Creativity and industrial cities: A case study of Baltimore

Abstract

Creativity is changing the way in which cities approach economic development and formulate policy. Creative metropolises base their economic development strategies, at least partly, on building communities attractive to the creative class worker. While there are countless examples of high-tech regions transforming into creative economies, traditionally industrial cities have received much less attention in this regard. This research draws on Baltimore to assess the potential of transforming a traditionally industrial region into a creative economy. It analyses Baltimore's performance on dimensions of talent, tolerance, technology, and territory both as a stand-alone metropolitan area and in comparison to similar industrial metropolises. This case study concludes that Baltimore has the opportunity to capitalize on the creative economy because of its openness to diversity, established technology base, appealing territorial amenities, and access to the largest reservoir of creative talent in the USA: Washington, DC.

Keywords:

• creativity
• creative class
• creativity index
• creative cities
• talent
• technology
• tolerance
• territory
• bohemian index
• gay index
• Baltimore
• economic growth
• entrepreneurship

Acknowledgements

The authors extend their special thanks to Richard Florida, of The University of Toronto, for his intellectual contributions and engagement over the span of several discussions and to Kevin Stolarick, of The University of Toronto, for providing research data on various creativity measures. Additionally, our gratitude is offered to Wim Wiewel, Provost at the University of Baltimore, for his support and funding. We also thank Annabel Acs, undergraduate student at Boston University, for her input as Research Assistant.