Richard Florida Does It Again

Posted by: Michelle Conlin on January 02

One of my all-time favorite working life books is Richard Florida’s 2002 bestseller The Rise of the Creative Class. Florida—he of the no collar workforce and Bohemian-Gay housing index fame (down, Stephen Colbert, down!)—is one of the smartest working life observers in the country. Over and over again, with great intellectual elegance, he sets it all up and then spins it forward.

So it is with great glee that I annouce the latest in Florida’s working life oeuvre, a new book due out from publisher Basic in March called Who’s Your City? If you think working remotely means where you live—your place—doesn’t matter anymore, Florida correctly shows us—with his trademark data and analysis—why you’re dead wrong. The books is a superb treatise on the location paradox: the idea that as the world becomes more mobile, the more decisive location becomes.

At first it seems paradoxical. Since we can work remotely, place should hardly matter, right? The world if flat. Distance is dead. But Florida shows how, in the hyper wireless world, place is exerting an even more powerful influence on happiness than ever before due to the power of agglomeration, the force of clustering and the growth of smart spots. Choosing one’s scene is becoming as important as choosing one’s spouse and career, Florida argues.

We learn why San Francisco is the best city for young singles; why Washington D.C. is the best place to raise kids; and why New York City is one of the top spots for retirees.

Something to look forward to!

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