The Rural Growth Trifecta: Outdoor Amenities, C reative Class and Entrepreneurial Context

1. The Rural Growth Trifecta: Outdoor Amenities, Creative Class and Entrepreneurial Context Timothy R. Wojan and David A. McGranahan Economic Research Service/USDA Presented at the Inaugural Creative Rural Class Conference, Clarion University, June 12-13, 2013

2. One definition of creativity… Creativity is being willing to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. --Scott Adams

3. …could lead to an unfortunate headline Clarion Development Plan: Attract Mistake Prone People

4. Learning the ropes

5. Drill sergeant on why 11 y.o. girls succeed, educated professionals fail • They didn't spend a bunch of time sittin' around being geniuses. • Ain'tnobody gonna find out what is doable and not doable in an hour without damn well trying to do it! • Y'all were so scared a failin' you ain't never got around to succeedin'. • These little girls approached it with less pride and more cur-ri-os-ity.

6. Some wicked problems: Learning the ropes, thriving in an innovation economy… • A wicked problem: • cannot be adequately understood until after a solution to the problem is formulated • is characterized by stakeholders having radically different perspectives regarding the very nature of the problem • solution does not follow a linear progression (problem ID, analysis, resolution) but emerges from failed or aborted attempts that provide opportunities for learning and reorienting interests.

7. Academic Skepticism: Is Creative Class Just a Fad? Source: Sternberg, Rolf. 2012. “Learning from the Past? Why ‘Creative Industries’ Can Hardly be Created by Local/Regional Government Policies,” Die Erde 143(4):293-315.

8. Academic Skepticism: Is Creative Class Just a Fad? Industrial Recruitment Source: Sternberg, Rolf. 2012. “Learning from the Past? Why ‘Creative Industries’ Can Hardly be Created by Local/Regional Government Policies,” Die Erde 143(4):293-315.

9. Sternberg’s Advice for Pursuing a Creative Class Strategy • A demand for more creativity from creative economy policy(makers) • Main takeaway: Giving a development strategy a trendy name does not erase the wickedness of the underlying problem

10. The Rural Growth Trifecta • Innovation impossible without constant generation of new ideas (creativity) • Place contributes to this capability in two ways: attracting or retaining individuals that generate and combine new ideas and providing venues for interaction (amenities) • For innovation to actually happen, places need a way to transform these ideas into economic value (entrepreneurship)

11. The creative class thesis • Economic development is now reliant on novel combinations of knowledge and ideas • Certain occupations specialize in this task • People in these occupations have distinct residential preferences • Development strategies that do not successfully retain or attract these workers will fail

12. Are the rural and urban creative classes similar? Source: Current Population Survey, March 2003 data files.

13. But some rural creative class magnets are not particularly dynamic PLACES WITH LARGE INSTITUTIONS CREATIVE PLACES Talent Attracted to Lifestyle Amenities and Creative Milieu Attracted to Employment Opportunity

14. Novelty generation experts • Generation of novelty is what artists do but what innovative businesses need more of • Slack: time and resources for exploration • Hubris: confidence to take risks • Optimism: vision of superior alternative • Favored artist habitat = Favored (innovative) business habitat • Creative places that attract creative class • Places that foster entrepreneurship

15. Artist relative surplus & rural economic dynamism Sources: Census , Business Dynamics Statistics

16. Lanesboro, MN: Serendipitous consulting • After decades of decline decided to anchor development strategy on newly built rail trail • Galena, IL, an emerging rural arts center, became their primary sounding board • Weekend B&B tourism trade grew as planned but it also became a creative class magnet • Made Outside Magazine’s 100-Proof Americana Best Towns of 2004 list

17. Bohemians welcome, not required • The arts are best understood as an indicator, not a primary driver, of economic dynamism • Creative class model of rural growth is incomplete without local entrepreneurship • Conduit for transforming new ideas into economic value • Lots of small businesses and high creative class employment share drove employment growth in 1990s.

18. 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 High High Mid Mid Low Low Percentage change in county employment, 1990-2000, US rural Creative class Entrepreneurship 1990 1990 Sources: CBP, REIS/BEA, Census

19. Dynamic disappears in low amenity counties • Access to the outdoors is generally a rural advantage • If the outdoors in a county has severely limited access or is monotonous then there may be no rural attraction • Creative class location is explained by employment opportunities • New ideas remain internal to employers producing few growth opportunities

20. 50 40 30 20 10 0 High High Mid Mid Low Low Percentage change in county employment, 1990-2000, Great Plains rural Creative class Entrepreneurship 1990 1990 Sources: CBP, REIS/BEA, Census

21. Punching above your amenity weight • Spectacular amenities may be required to sustain destination tourism • Rural attraction of residents responds to more modest level of amenities • Attractive pull much more dependent on access and how they are managed