Richard Florida, the urban studies prof, writer and author of "The Rise of the Creative Class," has turned his analytical tools and eye toward Metro Detroit.
In a long and highly detailed story -- with big maps -- Florida details the metro area's class structure.
Highlights include:
- The creative class includes the high-skill, high-human capital people who work in science and technology, business and management, arts, culture, media, and entertainment, law, and the healthcare professions. About 34.5 percent of the metro's workers belong to the creative class, a bit above the national average of 32.6 percent. Creative class workers average $73,097 per year in wages and salaries, also above the national average of $70,890. Of all the metros covered in this series, Detroit has the second lowest share of census tracts, just 14 percent, where 50 percent or more of residents are members of the creative class.
- Detroit's creative class is located along the lakeshore in the city . . . in a narrow strip that runs north along Jefferson Avenue from downtown through historic Indian Village towards Grosse Pointe. Home to Wayne State University and major arts and cultural institutions, rapidly revitalizing Midtown has also drawn a growing creative class population.
- In shocking testimony to how thoroughly the metro has deindustrialized, blue-collar workers make up more than half of all residents in less than one (0.4) percent of the metro's Census tracts. This compares to two percent in Los Angeles, four percent in Dallas, and five percent each in Houston and Boston. Maynard cites research by Kevin Boyle at Ohio State University, which charts the dramatic decline of Detroit manufacturing. "In 1950, Detroit had a population of nearly 2 million, and 200,000 manufacturing jobs within the city limits," she notes. "Now, the population has dropped to below 750,000 and there are only 20,000 manufacturing jobs left."
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