Considerable research has been devoted to figuring out the best strategies to attract the high-paying industries and good jobs Alachua County needs, except that it has been done in other locations for other counties, not for us here. The article below appeared in the Albany Times Union on October 23. It describes an experience of Richard Florida, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, a social scientist who has pioneered studies of why industries are where they are. This article is about a talk Florida recently gave in the Albany area, at the invitation of their Center for Economic Growth. It also describes the joint studies being conducted for that area. Does anyone think we could persuade our own CEO to use Florida's approach here—an approach that differs so markedly from the current effort to sell us as a low-tax, low-payroll haven for box stores and the like? One of the goals would surely be to improve recreation, and to preserve the beautiful old neighborhoods and the trees and wild areas—now scheduled for infill—that support the animal populations access to nature that make living here such a unique delight? Dian Deevey
When Lycos, a Carnegie Mellon University start-up, announced in 1994 that it was moving to Boston, Professor Richard Florida was floored. The university had invested time, money and resources on the Internet search engine, which was seeing exponential growth near the college in Pittsburgh. But the growth came with a price: Unable to find the critical mass of researchers, code writers and other creative people where it was, the company moved to them. That sparked a whole new understanding of economic development for Florida, a social scientist: Companies go and grow where there is already a critical mass of creative thinkers, cultural activities and attractions. "Creative people want to be in creative places. It`s always been that way," he told about 200 business leaders and economic development officials Tuesday at a talk at General Electric Co.`s Power Systems division in Schenectady. Florida, who has ranked cities on a custom-made creativity index in his book, "The Rise of the Creative Class," said the Capital Region already has many of the raw materials. It ranked No. 17 overall of the 266 metro areas in the country that Florida subjected to his index: a look at technology firms, gay population, cultural activities and other measures. Among medium-sized metros, the region ranked second behind Albuquerque, N.M. But the area is still combating an image that tells its young people they must move elsewhere for good jobs and a good place to live, said Kelly Lovell, president of the Center for Economic Growth, the economic development group that sponsored Florida`s talk as part of its Future Forward Speaker Series. Lovell said she, elected leaders and others are working with Florida to develop a strategy to entice more of them to stay. "The region is poised for a period of pretty significant growth. I like to call it transformational growth," Lovell said. For almost 90 minutes Tuesday, Florida tried to un-teach many of the tenets of economic development: that people come to good jobs, that tax incentives lure companies, that with globe-shrinking technologies such as the Internet, locations are no longer important. More people than ever work in some sort of creative field, a third of the work force today, by Florida`s reckoning. And companies are going to where the creativity is, not to where states are laying out tax breaks, he said. The way Florida tells it, there is a reason that communities that produced rock icons such as the Grateful Dead, Phish, Nirvana and Jimi Hendrix also produce companies such as Microsoft and the high-tech firms of Silicon Valley and Austin, Texas. Florida had high praise for Schenectady Mayor Albert Jurczynski`s efforts to lure more Guyanese people to the Electric City. He has clipped news reports about the mayor and uses them when talking about the importance of economic diversity (a key component for attracting high-tech firms, Florida argues). And Florida lauded the region for landing the $403 million investment for an International Sematech chip research center at the University at Albany. "Other cities are burning that money away in huge stadium projects," he said. The key is to mine the creative talent a community already has, Florida said. And universities are important.
The cities that are making it -- the San Franciscos, Bostons and Austins -- all have one thing in common: "You can`t have a creative mecca without great universities," he said. | 
