Richard Florida

A Development Guru’s New Take on Detroit: Optimism

Detroit's emerging startup scene is enough to make even an economic development guru pivot his position on the city's future. New Republic's Alec MacGillis, who's been watching the gurus closely, prefers the term "flip-flop" for...

Friedman vs. Florida, or How to Thrive in a World Both Flat and Spiky

The regional effect of technological advancement and globalization is a widely studied and hotly contested topic. Thomas Friedman’s renowned book, The World is Flat, argues that globalization and technological advancement have leveled the playing field...

Is Detroit the Next Berlin?

After the fall of the Wall in 1989, Berlin had very cheap housing and industrial space, some in spectacularly grand old buildings. Years of division—with repressive communist rule on one side of town and isolation...