How The Crash Will Reshape America – Richard Florida

One of my favorite, as well as most articulate urbanologists, Richard Florida takes a look at America after the crash. His new piece in The Atlantic Magazine is called “How the Crash Will Reshape America”.

Below is the last paragraph of a lengthy article that I think is a must read. The Sunbelt Cities are discussed at length. Diversifying our economy is key. The creative class, and urban cores are major players. Mayor Goodman has it right about Downtown Las Vegas.

There’s plenty of lessons to be learned, and optimistic good news about the historic neighborhoods of Las Vegas. Not because the houses are “mid mod” but because of their location.

The Stanford economist Paul Romer famously said, “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.” The United States, whatever its flaws, has seldom wasted its crises in the past. On the contrary, it has used them, time and again, to reinvent itself, clearing away the old and making way for the new. Throughout U.S. history, adaptability has been perhaps the best and most quintessential of American attributes. Over the course of the 19th century’s Long Depression, the country remade itself from an agricultural power into an industrial one. After the Great Depression, it discovered a new way of living, working, and producing, which contributed to an unprecedented period of mass prosperity. At critical moments, Americans have always looked forward, not back, and surprised the world with our resilience. Can we do it again?

Make a big old cup of coffee and read Richard Florida’s entire article.