Customer Reviews:
 Timely and reflects what most of us may intuitively feel already June 20, 2008
10 out of 12 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
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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
7 out of 8 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.
 What a disappointment May 22, 2008
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
What a disappointment! The reviews here are far more favourable than those elsewhere. Probably in part due to the fact that this is completely American-centric and is next to useless for those not interested in relocating to the United States. The only international city the author cites with frequency is Toronto (the authors former home), which leads me to my next point; this reads like a poor combination of scholarly research and self-important recanting. Much of the book reads like a laundry list of statistics borrowed from periodicals and census, ie; "the best cities for young gay couples are...the best cities for empty nesters are..." The information is not presented in alogical manner nor offered in a way that would be directly applicable to the reader. The opening chapters talk of arbitrary configurations of "mega-regions," geography scholars' flavour of the year. Florida offers that one day Tokyo will expand to encompass all of Honshu but fails to acknowledge that Japan is already completely urbanized and its population is shrinking by half a million per year so this is unlikely. What's more is that these early chapters don't mesh well with the second half of his book. If this was the authors dissertation he would never have got his Phd and gone on to write this tripe. If only.
Location drives nearly everything read why May 20, 2008
22 out of 25 found this review helpful
This is a wonderful book. R. Florida counters the theories of the The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century. At the beginning, he outlines how just 40 Mega-Regions dominate the World economy. While those account for just 17% of the World's population, they generate two thirds of its GDP and over 85% of its innovation (measured by patents and scientific papers). Additionally, the GDP of those Mega-Regions are growing faster. So, the concentration of economic power in those centers is accelerating. He calls this the "clustering effect." Thus, the World is not flat. It is spiky and getting spikier. Risk taking, creative, and talented people represent the "creative class" a concept he introduced in The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life. The creative class members have strong incentives to cluster where the action is (the Mega-Regions). He demonstrates how the main economic scale has shifted from Nations to Mega-Regions and MSA level. The first two Mega-Regions (greater Tokyo and the D.C., New York, Boston corridor) both generate GDPs greater than $2 trillion. They would rank as the 3d and 4th largest World economies second only to the U.S. and Japan.
With other eminent social scientists, he studies the allocation of human resources in the U.S. in many ways. He shares the resulting maps of: a) the U.S. Mega-Regions, b) areas by % of college graduates, c) areas by income, d) areas by % belonging to creative class, e) areas by home prices. He uses similar color coding for each of those five maps that focuses on those different variables. And, the five different maps are very alike. It is as if you are seeing the same map five times, but with different legends. Thus, the high income, educated, creative class clusters within the Mega-Regions of the West Coast and the North East.
Next, R. Florida introduces the reader to the Big 5 Factor psychological model with the factors being: extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, conscientiousness, and openness to new experience. He invites the reader to take the test at a mentioned website. My whole family took it. And, it was fun and revealing. The website captures the anonymous psychological profiles and zip codes. From this data, Florida and his colleagues create a map of personality types that shows where the conscientious types live, etc... Now, we can add a sixth dimension to the map: Openness. Thus, it is the open-minded, high income, educated, creative class that all clusters in the Mega-Regions of the West Coast and North East. And, that's where the most expensive real estate markets are.
R. Florida analysis states that society is increasingly sorting itself by location. His analysis reminds one of Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (A Free Press Paperbacks Book) where Hernstein and Murray indicated that society is increasingly stratified by cognitive abilities. Thus, accountants, lawyers, doctors, and investment bankers all have increasingly higher cognitive abilities vs a few decades ago. The same happens within the mentioned Mega-Regions of the West Coast and North East. Individuals with higher capabilities and income opportunities migrate to those areas and bid up local real estate values. Others find themselves priced out and move out of those "Superstar Cities" leaving room for other creative class achievers to move in further bidding up real estate prices. The creative class achievers need to move to those Superstar Cities to fulfill their potential. R. Florida has all those specialized regions mapped out in Figure 7.3: The New Geography of Work. If you want to be an investment banker you need to be in Manhattan. If you are engaged in hi tech you need to be in Silicon Valley.
R. Florida's work relates closely to another of Murray's book Human Accomplishment : The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950 where Murray develops a regression model estimating how many luminaries lived at any one time in a specific country. The variables included GDP, human capital (top notch universities), networks (# of political and financial centers), and population of largest city (clustering). R. Florida explains how, why, and where people cluster. Murray explains the historical implication of clustering (# of luminaries in various fields at a specific time period).
In the last few chapters R. Florida focuses on the best places to live for various stages of life. He finds that a few cities perform well on many criteria. The San Francisco Bay Area performs well in 20 different categories. Boston is second ranking well in 13.
Within those last chapters, R. Florida shares many interesting insights. He finally addresses the relationship between likelihood of moving and life stages; a 25 year old is three times more likely than a 45 year old to move. This entails that cities that loose the young adults are loosing talent permanently. Once a college grad leaves town, he is unlikely to come back. Young college grads cluster in just a few cities. Those are the winners in the competition for talent. Empty nesters over 65 are likely to move further than their counterparts a decade younger. Where the Boomers will move as empty nesters will impact real estate prices and culture. He anticipates a mild generation conflict between Boomers and the younger creative class that will inhabit the same communities. Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069is an excellent book that further covers generation conflicts.
He shares other interesting statistics. The real jobless rate for black male high school drop out in their 20s including those in jail was 72% in 2004. Within this same group more are in jail then working. On another topic, chance of a high school graduate marrying a college graduate shrank by 43% between 1940 and the late 70s. People mate increasingly within equal education level. This is causing a rise in household income inequality as education is highly correlated to income.
If you find this review interesting, you'll find the book fascinating.
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