Gallery goers and party kids will beg to differ, but in the eyes of the Creative Class, Chicago just doesn’t cut it as a bohemian city.
In a recent post at TheAtlantic.com, Creative Class’ Richard Florida ranked the most and least “Bohemian Large Metros” in the US and Canada, using a “Boho Index” charting “the concentration of working artists, musicians, writers, designers, and entertainers” who list these vocations as their primary jobs. LA and New York top the list, followed by Vancouver, Toronto, DC, Nashville, Salt Lake City (SLC still has its punks), Minneapolis – St Paul, San Francisco, and Montreal.
That’s right — we don’t even crack the top 10.
Chicago has the most advertising agencies outside of NYC (and maybe more than NYC). This does not rank us above Nashville? Really? There are more people in Chicago’s Ad Industry than the entire population of Nashville.
brad,
Wonder what those folks list as their “primary jobs.”
There are over 1.5 million people in the Nashville MSA.
I assume the only ad / marketing people included in a study like this are those whose job titles are things like “creative director,” “art director,” “graphic designer,” etc. — I doubt titles like “account executive” or “marketing director” count. And as long as there’s a recording industry, Nashville’s going to be teeming with songwriters and session musicians.