Creative Class Fail

More evidence of the failure of the "Creative Class" economic development strategy in the Twin Cities Metro area, this time from the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

The article focuses on the suburban city of Eagan, which led the metro area in job creation during the past decade, but has had a run of bad luck with its large employers, of late.

More interesting to me, was an accompanying graphic on relative job growth during the past ten years.  It showed that the largest gainers in jobs were suburban communities, and the largest losers were the core cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, with the area's largest suburb, Bloomington, the third largest loser.

After spending billions of tax dollars on building attractions--like sports stadia and theaters--to lure employers and employees to the core cities, the result was job losses, not gains for these core communities.  Outlying communities were the gainers, flying the face of what we are constantly told, that suburbia is dying.

As I note in my essay "Creative Class Fail," Minneapolis-St. Paul--following the Creative Class economic development strategy--ranks a disappointing 46th out of 65 large cities in 2011 job growth.  What the Pioneer Press data show is that the strategy has failed further to attract jobs to the core cities.