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<br><div><div>On 3-Sep-09, at 4:06 AM, Adam Arvidsson wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="State"> <o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"> <!--[if !mso]> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--> <div class="Section1"> <div><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: -1; ">Even Richard Florida, whose theories of the 'creative class' stood at the heart of the gentrification-driven real estate boom that preceded the present crisis now proclaims that '[t]<i><span style="font-style:italic">he housing bubble was the ultimate expression, and perhaps the last gasp, of an economic system some 80 years in the making, and now well past its "sell-by date</span></i>" (<st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Florida</st1:place></st1:state>, 2009:9). </span></p></div></div></o:smarttagtype></o:smarttagtype></blockquote><br></div><div>Good lord. That is about as profound a misreading of Florida's ideas and their impact as I can imagine. The recent real estate boom/bubble/bust was NOT gentrification-driven (!) and in any event Florida's ideas had absolutely nothing to do with it. Moreover, while Richard Florida's theories of the creative class are certainly tied to urban redevelopment, they explicitly address the negative consequences of gentrification and insist instead on new intervention strategies that eliminate the displacement of local communities even as they build local wealth. </div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>--</div><div>John Sobol</div><div><br></div></body></html>