By Troy Body

www.troybody.com

It began with a book:  The Rise of the Creative Class by Dr. Richard Florida. The professor took his sermon on the road and gathered disciples across the globe. He became rich and the masses became rich in hope.

The book served to validate the many that have toiled for years in the shadows: artists, art administrators, preservationists, diversity specialists and hipsters galore. All believed that if their community followed his commandments, then theirs would surely become the promiseland.

But let’s back up.  What is the promiseland?

Some of you will say that it is a new form of economic development. New industry. A new way of thinking and doing business. A break from the old guard to the new young and hip. The celebration of the city and a move away from the suburbs.

What it really is – is a political manifesto; an argument for government to invest in one area and less so in another. And, there is nothing wrong with that, if you are honest about it.

(Full disclosure: As the former Commissioner of the W.Va Division of Culture and History, I drank a big gulp of the Florida Kool-aid.)

But here is the problem: The gravamen of the book is that government is the key. His entire tenet is government investment. And those that follow his prescription believe if the city council, the governor’s office and the U.S. Congress would simply move towards the light and stop spending money on foolish things like – to quote the former Mayor of Winnipeg – “pipes, pavement and policing.” (FYI…that Mayor reigned over the city with Canada’s highest murder rate) and start investing heavily in the arts and technology, then all will be right with the world.

There is some truth to it. But, if the followers of Florida believe a shift in government policy is going to bring a shift in their city’s coolness factor, then they are sadly mistaken.

Outside of nature (and some even question that) everything is driven by people.  And, since cities are a creation of man, only cool people can make a cool city. Either the town you live in is populated with cool people or it is not. Traveling to San Francisco, Portland, or, even, Asheville, North Carolina, and getting excited about the cool things happening there, is not enough to come back to your town and begin the conversation.

You can converse until the next comet shoots across the sky in your city, but that isn’t going to make it cool. And, again, I am talking Professor Florida’s dubious definition of cool.  Mr. Florida, like the New York Time’s Thomas Friedman, can make up a chart or graph or index and fill it with the puffiest statistics you have ever seen, in a New York minute (no pun intended.) No science whatsoever in his concoction. And people drank it up – I am, myself, a recovering Florida-aholic . (Writing this post is step 8 in my 12 step program.)

Cool communities are cool not because of amenities, but because the people who live in them have made them into their image – their ideal. Then, the silent locutions of contentment become audible for the whole world to hear.  If you go to a town – any town – where the people are amazingly in love with their space, it becomes infectious. On the flip side of that, if you go to a town where the media and residents are trashing said city, you no doubt will begin to trash it too.

No one wants to think of themselves as happily living in an uncool place. Therefore, they start investing in questionable projects that will have limited impact. Which is why all these “cool” cities initiatives are doomed from the beginning. The state of Iowa moved millions of dollars from its tight budget into initiatives to make Iowa hipper.

Note to Iowa: Millions of acres of grain and corn are hip. Feeding this nation and large parts of the world is pretty damn cool.  As for the young people moving from the farmlands to the big city, that has been happening since the first city was created.

If you want to make your city cool, take stock of the good things your town possesses: people, product and place. Then, set about an action plan with government way in the background and as only one slice of the pie (the other slices should include faith based entities, non-profits, education organizations and the largest slice with the private industry.) The plan should be very simple: How do we hold on to what is good in our society and then expand it?

What is cool in your city? Identify it and build upon it. Stop trashing your town and belittling your space and then wondering why the young people leave the place after 18 years of consuming all that negativity. Also, accept your town as it is. If you live in a small town, then make it the best small town in the nation. Don’t worry about growing the population and bringing in new people. Grow the businesses you have and keep the people you’ve got.

I said at the beginning of this article, you either have cool people or you don’t. Most cities do. But, like everything else, cool comes together. A cool town is a confident town; a town that knows its heritage, it resources and its destination. From New York to Williamsburg, Virginia (both cool.) From Seattle to Raleigh, N.C. (both cool.) From Chicago to Paducah, KY. (both cool.) From Austin, TX to Berkeley Springs, W.Va (cool too.)

Why? – these people know who they are and what they are about. They are not trying to mimic another place; they are trying to be the best that they are. And you know what? – that’s really cool.