By: Cynthia Kurtz
Posted: 4/30/2014
I enjoy stories about cities. What cities have the best food, best schools, and best shopping? The problem is that most of these stories are about big cites. If you aren’t Seattle, Atlanta, Chicago or Los Angeles, you get passed over. And that means the great cities in the SGV don’t get noticed.
Recently Movoto - an on-line real estate brokerage based in San Mateo, CA and famous for its list of “best” of everything about cites - discovered that there were good things to note about mid-size cities too. While visiting a mid-size California city, author Natalie Grigson was amazed at the creative energy she discovered. She decided to explore further.
Her discoveries uncovered creative cities about which we are already familiar but were new to many of her readers.
The #2 most creative city in the whole U.S.A - none other than Pasadena, CA. Coming in at #22, our neighbor, the City of Glendale. Not quite in the SGV but we did let them have one of our best city managers, Scott Ochoa. Also making the list at # 39, Pomona.
So what makes a creative city? Ms. Grigson didn’t have the time to visit all the mid-size cities so she based her rankings on data from the U.S. Census and Department of Labor. Her seven criteria were:
1. Art supply stores per capita. That makes sense. Creative folks have to have supplies and the stores are going to go where they know the creative folks shop.
2. Musical instruments stores and music teachers per capita. Turns out that there was a close relationship between music and art stores. Cities that scored high in one were apt to score high in both. Glendale was the exception -- off the charts with music stores but low on art stores. All I can figure is that those Glendale painters must be slipping over to Pasadena for their brushes.
3. Galleries per capita. You need a place to view and buy all that creative work so galleries are important. Here is where Pomona shined. It has lots of places to view art.
4. Art schools per capita. It is no surprise that Pasadena ranked #1 in the country with 21 art schools. When you have Art Center College of Design, it is no wonder that other schools want to be close to the best.
5. Book stores per capita. Pasadena was numero uno again. You only have to spend an afternoon in Vroman’s Bookstore to know that Pasadenans love their books.
6. Colleges and universities per capita. The colleges and universities in the SGV are famous for their creativity and innovation. This ranking was based on having the most, but not judging the best. If the latter had been the criterion - with schools like CalPoly Pomona, Mt. Sac, Caltech and PCC - we would have ranked even higher.
7. Theaters and performing art centers per capita. Of course a creative city needs places to act out all that creative energy. Pasadena was once again the leader with 69 theaters, more than any other mid-size city.
Congratulations to all three cities. We already knew you were creative but it is nice to let the rest the world know as well.
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