Arlington's Creative Community
Cover to Mr. Florida's best-selling book
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As counties and cities compete to build the best communities to live and work, economic development experts look for new ways to understand how some cities and counties excel far beyond others. According to economist, researcher and author Richard Florida, the answer may lie in our ability to build a “creative community” – one in which talented and creative people want to live, work and play. Florida’s book, “The Rise of the Creative Class” theorizes that communities with a high degree of the “3 T’s”: technology, talent and tolerance, attract young, educated and creative people that contribute directly to economic growth.
The news is good for the region: the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area was ranked by Florida first among metros of one million or more in the percentage of creative class population, and eight on his Creativity Index.
But what does it mean for Arlington? Based on eight measures selected to reflect the attributes of Florida’s creative class, Arlington Economic Development undertook a study to determine how Arlington stacked up against the rest of the region. AED found that Arlington is a creative class community by any measure, topping the chart within the Washington D.C. metropolitan area on four of the eight studied measures and ranking second on three more.
The creative community status of Arlington results from the values and mission of the community itself, and a focus on community building has served Arlington well in creating a place where people want to both live and work. To learn more about the theories behind Florida’s creative communities, and for a detailed analysis of Arlington’s place within the Washington, D.C. region, click here. (PDF document; 1.9 mb - Adobe Reader required).
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