Human statues on Las Ramblas
I read in Juan Freire’s blog that the magazine Fast Company publishes in its July issue the 2007 ranking of the most creative, innovative, and cool cities on the planet, what they call “Fast Cities.” The ranking was prepared based on studies by the think tank of Richard Florida, the Creative Class Group. For those who don’t know what all the fuss is about, Juan Freire explains it superficially but in a fairly illustrative way and even mentions some of the criticisms that are usually made of the theory of ‘creative cities’; among them, we highlight the lack of attention shown by urban managers/strategists towards local contexts so that the “native” population develops its creative potential, in favor of mechanisms that seek to attract the nomadic and globalized creative class. And not only that, attention should be paid to the ways in which these city policies affect the population in general, including those people whose work is far from being creative.
Well, the funny thing about the whole matter is that the ranking is divided into several sections: ‘meccas of the creative class’, ‘global villages’, ‘R&D clusters’, ‘high tech hot spots’… and among other categories, there is the ‘cultural center’, which includes Dakar, Miami and… Barcelona! Yes, sir, this is where we were going to end up… a city in which “by 2010 there will be a statue less than 200 meters from each resident”.
