The Creative Class
Low crime, good schools, a thriving job market, a community open to new ideas and values, persons as individuals...sound familiar to you? You may be the new emerging Creative Class. Apparently 38 million Americans-30 percent of the population and the fastest growing segment of our society. I think the other term for this group when traveling on vacation are also called Geo-tourists. Bellingham hired an international marketing firm a couple of years ago to initiate a new branding campaign for Bellingham and the Mount Baker area in general. While interviewing tour companies, and matching what the Northwest region has to offer, they soon realized that this area was a seamless fit for a group called Geo-tourists. I will discuss the meaning of this group in another blog. They do resemble the creative class in many respects.
Bellingham, Washington is one area which draws these smart and open minded professors, novelists, entertainers, engineers and other professionals who are out-of-the-box problem solvers throughout the country. Other cities that are becoming centers of this Creative Class are Seattle, San Francisco, Boston, New York, Chicago, Denver, Silicon Valley, California, Austin, Texas and the Research Triangle in North Carolina.
Richard Florida has two books-The Rise of the Creative Class and The Flight of the Creative Class if you want to know more. Newsweek has published more on this topic in an article written by Florida entitled:
The New Megalopolis Our focus on cities is wrong. Growth and innovation come from new urban corridors.
Real Estate in Bellingham, WA can be viewed on my website. Thanks for the visit! Luanne Highlander, realtor and owner of Relocate Northwest.