The Creative Communities Blog is pleased to present a guest blog by Dan Taylor, Economic Development Officer, Prince Edward County.

Betsy Donald, an Associate Professor of Geography at Queen’s University, is well known for her work on the Creative/Food Economy. One of the challenges or problems with the Creative Economy label is it is often misunderstood or worse seen as either controversial or negative.

It was standing room only on January 25th at a Monieson Centre seminar on The Creative Economy given by Dr. Betsy Donald, Queen’s Geography.  With about 60 attendees, plus two remote sites linked in by videoconference, it was abundantly clear this is an enduringly hot topic.  In fact, the subject proved attractive not only to professors and grad students from planning, business and geography, but also to municipal economic developers, consultants, provincial and federal government officials, CFDCs and sustainability activists. 

This is my first blog in too many months, which reflects the hundreds of kilometres since my last blog that I have cycled, the burgeoning stack of books and journal articles I have been reading on urban cycling and sustainable transport and the myriad of community meetings and conversations I’ve had along the way about a topic and activity I find both intellectually stimulating and aesthetically pleasing:  urban cycling.