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Maine, oddly enough, is very underrated in these regards. Lots of universities up there, especially devoted to marine studies. Then a huge amount of artist colonies, a robust music scene for its size as well. How it stacks up to larger competition is another story but of itself, a great place.
I'd venture central CA is up there in "creativity".
Out of curiosity...Is the Pacific Northwest a creative paradise for thinkers, scientists, artists and etc?
It seems the subculture of that region places an emphasis on innovation, from what I see. Especially the major metros (Portland, Seattle, Vancouver B.C.)
Not in Portland. Sure there's a cleverness and interesting things come up in conversations, but as far as actual art/projects getting done I'd say it's on par with similar sized cities. Maybe even a bit of an under performer when it comes to the traditional arts like museums and the like.
There's also a lot of group think in Portland.
But with that said what the West Coast in general has more of an openness to ideas, whereas back east it's more about coming up with a way to make money first. Portland tends to be more tolerant toward weird stuff than many places.
Then again if you're talking about innovation in the sense that a store will open and only sell something like hats with a bird on them, then yeah, you'll have that. Or if you're talking about people having to get creative on what sort of self-employment they do to make ends meet then you'll have that too.
Had a scientist wait on me at a fast food place once, but I doubt that's what you're talking about.
A lot of people in Portland smoke weed. It's very easy to just hang out and not accomplish much living there. If you're the ambitious sort or a "doer" then I'd probably look at Seattle or Vancouver B.C..
There also tends to be fewer real problems (outside of homelessness) and more 1st world problems that people will annoy you to death with.
Whereabouts in the South, if you don't mind me asking?
I would say portions of NC for starters. Asheville is sort of the East's answer to the PNW (or a mini-Austin if you will), and the Research Triangle as well.
I'm thinking the Bay Area, which some consider to be Central, rather than Northern California. It is about halfway up the California Coast though.
I'd say the Pac NW is very innovative and creative. Several corporations were started there by people who changed the way people around the world shop (Amazon.com, Nordstrom, Costco, REI, etc.), the way we use computers (Microsoft, though Bay Area based Apple was the pioneer in this to be fair), what we wear on our feet (Nike), how we travel (Boeing), how we drink coffee (Starbucks). Very few regions have had so many companies that have truly impacted the lives of people the way the PNW has. The Bay Area and Southern California are definitely extremely creative-minded The Northeast is about making as much money as you can rather than innovative ideas.
The South is more about conformity and hostility to new ideas due to the more insular and feudalistic nature of people who settled there, many of whom were and still are closed off to "outsiders". It wasn't until the invention of Central AC that it opened up to more creative minded people. And even then, you still have cultural backwaters where hostility to new ideas is pretty much a part of the culture (places like Mississippi and parts of Alabama outside of islands of innovation such as Huntsville).
Texas has somewhat of a culture of innovation there, but its ethos is rooted more in entrepreneurship and ways to make money off the land (Oil, Cattle, Food, etc.) rather than outright creativity. Innovative in ways, yes, but creative, absolutely not. However, a number of startups have developed in the Austin area lately.
Last edited by biscuit_head; 07-11-2016 at 02:17 PM..
Out of curiosity...Is the Pacific Northwest a creative paradise for thinkers, scientists, artists and etc?
I'm noticing there are a lot of institutions, hubs and companies in that part of America where there seems to be conglomerates of so much creativity with a focus on ideas and innovation.
It seems the subculture of that region places an emphasis on innovation, from what I see. Especially the major metros (Portland, Seattle, Vancouver B.C.)
What are your thoughts and opinions on this? I'm heavily researching into the area for a move.
Specifically Seattle and its suburbs seem to have a lot of innovation and entrepreneurship. The rest of Washington State and Oregon don't really stand out to me as hubs of innovation from a business perspective if we are looking at fortune 500 companies as the main measure of entrepreneurial creativity.
In terms of small businesses Oregon and Washington State seem fairly average in the percentage of workers being employed and don't really stand out.
Oregon- small businesses employed over half or 757,132 of the state’s private workforce in 2012.
Washington State- small businesses employed over half or 1.2 million of the state’s private
workforce in 2012.
New York- small businesses employed over half or 3.9 million of the state’s private
workforce in 2012.
Texas- small businesses employed about half
or 4.3 million of the state’s private workforce
in 2012. (Source: SUSB)
Ohio -small businesses employed about half
or 2.1 million of the state’s private workforce
in 2012.
Michigan- small businesses employed over half or 1.8 million of the state’s private workforce in 2012.
(Source: SUSB)
I would say portions of NC for starters. Asheville is sort of the East's answer to the PNW (or a mini-Austin if you will), and the Research Triangle as well.
Asheville's somewhat innovative in beer and has the smug hipsters, but that's really where it ends with the PNW comparisons. People here tend to be crafty, but a lot of them just copy what the other 5 people are doing. Reading is big here, but you're talking bestseller mainstream stuff only. The hip folks tend to slavishly follow what other areas are doing/have done. Thinking tends to revolve around woo-woo crystal stuff and/or environmental type things. The latter people usually have to go somewhere else to continue working on or they start selling organic dirt or some such.
Sometimes the food is innovative in a try-hard and not very good way.
Realistically the area is too small and there are too few jobs to really be a center for much. If you're a free thinker you won't really fit even in Asheville.
I'd imagine the Triangle will offer you more in all areas of this as far as NC is concerned. Even Charlotte has its strong points.
Although if you go back far enough Pepsi came out of the Carolinas so I suppose you could count that.
A lot of NC outside of that is a very conformist, yet friendly place.
Pnw is for pansies . It's people who can't handle the snow of back east or the humidity and can't afford California so they move they get an it job drink bud light and call themselves hipsters
The South is more about conformity and hostility to new ideas due to the more insular and feudalistic nature of people who settled there, many of whom were and still are closed off to "outsiders". It wasn't until the invention of Central AC that it opened up to more creative minded people. And even then, you still have cultural backwaters where hostility to new ideas is pretty much a part of the culture (places like Mississippi and parts of Alabama outside of islands of innovation such as Huntsville).
Texas has somewhat of a culture of innovation there, but its ethos is rooted more in entrepreneurship and ways to make money off the land (Oil, Cattle, Food, etc.) rather than outright creativity. Innovative in ways, yes, but creative, absolutely not. However, a number of startups have developed in the Austin area lately.
Depends on what we are talking about when it comes to creativity. Without the South, various forms of music and food, as well as even recognizable brands like CNN and COCA-COLA, would not exist.
I'm thinking the Bay Area, which some consider to be Central, rather than Northern California. It is about halfway up the California Coast though.
I'd say the Pac NW is very innovative and creative. Several corporations were started there by people who changed the way people around the world shop (Amazon.com, Nordstrom, Costco, REI, etc.), the way we use computers (Microsoft, though Bay Area based Apple was the pioneer in this to be fair), what we wear on our feet (Nike), how we travel (Boeing), how we drink coffee (Starbucks). Very few regions have had so many companies that have truly impacted the lives of people the way the PNW has. The Bay Area and Southern California are definitely extremely creative-minded The Northeast is about making as much money as you can rather than innovative ideas.
The South is more about conformity and hostility to new ideas due to the more insular and feudalistic nature of people who settled there, many of whom were and still are closed off to "outsiders". It wasn't until the invention of Central AC that it opened up to more creative minded people. And even then, you still have cultural backwaters where hostility to new ideas is pretty much a part of the culture (places like Mississippi and parts of Alabama outside of islands of innovation such as Huntsville).
Texas has somewhat of a culture of innovation there, but its ethos is rooted more in entrepreneurship and ways to make money off the land (Oil, Cattle, Food, etc.) rather than outright creativity. Innovative in ways, yes, but creative, absolutely not. However, a number of startups have developed in the Austin area lately.
Wow, this post is on point. Haha. No wonder the hostility here in Florida is so unreal. That would explain many things.
Pnw is for pansies . It's people who can't handle the snow of back east or the humidity and can't afford California so they move they get an it job drink bud light and call themselves hipsters
I disagree. I went to visit Seattle back in March. While I agree that there's a hipster, grunge element, it's only one subculture that dominates the city. I also saw college students (UW), families, business people heading to work or dining out at restaurants.
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