The June issue of Kiplinger's magazine, a personal finance publication, has published a list rating cities on quality of life for "every stage" of life.
The rating indexes were devised by Kevin Stolarick of Carnegie Mellon University and Richard Florida, author of the "Rise of the Creative Class." Mr. Florida is a professor at George Mason University and has lectured in Fort Wayne. The Kiplinger report, which may be viewed here, contains numerous sidebars, including an interview with Mr. Florida.
There will be no surprises when Fort Wayne residents examine the scores our fair city receives in this rating. The conclusion one might draw about Fort Wayne if one relied on Mssrs. Stolarick and Florida's index? That it's average.
From the Kiplinger story:
But first, the common themes. The metro areas were all chosen because they have a strong creative class, including scientists, engineers, architects, educators, writers, artists and entertainers. Richard Florida, a professor of public policy at George Mason University and author of The Rise of the Creative Class, has written that such people inject vitality into a city and make it a vibrant place to live.
Other common criteria include job growth, per-capita income growth and measures of innovation, such as patents per capita. Key considerations are tolerance and diversity -- great indicators that outsiders are welcome.
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A city's affordability was another critical factor. To score high for retirees, for example, a place must have relatively low health-care costs. For mid-level professionals, housing affordability is important, and for families and empty-nesters, the overall cost of living counts (100 is average).
The bohemian indicator shows the concentration of writers, designers, musicians, actors and other arts-related personnel, and is a comparative measure of an area's diversity and cultural amenities (100 represents the national average in our index, so a higher or lower indicator shows a higher/lower concentration). Finally, metro areas of varying sizes are recommended for each life stage.
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All cities were judged of the strength of their "3T's." These are technology, talent and tolerance. This boils down to presence of high-tech workers and businesses, the talent level of the workforce and the tolerance for all types of people. A fourth factor included here is economic growth.
Other business publications have featured city ratings based on Mssrs. Stolarick and Florida in past years. For example, Forbes published city rankings based on their methodology in 2005. While Mr. Florida has been criticized by other academics regarding the predictive value of his economic models, these rankings are always useful for provoking discussion and reflection.
Enhancing northeastern Indiana's ability to retain and attract highly educated and skilled workers is key to this region's future.
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