth..." More »

Columbia University statistician Andrew Gelman is not impressed: "The 50 states don't vary much by life expectancy, literacy, and school enrollment. Sure, Hawaiians live a few years longer than Mississippians, and there are some differences in who stays in school, but by far the biggest differences between states, from these measures, are in GDP. The average income in Connecticut is twice that of Mississippi." More »

Chris points to "blipsters." But hipster bashing (blipsters included) is a growing sport. Music critic Carl Wilson provides perspective. More »

This poster, courtesy of the city of Muenster, Germany, illustrates the different amounts of space taken up by different kinds of transit. More »

Fast Company points to this video by film-maker John Paget, winner of a Congress for New Urbanism competition on the connection between urbanism and the environment More »

The FIRE economy - which stands for finance, insurance, and real estate - is extraordinarily concentrated geographically. But, as of yet, the popping of the FIRE bubble doesn't appear to be having any substantial effect on regional unemployment. More »

Earlier this week I posted on the best cities for college grads to launch their careers. But what are the top countries new grads are looking to? The same survey asked both American and foreign-born students to name the best countries in which to do so. More »

Tata - the Indian mega-conglomerate that launched the $2,000 car - has created a housing division which is building new apartments ranging from $7,800-$13,400 dollars outside Mumbai (pointer via Planetizen). Business Week's Prashant Gopal explains. More »

New growth theorist Paul Romer is into city-states. He sees them as a mechanism for accelerating Third World development and lifting rural populations out of poverty. It's an intriguing, if complicated, idea. Michael Perelman posts Stewart Brand's (of Whole Earth Catalog fame) synopsis (tip-of-the-hat to Mark Thoma for the pointer). [D]eveloping countries could invite instant Hong Kongs--new cities in new locations run by experienced governments such as Canada or… More »

Yesterday, we looked at the effects of class on economic growth. Today, we turn to the relationship between class and innovation. It's a well-established truism that innovation drives economic growth and development. Nations and regions around the world go to great measures to stimulate innovation in their attempts to create the "next Silicon Valley" which will generate new technologies, improve economic growth, and lift their living standards. To examine the… More »

Where does democracy come from? What are the social, demographic, and economic factors that shape the onset of democracy in a country and its subsequent stability and subsequent development? This is a question that has vexed social scientists for decades. A new study puts the question to perhaps its most systematic test yet. Researchers from ETH Switzerland and Georgetown University used a statistical procedure called "extreme bounds analysis" to test the salience… More »