Young and Restless in Tacoma (29. August 2006, 07:30 by Derek Young) ~ Attracting That Darn Creative Class
Cities that attract college educated 25 to 34 year olds will succeed in the next decade. Is Tacoma on the right track? A report from late last year by CEOs for Cities made its way into the Weekly Report for the City Council this week that details the importance of this group. What does it say? From the executive summary:
It is difficult to overstate the impact that the college-educated 25 to 34 year olds we call the Young and Restless will have on a city’s future prosperity. They are well educated, adaptable, mobile and relatively inexpensive, comprising an important part of the so-called creative class. With rising demand for their skills with competition for them now on a global scale, cities must be magnets for these highly-coveted workers or the will fail, because in the knowledge economy, it is the creativity and talent inherent in a city’s workforce that will shape its economic opportunities.
If you’ve followed Exit133 for a bit, one of the recurring themes you’ve noticed in the comments is that it’s relatively difficult to be a young professional here. There aren’t any communities of young professionals. It’s very difficult to be single in Tacoma. The relatively dense residential areas that the report calls out as being a necessity for young people, aren’t affordable enough for most young professionals. To me the fundamental issue is the recurring Community discussion. Without a significant change in our direction, it seems as though Tacoma will be passing this demographic entirely. So where do we want to go?
Link to the Weekly Report (pdf – see page 11 for the executive summary)
Link to CEOs for Cities (full report)
Thank you, Erik
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Is “The Young and the Restless” supposed to be some sort of replacement for the tired “Gen-X” terminology? I’m not sure choosing the name of a soap opera is a good replacement…
Also, please no one tell my boss that I’m supposed to be “relatively inexpensive”.
1 | Posted by jamie from thriceallamerican | Aug 29, 09:12 AM
I think that Tacoma is kind of on the right trend if not on the right track. There is urban investment going in at least. The City could definitely do a better job at helping to configure their property tax abatement to ensure that there are plenty of opportunities for ownership housing for young, urban professionals. Ownership housing is too expensive for your average professional – especially if they’re just starting out. However ownership housing has the greatest potential for being an anchor for these highly mobile people. It also allows them to make an investment in the city. Presently, it takes two professional wage earners to make the kind of mortgage payment necessary for a condo or a home of moderate size and quality in a decent vibrant neighborhood. Neighborhoods besides those in the North End are not yet fully developed to attract those people.
What Tacoma has going for it (at least local economic opportunities) was illustrated in a recent article in the News Tribune about women in business in Downtown Tacoma. It was the one with the owner of the Blackwater on the front page. I remember the article stated that “Tacoma is a mixture of potential and opportunity” out of the sheer fact that the City is essentially a blank slate with little competition for startups. Tacoma also has this duality of a small town atmosphere with city life, which kind of cultivates community support for local business – making the barrier for new business relatively low in comparison with Seattle.
Those facts aside, I think that UW-Tacoma is the crux of the equation. Each year that institution pumps out new college educated people full of energy and enthusiasm and new ideas. And I think specifically, the promise for Tacoma is in UWT students that live here already, not the commuters. They are the ones who have a vested interest here, a home here. It would be interesting if the Tacoma-residing UWT students were to get together and come up with new ideas for startups. The Chamber of Commerce could sponsor such an event and include financial institutions in the mix to allow students to network with resources. My long-time friends at UWT have a couple of ideas insofar as transportation and video games, but it would be nice to see what others are thinking about too.
2 | Posted by Chris from Theater District | Aug 29, 09:59 AM
“It would be interesting if the Tacoma-residing UWT students were to get together and come up with new ideas for start-ups.”
I wouldn’t limit it to just UWT students. Don’t forget about UPS and PLU (though PLU is really in Spanaway, er, Parkland)...
I would love to see a Tacoma Think Tank that involves not only creative minds (young and old), but partners them up with business professionals and Angels to help flush out ideas and bring ideas to market.
My biggest concern for Tacoma is the entrepreneurial climate. We need to learn how to grow our own and stop relying on attracting outside businesses so much.
Here’s how it works:
Some of our small businesses today will grow up to be big businesses tomorrow. Our big businesses of tomorrow then create foundations that give back to the community, making Tacoma a better and more vibrant place which in turn attracts people who start the cycle all over again…
4 | Posted by morgan | Aug 29, 12:38 PM
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