Mega Regions of Mexico for the Creative Class

Some readers might be familiar with the urban theorist, Richard Florida whom I've made reference to as of late. In urban planning circles, Richard Florida has been in vogue over recent years due to his often touted "gay index" which argues that there is a clear correlation between the cities with the highest number of gay people and the cities with the greatest innovation in the new economy (which has recently become the old economy). He has indicated that these cities attract what is called the "Creative Class". The creative class being young, mobile, and educated people searching for areas with high quality of life, opportunity and excitement. Mr Florida has travelled the world giving lectures on his ideas and theories, many of these ideas breaking beyond the world of urban planning and into the mainstream media.

While the latest global economic crisis has changed the playing field a bit by putting a dent into the types of opportunities available to these creative class people, Mr. Florida argues this dynamic will not disappear and people will still be attracted to certain urban regions that afford a higher quality of life that other less developed regions cannot. So while the creative class and a growing economy lie dormant it will most assuredly rise again sometime in the near future.

In Mr. Florida's latest writings he makes reference to the urban areas which will be the incubators of the next evolution of the world economy. He references these areas as "Mega Regions".

At his website "whoisyourcity.com" he lists graphically the mega regions of the world and argues that the people of the creative class should relocate to these mega regions if they want to be at the center of the action in cities that move nations forward and provide the greatest opportunities.

I agree with his assessment. If you want to get hit with opportunity it's best to move into the target zone. Where I disagree is in what Richard Florida left out of the map.In the map above you will notice only one mega region listed in Mexico (Mexico City, Puebla, and Toluca) which qualifies as a place for the creative class to locate. While I applaud him for including Mexico on this map; Many urban theorists from the United States wouldn't; It's with all due respect that I would guess that Mr. Florida doesn't know that much about Mexico and that's why the other mega regions of the country missed the cut. In my opinion the following mega regions should have been included.

1. Monterrey - Saltillo - Reynosa - McAllen, Texas
This region is the third most populous region in the country but it holds the bulk of industrial monies. Monterrey has a young and educated populace which strives to move ahead. It is also a design center and a major tourist attraction. Monterrey has a subway system, well developed rail and freeways, and the wealthiest communities in Latin America. It is also the place where the bulk of American manufacturing companies have moved their Mexican corporate headquarters and manufacturing centers. Monterrey is where the majority of regional economic investment is centered but what benefits Monterrey benefits nearby Saltillo......and to an extent Reynosa and McAllen, Texas which could also be lumped into this mega region.

2. Guadalajara - Puerto Vallarta
It almost goes without saying that Guadalajara is an industrial powerhouse as well as a center for commerce, design and culture. The second largest city in Mexico, it has world class museums, amazing restaurants, a diverse and cosmopolitan culture, a historic town center, a subway system and is highly walkable. You can't talk about Guadalajara without talking about Puerto Vallarta.

I include Puerto Vallarta here for several reasons. Vallarta is an up and coming locale which is tightly linked to Guadalajara. It is the closest beach resort to Guadalajara with direct highway linkages between the two cities. It is a tourist destination for national and international tourists alike and finally because of the gay index in which Richard Florida has written so much about.

While Guadalajara has an established an highly visible gay community, Puerto Vallarta is gaining a reputation as a world wide gay destination. Vallarta has always been welcoming towards gay tourism and many gay people from across Mexico have moved to town, opening up businesses and tourist attractions. Now there is a second wave taking place in Vallarta as gay people from the United States move to town to retire or to set up gay friendly businesses. The more tolerant the town the more inviting it is to the creative class. The two cities are symbiotically tied therefore I have lumped the two cities together as a mega region.

3. Tijuana - Ensenada
While I'm not sure if Mr. Florida had already included Tijuana as part of the Southern California mega region he should have. While often maligned as the crime ridden and chaotic cousin to San Diego it is a dynamic region that has seen explosive economic growth.

The fifth largest city in Mexico, Tijuana has the busiest border crossing in the world and an immense concentration of industry. But often overlooked is the large population of educated young people who are often deeply steeped in both the cultures of the United States and Mexico and well versed in both English and Spanish. Add to this mix a diverse collection of cultures and the incredible art scene that has been exploding into bloom in recent years, a direct result of being in the center of the juxtaposition of such radically different worlds between California and Mexico.

The Nortec electronic music scene was born here. Art is everywhere and its gaining worldwide attention.Tijuana is chaotic but it is often that chaos that breeds creativity....especially when it is beside a rigidly ordered place like California. Whether it be the Insite Tijuana program or the crosses and coffin installations at the border wall, creativity is growing and this makes Tijuana and Ensenada a mega region to watch.

Urban Policy: Transitions in the United States and Mexico

This morning I read an article that referenced Richard Florida. It's not the first time that I have seen the work of this Urban Theorist referenced; It happens quite often. I find much of his work to be of great interest. It seems that in light of the recent economic turmoil he is changing his approach to the dynamics of cities and their future. Rather than pitch for cities to attract the "creative class", he suggests that some cities will live and some cities will die and we are right as a society to allow this to happen and "Let the cards fall where there may", allowing systems to reorganize so as to build a new economy. To a degree I believe that he is right. So much damage has been done to the communities of the United States in particular that policy needs to favor the strongest locales (primary and secondary cities) and less for the tertiary cities. This shift in thinking will be a difficult transition but it will be necessary if we are to come through this economic crisis intact.

Mexico has already had policies in place for years that are federalist in nature which aims the bulk of their assistance towards the larger cities. Where Mexican policy has failed is that it has often completely neglected the rural areas in its policy making. Even more neglected have been rural and less developed areas that are more culturally Indian than Latin, though the Mexican government has made great strides in reaching these areas with increased social services and infrastructure development there is still a great divide between rural and urban, rich and poor. Corruption at all levels has also payed a huge role in magnifying these problems. Much of this neglect has translated into a great outflow migration to urban areas of Mexico and to the United States which in turn acted as a pressure release valve on forcing the government to make much needed changes in policy. The flip side of this of course is that migrants sent back huge sums of cash back to the rural areas which helped improve living situations when the federal government could not.

Mexico is just coming through this transition and it has been difficult indeed. Complicated by many levels of institutionalized corruption and a volatile drug war that is the direct result of being centered geographically between the drug supply in the south and the demand of consumption in the north, Mexico is finally turning the corner. Fewer people are migrating into the United Sates from Mexico. Surely the economic crisis has impacted this. The truth of the matter is that it makes more economic sense to stay in Mexico than to migrate north. The test will be to see if Mexico continues to move in a positive direction as it battles the worldwide economic downturn. As Mexico moves forward it will be the urban centers that lead the way.

Will the transitions of the United States be as harsh? It all depends on how we approach the looming challenges ahead. While Mexico's approach was harsh, the United States' approach will hopefully be less so. We can predict some outcomes of the situation and other outcomes we cannot. Regardless of how things turn out, government won't be able to solve all our problems. In many cases we are on our own. Some tertiary cities will survive, even thrive, because of their own actions and approaches to the difficult challenges ahead.......but many more will not. The reality is that because of our neglect as a nation, a transition is coming.......whether we choose it or not.

Urban Vocabulary: New words, new concepts, and new definitions.

Badburb
A post-war suburban neighborhood that has become blighted and sometimes dangerous.
Example: "It was a really beautiful master planned community back in the 70's but it is totally a badburb now."

Ghettosprawl
Vast areas of post-war suburban development that are non sustainable, blighted and sometimes dangerous. The ghettosprawl tends to compound poverty due to car dependent development patterns.
Example: "During the 50's and 60's the north part of the city was poorly planned and over built now it's just all ghettosprawl."

Plug and Play Development
A new type of development pattern where a fully contained and master planed mixed use development is “plugged” into the existing landscape. This type of development is more common in places such as Dubai, China, and Southeast Asia. While less common in the Americas, United States examples include City Center in Las Vegas and Santana Row in San Jose, California.

Stimulus is last chance for U.S. cities

By John Fetterman, Special to CNN
January 27, 2010

Braddock, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- In 2001, I came to Braddock, the poorest town in Western Pennsylvania, to serve the community's severely disenfranchised young people by starting an employment and GED program. Their lives were the embodiment of what happened to Braddock and this region: chaos through abandonment.

However, tough times and severe hardship are nothing new. It's been this way for decades.

Once one of the most important steel manufacturing centers in the world, Braddock -- what's left of it -- solemnly affirms one of the great economic maxims of our society: socialism for the rich, and capitalism for the poor.

Since the massive banking bailout of 2008, I have often wondered what Braddock would be today, if 35 years ago, the U.S. government also channeled hundreds of billions of dollars (and trillions in guarantees) to save the steel industry, the hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs it produced and the families it sustained.

Instead, places like Braddock were allowed to descend into decades of disorder, poverty and desertion. Braddock went from a prosperous community of 20,000 residents, to a shattered town of fewer than 3,000 today. Braddock looks every bit the deserted battlefield it truly is: 90 percent of our town's people, buildings, businesses, and homes are gone and what remains, bears witness to the torment.

In 2005, those same young people I was privileged to work for helped elect me mayor. Senseless homicides long lost their ability to shock, so I began to tattoo the dates of the killings on my arm as a living document of our collective loss.

Upon taking office, we set out to help reinvent Braddock through diverse solutions ranging from effective policing and the arts, to urban agriculture and youth employment. Today, buildings have been saved and repurposed. We farm for organic produce from formerly overgrown land, and can offer full summer employment for our youth. Perhaps most importantly, no dates have been added to my forearm in over 20 months.

However, at the start of my second term as mayor, we have decades of work ahead and we'll never come close to replacing what's been taken. As the saying goes, we're not looking for a handout, but a hand up and the chance to ameliorate three decades of socioeconomic unraveling.

Towards those ends, the stimulus, known as American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, has been a true fiscal balm, especially since our community's hospital, and largest employer, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center announced it would be shutting Braddock Hospital later this month, taking jobs along with our residents' access to health care
Braddock received $250,000 in stimulus funding for the EPA compliance upgrade of our sewer system and $30,000 that enabled us to hire an additional 30 young people this past summer who would have otherwise been unemployed.

Without question, these stimulus funds were a needed infusion of resources. However, I believe the greatest promise of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 remains untapped and now represents an unprecedented opportunity for growth and renewal.

In Braddock and in the surrounding areas, we have an abundance of quality, shovel-ready projects that range in complexity and scope from small-scale urban farming, and retrofitting a now-vacant 300,000 square foot hospital, to a $300 million-dollar repurposing of a former steel mill site into a green enterprise zone of economic redevelopment.

Investments like these will not only help reinvent communities like Braddock, but will also foster a boom in job creation and long-term growth. These and similar projects across the country represent but a tiny fraction of the resources spent to save feckless bankers and Wall Street from their own unchecked greed and hubris.

Perhaps equally important, I believe this kind of investment will help restore a sense of social justice that is completely absent in today's public debates. Consider the absurd juxtaposition of rescued banking executives defending multi-million-dollar bonuses, to our community at over 30 percent unemployment, widespread abandonment, and pervasive poverty while losing the area's only hospital and access to medical care.

The explanation of this circumstance is as simple as the contrast is stark: one got capitalism and the other, socialism.

Basic fairness and equity demand that the color of your collar should not dictate if you receive a bail-out or get bailed on. For Americans living in places like Braddock, I believe the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is perhaps the last, best chance to help overcome the injustice and harm that the decades steeped in a laissez-faire orthodoxy have wrought.

Cities that live......cities that die......and the time in between.......

I was reading an article on the CNN website today that reminded me of a poem by one of my favorite poets Richard Hugo. It describes perfectly the situation that exists in communities across the United States that find themselves in a death spiral as a result of the last 60 years of laissez faire economics policy. I'll post the article that brought this poem to mind, but first, here is the poem.



Degrees of Gray in Philipsburg
By Richard Hugo (1923-1982)

You might come here Sunday on a whim.
Say your life broke down. The last good kiss
you had was years ago. You walk these streets
laid out by the insane, past hotels
that didn't last, bars that did, the tortured try
of local drivers to accelerate their lives.
Only churches are kept up. The jail
turned 70 this year. The only prisoner
is always in, not knowing what he's done.

The principal supporting business now
is rage. Hatred of the various grays
the mountain sends, hatred of the mill,
The Silver Bill repeal, the best liked girls
who leave each year for Butte. One good
restaurant and bars can't wipe the boredom out.
The 1907 boom, eight going silver mines,
a dance floor built on springs--
all memory resolves itself in gaze,
in panoramic green you know the cattle eat
or two stacks high above the town,
two dead kilns, the huge mill in collapse
for fifty years that won't fall finally down.

Isn't this your life? That ancient kiss
still burning out your eyes? Isn't this defeat
so accurate, the church bell simply seems
a pure announcement: ring and no one comes?
Don't empty houses ring? Are magnesium
and scorn sufficient to support a town,
not just Philipsburg, but towns
of towering blondes, good jazz and booze
the world will never let you have
until the town you came from dies inside?

Say no to yourself. The old man, twenty
when the jail was built, still laughs
although his lips collapse. Someday soon,
he says, I'll go to sleep and not wake up.
You tell him no. You're talking to yourself.
The car that brought you here still runs.
The money you buy lunch with,
no matter where it's mined, is silver
and the girl who serves your food
is slender and her red hair lights the wall.

Do the shantytowns of the developing world hold lessons for the U.S.?

I once had two friends that lived on a dusty street filled with potholes and broken down cars on the western slope of Cerro Colorado in the Matamoros Colonia of Tijuana. The street seemed impossibly steep in parts and partially impassable at points. They lived next to a makeshift storefront where an old Chiapan woman with a watchful eye, quick wit, and an almost toothless smile would greet you partly with kindness and partly with suspicion.

The front of their building was a deep kelly green, peppered with dusty gray scrapes and pocks that enhanced the walls of the house with texture that was purely accidental. The main entrance was a gray and dented garage door which opened into a courtyard filled with broken concrete, foul smelling puddles and a menagerie of cats. All of this was watched over by a mangy dog on a short chain behind a broken down car that had no hope of ever being fixed.

At the opposite end of the courtyard was a makeshift concrete stairway that rose up over the outhouse. Created without aesthetics, in mind, the step heights weren’t consistent but they were functional. There was no railing to guide you as you climbed up its uneven steps. But it was easy to find your way up to their patio and into their particle board shell of an apartment. Their apartment was little more than an afterthought which had organically evolved from available resources and a will to survive.

This two-room wooden shack, grew like an appendage from an already roughly constructed building. It was far from luxury. A slum to the untrained eye, it was immaculate and well stocked with all the modern electronics and furniture you would expect to find in the more middle class neighborhoods anywhere in the world, yet it was missing standard amenities like a kitchen sink and bathroom, all of which were communally shared in the courtyard by other tenants in the building. Not fancy; not even desirable by most; just basic and cheap housing for two very poor people who desperately needed a place to call home. Welcome to the shantytowns of Tijuana.

But it's not just Tijuana that has shantytowns. Shantytowns are a common feature throughout Mexico and in developing countries throughout the world. They are the result of either rapidly expanding populations of poorer people and / or rapidly expanding economies, coupled with a weak and cash strapped government that can't keep up with the needs of its people. Such was the reason for the explosion of shantytowns in Tijuana.

The border economies are driven by the industries of the maquilidoras. The maquiladoras are manufacturing industries that thrive on cheaper labor and production costs and they can be found across the border region. While the end product is shipped throughout Mexico, the majority of the products are shipped into the United States and Canada. The largest maquila centers and their sister cities in the United States are Brownsville / Matamoros, Reynosa / Mcallen, Nuevo Laredo / Laredo, and Ciudad Juarez / El Paso. But the largest and most important center by far is the Tijuana / San Diego centers. Fueled by NAFTA legislation, Tijuana exploded with growth as poorer Mexicans moved from locales in the interior to plentiful and better paying jobs at the borders where they could begin to build a life and adopt the everyday trappings that the middle class takes for granted.

Tijuana was unable to keep up with the rapid growth as people began to build illegal dwellings on government land. These dwellings were often built in environmentally sensitive lands that were often unsuitable for human habitation. In most cases these lands lacked even the most minimal of infrastructure improvements. Water , sewer and electricity were an afterthought and paved roads were little more than a pipe dream. The government had lost control of development and people began to permanently settle on lands, building without regard to codes or aesthetics. Once settled, there was no way to remove, the large and established, communities that grew from nothing, so as the government began to grow stronger, they adopted a policy of legalization, and began to legitimize the settlements and provide to the people much needed services like water, sewer, and electricity.

To the unknowing eye, these settlements look like a deplorable slum. But while poorer than what most many American's are accustomed to, there are tightly formed communities thriving there which give the poor the means to create a better life. In no way do I want to romanticize these settlements; life in these neighborhoods are seldom easy. They are sometimes plagued with crime and other issues of extreme poverty, but more often the majority of the population consists of hard working families trying to make ends meet. These shantytowns provide organization and the building blocks of a better society, something that is much more safe and solid than being completely homeless and without resources in which to grow.

The lack of regulation that initially existed in these areas allowed for the flexibility needed for people to build their homes, to build locally owned businesses that serve every need within walking distance to area residences, and to allow for the density needed to allow for solvent private and public transit solutions that fill in the gap that results from low car ownership. Much of this flexibility already exists in development regulations in place across Mexico. The end result allows poorer people to help support themselves through locally serving business, many of which exist on the ground floor of their own residences. So while to the untrained eye these type of settlements may seem shocking, they are actually much more humane than what is seen in the United States where it is nearly impossible for the poor to open up a business or own a home of their own.

In the United States , the poor are often demonized. They are continuously being ostracized from mainstream society through legal and socialized means and while their numbers are growing, they are often invisible to the upper-middle higher classes. As a member of the middle and upper classes of the United States it is easy to miss the growing poverty. Privately owned cars whisk people from place to place, usually from home to work and to store. Interactions are separated and controlled. They rarely have contact with the poor on the street or who might be riding public transit and they don't go to the neighborhoods where the poor live; in the sketchy apartment complexes that exist across the badburbs and the ghetto-sprawl. They don't have contact with the people living on the streets, nor in the shelters, or the riverbeds, and tent cities. In fact the middle and upper classes don't usually have contact with people that are much different from themselves. This is where Mexico and the United States differ. In Mexico no matter what class you are from, everyone lives together. Even if you are incredibly wealthy and living in an exclusive gated community, you still see the poor and you still interact with them. The poor cannot be hidden away and they cannot be ignored.

In the United States the poor are often hidden from view and they are susceptible to negative issues that the upper classes don't ever have to experience. They often pay far too much of their income for housing. They can get little or no access to medical care. They are forced to keep, fuel and maintain a vehicle to keep the cycle going. They often live far from employment centers and in bad locations in order to afford bigger housing for larger families. When they can't afford insurance on their vehicles and are caught driving without, they are jailed and fined. They are paying high prices on food, utilities, and bank fees. They have more access to cheap fast food than actual healthy products. They often can't walk to shopping that serves their local neighborhood due to an urban environment that lacks walkability or has too many personal safety issues. Lets not even get started on the social welfare system that in the long run reinforces the poverty cycle. The list can go on and on. The poor in the United States are constantly under attack.

I recently was speaking with a friend in Toluca, Mexico whom owns a restaurant. In the course of out conversation I discovered that he pays the equivalent of $100.00 dollars a week, after taxes, for his lowest paid employees. While that may seem shocking, know this; even the poorest person in Mexico can get basic medical treatment for free through the Mexican Social Security System. Rent for an apartment in a lower income area will run a person the equivalent of about $80.00 a month and while certainly not luxury, it will have all the basic services needed for two people to live comfortably. Food, utilities, transportation, and supplemental medical are also much cheaper than in the United States and being nickel and dimed to death over hidden fees is much less an issue than it is in the States. With two incomes coming in, the poor in Mexico can live much fuller lives than they can in our country.

So while the shantytowns of the developing world may seem shocking they really do serve a purpose. They are able to grow organically over time to suit the needs of the lower classes. They evolved like an organism, as a solution to the unsolvable. And while they are a symptom of poverty. they allow the poor to build the foundations for a full life in family, business, and home. Mexico took the correct step to legitimize these types of informal settlements. The key is to begin regulating in a way that provides for basic services but allowing for the right amount of flexibility that allows people to continue growing in their locally serving entrepreneurship, something that Mexico, so far , has been able to do well.

The lower classes of the United States are growing and the power of local governments to efficiently provide services is waning. Due to foreclosures , layoffs and the worsening economic conditions of our country, communities across the nation are beginning to see a surge of tent cities popping up in vacant lots and countryside. As local governments wrestle with bankruptcy and diminished local services, their ability to regulate will be stymied.

This situation is not far off from the situations that have occurred throughout the developing world. If the trend continues, communities across the nation may be forced to legitimize these informal settlements. Several cities in the Southeast such as Nashville Tennessee and Huntsville, Alabama are beginning to enact policy that recognizes the tent cities as a legitmate form of transitional housing. It is even getting to the point to where they are providing basic services and police protection for tent city residents.

It is clear that a fundamental shift in the national psyche has begun. If conditions continue to worsen economically, it is entirely possible that local governments will have to make the same type of choices that those in developing nations have made regarding their own informal settlements. The bigger the problem gets, the harder poverty will be to ignore. So if the Great Recession grows into Depression 2.0, the ever growing homeless problem will shape our cities in ways unexpected.............whether we like it or not, in which case we will need a solution to the unsolvable. Are we up for the challenge?

Changing Viewpoints: The case for creating the new "Creative Class"

For years now, Richard Florida has toured the country preaching about how to attract the creative class. The creative class being young, educated, creative and highly mobile professionals who followed culture, tolerance, hipness and opportunity. Some cities such as Seattle, San Francisco, New York and Austin attracted them in droves. Other cities, much smaller cities, often in a state of decline, pined for them, scheming the ways in which they too could attract these young hipsters. In reality most of these places never had a chance.

The migratory nature of the ever mobile creative class was based on an overheated economy. The economic landscape has changed considerably over the last few years and the demographics of the creative class, I among them, have been particularly hard hit. The mechanisms that drove all the job growth of the overheated economy have broken down, displacing and marooning millions.

Not that there wasn't truth to Mr. Florida's ideas; quite the contrary. Tolerant cities do attract more creativity. Fatalism and squelchers can kill a community. But not every city can be a New York or a San Francisco. The culture and character of those cities developed organically over several hundred years. You can't create those conditions overnight. More than that, the creative class has a finite number; just as finite as the number of companies that employed them. And as we know, those companies aren't as numerous as they once were. The set up was never sustainable from the onset. Even in the best of times, some cities will win but many more end up losing.

Not all cities were meant to live forever. History is littered with cities that for any number of reasons have ceased to be. Cities grow organically and often contract due to factors both economic and environmental, but for any city to survive it has to be sustainable. The United States lacks any substantial guiding urban policy so most cities are on their own in trying to create a sustainable system.

But without the U.S. Federal Government actually creating policy that strengthens the urban core they are actually ripping cities apart. The almost Laissez-faire approach to urban policy that has existed in the United States for generations simply does not work. The support that cities do receive from the Federal Government damages the urban fabric, supports urban sprawl, and reinforces as well as concentrates generational poverty. This country needs to concentrate on the challenges facing urban areas in a way that is constructive and encourages sustainability. And while it may be impossible for the smallest towns to be sustainable at least we can ensure that more places are viable than the current laissez-faire approach allows.

Urban policy should also be created at the local level, grassroots and otherwise. But instead of trying to attract the limited numbers of creative class type people, urban areas both small and large need to concentrate on creating the creative class from their own citizens through improving the educational opportunities available as well as focusing on other quality of life issues. Local communities must work towards and get the Federal Government's support in ending the mechanisms that perpetuate generational poverty while getting the poor (and the middle class) to move their lives forward in constructive ways so that everyone can make a positive difference in strengthening an area's capital. Tolerant and educated societies work to everyone's benefit. But cities shouldn't try to be something they are not. Accentuate your best qualities and plan for the poorest of residents so that everyone benefits.

Long story short; there's no place like home so start concentrating on ways to use what you've got to make that home reach its full potential. The old rules of the old economy no longer apply. Build culture, tolerance and opportunity in your own backyard. Spend your energies on forcing Washington's hand to do what's right and what's needed so that cities can have the tools to really shine and finally, instead of looking to siphoning capital from elsewhere, grow your own creative class from your community's greatest strength- your own people.