Wendell Cox provoked a bit of a predictable tempest with his recent piece on migration, "The Decade of the South." I suspect Cox relishes his role as provocateur-in-chief. So I'll let him provoke me into summarizing some of the thoughts I've had on migration. There's a school of thought at that net domestic migration is the primary statistic of urban health. I believe I've even said something of the sort myself. In this logic, people are "voting with their feet" about which cities and states are implementing the best policies. Of course, … [Read more...]
Archives for July 2011
Do Cities Need a Creative Director?
Cities that suffer from various brand stigmas or problems often want to give themselves an image makeover. Even cities that are doing well can fret about how their brand is faring versus the global competition. This had led some cities to ask whether or not they need to appoint a creative director, as in the private sector. For example, see this article about Birmingham, UK. Tyler Brûlé, whom I mentioned yesterday, listed appointing a creative director as one of the five things he would do as mayor of a city. As he put it, "All strong brands … [Read more...]