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.

Creative Communities is pleased to present the first in a two-part series on the Creative Economy for small cities.

In the creative attraction model of urban development popularized by the University of Toronto’s Richard Florida, Canada’s small cities sometimes seem like losers by default. In a version of creativity measured by technology parks, numbers of immigrants, and so-called “bohemian” occupations, cities like Sudbury, Moncton and Kingston routinely appear at the bottom of both real and imagined hierarchies of city success. How, then, should smaller Canadian communities—ones that are often grappling with de-industrialization and population decline—go about attracting educated, diverse individuals and building a foundation for a future in the creative economy?

Creative Communities is pleased to present the second in a two-part series on the Creative Economy for small cities.

Part One of this series, explored how livability and sustainability foster the Creative Economy in small cities as much as the traditional “3 T’s”: tolerance, technology, and talent.  It is equally important to note that many of the growth strategies associated with the creative model have been perceived as less successful in smaller Canadian cities than in their metropolitan counterparts.