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          Front Page  opinion

Sunday, September 29, 2002

Lively Music Part of Mosaic for a Prosperous City

By David Alire Garcia
Of the Journal
    El Rey Theater at Central and Seventh SW Downtown greets everyone passing by with a sly political announcement: "Now Entering The Quiet Zone."
    It's a definite improvement over an earlier, harsher version: "If the Music Is Too Loud ... Move."
    El Rey's marquee is a sign of creative opposition to the proposed elimination of Downtown's special exemption to the city's noise ordinance. A bill that would place Downtown under the same noise control rules that apply to the rest of the city is widely expected to pass.
    Yet, El Rey's live music, like that of other venues nearby, provides "the kind of noise you associate with a city's energy, the kind of noise that drowns out lethargy" as columnist Jim Belshaw nicely put it last month.
    One person's energy is another's nuisance. And so, after a grace period sponsored by City Councilor Eric Griego in January, the same Griego now responds to his residential constituents' complaints by deeming that experiment a failure. It's his bill, and change of heart, that now threaten to usher in that "quiet zone."
    One prominent critic of Downtown noise, part of a family with century-old ties to a nearby neighborhood, recently wrote on these pages of "quality of life and right to quiet repose," and that, horror of creeping horrors, "one or two nights a week would find music in the night air rather than the sounds of the peacocks and lions at the zoo."
    Responding to such concerns, Griego is certainly a good representative, but is he — and the lopsided majority that will likely vote with him — a bit shortsighted, too?
    Richard Florida would probably say so. He's the author of "The Rise of the Creative Class," a new book with a fascinating new theory of economic development. The book really offers a larger theory of why some cities prosper and others don't.
    Florida argues that instead of falling over themselves to lure big employers or call centers with lavish tax breaks and taxpayer-funded sports stadiums, cities instead should be aggressively promoting the arts, quaint historic districts, outdoor recreation, and yes, a lively music scene. He marshals an impressive array of focus group data, surveys and statistical analysis to make the case that it is creative workers who drive our economy and this is what they really crave.
    Nationwide, Florida defines the creative class to be 38 million strong, including people in science and engineering, design, education, arts and entertainment, as distinct from working class or service class workers, who are mostly paid to follow well-structured plans or rules. While Florida notes that there are still more service workers in the United States, creative workers are dominant, as measured by income. That's because our economy is much more rewarding to those who drive innovation.
    For a city to prosper, Florida emphasizes the need for a strong technology base — research universities and a national labs fit the bill — as well as amenities that can attract and retain talent.
    Perhaps most provocatively, diversity is at the top of the list of what creative workers want.
    "You need to be tolerant of diversity so that you can attract all sorts of people — foreign-born people, immigrants, women as well as men, gays as well as straights, people who look different and have different appearances," Florida said in a recent interview with Salon.com.
    Part economist, part sociologist, part futurist guru, Florida challenges the notion that firm location drives economic development. Today's seemingly dominant rationale that income tax cuts are what's needed to attract top executives to a place like New Mexico — after all, everyone wants to pay lower taxes and these folks bring jobs — falls flat in light of Florida's analysis.
    "What's happening is that cities can no longer offer just one bundle of amenities. They have to offer lifestyle options for the young single, the young gay, the early married, the married with children, the divorced mother with three kids."
    Florida writes, "In virtually every industry, from automobiles to fashion, food products, and information technology itself, the winners in the long run are those who can keep creating." This is because consumers can so easily switch to a better deal today, and the pressure on producers to create better things is more intense than it's ever been. Florida's contribution is that he picks apart what motivates creative people to select where they want to work.
    "Creativity also requires a social and economic environment that can nurture its many forms," he writes. Increasingly, winning cities are fun places in which to live.
    "Cities have become cities of ideas and cities of consumption. They are no longer cities of production," Florida told Salon. As a result, well-planned neighborhoods, great cafes and night life are keys to winning.
    Will Albuquerque be a winner? It already rates high on high-tech, creative and so-called bohemian indices.
    I imagine the owners of El Rey don't spend a whole lot of time considering such things. They're busy fighting a restrictive noise ordinance — and planning for next Saturday's concert by Boukman Eksperyans, a world beat band from Haiti.
    But I bet a lot of creative types will check out that show.
   

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    Write to P.O. Drawer J, Albuquerque, NM 87103. E-Mail: daliregarcia@abqjournal.com