Berkeley is a "creative class mecca"!
Richard Florida, famous for his notion of the "creative class", and his colleague Sara Johnson, use data from the American Community Survey to look at the geography of class — split into creative, service and working class. The recent post on San Francisco also provides data on the broader metropolitan area, and it’s possible to zoom in on Berkeley.
All but six census tracts in Berkeley are primarily creative class, and even in those that are primarily service class, the lowest concentration of creative class residents is 35% — in South Berkeley. According to Florida’s map, the second and fourth highest creative class concentrations in the San Francisco metropolitan area are two of the tracts in the Berkeley hills, both of which have over 80% creative class.
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“Berkeley is a creative class mecca, showing that the great universities are the true hubs of the knowledge economy,” Florida explained to Berkeleyside. “Its high and rising housing prices reflect this. That said, the Bay Area, which is also well on its way to becoming predominantly creative class, is beset by worsening class divides as lower wage service and factory workers do not earn enough to keep up with rising housing prices and costs of living.”
Read the full article on Berkeleyside.com
