David Hoppe

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:: Richard Florida's beautiful city

.Is a city that works

By David Hoppe

Riddle me this: What do Richard Florida, Crown Hill Cemetery and a polished steel bean have in common?

Aesthetics.

Or, as my American Heritage Dictionary puts it: "The appreciation of beauty."

Richard Florida is an urban economist and author of the books The Rise of the Creative Class and its sequel, The Flight of the Creative Class . Florida studies demographic trends and patterns in order to understand what makes cities succeed - or fail. His research has created a major stir wherever city planners meet, including here, in Indianapolis, because it challenges a lot of what passes for conventional economic wisdom and because it squares with what so many of us see happening in the workplace and the world.

Florida 's ideas can be summarized in terms of what he calls the three Ts: Technology, Tolerance and Talent. The most successful cities are able to blend hi-tech industries and services with an overall environment that is tolerant enough to attract and retain talented people who come in all colors, creeds and lifestyles.

A couple of weeks ago Florida was in town to speak to the first statewide conference on cultural tourism held at IUPUI. Florida has been a frequent visitor here thanks in no small part to a longstanding relationship with the Central Indiana Community Foundation's Brian Payne. Payne was an early adopter of Florida's ideas and has done all he can to put those ideas in front of central Indiana's leadership class - with mixed results. One sees Florida's message getting through in our City-County Council's vote to approve a human rights ordinance including gays. But our state legislature's obsession with legislation restricting gay marriage and parenting, not to mention women's reproductive rights, makes you wonder if Indiana will ever get Florida's message.

"People are scared, people are frightened," says Florida by way of explaining such intolerance. That's because the economy is undergoing its biggest change in over 100 years. Part of that change means that people don't travel to jobs so much as that jobs migrate to where talented people are gathered. This makes winners of cities able attract and retain large numbers of well-educated creative class types.

Florida's biggest headline at IUPUI referred to a study he has concluded with the Gallup organization on factors contributing to urban economic development. This research finds that people cite the aesthetic character of a place as the most important factor in whether they decide to move or stay put. Florida hastened to add that the quality of air, water and the environment, as well as human elements like authentic architecture, contribute to aesthetic character. He said that aesthetics are a "stress mitigator." He also said that he is pounding away at chambers of commerce types, trying to get them to understand the importance of this.

Which brings us to the news that the leaders of Crown Hill Cemetery appear to be on the verge of selling 70 acres of woodlands along 42 nd St. to a developer for a "mixed-use" project involving upscale residences and retail. Crown Hill, a city treasure in its own right, apparently needs an infusion of cash. The amount it expects to make from this sale is approximately $5.2 million.

That seems like a reasonable amount of money, given the land's location near the heart of the city. It also seems amazing that the city administration has done virtually nothing to broker a public-private alliance to acquire the land for a park. This isn't just a patch of untended scrub. According to the Central Indiana Land Trust, the Crown Hill property contains 200 year-old trees and a mix of wild plants and flowers that are hard to find in any one place. It's a treasure that could become a tremendous public asset and, as per Richard Florida, enhance Indianapolis ' aesthetic scorecard.

So a city that has pledged to plant 100,000 trees in the next decade will start by cutting an old-growth woodland. This, I am sure, will be considered a win for our tax base. Someone might even call it an investment in the city's future.

But if you want to see what real investment in a city's aesthetic profile looks like, turn your gaze 150 miles north, to Chicago . Last week, the public sculpture entitled "Cloud Gate," that everyone there calls "the Bean" due to its voluptuous kidney shape, was dedicated in that city's Millennium Park. Since its original unveiling two years ago, the Bean has become a kind of exclamation point in a town known for its architecture and public art. It is already considered one of Chicago 's top tourist attractions.

The Bean's initial, privately-funded, budget was $9 million. To date, it has cost $23 million to complete and they are still trying to figure out how to keep it clean. So far everyone seems so smitten with the thing they're willing to grin and bear the cost. They find it beautiful, you see. In Indianapolis, that would be considered outrageous. In Chicago they call it getting what you pay for.