A working class crisis
Are cities with "knowledge economies" experiencing fewer foreclosures? Ignoring most scientific rules, I compared a recent list of cities with the highest foreclosure rates to the list of cities in Richard Florida's 2002 book, The Rise of the Creative Class.
The result: Of the 25 cities with the highest concentrations of "creative class" workers, only one also ranks among the Top 25 in foreclosure rate. In other words, cities with knowledge economies -- such as Boston -- seem to be riding out this storm more easily.
The foreclosure data, aggregated by RealtyTrac, lists metro areas by the percentage of households enmeshed in foreclosure. The top 10 cities on the foreclosure list (and in paranthesis, their rank on Richard Florida's list of creative cities):
1. Detroit, MI (Richard Florida's rank: 42)
2. Stockton, CA (200)
3. Las Vegas (257)
4. Riverside, CA (46)
5. Sacramento (40)
6. Cleveland (71)
7. Bakersfield (115)
8. Miami (99)
9. Denver (17)
10. Fort Lauderdale (99)*
*Richard Florida's list groups Fort Lauderdale and Miami in the same metro area.
Richard Florida grouped workers in three categories: creative class, working class and service class. The creative class basically includes people who think for a living. He then ranked cities by the share of all employees who are in the creative class. Richard Florida included very small cities on his list; RealtyTrac only looks at the 100 largest cities. So this is a modified list of his highest-ranked large cities (and in parenthesis, their rank on the RealtyTrac list):
1. Washington (41)
2. Raleigh-Durham (53)
3. Boston (69)
4. Austin, TX (58)
5. San Francisco (80)
6. Minneapolis (60)
7. Hartford (65)
8. Albany, NY (94)
9. Denver (9)
10. Seattle (81)
Think about it.
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