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Email ThisAs cash cows go, Gen Y is a big one, and cities are ignoring us – the young leaders, entrepreneurs, professionals and creatives – in their plans for economic development.Partnering with Gen Y should be of the utmost priority for cities since we are uniquely positioned to stimulate economic development. For example:
1. Good jobs come from good people. Economic development starts with human capital. The war for talent is one of the most interesting and challenging issues that cities face today. Young people actively promote and contribute to the high quality of life in cities, and need to be able to connect to both people and ideas. We are the quality workforce that is indispensable to basic sector job growth. Without a strong cadre of young talent, employers will be unable to expand.
2. Competitive advantage starts with entrepreneurship. More than any other generation, young people today are entrepreneurs. To meet the small business owners, the tenants of research parks, and other key entrepreneurs in cities is to meet an under forty demographic. There is ample opportunity to provide dynamic support for young entrepreneurs and the talent coming out of universities. Young entrepreneurs are a powerful determinant of a city’s future economy. They cannot be an afterthought.
3. To new customers, cities have no legacy. Gen Y knows little about the negative perceptions that have been prevalent within the business community. We don’t know the history or the mistakes. This is an opportunity for cities to build positive goodwill through superior customer service for this new generation. Young people can help cities to think innovatively. Cities can then borrow that energy and willingness to change to jump-start a perception shift in the existing business community.
4. Spiky should be funded. Place is extremely important to Gen Y and largely determines our destiny in today’s spiky world, to borrow a term from Richard Florida. To become a taller spike in the world’s economy – to compete – cities needs to attract young talent. In turn, young people will develop businesses and new markets. Cities should allocate money to young talent groups that promote and build upon the city’s strengths and spikiness to create the competitive advantage that allows us to expand business.
Cities must proactively reach out to Gen Y. Young people represent growth, and must be engaged in a city’s future development. We are a natural partner and ally in stimulating economic development.
Talent city.
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6. Good jobs, competitive business atmospheres, new customers and spikiness come from lower taxes and better business environments. Electing pro-business, tax-cutting conservatives is a good start.
Note: Barack Obama is the antithesis of what is mentioned above.
@Anon: maybe, but the legacy thing (point 3) trumps your comment–all us thinking people (Gen Y + others) know that “pro-business, tax-cutting conservatives” are not innovative or willing to “shift perspectives.” And Obama IS the political model for shifting perspective and inspiring change to different ways of thinking.
@ Anon - it’s interesting, because Madison, for instance, is quite liberal politically, and we’re listed on the top city lists consistently, but certainly I believe we have more work to do. I feel many economic development plans don’t focus on community deveolpment issues, and perhaps it is this piecemeal approach that allows neither area to grow spikes? I don’t know the answer, but it’s certainly interesting to discuss! Thanks for the comment.
@ jaywigley - I tend to agree here. In today’s economy, we’re going to have to constantly be changing and be open to new perspectives in order to succeed. Those who use only what worked in the past won’t move forward.
Politics aside, I think the bigger issue is the fact that so many of our businesses now don’t really require a “space” to call home. So much of today’s interaction is done with ’social’ media, which gives me the opportunity to do a job in Boston while living in St. Petersburg, Florida.
I think it’s much more important to be near family than anything else.
Rebecca, you make a good case for why young people are an important demographic in cities and your points illustrate your argument well. I’d like to learn more about why you think that cities are ignoring us in economic development plans. Is this because young people are not directly involved in this sort of planning? I think it’s an interesting observation…
Governments are not the natural partner for economic growth - it is businesses.
And that’s hard for a lefty like me to admit at times.
Given that fact, the way Gen Y has to plug in to growth is to plug into business by offering good ideas to the marketplace by working at existing companies, or by building something of value which will attract venture capital.
No one - not government and not business - is going to offer blank checks to nebulous groups of young people to develop ideas that don’t yet exist. It is the cart before the horse. For a historical example of why this did not work, research the history of the Beatles’ company Apple Corps.
Lesson to Gen Y - your potential only counts for something when you have actually demonstrated results for products and services.
You need to cater yourselves to the current culture as well. This is a two way street.
@ Norcross - I think you’d enjoy reading some of Richard Florida’s new writings. He argues that this notion that the world is flat and that we don’t require a “space to call home” is wrong, and in reality, place is extremely important, and the world is instead spiky. This backs up the other part of your arguement that it’s important to be near family.
If people can work from anywhere, why do they continue to work in certain places? Place is a huge determinant of many other things, and cities should realize and act like they’re important. And they should also realize that a big reason of why they’re important is because of young talent. Thanks for the thoughtful comment!
@ Jaclyn - It comes from the fact that I read my city’s recently-completed economic development plan on Tuesday night.
It’s the first one they’ve completed since I was born (1983), fifty pages (I can’t believe I actually read the whole thing), and neglects young people in my opinion. It was interesting to me that we met with a city representative to ensure that young people and entrepreneurship specifically were involved in the plan, but it didn’t turn out that way. To be fair, the city did offer to hold a special listening session for young people, but it would have cost $2500, and the timing was rushed. They also have community-wide listening sessions coming up, so I will be at those.
So yes, how can we get young people more involved in the planning? Bigger efforts need to be made on both the city’s and the young people’s end. Whew! Sorry for the rant.
Anyway, I don’t think my city is alone. Cities all over the country and the world are clamoring to be bigger, better, but there aren’t a ton of cities that concentrate on catering to young people as a viable economic development strategy. That should change.
@ Steve - sorry, we must have been writing our comments at the same time! This is where it starts to get confusing to me, because while I agree, I also believe that cities are able to build and encourage climates that will help young people and business.
I strongly believe that there isn’t any one natural partner, but rather we need to take a systems approach and all work together. We aren’t do any favors to our end goals by pushing each other into corners.
And while I agree that it’s a two-way, or three or five-way street, I believe young people are already consistently proving themselves. At the research park in my city and in the small business strips, the majority of the innovators, researchers, founders and up and comers are under forty. And not just in small markets, but in crucial basic sector markets.
We’re already making postive economic change. Cities and others should recognize that.
When looking at economic development in the cities I believe you also have to balance that development with making funds available for the arts, social activities, libraries, parks, etc. You want to attract talented workers and they want a work - life balance that includes quality of life activities within the city or close to the city. Probably off topic for an economic development post but I don’t think you can look at economic development in a vacuum either since as you say it starts with human capital.
I wouldn’t say that cities are ignoring Millennials. All cities want to have young adults move in. It ensures the sustainability of the city. However, i think the point is that Millennials are young ADULTS. There’s no “Welcome Week” for adulthood.