Business Facilities - February 2008 - (Page 17)

though they are lifestyle meccas: They lack the required technology base. The most successful places— such as the San Francisco Bay Area, Boston, Washington, DC, Austin, and Seattle—put all three T’s together. They are truly creative places.” In 2007, the Creative Class Group, in partnership with The Knight Foundation, worked in five communities—Tacoma, WA; El Paso, TX; Tallahassee, FL; Duluth, MN; and Charlotte, NC—some of which have experienced dramatic losses of workers in their twenties and early thirties. In each city, organizers conducted two-day seminars with more than 30 community catalysts to create initiatives aimed at building sustainable regional prosperity in their communities. The seminars and initiatives were based around the three T’s, along with a fourth T, for territory assets, namely the built and natural qualities that make a community unique. Each community devised four or five initiatives, many of which have already come to fruition, according to Pedigo. El Paso, for example, came up with plans to implement free downtown Wi-Fi. Another of its initiatives is an art wall between downtown El Paso and neighboring Juarez, Mexico to demonstrate the bi-national relationship of the two regional economies. Tallahassee devised a plan for an annual International Film Festival, capitalizing on Florida State University’s (FSU) top film school, and a focus on green innovation, also a regional strength at FSU. The film festival, to be launched this spring, is designed to showcase the region’s film industry professionals and become a world-renowned destination event. Duluth’s “Pathways” program focuses on the region’s assets of recreation and biking, and creating nonmotorized transportation routes to connect the area’s unique urban and natural territorial assets. Another program, “Brain Gain,” is aimed at better retaining Duluth’s college students after graduation by creating community connections and opporEl Paso, TX tunities for students to engage beyond the university halls. Every initiative, Pedigo notes, has the underlying principle of marketing and raising awareness of the uniqueness of each community. “Economic development used to be about going out and attracting the company, and pulling together incentive packages to land the company there, and there is some of that still going on,” Pedigo says. “But that’s not where economic development is going in the future.” The new face of economic development is based around place, and those places that engender diversity and innovate, Florida says, are the ones that drive economic growth. ExUrban Ohio. The best of both worlds. For more information, contact the ExUrban Experts at 1-800-282-6962 or www.buckeyepower.com/natl BUCKEYE POWER PHOTO CREDIT: LYNN SCHIBECI, FLICKR.COM #2410 at www.BusinessFacilities.com BUSINESS FACILITIES 17 http://www.buckeyepower.com/natl http://www.buckeyepower.com/natl http://www.BusinessFacilities.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Business Facilities - February 2008

Business Facilites - February 2008 Contents First Word Snapshots Corporate Moves: Texas Capturing the Creative Class Green with Energy Automotive Opportunities in a Green Economy Corporate Moves: Wyoming Metro Spotlight: Overland Park, KS Metro Spotlight: Long Island, NY Get Ahead in Alabama Indiana: Sending Tech Messages How to Successfully Negotiate a Lease in Today's Real Estate Environment Legislation Spurring Innovation in Kentucky New Center will Propel Ontario's Automotive Future Virginia's Vital Signs Eating Well in the North of France Advertiser Index Ask the Expert

Business Facilities - February 2008

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