The real estate section of this month’s “Money” magazine carries a feature on “What Makes a Place Hot.” Florida was mentioned prominently.
Richard Florida, that is. He’s the popular author of “The Rise of the Creative Class” and a well-referenced guru to CreativeTampaBay.
Alas, Tampa didn’t make any of the top rankings, including America’s “Up & coming cities” (between 250,000 and 499,999 population) that will be attracting more than their share of creative sorts 10 years from now. The top five were: Saginaw, Mich.; Brockton, Mass.; Salem, Ore.; Charleston, W.Va.; and Madison, Wisc. Saginaw?
In fact, the state of Florida was limited to a lone, drive-by reference to Orlando as an “affordable place” that has appeal to “financial and tech companies.”
Moreover, states “Money,” Dr. Florida also believes that “the most attractive places in the next generation of cities may be Canadian — Toronto and Calgary. Calgary? Ouch.
Elsewhere in the real estate section, however, there was a spread on “Best Places To Live On The Coast.” Mentioned under Gulf of Mexico were Pass Christian, Miss., Rockport, Texas and Dunedin. Rationales for the latter included “a Main Street reminiscent of Mayberry,” proximity to the Pinellas Trail and Honeymoon Island State Park and a “beautiful waterfront” with “far fewer tourist traps” than nearby Clearwater.