EnviroTO
Senior Member
Really?? Who declares these things?
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- Thread starter AlvinofDiaspar
- Start date
Really?? Who declares these things?
urbandreamer
recession proof
as future mayor of toronto i plan on implementing a strategy to attract WORKING CLASS people to downtown toronto. Working class people, dollar for dollar, do more to stimulate small local businesses than any wealthy or creative class. Workers (hopefully non unionized) move downtown you're welcome here!
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
urbandreamer:
Please explain how a working class dollar (whatever that meant) does more to stimulate more small local business than a "creative class" dollar?
AoD
Please explain how a working class dollar (whatever that meant) does more to stimulate more small local business than a "creative class" dollar?
AoD
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
From the Globe:
Roger and me
SARAH HAMPSON
From Monday's Globe and Mail
July 16, 2007 at 9:13 AM EDT
Richard Florida, the renowned American scholar and best-selling author, had his eye on working in Toronto for several years.
His work on the identification of "the creative class" launched an intellectual revolution on understanding the economic engines of the world's top-tier cities.
Last week, it was announced that he has been appointed academic director of the newly established Centre for Jurisdictional Advantage and Prosperity at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management.
"This is really about Roger Martin. There is no other person like him in academic life," Prof. Florida, 49, says of the dean of Rotman. "He's the real strategic thinker on this."
The Centre for Jurisdictional Advantage and Prosperity is Mr. Martin's brainchild. The research institution will take a holistic and integrative approach to the study of how jurisdictions, including provinces and areas that encompass cities across national borders, become magnets for companies and for the people who provide the diverse talent needed for prosperity.
"I made a very pragmatic decision to go to the best place to do my research," Prof. Florida says, adding that what distinguishes the research centre is its placement within a business school.
"Most of the places that have studied the idea of place have been in urban planning programs. I am an urban planner, so I respect it. I have been in public policy schools.
"But all of my life, I've wished to ... understand the role of location in business. A business will see a location as a market and as a source of talent, but I think that getting the mix between business, government and the individual location decision is really critical.
"So, what I see Roger and the Rotman School giving me is an enormous array of economists, financial specialists, accounting professors, organizational strategists, organizational behaviour scholars and marketing scholars; and we can now, for the first time, combine our knowledge and insights around this idea of place and location."
Seven years ago, Mr. Martin was introduced to Prof. Florida by Heather Monroe-Blum.
She was then a professor at Rotman and currently principal and vice-chancellor of McGill University in Montreal. It was before his breakthrough book The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life was published in 2002.
"Heather showed me an article he had written," Mr. Martin explains. "And I thought, 'Wow, this guy is thinking in very complementary ways to what we are doing.' "
The two met, and soon Mr. Martin was issuing speaking invitations to Prof. Florida, who visited several times. "We kept in touch and we were dreaming about being able to do something," Mr. Martin says.
That almost happened three years ago, when Prof. Florida was close to accepting a position at Rotman. "I really had my eye on Toronto," says Prof. Florida on the phone from his home in Washington D.C., where he has been the Hirst Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University for the past three years.
"I was at a dinner in Winnipeg, and I said I was considering moving to Toronto, and someone said, 'Well, when George Bush is president, you should stay in the U.S. We really need you there.' And I thought, 'Well, I'll take a flyer and come to Washington and see what I could do.'
"During that whole time, Roger and I were talking at a distance, thinking about it, and last fall, he called me and he said, 'I have this really great idea. Would you be interested?' And I said, 'If you have the idea, I'm definitely interested.' "
The Centre for Jurisdictional Advantage and Prosperity is a $120-million project, made possible by a $50-million donation to Rotman from the Province of Ontario. The federal government contributed an additional $10-million. The balance will be raised from the private sector.
"[Premier Dalton] McGuinty is the heroic figure," Mr. Martin says.
"Toronto and Ontario are at an inflection point, to strive for greatness as one of the globe's magnet cities or to be a really good second-tier city. It has a chance to be a global destination city. Richard Florida has no affiliation with Canada, but if people like that say, 'I want to be there,' that shows that we can be that."
"I am blown away," says Prof. Florida in his high-energy rapid-fire delivery.
"I'm a person who has 'made do' in research with very limited resources, and that's been good, because I am frugal and efficient ... [but] it's fantastic to have resources to do this research on Toronto and Ontario, on North America and the world, on how place and jurisdictional advantage, on how geography, really matter. This is a subject people have talked about, but I don't think any one has had the resources to dig into it."
Prof. Florida and his wife, Rana, who runs the global think tank he founded, Creative Class Group, have bought a house in Rosedale, an affluent midtown neighbourhood in Toronto. The couple, who celebrate their first wedding anniversary this month, will move at the end of August.
"I think Toronto is really a global centre in North America, and I think what it does for me is force me to be more of a global scholar. I've really been defined as an American scholar, even though my work has been picked up all over the world. But I have been a U.S.-based scholar.
"This move will not only make me consider Canada, which I love, but it will encourage me to look at the world because I am outside of the United States. My work will be pushed in another direction, and I relish that."
He has always loved Toronto for its arts, safety, diversity and openness.
"It has a stable community and has not experienced some of the more devastating problems of U.S. cities. My work is inspired by Toronto," explains the scholar who taught for nearly two decades at Carnegie Mellon University and has been a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.
"I have written with Toronto and other great communities like San Francisco and London in the back of my mind for nearly two decades."
AoD
Roger and me
SARAH HAMPSON
From Monday's Globe and Mail
July 16, 2007 at 9:13 AM EDT
Richard Florida, the renowned American scholar and best-selling author, had his eye on working in Toronto for several years.
His work on the identification of "the creative class" launched an intellectual revolution on understanding the economic engines of the world's top-tier cities.
Last week, it was announced that he has been appointed academic director of the newly established Centre for Jurisdictional Advantage and Prosperity at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management.
"This is really about Roger Martin. There is no other person like him in academic life," Prof. Florida, 49, says of the dean of Rotman. "He's the real strategic thinker on this."
The Centre for Jurisdictional Advantage and Prosperity is Mr. Martin's brainchild. The research institution will take a holistic and integrative approach to the study of how jurisdictions, including provinces and areas that encompass cities across national borders, become magnets for companies and for the people who provide the diverse talent needed for prosperity.
"I made a very pragmatic decision to go to the best place to do my research," Prof. Florida says, adding that what distinguishes the research centre is its placement within a business school.
"Most of the places that have studied the idea of place have been in urban planning programs. I am an urban planner, so I respect it. I have been in public policy schools.
"But all of my life, I've wished to ... understand the role of location in business. A business will see a location as a market and as a source of talent, but I think that getting the mix between business, government and the individual location decision is really critical.
"So, what I see Roger and the Rotman School giving me is an enormous array of economists, financial specialists, accounting professors, organizational strategists, organizational behaviour scholars and marketing scholars; and we can now, for the first time, combine our knowledge and insights around this idea of place and location."
Seven years ago, Mr. Martin was introduced to Prof. Florida by Heather Monroe-Blum.
She was then a professor at Rotman and currently principal and vice-chancellor of McGill University in Montreal. It was before his breakthrough book The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life was published in 2002.
"Heather showed me an article he had written," Mr. Martin explains. "And I thought, 'Wow, this guy is thinking in very complementary ways to what we are doing.' "
The two met, and soon Mr. Martin was issuing speaking invitations to Prof. Florida, who visited several times. "We kept in touch and we were dreaming about being able to do something," Mr. Martin says.
That almost happened three years ago, when Prof. Florida was close to accepting a position at Rotman. "I really had my eye on Toronto," says Prof. Florida on the phone from his home in Washington D.C., where he has been the Hirst Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University for the past three years.
"I was at a dinner in Winnipeg, and I said I was considering moving to Toronto, and someone said, 'Well, when George Bush is president, you should stay in the U.S. We really need you there.' And I thought, 'Well, I'll take a flyer and come to Washington and see what I could do.'
"During that whole time, Roger and I were talking at a distance, thinking about it, and last fall, he called me and he said, 'I have this really great idea. Would you be interested?' And I said, 'If you have the idea, I'm definitely interested.' "
The Centre for Jurisdictional Advantage and Prosperity is a $120-million project, made possible by a $50-million donation to Rotman from the Province of Ontario. The federal government contributed an additional $10-million. The balance will be raised from the private sector.
"[Premier Dalton] McGuinty is the heroic figure," Mr. Martin says.
"Toronto and Ontario are at an inflection point, to strive for greatness as one of the globe's magnet cities or to be a really good second-tier city. It has a chance to be a global destination city. Richard Florida has no affiliation with Canada, but if people like that say, 'I want to be there,' that shows that we can be that."
"I am blown away," says Prof. Florida in his high-energy rapid-fire delivery.
"I'm a person who has 'made do' in research with very limited resources, and that's been good, because I am frugal and efficient ... [but] it's fantastic to have resources to do this research on Toronto and Ontario, on North America and the world, on how place and jurisdictional advantage, on how geography, really matter. This is a subject people have talked about, but I don't think any one has had the resources to dig into it."
Prof. Florida and his wife, Rana, who runs the global think tank he founded, Creative Class Group, have bought a house in Rosedale, an affluent midtown neighbourhood in Toronto. The couple, who celebrate their first wedding anniversary this month, will move at the end of August.
"I think Toronto is really a global centre in North America, and I think what it does for me is force me to be more of a global scholar. I've really been defined as an American scholar, even though my work has been picked up all over the world. But I have been a U.S.-based scholar.
"This move will not only make me consider Canada, which I love, but it will encourage me to look at the world because I am outside of the United States. My work will be pushed in another direction, and I relish that."
He has always loved Toronto for its arts, safety, diversity and openness.
"It has a stable community and has not experienced some of the more devastating problems of U.S. cities. My work is inspired by Toronto," explains the scholar who taught for nearly two decades at Carnegie Mellon University and has been a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.
"I have written with Toronto and other great communities like San Francisco and London in the back of my mind for nearly two decades."
AoD
JasonParis
Moderator
I wonder if one day we'll look back on Florida's move to T.O. the same day we discuss with fondness the way Jane Jacobs moved here in the 1960s.
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
U of T News just confirmed the move:
http://www.news.utoronto.ca/bin6/070716-3295.asp
I wonder if they've gotten upstaged by the media...
AoD
http://www.news.utoronto.ca/bin6/070716-3295.asp
I wonder if they've gotten upstaged by the media...
AoD
ssk
New Member
This guy was on Colbert Report today. Check it out!
Prometheus The Supremo
►Member №41+⅜◄
unimaginative2
Senior Member
I hadn't thought of that. It's a really good point. I hope so!
ShonTron
Moderator
If nothing else, Florida seems like a Toronto-booster with international credibility, something Toronto can certainly use.
Richard Florida on Toronto: "A spectacular urban centre"
National Post
Urban thinker Richard Florida says Toronto has a fresh energy that places it among the world’s most powerful urban centres, and that’s one of the reasons he’s moving here.
Once a “third-tier” city at the same level as Minneapolis, Toronto is now “one of North America’s top five or 10 cities,” among the ranks of “second-tier” cities such as Los Angeles and Chicago, Mr. Florida said in an interview this morning.
In the midst of uprooting himself from Washington, D.C., for his new job University of Toronto, Mr. Florida firmly establishes himself as a booster of his new home, calling it “the most international city in the world,” and saying it could one day compete with top-tier cities like New York and London.
In mid-September, Mr. Florida will settle into his role as the director of the Rotman School of Management’s new $120-million Centre for Jurisdictional Advantage and Prosperity, a position he was quick to accept after working at George Mason University in Virginia for only three years.
The academic opportunities offered to him in a city that in itself is the perfect research laboratory were too tempting to turn down. While Toronto’s growth in recent years has helped it compete with other international metropolises, Mr. Florida says this is nothing new and that the city will only keep gaining ground on the global playing field.
“I’ve followed and admired Toronto’s transformation into a global urban centre since I was an undergrad in college. It was a place that always defined urbanism and has always been a spectacular urban centre,” he said. “It has the ability to attract people from all over the world. It’s an incredible example of a mosaic community and I think that’s been reflected in my work.”
The professor’s best-selling books on the “creative class” — the creative workers, artists and gay professionals he says help fuel the economies of the world’s major cities—helped him reach the status of public intellectual. In his most recent book, The Flight of the Creative Class, Mr. Florida foreshadowed his move to Toronto by pointing to all the American scholars who were drifting to Canada and Western Europe where he says better government-funded research opportunities are offered.
Mr. Florida credits Premier Dalton McGuinty and Rotman’s dean Roger Martin—who Mr. Florida described as “the most capable and visionary academic leader in the world” — for helping the centre become a reality.
Mr. Florida almost left his job at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania in 2004 to come to the University of Toronto, but stayed in the U.S. when a government funding application for the centre was rejected, said Roger Martin.
“I said (to Mr. Florida), basically, ‘Screw this. The province doesn’t want you. They don’t believe in your research. And if that’s the case, then we don’t deserve you,’” said Mr. Martin. But earlier this year, under a new premier, the province pledged $50-million to start up the centre, and the federal government offered an extra $10-million. Contributions from Joseph Rotman and other private donors have covered the rest of the cost.
Now, Mr. Florida says he is set to do more extensive research on how urban and spatial structure as well as density affect growth in cities such as Toronto.
While the last few decades in particular have seen Toronto sprawl out into bedroom communities like Pickering and Ajax, Mr. Florida says Toronto has still maintained its urban core and structure as opposed to many American metropolises. He says Toronto can be compared to San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles because of one key characteristic: its density.
Toronto’s core has naturally given way to spontaneously formed gentrified communities that are home to a healthy balance of residential and commercial properties, he said.
“Toronto has defined itself—it’s not trying to emulate anywhere else, which is so important,” he said.
When touring Toronto’s neighbourhoods in search of his new home, Mr. Florida said he acknowledged high market prices, but his theory maintains that to an extent, it’s worth investing in expensive housing within a city’s core to avoid long commutes.
“It’s important not only as fuel costs rise, but also time costs rise. Do you want [people] spending two or three hours commuting when they could be spending that time thinking and being creative?” he said.
Mr. Florida looked at homes in neighbourhoods including Forest Hill and the Annex before scooping up a house on the ravine in Rosedale. The tony neighbourhood is close to plenty of the eclectic coffee shops, restaurants and galleries that he says makes Toronto’s core a magnet. Little of his day will be wasted during a long drive to work, since his new home will be less than three kilometres from his office in the MaRS Discovery District.
Place is the central factor in the world economy, he says, and a lot of thought needs to go into decisions people make about where they live. This concept and the idea of looking at mega-regions (one of which he defines as Toronto-Buffalo-Rochester) rather than cities are the focuses of a new book to be launched in March, titled Who’s Your City?
For Mr. Florida, the answer to that question is Toronto. He said he doesn’t plan on moving for a long time.
“My wife would kill me — my head would be on a platter,” he laughed. “And to be less silly — this kind of capacity is not going to be replicated. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity driving this decision.”
Story by Dakshana Bascaramurty; Photo of Richard Florida by Yvonne Berg / National Post
Richard Florida on Toronto: "A spectacular urban centre"
National Post
Urban thinker Richard Florida says Toronto has a fresh energy that places it among the world’s most powerful urban centres, and that’s one of the reasons he’s moving here.
Once a “third-tier” city at the same level as Minneapolis, Toronto is now “one of North America’s top five or 10 cities,” among the ranks of “second-tier” cities such as Los Angeles and Chicago, Mr. Florida said in an interview this morning.
In the midst of uprooting himself from Washington, D.C., for his new job University of Toronto, Mr. Florida firmly establishes himself as a booster of his new home, calling it “the most international city in the world,” and saying it could one day compete with top-tier cities like New York and London.
In mid-September, Mr. Florida will settle into his role as the director of the Rotman School of Management’s new $120-million Centre for Jurisdictional Advantage and Prosperity, a position he was quick to accept after working at George Mason University in Virginia for only three years.
The academic opportunities offered to him in a city that in itself is the perfect research laboratory were too tempting to turn down. While Toronto’s growth in recent years has helped it compete with other international metropolises, Mr. Florida says this is nothing new and that the city will only keep gaining ground on the global playing field.
“I’ve followed and admired Toronto’s transformation into a global urban centre since I was an undergrad in college. It was a place that always defined urbanism and has always been a spectacular urban centre,” he said. “It has the ability to attract people from all over the world. It’s an incredible example of a mosaic community and I think that’s been reflected in my work.”
The professor’s best-selling books on the “creative class” — the creative workers, artists and gay professionals he says help fuel the economies of the world’s major cities—helped him reach the status of public intellectual. In his most recent book, The Flight of the Creative Class, Mr. Florida foreshadowed his move to Toronto by pointing to all the American scholars who were drifting to Canada and Western Europe where he says better government-funded research opportunities are offered.
Mr. Florida credits Premier Dalton McGuinty and Rotman’s dean Roger Martin—who Mr. Florida described as “the most capable and visionary academic leader in the world” — for helping the centre become a reality.
Mr. Florida almost left his job at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania in 2004 to come to the University of Toronto, but stayed in the U.S. when a government funding application for the centre was rejected, said Roger Martin.
“I said (to Mr. Florida), basically, ‘Screw this. The province doesn’t want you. They don’t believe in your research. And if that’s the case, then we don’t deserve you,’” said Mr. Martin. But earlier this year, under a new premier, the province pledged $50-million to start up the centre, and the federal government offered an extra $10-million. Contributions from Joseph Rotman and other private donors have covered the rest of the cost.
Now, Mr. Florida says he is set to do more extensive research on how urban and spatial structure as well as density affect growth in cities such as Toronto.
While the last few decades in particular have seen Toronto sprawl out into bedroom communities like Pickering and Ajax, Mr. Florida says Toronto has still maintained its urban core and structure as opposed to many American metropolises. He says Toronto can be compared to San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles because of one key characteristic: its density.
Toronto’s core has naturally given way to spontaneously formed gentrified communities that are home to a healthy balance of residential and commercial properties, he said.
“Toronto has defined itself—it’s not trying to emulate anywhere else, which is so important,” he said.
When touring Toronto’s neighbourhoods in search of his new home, Mr. Florida said he acknowledged high market prices, but his theory maintains that to an extent, it’s worth investing in expensive housing within a city’s core to avoid long commutes.
“It’s important not only as fuel costs rise, but also time costs rise. Do you want [people] spending two or three hours commuting when they could be spending that time thinking and being creative?” he said.
Mr. Florida looked at homes in neighbourhoods including Forest Hill and the Annex before scooping up a house on the ravine in Rosedale. The tony neighbourhood is close to plenty of the eclectic coffee shops, restaurants and galleries that he says makes Toronto’s core a magnet. Little of his day will be wasted during a long drive to work, since his new home will be less than three kilometres from his office in the MaRS Discovery District.
Place is the central factor in the world economy, he says, and a lot of thought needs to go into decisions people make about where they live. This concept and the idea of looking at mega-regions (one of which he defines as Toronto-Buffalo-Rochester) rather than cities are the focuses of a new book to be launched in March, titled Who’s Your City?
For Mr. Florida, the answer to that question is Toronto. He said he doesn’t plan on moving for a long time.
“My wife would kill me — my head would be on a platter,” he laughed. “And to be less silly — this kind of capacity is not going to be replicated. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity driving this decision.”
Story by Dakshana Bascaramurty; Photo of Richard Florida by Yvonne Berg / National Post
scarberiankhatru
Senior Member
Does this mean Rotman counts as part of the MaRS District, or will his main office not be in the new CfJAaP building (slated for the site next to Rotman)?
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
From the Globe, Toronto Section:
Wake up, Toronto – you're bigger than you think
RICHARD FLORIDA
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
October 26, 2007 at 8:31 PM EDT
TORONTO — Torontonians are a funny bunch. In the short time since my wife and I moved here, I've discovered a truly great city. I've got to know a growing number of unbelievable neighbourhoods – Little Italy, Greektown, the Beach and more. I've walked through the majestic ravines, eaten a fantastic egg-and-peameal-bacon sandwich at the St. Lawrence Market, tried some glorious micro-brewed beers, and even seen a hip-shaking performance by Shakira at the film festival. Our welcome at all levels has been memorable. When we told the two young Middle Eastern men who were installing an audio system in our home that we were looking for some spicy Asian food, they returned on a subsequent visit bearing a delicious – and free – takeout meal from their favourite Burmese-Indian restaurant.
We're now calling home a lovely family-friendly neighbourhood that is in easy walking distance of the city's core. The streets are safe, schools are good, immigrants are welcome and neighbourhoods allow for a mix of people by income, work, ethnicity, sexual orientation and lifestyle. The cultural life is buzzing, the restaurants are world-class, and there are beautiful lakes to escape to just a short drive away. On top of everything else, I've been given the opportunity to run a pioneering think tank at a renowned business school.
And yet everywhere we go we are met by Torontonians who either seem mystified that we would move to what they imply is a second-rate city, or seem to be seeking some kind of validation in our answer.
Here's all the validation you need, Toronto: Our city is on the leading edge of a critical change in the global economy.
It has a chance not only to redefine itself but to forge an inclusive and sustainable model of that ongoing change that harnesses the full creative potential of every person.
In fact, there is so much going on here that the city and its people are unaware of the scope and power of Toronto.
What has happened is that the mega-city has become the nerve centre of one of the world's greatest mega- regions, a trans-border economic powerhouse that stretches from Buffalo to Quebec City. It's important to recognize this, because mega-regions have replaced the nation state as the economic drivers of the global economy.
A glimpse of this new reality came earlier this month when The Globe and Mail revealed that Canadian Football League owners were negotiating to bring an National Football League team to Toronto, and that the most likely and logical choice of available teams was the Buffalo Bills. The Bills are now seeking permission to play two games at the Rogers Centre next season. The move makes sense because the market for American-style football in Toronto is huge, but even more so when you think of the Buffalo-Toronto corridor in a way that was fashionable before 9/11 but has gone mostly unmentioned since: as a single economic entity – a mega-region, in other words.
I know both cities pretty well. I lived in Buffalo in the early 1980s, teaching at the University of Buffalo as a visiting professor en route to getting my PhD at Columbia University. I endured some large snowstorms, lived in the terrific Elmwood neighbourhood and ate my share of chicken wings and beef on weck. At that time, Buffalo and Toronto shared few links, and people told me how, back in the 1950s and 60s, Buffalo, with its manufacturing muscle, was the stronger city.
These days, Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area are the economic success story. But, border or no border and heightened post-9/11 security notwithstanding, the two cities are effectively part of the same mega-region – let's call it Tor-Buff-Chester – with 22 million people and $530-billion in economic activity, making it the 12th-largest mega-region in the world and fifth-largest in North America.
You might ask where such a clunky name like Tor-Buff-Chester could come from. I'm to blame. In the summer of 2002 while speaking at a conference on economic development in Buffalo, I was asked to offer recommendations on the city's economic revitalization. My answer: Partner more closely with Toronto and Rochester to form the new region of “Tor-Buff-Chesterâ€!
It was only later that I realized how on-target that initial suggestion had been. Because, since that time, working with Tim Gulden of the University of Maryland and my research team at the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School of Management, we have used satellite pictures of the world at night to estimate the economic activity of the mega-regions of the world.
Ours are the first such estimates ever: Much to my surprise, international statistical agencies – such as the United Nations and the World Bank – collect mainly national data. No one collects systematic data on cities and regions around the world. And none of them looks at regions that defy conventional borders.
According to our definition, mega-regions are made up of two or more contiguous cities and their surrounding suburbs, and generate more than $100-billion in annual economic output. Looked at this way, the mega-region centred in Toronto and Buffalo stretches to Guelph, Waterloo and London to the west, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City in the east, and includes Ithaca, Syracuse, Rochester and Utica in the United States. If I knew then what I know now, I might have given it the more accurate, if even clunkier, moniker “Tor-Buff-Loo-Mon-Tawa.â€
In North America, only the mega-regions of Bos-Wash (Boston-New York-Washington), Chi-Pitts (running from Chicago through Pittsburgh), LA-San Diego-Tijuana, and Char-lanta (Charlotte through Atlanta) are larger. In the rest of the world, Tor-Buff-Chester is outflanked only by Greater London, Greater Tokyo, Osaka-Nagoya, Amsterdam-Antwerp-Brussels, Rome-Milan-Turin, Frankfurt-Stuttgart and Barcelona-Lyons.
Tor-Buff-Chester is bigger than the San Francisco-Silicon Valley mega-region, Greater Paris, Hong Kong and Shanghai, and more than twice the size of Cascadia, which stretches from Vancouver to Seattle and Portland. Its economic might is equivalent to more than half of all of Canada's. If it were its own country, it would number among the 16 biggest in the world, with economic output bigger than that of Sweden, the Netherlands, or Australia.
Clunky sounding or not, mega-regions are the real economic engines of the global economy. The 10 largest account for 43 per cent of the planet's economic activity and more than half of its patented innovations and star scientists who generate pioneering breakthroughs, while housing only 6.5 per cent of its population. The top 40 produce 66 per cent of the world's economic activity and more than eight in 10 of its patented innovations and most-cited scientists, while being home to just 18 per cent of the world's population.
All of this convinces me that place, not statehood, is the central axis of our time and of our global economy. What it means for Toronto is simple: A mega-region needs to think and act like a mega-region, not like a bunch of separate cities with empty space between them. For instance, Tor-Buff-Chester needs regional investments in transportation – a real high-speed rail line between all the cities, for instance, and one that crosses borders. Mega-regions benefit from global hub airports like Toronto's Pearson, New York's JFK, Chicago's O'Hare or London's Heathrow. Direct flights from Pearson to Asia are a major plus for the entire mega-region. But the best way to get around one is not by plane or car but by fast rail. Europe has this one figured out.
Fixing the border problem will be key. As an American and frequent traveller to the States, I know that much of the problem is generated by Homeland Security paranoia of American authorities. But the mega-region needs to pro-actively figure this out. There's lots of coverage of long lines of Torontonians trying to get to Buffalo to take advantage of the strong loonie. But huge amounts of trade go through those borders, and the ability of business travellers to get quickly from one destination to the next is critical to economic success of mega-regions. Tor-Buff-Chester needs fast, safe and efficient border crossings. It needs to be a priority to show the rest of North America how it can be done.
In spite of the border hassles, a transnational mega-region has real advantages. Regions on the U.S.-Mexican border take advantage of low-cost Mexican manufacturing while stationing high-end design and management on the U.S. side. There are pioneering co-operative efforts along that border: Our group initiated the world's first bi-national downtown, Wi-Fi, and arts and cultural centre between El Paso and Juarez.
And as the U.S. restricts immigration and sees a decline in foreign graduate students, the Canadian part of Tor-Buff-Chester could grab them. Microsoft recently opened a lab in Vancouver to attract foreign-born talent for that very reason.
At Pearson last week, when a flight we were taking to Washington, D.C., was cancelled, an airline clerk came to our rescue, personally walking us to a competing airline's counter and making all our new arrangements. Like everyone else, he asked us, “Why Toronto?†– apparently oblivious to the extraordinary kindness he was showing us.
No, we moved to Toronto for excellent reasons. This place is really, really big and getting bigger. It just needs to recognize it in itself.
Richard Florida is a professor at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management and Academic Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School. He is also the founder of The Creative Class Group (creativeclass.com) in Washington, D.C., which develops strategies for business, government and community competitiveness, and author of the bestselling books The Rise of the Creative Class and The Flight of the Creative Class.
AoD
Wake up, Toronto – you're bigger than you think
RICHARD FLORIDA
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
October 26, 2007 at 8:31 PM EDT
TORONTO — Torontonians are a funny bunch. In the short time since my wife and I moved here, I've discovered a truly great city. I've got to know a growing number of unbelievable neighbourhoods – Little Italy, Greektown, the Beach and more. I've walked through the majestic ravines, eaten a fantastic egg-and-peameal-bacon sandwich at the St. Lawrence Market, tried some glorious micro-brewed beers, and even seen a hip-shaking performance by Shakira at the film festival. Our welcome at all levels has been memorable. When we told the two young Middle Eastern men who were installing an audio system in our home that we were looking for some spicy Asian food, they returned on a subsequent visit bearing a delicious – and free – takeout meal from their favourite Burmese-Indian restaurant.
We're now calling home a lovely family-friendly neighbourhood that is in easy walking distance of the city's core. The streets are safe, schools are good, immigrants are welcome and neighbourhoods allow for a mix of people by income, work, ethnicity, sexual orientation and lifestyle. The cultural life is buzzing, the restaurants are world-class, and there are beautiful lakes to escape to just a short drive away. On top of everything else, I've been given the opportunity to run a pioneering think tank at a renowned business school.
And yet everywhere we go we are met by Torontonians who either seem mystified that we would move to what they imply is a second-rate city, or seem to be seeking some kind of validation in our answer.
Here's all the validation you need, Toronto: Our city is on the leading edge of a critical change in the global economy.
It has a chance not only to redefine itself but to forge an inclusive and sustainable model of that ongoing change that harnesses the full creative potential of every person.
In fact, there is so much going on here that the city and its people are unaware of the scope and power of Toronto.
What has happened is that the mega-city has become the nerve centre of one of the world's greatest mega- regions, a trans-border economic powerhouse that stretches from Buffalo to Quebec City. It's important to recognize this, because mega-regions have replaced the nation state as the economic drivers of the global economy.
A glimpse of this new reality came earlier this month when The Globe and Mail revealed that Canadian Football League owners were negotiating to bring an National Football League team to Toronto, and that the most likely and logical choice of available teams was the Buffalo Bills. The Bills are now seeking permission to play two games at the Rogers Centre next season. The move makes sense because the market for American-style football in Toronto is huge, but even more so when you think of the Buffalo-Toronto corridor in a way that was fashionable before 9/11 but has gone mostly unmentioned since: as a single economic entity – a mega-region, in other words.
I know both cities pretty well. I lived in Buffalo in the early 1980s, teaching at the University of Buffalo as a visiting professor en route to getting my PhD at Columbia University. I endured some large snowstorms, lived in the terrific Elmwood neighbourhood and ate my share of chicken wings and beef on weck. At that time, Buffalo and Toronto shared few links, and people told me how, back in the 1950s and 60s, Buffalo, with its manufacturing muscle, was the stronger city.
These days, Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area are the economic success story. But, border or no border and heightened post-9/11 security notwithstanding, the two cities are effectively part of the same mega-region – let's call it Tor-Buff-Chester – with 22 million people and $530-billion in economic activity, making it the 12th-largest mega-region in the world and fifth-largest in North America.
You might ask where such a clunky name like Tor-Buff-Chester could come from. I'm to blame. In the summer of 2002 while speaking at a conference on economic development in Buffalo, I was asked to offer recommendations on the city's economic revitalization. My answer: Partner more closely with Toronto and Rochester to form the new region of “Tor-Buff-Chesterâ€!
It was only later that I realized how on-target that initial suggestion had been. Because, since that time, working with Tim Gulden of the University of Maryland and my research team at the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School of Management, we have used satellite pictures of the world at night to estimate the economic activity of the mega-regions of the world.
Ours are the first such estimates ever: Much to my surprise, international statistical agencies – such as the United Nations and the World Bank – collect mainly national data. No one collects systematic data on cities and regions around the world. And none of them looks at regions that defy conventional borders.
According to our definition, mega-regions are made up of two or more contiguous cities and their surrounding suburbs, and generate more than $100-billion in annual economic output. Looked at this way, the mega-region centred in Toronto and Buffalo stretches to Guelph, Waterloo and London to the west, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City in the east, and includes Ithaca, Syracuse, Rochester and Utica in the United States. If I knew then what I know now, I might have given it the more accurate, if even clunkier, moniker “Tor-Buff-Loo-Mon-Tawa.â€
In North America, only the mega-regions of Bos-Wash (Boston-New York-Washington), Chi-Pitts (running from Chicago through Pittsburgh), LA-San Diego-Tijuana, and Char-lanta (Charlotte through Atlanta) are larger. In the rest of the world, Tor-Buff-Chester is outflanked only by Greater London, Greater Tokyo, Osaka-Nagoya, Amsterdam-Antwerp-Brussels, Rome-Milan-Turin, Frankfurt-Stuttgart and Barcelona-Lyons.
Tor-Buff-Chester is bigger than the San Francisco-Silicon Valley mega-region, Greater Paris, Hong Kong and Shanghai, and more than twice the size of Cascadia, which stretches from Vancouver to Seattle and Portland. Its economic might is equivalent to more than half of all of Canada's. If it were its own country, it would number among the 16 biggest in the world, with economic output bigger than that of Sweden, the Netherlands, or Australia.
Clunky sounding or not, mega-regions are the real economic engines of the global economy. The 10 largest account for 43 per cent of the planet's economic activity and more than half of its patented innovations and star scientists who generate pioneering breakthroughs, while housing only 6.5 per cent of its population. The top 40 produce 66 per cent of the world's economic activity and more than eight in 10 of its patented innovations and most-cited scientists, while being home to just 18 per cent of the world's population.
All of this convinces me that place, not statehood, is the central axis of our time and of our global economy. What it means for Toronto is simple: A mega-region needs to think and act like a mega-region, not like a bunch of separate cities with empty space between them. For instance, Tor-Buff-Chester needs regional investments in transportation – a real high-speed rail line between all the cities, for instance, and one that crosses borders. Mega-regions benefit from global hub airports like Toronto's Pearson, New York's JFK, Chicago's O'Hare or London's Heathrow. Direct flights from Pearson to Asia are a major plus for the entire mega-region. But the best way to get around one is not by plane or car but by fast rail. Europe has this one figured out.
Fixing the border problem will be key. As an American and frequent traveller to the States, I know that much of the problem is generated by Homeland Security paranoia of American authorities. But the mega-region needs to pro-actively figure this out. There's lots of coverage of long lines of Torontonians trying to get to Buffalo to take advantage of the strong loonie. But huge amounts of trade go through those borders, and the ability of business travellers to get quickly from one destination to the next is critical to economic success of mega-regions. Tor-Buff-Chester needs fast, safe and efficient border crossings. It needs to be a priority to show the rest of North America how it can be done.
In spite of the border hassles, a transnational mega-region has real advantages. Regions on the U.S.-Mexican border take advantage of low-cost Mexican manufacturing while stationing high-end design and management on the U.S. side. There are pioneering co-operative efforts along that border: Our group initiated the world's first bi-national downtown, Wi-Fi, and arts and cultural centre between El Paso and Juarez.
And as the U.S. restricts immigration and sees a decline in foreign graduate students, the Canadian part of Tor-Buff-Chester could grab them. Microsoft recently opened a lab in Vancouver to attract foreign-born talent for that very reason.
At Pearson last week, when a flight we were taking to Washington, D.C., was cancelled, an airline clerk came to our rescue, personally walking us to a competing airline's counter and making all our new arrangements. Like everyone else, he asked us, “Why Toronto?†– apparently oblivious to the extraordinary kindness he was showing us.
No, we moved to Toronto for excellent reasons. This place is really, really big and getting bigger. It just needs to recognize it in itself.
Richard Florida is a professor at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management and Academic Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School. He is also the founder of The Creative Class Group (creativeclass.com) in Washington, D.C., which develops strategies for business, government and community competitiveness, and author of the bestselling books The Rise of the Creative Class and The Flight of the Creative Class.
AoD
poppajojo
Active Member
so the secret to unlocking Toronto's potential is to make the Buffalo, Rochestor, Toronto areas as much as a single, continously connecting entity as possible... interesting...
PukeGreen
Active Member
I found this article, along with a few others in today's T.O. section in the Globe, to be refreshing reads. It's nice to hear some positive sentiments about Toronto for a change. Sure there are problems and things that need improving, but hell, the way we talk around here you'd think we were living in the worst hellhole on Earth. If Torontonians don't self-promote and give ourselves credit where it is due, who will? (Aside from Richard Florida, ha).
poppajojo
Active Member
I don't see how everyone is really negative on Toronto... it seems more balanced like other places. I mean if you go to a small suburban city would everyone be high on where they live? If you go to a more expensive, very urban city, would everyone be high on where they live? We also have our share of pollyannas like everywhere else.