Who's Your City?: How the Creative Economy Is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life | 
| Author: Richard Florida
Publisher: Basic Books
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
Buy New: $13.44
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Avg. Customer Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 3611
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.1
ISBN: 0465003524
Dewey Decimal Number: 304.23
EAN: 9780465003525
ASIN: 0465003524
Publication Date: March 10, 2008
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Condition: SATISFACTION GUARANTEED! NEW Book! May have remainder mark. Most orders ship within 1 BUSINESS DAY with ORDER CONFIRMATION.
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Product Description
It’s a mantra of the age of globalization that where we live doesn’t matter. We can innovate just as easily from a ski chalet in Aspen or a beachhouse in Provence as in the office of a Silicon Valley startup.
According to Richard Florida, this is wrong. Globalization is not flattening the world; in fact, place is increasingly relevant to the global economy and our individual lives. Where we live determines the jobs and careers we have access to, the people we meet, and the “mating markets” in which we participate. And everything we think we know about cities and their economic roles is up for grabs.
Who’s Your City? offers the first available city rankings by life-stage, rating the best places for singles, families, and empty-nesters to reside. Florida’s insights and data provide an essential guide for the more than 40 million Americans who move each year, illuminating everything from what those choices mean for our everyday lives to how we should go about making them.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
 Helpful book July 20, 2008
I find the book interesting and very helpful in my quest to decide where to retire. I still haven't reached a conclusion, but at least I know what homework I haven't done. Gail
 Interesting...but dumbed down? July 16, 2008
An interesting look at why place matters more and more despite the increasing trend towards global talent markets and location-free jobs. Florida's analysis is well-written and easily accessible, but I wonder if the data he presents is overly dumbed-down to be accessible to the general public. It's an interesting set of insights, and I recommend it to any and everyone considering a location switch, but don't expect a thorough sociological or anthropological analysis.
Timely and reflects what most of us may intuitively feel already June 20, 2008
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
This book is extremely timely and I anticipate it will be even more relevant in years to come. Why? Because people's happiness does depend a great deal on where they live, how far they commute to work, the general feel of a city and their stage in life.
This book explores all those topics and also ties them into the changes in our world. Along the way, you may find some surprises about which cities and neighborhoods are likely to make you feel better. I felt affirmed about my location and my choice of lifestyle because my town has a reputation for not being particularly exciting. However, it hasn't suffered from the real estate spikes of many larger cities, has relatively safe neighborhoods and is family friendly.
This backs up what the author notes about cities being good for certain stages of life. As my spouse and I age perhaps another city will suit us better, a point made in the various chapters of the book. The author actually explores cities that work for young couples as well as those which are good for empty nesters or retirees.
If there is a weakness here, it is a lack of statistical information in some sections. Even so, you don't have to do much research to back up the points made in the book. While people often believe finding true love or getting the right job is vital to happiness, all too few discount the importance of PLACE, according to this author. I agree.
Place is important. A small example from our own life: we once moved from a neighborhood without sidewalks to one with sidewalks. The distance between the two neighborhoods? About a mile or two. The difference in our happiness? It made a HUGE difference. Our kids could ride their bikes on those sidewalks instead of the streets (it helped that the streets didn't have blind curves like our old street did). We could stroll around the block and not have to keep moving to the side every time a car passed. We even got a chance to meet more neighbors who were also strolling along the sidewalks.
If a small thing like sidewalks can affect one's happiness and quality of life, then one can only imagine how an entire city - its cost of living, air quality, social groups and educational systems - can make or break perceived happiness levels.
Subtopics in this book are equally engaging. Some are controversial or startling but if you are about to start out in life, have just graduated college or are thinking of any major life change, please read this book. It could help you make the right choice about where to live!
Florida will both violate and fulfill your expectations June 13, 2008
Florida tackles an issue so big that we often fail to see it. The elephant in the living room is the city we choose! He helps highlight decisions it affects (mate selection, children & schools, work, commute, and more as well as the tremendous importance of this single choice - your city. Indeed, it is a choice. A must read for everyone.
Good insight into relocation and location May 27, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I had to pick up this book. I've written about relocation, both as an academic and a self-help writer. My own book, Making the Big Move, was published by New Harbinger. I now sell it from my website as a virtual book and I continue to deal with relocation questions from clients and blog readers.
Florida of course takes an academic research perspective. As a sociologist, he explores broad trends. There he's very good: he emphasizes how place predicts individual success on many dimensions. And he's very good at identifying clusters of innovation and economic growth.
Unfortunately, the book tries to do everything: advise on real estate, help readers choose a place to live, and offer a broad-scale view of trends.
On pages 82-83, Florida describes a dilemma that clients frequently bring to career consultants like me: A move is distinctly advantageous to one half of a couple but not the other. He describes a man who moves back to his hometown for a higher-paying job and lower living costs; the girl friend loses everything. More commonly, one partner wants to retire to Arizona and the significant other wants to keep working in a field with no jobs in Arizona.
As he points out, today most moves are voluntary. He seems to suggest that socioeconomic status makes moving easier, but it's not clear cut. Professional licenses and health insurance keep middle class and even affluent citizens rooted to places they've outgrown a long time ago.
I was surprised to learn that people claim they move for family and wonder if that's changing. My own experience tells me these moves can be treacherous: empty nesters want to be closer to their grandchildren, but their own children often prefer to keep their distance. Giving up a good career can breed deep resentments, too.
On page 87, Florida refers to research pegging the cost of being away fro family at $133,000. He does give the citation but I would have liked to know more about the assumptions behind the research.
On page 105, Florida describes an encounter with a young woman who gave up a career with the government to become a self-employed cosmetologist. It's almost amusing to read as he expresses astonishment: how could she opt for a low-security, lower-paying job? Yet the young woman refers to earning a good income.
These days, government jobs are not 100% secure. Layoffs (RIFs or Reductions in Force in government) happen. Twenty years from now, this young woman could own her own spa or private practice, bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Or she could take her entrepreneurial spirit in a whole new direction.
The best part of the book comes when Florida takes a more analytical perspective, dealing with what he knows. He questions the persistence of home ownership: it's not always a wise investment and it does restrict mobility. I would like to see broader questions raised about issues of mobility.
For example: These days, do we really need state licensing of professions? I realize it's almost impossible to change the pattern, due to stakeholders who gain from this economic inefficiency. For example, a psychologist friend moved to a state with absurd requirements for licensing: she had taught in prestigious programs, yet she was asked to bring recommendations from her own professors of 20 years ago. The state obviously wanted to restrict the supply of mental health professionals.
Health insurance also restricts mobility. Doesn't it seem absurd that a 60-year old can't leave a state where jobs in his field are limited, because he had a heart attack ten years ago? He's self-employed and he can't get insurance if he moves.
Finally, Florida is right about places giving us energy. My own energy has shifted as I've moved and I cringe when someone brings out the old chestnut, "If you're not happy here..." He cites evidence that moving doesn't always bring the rewards that were expected, but I suspect there's a pretty wide standard deviation there. Some people move and blossom.
In my own case, I found that moving from a small town in New Mexico to Seattle not only brought psychic rewards. For some reason, clients respond to a Seattle address. I'm told that direct mail response also varies based on the addresses of the sender.
Bottom line: place is important. Florida has done a great service by writing a book that will be read a lot more widely than most books on the topic. I wish I'd waited to write mine till after this one came out, and I think the research is only just beginning.
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