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I ran across this thing on the Minneapolis city website, I thought it was pretty interesting and they have the whole list so I thought I would post it here. The Creative Vitality Index (CVI) is an attempt to create a numerical basis for the comparison of different metro area's per capita creative economies. 60% of the CVI is based on the per capita revenues of arts related goods and services, 40% is based on per capita arts employment. The list is from 2010 and appears to be based on MSAs, these are the top 35:
1. Washington DC
2. New York
3. Los Angeles
4. San Francisco
5. Boston
6. Minneapolis - St Paul
7. Seattle
8. Denver
9. Salt Lake City
10. Austin
11. Las Vegas
12. San Jose
13. Portland
14. Hartford
15. San Diego
16. Milwaukee
17. Philadelphia
18. Columbus
19. Indianapolis
20. Chicago
21. Cleveland
22. Pittsburgh
23. Kansas City
24. Atlanta
25. Baltimore
26. Grand Rapids
27. Miami
28. Charlotte
29. Raleigh
30. St Louis
31. Cincinnati
32. Memphis
33. Houston
34. Phoenix
35. Duluth
Big disappointment for Chicago too see its ranking bunched along with other midwestern cities on the list despite its size (How does Milwaukee have a more creative vitality than Chitown?). With all of the art institutions and big time art enclaves such as River North and Bucktown/Wicker Park, it deserves a much higher spot on this list. Interesting also that Baltimore, despite being close to DC is so much lower as well. Philadelphia is also a bit disappointing despite having University City/Old City and one of the best art museums and the Avenue of the Arts, and still show that these cities are Rust Belt/Manufacturing at heart. Houston is another disapointment for its size, despite the presence of NASA, though its more justifiable since it lacks a widely-known art scene like Austin has. I doubt its the hood areas that drag them down since NY, LA, and DC have their parts.
Chicago residents might want to spend less time arguing with New Yorkers (who probably don't really care, anyways) about which city has the best pizza and concentrate on creative pursuits in the future. LOL! I think most people still consider Chicago a great city...no worries!
I have to confess to being impressed that Salt Lake City is rated number 9 and slightly better than Austin!
That would be because SLC has a higher % of either art "industry" professionals and/or spends more on theatre/opera/orchestras while Austin concentrates on real, beating-heart art creation. This is why these numbers are straight-up hilariously bad (in terms of what we're supposed to conclude) despite the fact that people will argue with me 'til the cows come home regarding them. SLC vs. Austin, which has higher creative vitality in reality? I think even most SLC'ers would agree it's Austin, and by quite a bit. This index is a joke. It tells you "things," but not what it purports.
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