FAQ
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Talent
- When you say "talent" are you only concerned with young people (i.e. 22-35 year olds)?
- This couldn't be further from reality. The creative sector is big and broad. It includes all ages, races and ethnic groups and totals more than 40 million people in the U.S. workforce. We are, however, concerned about attracting and retaining young people so our creative sector continues to grow and flourish. Consequently, efforts in this area are important. We want to attract and keep as many of young people as possible. That doesn't just mean college and graduate students. Many of our young people are becoming entrepreneurs, both in the tech and non-tech areas. This is a rapidly emerging area not only provides communities with a new area of focus, it attacks the drug problem, helps stimulate business formation and drives enrollment in tech and two-year trade schools.
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- How are you measuring talent in a community?
- We measure the number of bachelor's degrees or better in a community in addition to the number of people employed in creative class occupations, including entrepreneurs.
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Innovation
- Does this mean we only care about "high tech" jobs and companies?
- No. We recognize that innovation is part of every industry including manufacturing, agriculture healthcare, etc. Innovation is more about nurturing the creativity and entrepreneurship that creates jobs through business formations and growth, new products, services and processes, tech transfer and patents.
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- How do you measure innovation?
- We measure the number of firm formations, firm growth and patent applications.
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- Does this exclude manufacturing?
- Innovation is part of almost any manufacturing operation today. Manufacturing is critical to Michigan's success. Recent work by Deloitte & Touche Consulting on the manufacturing sector indicates that regions and communities need to focus on manufacturers that can remain competitive and either develop a unique product or produce products at Six Sigma levels. (Six Sigma is defined as 3.4 defects per million units produced.) This is one of the key elements of "advanced manufacturing." In addition, manufacturers are looking at smart services that add value to their customers. This may include storing inventory for them, or doing quality control checking for them or helping them track inventory in real time.
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Diversity
- Are you saying we need a (larger) gay community to be cool?
- We recognize that diverse communities with a welcoming environment for all types of people attract and retain more creative sector people, jobs and businesses. The presence of a gay community may be an indicator of community acceptance of different people and ideas and therefore are open to people from different countries, races and backgrounds. Communities that support the opportunities diversity brings are more competitive. This is something universities recognized many years ago. Their need to attract top talent in a highly competitive market requires a commitment to diversity.
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- How do you measure diversity in a city?
- We currently measure the number of persons foreign born per capita, self- identified gays per capita, self-identified artists and musicians (Bohemian occupations) per capita, persons of color per capita, interracial marriages per capital and the integration of these groups in our neighborhoods.
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- Diversity doesn't seem like a strong enough objective. Don't we really want acceptance and celebration of differences?
- Yes. We chose diversity as a keyword for the framework for Cool Cities but the spirit of the initiative is inclusion - celebrating the people and communities in the State of Michigan including all the uniqueness, differences and creativity they bring to our business and community life.
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Environment
- What if my city doesn't have a downtown, can we still be part of the Cool Cities program?
- Yes. Neighborhoods, suburban and rural communities are all part of the Cool Cities Initiative. We recognize that the diverse people in our state will find different lifestyles cool. The spirit of the initiative is to help bring people and resources together in all kinds of communities to make them more appealing places to live, work and play.
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- Does my city have to have a university to be cool?
- No. Community Colleges and high schools are very much centers of continuing education and higher learning and should be considered part of your Cool Cities strategy.
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- Are you saying what we need are more bike paths, climbing walls and nightclubs and we will be cool?
- No. We recognize that each community needs to identify what will make it a more appealing place to live, work and play. We do recognize that we need to make an effort to appeal to younger members of our communities if we expect them to return after graduation and stay to build companies and bring in creative sector jobs. We also recognize that many of the attributes that make a community cool for younger people also appeal to other members of our community who choose to live active, social lives.
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Cool Cites and the Creative Sector
- Are you saying that tax incentives don't matter anymore?
- No. What we are saying is that companies are now attracted to cities that are strong in all four areas of TIDE (talent, innovation, diversity and environment). Tax incentives are part of the economic development puzzle, but companies want creative people that make them great not just a place that gives them tax breaks. Tax incentives remain important when a Michigan city is competing with other cities that also are very competitive in the four conditions of TIDE.
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- Is Cool Cities only about arts and culture?
- No. Cool Cities is about attracting and retaining the creative sector of our economy. We have identified four areas that allow us to work together to make our cities better, more competitive places to live, work and play. The four conditions of TIDE provide a framework for the efforts needed to make our cities and communities more competitive.
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