Wooing the cool – It’s a theory: Cities with creative climates have healthier futures

Native American and 17 years old, Zach Pullin can’t wait to get out of Spokane.

"It’s all one culture and doesn’t have a lot of diversity," explained Pullin, who is the student government vice president at Mead High School and plans to attend Western Washington University.

By Carla K. Johnson / Staff writer

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=122803&ID=s1462826&cat=section.business

How to persuade Zach — and other creative young leaders — to stay in Spokane’s talent pool, or at least return after college, is the question.

A bohemian rhapsody is the answer.

That boho mojo — creativity, tolerance and the elusive quality of cool — are the weird new goals of economic development experts. The new theory is catching on here as a way to stop the brain drain and get kids like Pullin to come back.

Fueled by author Richard Florida’s 2002 book "The Rise of the Creative Class," the theory contends that cities known for nurturing creativity have healthier futures.

Creative, tolerant, hip cities have a fighting chance to keep Pullin and to lure, for example, a Filipino doctor whose special skills are in short supply, a gay man deciding where to start a new software design company, and college-educated young people who want to hear live music at night.

A thriving pool of creative workers, in turn, will bring jobs. And they won’t be call center jobs.

The theory has its own manifesto, written in Memphis last spring at a summit that drew representatives from 47 cities.

The first of 10 principles in the Memphis Manifesto reads:

"Cultivate and reward creativity. Everyone is part of the value chain of creativity. Creativity can happen at anytime, anywhere, and it’s happening in your community right now. Pay attention."

The other nine principles can be found at http://www.memphismanifesto.com.

Creative Class guru Florida spoke here in September, and some people are still talking about his ideas, turning them into arguments for what they want to do or are already doing. Whether the talk will remain talk or, instead, inspire a movement remains to be seen.

Cities such as Cincinnati, Tampa, Fla., and St. Louis are already competing for a smaller pool of young college graduates.

Spokane is catching up.

In Spokane, those people touting the Creative Class theory include folks with a lot riding on downtown Spokane’s growing sense of cool.

"The idea of attracting the creative class lends itself very well with the notion of a cool urban downtown," said Michael Edwards, president of the Downtown Spokane Partnership.

Downtown doesn’t directly benefit from development that lures "big box" stores to outlying malls, Edwards said. But a development theory emphasizing jazz clubs, wine bars and art galleries, well, that’s more like it.

Developments already on the cool track, he said, include the Big Easy, a 1,500-seat concert venue under construction at Sprague and Monroe; the new low-power radio station KYRS; CenterStage, a dinner theater and jazz supper club at 1017 W. First; and a local music festival, a still-unrealized idea that downtown leaders have been kicking around.

"There’s a creative energy that wants to break out. Instead of us as a community stifling that, why don’t we nurture and celebrate that and really push it forward?" Edwards said.

The idea behind the local music festival, Edwards said, is: "You don’t have to go to Seattle to hear good local music." He added: "Our knee-jerk reaction is: It’s better over there."

One thing Seattle has that Spokane lacks is an identifiable gay district — a trait cited in the Creative Class theory as highly desirable. Seattle has Capitol Hill. Spokane has a virtual Capitol Hill in the Inland Northwest Business Alliance’s annual directory. That’s where Edwards went when he was looking for Spokane’s gay community.

The directory attracted 75 advertisers last year, said Marvin Reguindin, a business alliance board member. Reguindin, a 46-year-old gay man, runs his own graphic design and advertising agency, Thinking Cap Communications and Design, in Spokane.

Reguindin has been talking about the Creative Class theory, and "as I talk about it, all I see are heads shaking: `Of course, that makes sense."’

"If there’s an open gay community, that means that the community is more accepting," he said. "That helps other people who fit outside the norm, people who may be nerdy or geeky, the scientists or the engineers."

The Creative Class theory is a lever for change for a group lobbying the city of Spokane for employment benefits to the domestic partners of gay and lesbian workers. The Spokane City Council tabled the idea earlier this month.

"We are discouraged, but we fully plan to bring the issue back before the new council," said Brad Read, chairman of Spokane’s Human Rights Commission. "We actually think the chances are better this time."

Already, more than 40 businesses in the region — from Alaska Air to Costco to REI to Washington Mutual — offer domestic partner benefits, Read said.

If the city agrees to offer domestic partner benefits, too, Read said, "not only will it fall in line with virtually every other major employer in the region, it will signal to the state, the region, the country that Spokane is a welcoming, tolerant place."

Tolerance is also important to many of the doctors whom Evelyn Torkelson recruits for Deaconess Medical Center. Sometimes the doctor being recruited is East Indian, Filipino or African American and has questions about demographics.

"They want to have a clear understanding of diversity in Spokane," she said. "That can become a very important issue as they weigh everything else."

Torkelson tells doctors the statistics if they ask: Spokane County is 91percent white and only 4percent foreign-born. What works better is to link them up with AHANA (the African-American, Hispanic, Asian, Native American Business and Professional Association) or with another minority doctor.

Over the years, Torkelson has seen doctors she recruits become more concerned about leisure activities available in Spokane: They ask about the symphony, the theater and recreation such as skiing and kayaking.

"More and more physicians will work very hard, but they want to have personal time to enjoy where they live," she said.

Ironically, it was the region’s reputation as a great place to raise kids — not its diversity or coolness — that lured the CEO of Neo Tech Solutions Inc. and his wife, a doctor, to the Tri-Cities and Spokane.

Last year, Krishna Reddy and Dr. Radhika Rampa, born in India, gladly traded New York’s diversity for a less hectic place to raise their children, ages 7 and 4. They want their son and daughter to learn to speak their native languages of Hindi and Telugu, so have connected with other Indian families in the Tri-Cities.

While his wife works as an anesthesiologist at Kennewick General Hospital, Krishna Reddy is exploring the possibility of expanding his software development consulting firm from New York City to Spokane.

"Diversity is very important in Spokane," Reddy said. But he added: "We were looking for someplace to raise the kids."

•Carla Johnson can be reached at (509) 459-5148 or by e-mail at [email protected].