A growing trend in local economic development is designing programs to attract creative professionals. There is a growing view that attracting creative professionals leads to broader economic growth, increased entrepreneurship and more jobs. The book The Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida popularized these concepts (click here for his blog).
An interesting example of this comes from Chattanooga. CreateHere Chattanooga is a "collective of programs, projects, incentive funding and individuals working for creative economic and cultural development in Chattanooga"
The projects include:
- mortage assistance for artists and entrepreneurs that move to approved in-town neighborhoods
- an artist grant program
- a resource center providing a range of small business and artist support services
- programs to create and build local artist and small business networks
Programs like this are becoming common as local economic development increasingly focuses on creating vibrant social communities and developing local businesses.
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