Thinking Local II

A young, well-educated workforce is essential to the health of modern cities. Their economic participation and cultural decisions (in art, music, and nightlife) are a feedback loop that increases the vibrancy of the city, and it's attractiveness to others. Read this book about it.

In Cincinnati, some groups have made it their mission to add cultural cachet to a town that has a reputation for being sedentary and bland. Their efforts are praiseworthy. But 'the creative class' eventually gets tired of coming home at 3AM, gets married, has children, and needs a place to live. These things actually happen. (People in their 20s think of this like Logan's Run, the 1970s sci-fi movie where people float up to the ceiling and explode at the age of 30.)

This changeover means other issues become important, such as public safety, neighborhoods, and schools. Robert McCluskey put this very elegantly in a children's book. Except in a modern re-telling, the ducks would be suspicious of Officer Michael, and form an action network against kids on bicycles.

Our local government in Cincinnati (like many towns), halfway-understands some of these issues, but is mostly preoccupied with getting the next retail-derived tax fix spiked into a vein.