How to attract the hip, the affluent, the well-educated

I moved to Boulder in 1991, so I have been living the lifestyle written about in this New York Times article for more than 15 years. Boulder is all about smart people working and playing hard.

And it has always been this way. People come to Colorado during the boom times: gold and silver in the 1800s; oil and real estate in the 1980s; high tech in the 2000s.

And when the inevitable busts come, people like it here so much they decide to stay, even if they have to switch careers to do so. Denver Mayor Hickenlooper is just such an example. He came to Denver in 1981 as a geologist working for a petroleum company. When the oil bust came, he stayed and started Wynkoop Brewing Company, the first brewpub in the Rocky Mountains. The Wynkoop group grew to eventually include seven Denver restaurants and a brewpub in Colorado Springs. Then in 2003 he became Mayor. (You can read more about it here).

In 1999, I started writing about the Colorado venture capital/high tech/start-up scene for Courtney Pulitzer's CyberScene, ColoradoBiz magazine, and eMileHigh.

One of the founders of eMileHigh was Brad Spirrison. He came out from Chicago to start it and hired me. When the dot-com bust hit Colorado and the money ran out, we folded eMileHigh and he returned to work at the parent company in Chicago.

Still, we always had a vision of mobilizing Colorado's wealthy young entrepreneurs into a lifestyle/cultural/business/political force. Brad called them "the progressive leisure class."

It's happening now. Colorado went Democratic this year in part because young dot-com millionaires funded progressive agendas.

As for lifestyle, the action/winter/outdoor sports part of Colorado has been part of the culture for decades, but the music scene is now exploding as well.

Personally I haven't seen a lot of cross-pollinization between the wealthy young entrepreneurs and the local indie music scene yet (they are more likely to go to SXSW than go to the local clubs), but having a hip local scene is still good to have to draw others to the area.

The next step is to have more money following into the local music scene to support and grow it. The rich Colorado movers-and-shakers who made their money in the 1960s-1980s bought sports teams as hobbies. I'm hoping the rich from the 2000s buy clubs and sponsor bands instead.

Cities Compete in Hipness Battle to Attract Young - New York Times: "Mobile but not flighty, fresh but technologically savvy, 'the young and restless,' as demographers call them, are at their most desirable age, particularly because their chances of relocating drop precipitously when they turn 35. Cities that do not attract them now will be hurting in a decade. ...

"They are people who, demographers say, are likely to choose a location before finding a job. They like downtown living, public transportation and plenty of entertainment options. They view diversity and tolerance as marks of sophistication....

"In addition to Atlanta, the biggest gainers in market share of the young and restless were San Francisco; Denver; Portland; and Austin, Tex. The biggest losers included Washington, Philadelphia, New York and Los Angeles."

creative class
Denver
Atlanta
music scene
economic development
indie
clubs
live music