Place, Community, New Economy Our most desirable cities have a high tech/arts ratio. Surprise. When you parse the data the cities that are thriving have open minds and a yearn to learn. “The importance of cities developing a creative class was popularized by urban studies theorist Richard Florida in his book, “The Rise of the Creative Class.” Florida argued that a large base of highly-skilled, creative workers would thrive, and, importantly, choose to continue living in a city that has arts and other cultural attractions. An analysis of Yelp! data shows that most of the cities on this list contain a high share of cultural venues such as theaters, galleries, and museums. In general, the cities with the largest creative classes have the largest number of these cultural venues per capita.” “…To identify the 30 cities with the largest creative classes, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed 2017 employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Standard Occupational Classification system. We combined total employment in each metropolitan area in occupations that we determined to be creative occupations. The share of adults with a bachelor’s degree is from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, and is for 2017. The number of patents granted is from The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.” Article: America’s Most Creative Cities