PCRD

The Geography of Buzz

Posted by Christine Nolan

Richard Florida’s theories about the importance of the “creative class” are getting some further exploration from a new study by planners and spatial analysts at Columbia University in New York city and the University of Southern California in LA.  The new study, called “The Geography of Buzz” mapped the density of a range of cultural events in Manhattan and LA for a period of one year using GIS technology, and came up with clusters of hot spots in fashion, art, film, theater, television and music.  The study is described by a recent article in the New York Times and you can read it here.

The article contains links to the downloadable study report *get it directly here), as well as maps of the centers of creative activity in each city.  It’s worth taking the time to have a quick look at some of the reader comments, too.

 

In Dire Straits……

Posted by Indraneel Kumar

Brookings Institution’s fellow Andrew Reamer makes a case for an efficient, accurate, and timely economic statistical system in USA. For lack of adequate funding, major economic statistical agencies are eliminating the data series, reducing the survey coverage, or cutting back on details and accuracy.

For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) no longer collects job information for 65 smaller metropolitan areas, which include metros in Indiana. The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) will no longer publish the metro and county estimates of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and earnings by detailed industries.

Anyone working in the field of economic development will agree how valuable the information on value added (Gross Regional Product) is by industries at a regional or county level. That is one way to know how much the industry is contributing to the regional and local economy. Given the current economic conditions, the benefits of accurate and up-to-date economic data to policy analysts and decision makers are manifold. The article provides few recommendations for the economic statistical system. Read more here.

Using Information to Drive Regional Workforce and Economic Strategies

Remember when Ross Perot pulled out those charts during the 1992 Presidential Debate? Later, everyone made fun of him. Here's a secret, I thought it was pretty cool. Maybe that was the first glimpse of my inner data geek. For those of us working in economic and community development, data and information, and the way it is presented, is a vitally important part of what we do. How do we communicate economic trends to decision makers? How do help inform a large group of stakeholders so that they can reach consensus about where a community, region, or state needs to go? Thoughtful analysis and effective presentation can help.

A few weeks ago, the U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration held a regional conference on Workforce Information Driving Regional Economies. Several workforce and economic development professionals (myself included) made presentations about how we use data and information to help us develop regional strategies. All of those presentations are now online and available here. If you want to get right to the Indiana stuff, my presentation, which focused on our Indiana WIRED initiative, is available here. Kathy Burns of the Tecumseh Area Partnership also presented. Her presentation is available here.