Florida Man Fails to Fix Everything, Reconsiders Position

"You know magical thinking about cities is fading when one of the gurus says stuff like this: 'My optimism has been tempered and I’ve become more of a realist.'”

"That’s Richard Florida, the guy who inspired a (mostly unsuccessful) stampede to hipness 15 years ago with the publication of The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life."

"Florida’s latest is The New Urban Crisis. And get a load of the subtitle: How Our Cities Are Increasing Inequality, Deepening Segregation, and Failing the Middle Class — And What We Can Do About It."

"To be fair, Florida never promised every place could become cool and prosperous by simply tweaking its strategies to appear more welcoming to creative, entrepreneurial types. But he was okay with letting the inference inspire a mini-industry."

Ben Brown takes a careful look at the details of the creative class, and concludes that incremental wins are the best near-term option.