« Kids say the darndest things... | Main | Maya's New Album »

July 16, 2007

Hold your Clydesdales

In this month’s issue of Fast Company, they did a report on the Top 30 Cities for Business worldwide using data from various studies as a base and taking into account criteria like opportunity, innovation and energy. They ranked cities as “Fast,” “On the Verge,” “Slow,” and “Too Fast.”

Out of a total of 60 cities, there were only five “Slow” Cities:

1. Havana
2. Budapest
3. Detroit
4. New Orleans

and… wait for it…

5. St. Louis

and I quote: “For every St. Louis, a spot as bland as a flat Bud Light, there's a hip joint like Fort Collins, Colorado, a high-tech hub that's also the microbrew capital of America.” - and - “Too normal for its own good. It ranks dead last on CityVitals' "Weirdness Index," a measure of passion and engagement.” More concise definition of the Weirdness Index: Average of the extent to which the metro area’s 10 most distinctive consumer behaviors exceed the national norm for each behavior.

All this to say, “ouch!” Clearly, this is one article in one publication. However, rankings like these effect the collective consciousness when it comes to college graduate retention, corporate headquarter locations and our general place on the national scale of things.

On the bright side, it reinforces what I’ve always thought about St. Louis and why I had no problem coming back. It’s a can-do town. It’s not the hottest ticket, everyone’s not clamoring for a piece of a small pie, it’s affordable and it’s off the radar. So when it does reach the national consciousness as the new home of the creative class, I’m gonna be sittin’ pretty.

Here’s a link to the article intro, further explaining the criteria >

Here’s the map of all the cities >

Posted by nikl at July 16, 2007 11:41 AM

Comments

Post a comment