(Community Matters) Richard Florida in his new book, Who’s Your City:
America’s psychogeography lines up reasonably well with its economic geography. Greater Chicago is a center for extroverts and also a leading center for sales professionals. The Midwest, long a center for the manufacturing industry, has a prevalence of conscientious types who work well in a structured, rule-driven
environment. The South, and particularly the I-75 corridor, where so much Japanese and German car manufacturing is located, is dominated by agreeable and conscientious types who are both dutiful and work well in teams.
The Northeast corridor, including Greater Boston, as well as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Austin, are home to concentrations of open-to-experience types who are drawn to creative endeavor, innovation, and entrepreneurial start-up companies. While it is hard to identify which came first – was it an initial concentration of personality types that drew industry, or the industry which attracted the personalities? – the overlay is clear.
Understanding regional personality types can add to our understanding of what makes regional development tick. Economists argue that technology (in the form of great universities and high-tech company clusters) and human capital (talented people) drive economic growth. But psychologists would add that in addition to skills, talent, motivation, and resources, there are personality traits and psychological capital that predispose people toward certain talents and proclivities.
Article here
Richard’s the author of two bestsellers, The Rise of the Creative Class and The Flight of the Creative Class. Steven and I got to know Richard during the 360 Summits. In fact, one of Steven’s monologues is included in The Rise of the Creative Class. Richard and his wife, Rana, now live in Washington, D.C.
Hat Tip: Andrew
Community Matters 
I’m pretty skeptical of Richard Florida’s theories, and “psychogeography” in general. Are people really so different in different places? “The Northeast corridor, including Greater Boston, as well as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle,” Isn’t that about one-third the US population? How can you make generalizations about such a large group?Civic boosters like Kirk Watson love to quote Florida. His theories are flattering to those of us in the “creative cities” but there’s much more to economic development than having some “open” and “creative” people. It seems that some economic development authorities in declining cities cling to Florida’s theories and figure they can revitalize areas by importing creative people – which comes off as a sad, pathetic attempt to be like the cool kids in school.Anyhow, I’m not sure that Austin’s success is due so much to creativity and innovation. I mean, I love Austin, but it seems that the core of the local economy is stable mainstays like the state government and large manufacturing companies (AMD, Freescale, IBM, 3M, Dell). Even Dell, our greatest local entrepreneurial success story, by all accounts has a plodding, production-oriented culture. Dell is not known for being innovative. There’s nothing wrong with that at all, but we should recognize that Dell is a manufacturing company and has more in common with General Motors than with Channel or Warner Brothers or Ogilvy and Mather.