Cincinnati is a city seemingly obsessed with rankings – the Most Livable City, The Best Place to Raise Pot Bellied Pigs, the Corn Hole Capital of the Midwest. But what do these rankings really mean for us as a major metropolis?
A recent research report entitled City Vitals provides much-needed insight, not by constructing another single, overall ranking of the nation’s Top 50 cities, but rather by measuring success in four critical and distinct categories — talent, innovation, connectivity and distinctiveness. Over the next few weeks, the staff here at Soap Box will be using these rankings and tools to talk about what’s great about our city, starting with talent.
Why Creative Talent Is More Important Than You Think
We all know that attracting and retaining talent plays a pivotal role in successful cities. Author, Joseph Cortright, prepared the City Vitals study for CEOs for Cities, a group of mayors, university presidents, and business and civic leaders, who take a fresh look at cities and make the most of their assets by building new leadership partnerships around urban innovations. The study serves to help urban leaders understand how their cities perform in relation to others in the Top 50 major cities in the country.
For those of you keeping score at home, Cincinnati ranks 29th with 28% of our population 25 years or older having completed a four year degree. Just 7% of our international talent 25 years or older has completed a four year degree, placing us 42nd on the list. But among the highly creative professionals who work in the city as artists, scientists, architects, and designers, we rank 27th with 7% of our population filling these roles. No big news story there -- we know we have to attract more diverse, educated, and creative talent -- but have we as a city asked ourselves why this is so important?
Boomers, as we’ve all read, are nearing retirement, while for the first time in our history women now participate in the workforce at the same rate as men, which means that we are about to experience a momentous plunge in our labor force as boomers siphon off while most other eligible workers are already hard at work. Our country just doesn’t have a reserve tap of potential workers to fill the thinning ranks. Therefore, locating young creatives (not to be confused with the annoyingly overly defined and often misquoted “creative class” concept), and experienced retirees into our cities are the key to revitalizing urban centers.
Now, more than ever, cities like Cincinnati have to work harder to retain educated residents who are becoming increasingly mobile. Young adults in their 20s and 30s are, in particular, the most likely Cincinnatian to up and move to another city. And when they do, 64 percent of them say they first choose the city and neighborhood they want to live in, which is usually less than three miles from a Central Business District. Only then do they go job hunting. These young workers are looking for clean and attractive communities where they can live the kind of life they want to lead. Safe streets and neighborhoods matter. Housing affordability and being green are also high on their lists. Creatives are looking for places that make them feel welcome. They’re drawn by vibrant places where there are lots of things to do in distinctive neighborhoods and an energetic urban core.
Livability and jobs, as Cincinnati is beginning to understand, are “absolute complements when it comes to attracting and keeping talent,” says CEOs for Cities President, Carol Coletta.
But attracting talent also means investing in innovation and new ways of thinking. Change comes hard to Cincinnati, but it’s going to have to take place if we’re going to compete (and ratchet up those all important rankings).
How many times have Cincinnatians heard that the suburbs are the ideal place to return and raise children? Not necessarily. Although it challenges what many of us probably picture as the idyllic white-picket fence childhood, imagine with me for a moment a Cincinnati that not only attracts a diversity of talented and creative singles, but then also couples them together and, instead of shoving them out of the center city to have or adopt their children, entices these young parents to stay and raise their kids downtown. Unlikely, you say? What about the crime, you say? Who would send their children to inner-city schools if they didn’t have to? Where will the children play, as Cat Stevens once sang?
But consider this: it turns out that urban parents in other cities are worried about the same three things: safety, schools and space. In researching urban parenting throughout the country, CEOs for Cities discovered that these pioneering parents address issues of safety, education and space quite creatively all by themselves. They say that the closer living in cities helps foster a sense of true community. People who walk more than they drive know their cities differently. They get to know their neighbors in ways that our suburban separation and car cultures don’t allow us.
Here is what urban parents know:
• Safety is less of an issue when you know that your neighbors will train extra sets of watchful eyes for your family. Integrated, mixed-income and mixed-use communities thrive because they are inherently less scary. When “those people” become “us” we begin to change the nature of the conversation.
• Children spend 75% of their time outside the classroom. Living in an urban environment means that the city itself becomes a secondary classroom. Access to libraries and museums that are only blocks away mean that these resources can be utilized to supplement the school experience on a weekly or even daily basis.
• Although there may be less personal space downtown, parents are realizing the tremendous benefits of public spaces. Fountain Square now becomes your backyard and city parks are overrun with families who quickly get to know each other. Children grow up understanding downtown rather than fearing it or using it only sporadically.
This kind of thinking is just the beginning. For those of you interested in seeing the complete report, e-mail [email protected] with “CityVitals” in the subject line, or go to their website. But remember, in the end, numbers and rankings don’t mean squat without the conviction, understanding and imagination to do something with them. Rankings without context are just numbers. We must ask ourselves, as we hope to in this publication, “so what?” and more importantly, "what can we do with this information?" for it to truly change our region. We have, right here in this great, shy, beautiful city all the people and all the tools we need to create real change in Cincinnati. All it takes now are enough courageous, innovative people willing to put it all together.
Photography by Scott Beseler
Family crossing Fountain Square
Streetscapes on Telford
Curbside creative
Fountain frolicking on the Square
Streetscapes kid creations