The Creative City: A Toolkit for Urban Innovators By Charles Landry In early June The New York Times reported that US city mayors now faced the problem that city living is becoming too popular with the resulting sprawl and high cost of living proving difficult for newcomers, residents and public servants unable to afford decent accommodation. Not all American cities are like this, and old problems of city decline remain. For all cities, prosperous and in decline, change is an ever-present opportunity, though rarely exploited, and is intensifying with social, technological, economic and political factors overturning all the old rules of city organisation and development. What is true is that those cities that are creative - in what they do, how they do this, and whom they involve - can prosper. The critical question is how to make cities creative and sustainable as even successful creative cities decline. Comedia has worked on these issues for years. The Creative City is a summary of this work and springboard for future activity for us all. Landry mines his consultancy experience well. His case studies, of cities and towns, and especially of Huddersfield and Helsinki, illustrate how change can be introduced and sustained with success. From the preconditions of creativity - will and leadership, organisational culture, identity and networking, amongst others - through to ensuring lasting change, The Creative City shows that we can rebuild our cities and make them creative, with creativity being a source of regeneration. This is a rich book, one that should be used by all stakeholders in creative city development - and not just urban planners.
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Creative City Over the last few years a body of work has begun to emerge, and is continuing to develop, on the role of creativity in urban social and economic development. There are publications, case studies, project evaluations and conference papers on this and on related areas. It is a debate that is continuing at a local, regional and national level and increasingly informing policy. The Creative City is one of the earlier explorations of this theme. As such, it remains an excellent starter for ten on the broad and complex subject of the potential role of creativity in urban development. It is a short and accessible read. There are plenty of specific examples of projects and good practice in a huge range of cities, providing stepping stones through the theory for the reader. The opening chapter contains some easily digestible chunks on the history of urban development which I found particularly useful and interesting background. The exploration of the nature of creativity I found incomplete and less convincing, however, it is probably enough in the context of the book, if not for a wider debate. The solid heart of the book, I think, is in the section which explores a comprehensive range of examples. The examples given of good practice, of interesting and life changing projects, are drawn from an international arena. We move from Europe to Australia and back again to the Elephant and Castle before a quick look to Russia and the US. An impressive range of research and knowledge is condensed in this section, under several themes, creating a really interesting, engaging and concentrated picture of global good practice. As a whole, I found the attempts in the publication to provide simple and absolute solutions to the problems of urban life less satisfactory than its exploration of those problems. It is also a little harsh in terms of a somewhat two dimensional representation of those with the responsibility of running cities. However, the examples of 'who is being creative and where' are wide ranging and informative, and I think this is a useful publication to read and use as a precursor to understanding more current work, thinking and practice.
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