Thursday, September 12, 2013

Portland 2.0: Weaving Myths of Urban Nationalism

Producer city Portland versus consumer city Portland at Pacific Standard magazine.

Theme: Fall of the Creative Class.

Subject Article: "Fast Company's Founding Editor On How Portland Can Become Great: At TechfestNW, Alan Webber asks: How do you overthrow a successful city?"

Other Links: 1. "TechFestNW."
2. "Regional Competitiveness and Quality of Life: The Case of Portland and Stuttgart."
3. "Field Of Dreams Portland."
4. "Rust Belt of Silicon Valley: San Jose Is Dying."
5. "Beyond the High Street: Why our city centres really matter."
6. "Portlandia – Put A Bird On It."

Postscript: Of late, I've noticed the urban amenities model of economic development taking a lot of hits. As a way to understand the tension between the consumer and producer city, I'm following the debate about a streetcar proposal in San Antonio. The streetcar is representative of the consumer city. It's a cool amenity that makes the urban core more attractive to residents and consumers. College graduates wouldn't leave a place with a streetcar, would they? In theory, a streetcar could also serve a producer city. But such projects aren't usually framed that way. Put a bird on the boondoggle.

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