June 26, 2012

Author calls Boulder ‘most creative’ city

BOULDER – Boulder has another reason to brag, as the city is the nation’s “most creative,” according to a new book released by the inventor of the concept of “the creative class.”

Boulder took home the top honors in a survey compiled by Richard Florida, author of “The Rise of the Creative Class, Revisited,” a sequel to his 2002 book “The Rise of the Creative Class.”

Boulder beat San Francisco and Boston to top the list, according an article Florida published on theDailyBeast.com. The article cited Boulder’s “slew of high-tech startups and innovative green companies,” as well as its ranking by Amazon.com as America’s “most well-read city.”

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The rankings are based on the 2012 Creativity Index, compiled by Florida and Kevin Stolarick of the Martin Prosperity Institute, a think-tank affiliated with the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. Florida is the institute’s director.

The rankings are derived from three components, according to Florida’s Daily Beast article.

The first is “technology,” defined as the ability to create new ideas, inventions and high-tech companies and measured by a combination of innovation and high-tech companies.

The second is “talent,” which is measured by the share of the workforce in “the creative class.” According to the Martin Prosperity Institute, “creativity-oriented occupations are high-autonomy jobs where workers are paid to think (e.g., artists, doctors, nurses, senior managers, architects).”

The third component is “tolerance,” measured by “the share of foreign-born people, gays and lesbians, and level of integration in a community.”

BOULDER – Boulder has another reason to brag, as the city is the nation’s “most creative,” according to a new book released by the inventor of the concept of “the creative class.”

Boulder took home the top honors in a survey compiled by Richard Florida, author of “The Rise of the Creative Class, Revisited,” a sequel to his 2002 book “The Rise of the Creative Class.”

Boulder beat San Francisco and Boston to top the list, according an article Florida published on theDailyBeast.com. The article cited Boulder’s “slew of high-tech startups and innovative green companies,” as well as its ranking by Amazon.com…

Christopher Wood
Christopher Wood is editor and publisher of BizWest, a regional business journal covering Boulder, Broomfield, Larimer and Weld counties. Wood co-founded the Northern Colorado Business Report in 1995 and served as publisher of the Boulder County Business Report until the two publications were merged to form BizWest in 2014. From 1990 to 1995, Wood served as reporter and managing editor of the Denver Business Journal. He is a Marine Corps veteran and a graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder. He has won numerous awards from the Colorado Press Association, Society of Professional Journalists and the Alliance of Area Business Publishers.
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