1. A few thoughts on cities & economic development in a COVID-19 & Post-COVID-19 world. Much of the discussion has been abt location (of work & residence) & which cities or types of places (cities vs suburbs) are gaining or declining. I want to focus here on economic development.
2. Way back when when I wrote Rise of the Creative Class I posited that the nature of economic development was shifting from business location & business attraction or where the jobs are to talent & talent attraction or where the people are.
3. I added that key to this new equation of economic development was creating places people wanted to be, investing in so-called quality of place.
4. I was roundly criticized. Thought to be off my proverbial rocker by some. The counter argument was that I was confusing proverbial "chicken" & "eggs." The determining factor remained where business & jobs located. People would continue to follow jobs.
5. Briefly, I should add I never saw this as a chicken & egg issue. I actually argued that both people & jobs were important & in growing or successful places operated in more of a virtuous & self-reinforcing circle. Anyways ...
6. Anyways, fast forward to the current COVID/Post-COVID environment & the rise of remote work.
7. Maybe its just me, but if we are to believe the current narrative about the decline of super-star cities like NY & San Francisco, the decay of their established FIRE & tech clusters & the rise of new places like Miami & others ...
8. Well, gang, that is an argument for the rise of talent, talent mobility, talent location & quality of place (variously defined) over business location & the location of large clusters of jobs.
9. So the baseline change in economic development brought on by a COVID/Post-COVID world is to tilt the scales even more so away from business location, business attraction and the location of jobs to talent attraction, talent location and amenity.
10. If that is true, it says we are seeing the eclipse of so-called produced cities for cities of amenity and talent attraction. It would massively shift economic development, nearly entirely, to talent attraction.
11. By the way, I still think clusters of jobs & industries matter. But if you believe the current narrative about remote work, you believe a narrative where talent & amenity are increasingly the core factors on which economic development turn.
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