August 20, 2010

Illuminate Tallahassee is working to beautify downtown.

The group, consisting of Knight Creative Communities Institute catalysts and other community volunteers, has a vision to light up downtown buildings, creating a skyline, said Michael Campbell, Illuminate Tallahassee chairman.

But there’s a catch.

“When we thought of this idea, we found that it would cause an economic issue,” he said. “Then we decided, let’s have a competition.”

The goal is to create a light display that has the most amount of luminosity using the least amount of power.

The first-place prize is $5,000.

During the competition Nov. 26, contestants will have 8 hours to set up a display themed “The Holidays” in a 10-by-10-foot plot. No batteries allowed; power outlets will be provided.

“This competition is going to force people to be creative,” said David Cartes, director of Florida State University’s Institute for Energy Systems, Economics and Sustainability. “It will be a challenge, but it won’t be too much that granddad can’t do it.”

Campbell said if the committee finds a display that works, the end result could be year-around — lighting one downtown building at a time. However, Campbell is hoping the competition will be annual to keep new ideas coming in.

The competition is open to Florida, Georgia and Alabama residents. Those interested in applying must do so by Sept. 3, with their one-page entry description and plan layout due Oct. 1. For contest rules and to apply, visit www.illuminatetallahassee.com.

August 12, 2010

Wondering where the jobs of the future are going to be? Richard Florida crunched the numbers to create a list of the American cities with the fastest-growing job markets, from New York to Durham to Bethesda.

The U.S. economy can’t seem to catch a break, as the most recent employment numbers showed that the country lost an additional 131,000 jobs. “The job market just stinks,” is how one leading economist summed it up for The New York Times.

Creating jobs is the No. 2 concern of the American people, according to a recent Gallup poll, behind only the economy in general. According to pundits and pollsters, November’s midterm elections are likely to be a referendum on jobs and the economy.

The U.S. has lost an estimated 7.4 million jobs since the onset of the economic crisis. But the economy is on track to create some 15.3 million new jobs looking out to 2018, according to projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. More than 50 million total jobs will become open, as older workers retire and many switch jobs and careers. Total U.S. employment is projected to grow by 10.1 percent over the period, according to the BLS forecast, considerably better than the 7.4 percent growth rate for previous decade (1998-2008), and roughly in line with population growth of 10.7 percent.

But job growth will not be even across all sectors of the economy. Blue-collar jobs in construction, transportation, and factory work will show the slowest growth, adding just one  million jobs, with most of these coming in construction and transportation as factory jobs continue to shrink. About half of total job creation will come from the growth of low-wage service jobs led by fields like home health-care aides, personal aides, food preparation, and retail sales. The other half will come from the growth of higher-skill, higher-wage jobs in knowledge, professional, and creative fields. These structural shifts in the U.S. economy are creating a labor force and society that is growing more unequal.

This economic inequality is increasingly overlaid by a worsening geography of work and class. The economic impact of the crisis has already been harshly uneven geographically, being felt most harshly in older industrial regions like Detroit and Sun Belt cities like Phoenix and Las Vegas. The impact has been easier on spots like Greater Washington, D.C. and in the old-producing regions of Texas and Oklahoma.

But which metro areas will have the most job growth? To get at this, my Martin Prosperity Institute team applied the detailed employment projections of the BLS to U.S. metro regions. The BLS forecasts job trends across 22 major occupational groups, which include more than 822 specific job categories for the decade 2008 through 2018. My MPI team used these BLS national forecasts to generate similar estimates for each of America’s 392 metro regions. We used the BLS overall estimations to predict job growth in each region based on its current mix of jobs.

Rochester, Minnesota, is the biggest percentage gainer, with projected job growth of 12 percent or more. The major hub cities of the Northeast corridor do well, with Greater Washington in second place, Greater New York 15th, and Boston 19th. The D.C. suburb of Bethesda and Trenton-Ewing, a suburb of both New York and Philadelphia, also number among the top 10. College towns, like Charlottesville, Virginia, Gainesville, Florida, Ithaca, New York, Boulder, Colorado, and Corvallis, Oregon, which have performed well over the course of the economic crisis, number among the nation’s top 20 projected job gainers.

Charlotta Mellander crunched the numbers, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics projections.

Richard Florida is director of the University of Toronto’s  Martin Prosperity Institute and author of The Great Reset, published this month by Harper Collins.

July 27, 2010

Remember the Choke at Doak and Free Shoes University? Remember the ankle twisting, eye-gouging, blown calls? Burt Reynolds and Erin Andrews? When it comes to sports, Gainesville and Tallahassee have long been tough competitors who battle for the public’s attention.

But there’s rivalry off the field as well.

When companies look for a college town in which to locate in North Florida, Gainesville and Tallahassee are in the thick of the battle. And for the winner it’s more than just a battle for bragging rights; it’s a competition that can produce high-quality jobs, a stronger economy and opportunities for entrepreneurs and innovative businesses.

To get a better feel for how these two cities might compare in the eyes of appraising business owners, we took at look at their strengths and challenges.

Here’s what we found:

Political Focus
By political affiliation, Gainesville/Alachua County and Tallahassee/Leon County are similar. As of May, Supervisor of Elections Pam Carpenter notes there were 150,309 registered voters in Alachua County: 52 percent Democrat, 28 percent Republican and 20 percent non-affiliated. Leon County’s Ion Sancho registered 178,522 voters: 57 percent Democrat, 27 percent Republican and 17 percent something else. Nevertheless, local elections in both communities tend to be non-partisan—at least on the surface—since candidates may not campaign specifically as Democrats or Republicans.

Despite the similarity in party affiliation, there are significant differences in the make-up of the elected boards in the two communities, and in their focus. Here in Gainesville, the city and county commissions are populated by environmental activists, ministers, several current or former university officials, several long-time politicians and a couple business people. When asked his priorities, new Gainesville Mayor Craig Lowe talks about strengthening neighborhoods, quality of life, transportation and diversifying energy options.

In the city of Tallahassee and Leon County, the dozen commissioners are skewed more toward attorneys, long-time politicians, lobbyists and business people, most without backgrounds in community or environmental activism. Mayor John Marks’ emphasis in Tallahassee is clear: “Economic development is the number one priority. The mayor and city commission are working diligently to encourage, foster and facilitate appropriate economic development efforts.”

Business Advantage: Tallahassee

Taxes
A mil rate is basically the dollar amount of tax per $1,000 of assessed value of property. The mil rate paid by a property in Alachua and Leon Counties is the sum of the county, city and school board, plus any special district such as water management districts.

Local millage is only a portion of each government’s revenues, of course, as municipalities received state sales and corporate income taxes, along with revenues from secondary sources such as parking and jay-walking fines.
Property taxes are about 20 percent lower in Tallahassee/Leon County than in Gainesville/Alachua County, even though the Capital City has levied a special one mil tax in certain downtown zones to fund economic improvement. The sales tax, however, is slightly higher in Tallahassee.

A difficulty that both of these areas face is the great amount of property that is not subject to local taxation, including state, federal and local government properties, non-profit corporations and church properties. About half of the property in Gainesville and Alachua County is exempt, while slightly more than half in Tallahassee and Leon County off the rolls. By contrast, such counties as Marion and St. Johns report that 60 and 70 percent of their properties are taxable.

Business Advantage: Tallahassee

Economic Engines
Sports, education and research have helped drive the economies in both Gainesville and Tallahassee, but the Gators definitely have the edge in these categories.

In sports, four championships in football and basketball in the last four years have given the people of Gainesville years of memories and millions of dollars in revenue. Over in Tally, despite the 9-foot statue of The Bobby, sports has come up short in the last decade with no major national championships since the Seminoles took two football championships in the ’90s.

In education, both cities are filled with students:
UF and Santa Fe College enroll about 68,000 students in Alachua County. The state capital, which has three universities—FSU, Tallahassee Community College and Florida A&M University—has an almost identical number.

The endowments of the Alachua County colleges are greater than those in Leon County; $1.1 billion (Santa Fe has a $36 million endowment) versus $689 million ($570 million for FSU, $88 million for Florida A&M and $31 million for TCC).

Annual operating budgets are approximately the same at the university level: $573 million for UF and $612 for FSU/FAMU. But a portion of UF’s budget is supporting research and agriculture outside Gainesville, so the impact of UF’s dollars is less, locally.

In research, however, Gainesville and UF are clearly several touchdowns ahead of the Tallahassee rivals. According to 2007 statistics compiled by The Center for Measuring University Performance, the UF ranks No. 15 nationally in attracting research support, with a total of $593 million. With $190 million of research funding, FSU is No. 89 and FAMU ($54 million) is not ranked.
Gainesville also has the Shands centers and the regional Veterans Hospital pumping money into the economy.

Business Advantage:  Close, but advantage Gainesville

Economic Development
Instead of taking development as it comes, both Gainesville and Tallahassee have become more proactive in soliciting industry.

The Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce’s recent push for Innovation Gainesville is a prime example of the efforts here to generate jobs and attract companies. But the community has been brewing its own businesses for years, thanks to research at the University of Florida and the region’s very active business incubators. In fact, our area now has more incubators per square mile than any other city in the U.S., says Brent Christensen, chamber president and CEO.

The Gainesville focus is weighted to medical and bio-technology. Along with the two Bigs—the Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator and the Gainesville Technology Enterprise Center—we have Santa Fe College’s Center for Innovation and Economic Development, the fledgling FISE (Florida Institute for Sustainable Energy) at UF, and Synogen, a private incubator founded by Jamie Grooms and Richard Allen, the founders of RTI Biologics.

And more incubators are on the away. Along with the Florida Innovation Hub, which will be built on the old Alachua General Hospital site, the city of Gainesville is planning an incubator. City Manager Russ Blackburn says the city plans to start developing the innovation campus on the 16-acre site east of GRU’s Kelly Generating Station and south of downtown in 2011.

In Tallahassee, the build-your-own business incubation concept has taken hold far more slowly and the focus is different, relying in great part on research at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at FSU (in which UF is a partner), the largest and highest-powered magnet laboratory in the world.

Beyond that, FSU opened its first incubator in renovated buildings in the Commonwealth Center in northwest Tallahassee on June 9. The goal is to provide opportunities for FSU researchers and related start-ups.

“It’s ideal to help grow business,” says Kim Williams, chair of the Economic Development Council. Confirmed tenants are Florida Custom Synthesis (drug-compound development and research); CICEFT, or Cable-in-Conduit, Engineering, Fabrication, and Test (encasing superconducting wire in stainless tubes for use in nuclear facilities); and BioFront (hepatitis C testing kits).

“Space is limited on campus, and there isn’t another place in Tallahassee with laboratories for these types of start-up companies, so we built our own,” says Kirby Kemper, FSU’s vice president for research. “By retrofitting these existing buildings, we have an inexpensive way of establishing a small-business incubator for local companies working with university-generated research.”

Business Advantage: Gainesville, by the score of a typical Urban Meyer-Bobby Bowden football game.

Transportation
When business travelers and commerce want to reach Gainesville, they have ready access to the city through Interstate 75, as well as Gainesville Regional Airport. The 1,650-acre airport is located roughly 10 miles from I-75 and a dozen miles northeast of UF and Shands, which impacts travel to those key destinations. Gainesville airport serves 300,000 passengers annually through Delta. U.S. Air and American Eagle.

In Tallahassee, business travelers have access through Interstate 10 and the 2,743-acre Tallahassee Regional Airport, which is seven miles southeast of downtown, making it marginally more convenient for business travelers. Tallahassee’s one million air passengers are served by four airlines: American Eagle, Continental, Delta and U.S. Air.

Business Advantage: Tallahassee, by half the length of a football.

Quality of Life
The three blocks of SE 1st Street from the Hippodrome Theatre to University Avenue can reasonably be considered the heart of downtown Gainesville. Much of the private property in that area has recently been redeveloped. But there are some rundown buildings and center city is surrounded by a bevy of local government buildings and separated from UF by a mile of strip development and older neighborhoods.

Entertainment here is very dependent on offerings from UF, where everything from the Florida Museum of Natural History’s Butterfly Rainforest to the Curtis M. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts attracting visitors.

Gainesville has worked very hard to put additional monies into its four core redevelopment areas and, with the advancing plans for the Cade Museum of Innovation and other opportunities in the Depot Avenue area, this vision could pay off handsomely when the economy improves.

The Tallahassee picture is more complex, but the economic heart of that city, which is dominated by high rise state office buildings, extends from the state capitol north a half-dozen blocks to West Tennessee/U.S. 90. The downtown area offers the Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science and the Challenger Learning Center with IMAX theater and planetarium. Tallahassee has its share of older properties and poor neighborhoods interspersed along U.S. 90, which was at one time the principal east-west thoroughfare through north Florida.
Tallahassee’s recent redevelopment efforts have focused on the properties between the FSU and FAMU campuses. Gaines Street renewal, in fact, is high on Mayor Marks’ agenda and the homegrown art zone in the McConnell Drive loop, west of Railroad Avenue, is a vital destination.

Business Advantage: Off-campus, Tallahassee has a slight edge.

Regional Economic Initiatives
When then Florida governor Jeb Bush began talking about downsizing state government, it was a wake-up call to Tallahassee, says Mayor Marks.

“Don’t get me wrong. State government is very strong here,” he says, “but we began to look elsewhere to support our economic base.”

As a major part of that initiative, Tallahassee committed to a regional approach to spur growth, says Beth Kirkland, executive director of the Economic Development Council. The council promotes Leon, Gadsden, Jefferson and Wakulla Counties in business initiatives.

According to Marks, the Leon County area has significant eco-tourism potential, especially in cooperation with Wakulla County. “A whole lot of attractions here need promoting,” he says. “We may not be the kind of place where families will come for a week of vacation, but for a day or two there’s plenty to see and do.”

“We also worked with the Stanford Research Institute out of St. Petersburg to develop six sectors of interest,” Kirkland says. Those include:
1. Alternative Energy and Environment
2. Aviation, Aerospace, Defense and National Security (Manufacturing)
3. Health Sciences and Human Performance Enhancement
4. Information Technology
5. Research and Engineering Services
6. Transportation and Logistics

“We mapped these sectors because a misperception about Tallahassee is that we’re the state capital and with state government and two universities we’re all about public sector jobs,” Kirkland says. “That just isn’t necessarily true.”

Gainesville has also crossed the county line to develop a regional economic network. Christensen mentions the Heart of Florida Coalition that is headquartered at College of Central Florida in Ocala (formerly Central Florida Community College) as a driver. Taking a different approach, the coalition has developed seven strategic focus areas:
1. Economic Development
2. Legislative
3. Marketing/Branding
4. Regional Water
5. Regional Transportation
6. Arts, Culture and Recreation
7. Organizational Structure/Funding

To date, the coalition has developed plans and strategies, and hosted summits, workshops and conferences.

Business advantage: Even.

A business wishing to relocate, expand or open its doors in North Florida might very well narrow its choices to Gainesville or Tallahassee.
At that point, the decision on where to go may be up for grabs. If taxes are a concern, Tallahassee has the edge. If access to high-tech, biotech and green energy research is important, Gainesville is clearly the choice. If quality of life is important, both areas have pluses.

Ultimately, development may come down to a few essential benefits: a site that is prepared and available, a streamlined approval process and a critical mass of related businesses.

August 16, 2010

DESTIN — Leon County’s further economic progress will require residents to overcome the challenges that remain, among them the need to build on the area’s sense of community, speakers said during the final segment of the 2010 Annual Community Conference.

In his remarks on the state of the county, County Commissioner John Dailey said the county is headed in the right direction, but his outlook is not as positive as that of other speakers during the weekend.

“We still have tough times ahead of us and it’s important that we pull together as a community,” he told the attendees at the Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa.

He called on the county government, the Economic Development Council of Tallahassee/Leon County and the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce to focus on four priorities: protect the jobs the community has, be ready to assist those local businesses that are poised to expand, work to attract firms that want to relocate to the Tallahassee area and work with the universities on the business resources they have available that support economic growth.

“If we took a snapshot of Leon County today, I would have to tell you that we are on the right track. We are headed in the right direction,” Dailey said.

The commission has cut $38 million from the county budget the past three-plus years, nearly $1 million a month, but has been able to maintain the delivery of core government services. During that time the county has continued its capital expenditures on roads, libraries and development of the joint dispatch center for emergency services.

Still, the future holds much uncertainty, Dailey continued. Unemployment is still too high and consumer confidence remains low.

“Our real estate market is still uncertain and we are possibly headed for a double-dip recession,” he said.

At the state level, the projected state budget deficit is $7 billion to $10 billion.

“If they decide to balance that budget on the backs of local governments, we will feel the impact,” Dailey said of the Florida Legislature. “Now is the time for us to redouble our efforts and very specifically, move together as a community.

“This is not the time for your county government to throw up its hands in the air in frustration and take our marbles and go home,” Dailey added.

Author and consultant Rich Luker continued the emphasis on community in his remarks that followed. He described various factors — ranging from encroaching technology to changing social structures — that prevent true, direct connections among people and therefore impede the further development of community.

Luker, who wrote the book “Building Simple Community,” said Florida is virtually the only place where individuals move from other states, only to connect with and live among others from their home state.

He and his wife found a neighborhood in St. Petersburg where they got a community connection. “I discovered Florida in 2005,” he said.

Others who have had a similar experience come here for the same environment, the same atmosphere, rather than the lure of a job, a real estate opportunity or the space program. He is here because of the people, he said.

“We have got to think and do differently,” Luker challenged the audience. “We become an unbreakable asset through thoughtful acts of kindness.”

The annual conference is sponsored by the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce and was presented this year by telecommunications company CenturyLink. Conference attendee Rob Palmer, projects director for Our Region Tomorrow, said close community connection is something his organization seeks to promote.

“That’s how we look at Our Region Tomorrow. We are conveners. How do we convene the conversation?” Palmer said later. “It could be around mobility. It could be around health. It could be around diversity.”

Together, the region’s cities and towns have assets that will make the region competitive, he added. “Our shared values are so much more important than the differences.”

August 15, 2010

Speakers at Chamber conference discuss existing collaboration, importance of regional communities

DESTIN — Tallahassee’s economic future is closely tied to the success of the region in the years ahead — a theme stressed Saturday by the CEO of Workforce Florida and other speakers at the 2010 Annual Community Conference.

Because of competitive pressures, however, it is often difficult for communities to work together as a region. The answer, Hart told the conference attendees, is forming collaborative partnerships.

Hart gave examples of collaboration already in place and working — Our Regional Tomorrow, Tallahassee Community College’s programs for developing a regional workforce, and the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering that is positioned to support the aviation and aerospace field, an industry identified for its future growth potential in Northwest Florida.

The conference, sponsored by the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce and presented this year by telecommunications company CenturyLink, brought together business and community leaders from throughout the Tallahassee area.

“We need economic diversification. Tourism is a blessing. Agriculture is a blessing,” Hart told the breakfast audience at the Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa. “We rely on these. Defense we have to work for, and we are going to have to work to grow those other (industry) clusters. So what’s the best way to do that? Regionalism.”

He called Florida’s regions the “new economic development athletes” and said it is through them that economies will grow, but most communities are unaccustomed to working at that level. “It is difficult for us to work regionally. We have to work at being a region,” said Hart, formerly senior vice president of external affairs and investor relations at Enterprise Florida.

Partnerships allow communities to work on common problems and mutual goals. Hart stressed the importance of vision and leadership in communities charting the course they wish to take. “What are your aspirations? Where do you want to be? And guess what, you’ve been doing that already.”

At a conference session later on Regional Economic Engines, Janet Watermeier of the Bay County Economic Development Alliance talked about the importance of regional cooperation. She facilitated the state’s first economic development plan that had a regional focus.

“We are not independent communities,” she said of Northwest Florida. “We will fight like the devil when we are competing against each other for the same project, and that is expected. That’s what we should do.”

But the region’s communities don’t compete that often, Watermeier said. What’s more likely to occur is for her to refer a business lead or promote a resource elsewhere in the region “because I know that we will collectively all work better.”

At lunch, Florida A&M University President James Ammons gave another view of the region and the vision for a proposed College of Dental Medicine to serve Northwest Florida.

“We are not independent communities,” she said of Northwest Florida. “We will fight like the devil when we are competing against each other for the same project, and that is expected. That’s what we should do.”

But the region’s communities don’t compete that often, Watermeier said. What’s more likely to occur is for her to refer a business lead or promote a resource elsewhere in the region “because I know that we will collectively all work better.”

At lunch, Florida A&M University President James Ammons gave another view of the region and the vision for a proposed College of Dental Medicine to serve Northwest Florida.

August 12, 2010

To help keep students in the community after graduation, the Knight Creative Communities Initiative, Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce, universities and community college have joined forces to create a internship manual for local employers.

The project is called Talent Lives Here, part of KCCI’s 2009-10 Catalyst Class efforts where volunteers work to address various issues relating to the local economy.

The manual, “Talent Lives Here Employer Internship Toolkit,” is a 24-page online guide that includes sample evaluation forms, interview questions, time sheets and other essentials.

Allie VanLandingham, KCCI community catalyst and TLH volunteer, said research shows that four times more students stay in Tallahassee if they have a local internship.

“In conversations with staff from FSU, FAMU and TCC, we found that their students prefer more local choices for internships,” VanLandingham said. “We recognized an opportunity to aid local organizations in creating these valuable internship programs where they can begin to recruit local talent.”

Some local firms make internships a priority.

“There is an abundance of talent within the institutions of higher learning in North Florida,” said Blake Dowling, director of sales at Aegis Business Technologies, one of the first partners in the TLH initiative. “We take advantage of this talent and in turn, help a young student get on the right path with their career in technology or business. This initiative streamlines the internship process for the private sector and will be a great resource to all businesses in our community.”

To view the toolkit visit, http://accesstallahassee.com/jobs/internships/.

The Talent Lives Here – or TLH – initiative is a partnership between KCCI, the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce, FSU, FAMU and TCC to help local organizations develop internship programs for area college students. The centerpiece of the program is the TLH Employer Internship Toolkit, a written manual designed to help local businesses create or improve internship programs. The toolkit is now available online at http://accesstallahassee.com/jobs/internships/.

“In conversations with staff from FSU, FAMU and TCC, we found that their students prefer more local choices for internships,” said Allie VanLandingham, KCCI community catalyst and TLH team member. “We recognized an opportunity to aid local organizations in creating these valuable internship programs where they can begin to recruit local talent.”

The TLH initiative was created by the 2009-2010 KCCI Catalyst Class to address research that shows that students who participate in a local internship are more likely to receive full‐time employment and remain in the area. Research conducted by Leadership Tallahassee and funded by a grant from the Knight Foundation showed that only 27 percent of all local college graduates from 2004 to 2006 are still living in the Tallahassee area, and Tallahassee performs lower than the national average on the Brain Drain Index – a measure of a community’s ability to attract and retain talented workers.

“There is an abundance of talent within the institutions of higher learning in North Florida,” said Blake Dowling, director of sales at Aegis Business Technologies, one of the first partners in the TLH initiative. “We take advantage of this talent and in turn help a young student get on the right path with their career in technology or business. This initiative streamlines the internship process for the private sector and will be a great resource to all businesses in our community.”

“Keeping talented graduates in our area is key to economic growth and one of the top priorities of KCCI,” said Laurie Hartsfield, executive director of the Knight Creative Communities Institute. “Our community catalysts have worked this year to build strong ties between local organizations and institutions of higher learning, because those relationships are important to ensuring a strong pipeline of talented workers in Tallahassee.”

The TLH Employer Internship Toolkit is a start-to-finish guide for organizations interested in hiring interns from local colleges and universities. The information in the toolkit covers planning, recruitment, screening, orientation, management, training and evaluation.

“When we retain our talent in the greater Tallahassee area, the entire business community wins,” said Sue Dick, president of the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce. “As this initiative takes much of the work, research and guessing out of finding an intern, I am excited to see local businesses embrace this new offering.”

“Capital Events, Inc.’s internship program utilizes talented students from local colleges and universities to produce high quality events throughout Florida,” said Jason Zaborske, owner of Capital Events. “The KCCI Internship Toolkit will help us and other small businesses find the appropriate college/university contacts to start and maintain a quality internship program.”

“The TLH initiative has been embraced by many local businesses already, and we hope to see it grow as more companies find valuable interns and new hires,” Hartsfield said.

About the Knight Creative Communities Institute
The Knight Creative Communities Institute strives to bring unprecedented economic benefits to the region by attracting and retaining members of the creative sector, which will in turn benefit the state as a whole by creating jobs and transforming the state capital into a thriving economic region. For more, visit www.kccitallahassee.com.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes excellence in journalism worldwide and invests in the vitality of the U.S. communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects with the potential to create transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.

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College Town

July 9, 2010

It’s a strange thing growing up in Tallahassee and coming of age in its music scene, as I did. I’ve witnessed so much unique talent here, I’ve come to think there’s something very special, even eccentric, about this town. We don’t get a lot of outsiders defining us in any sort of context, so that eccentricity is both unexpressed and hard to express.

Maybe it’s the geographical isolation and the lack of a big city-type music scene, supported by an arts economy with lots of inspiring success stories, that makes our music scene turn inward, forcing us to build something ourselves.

Surely, it has something to do with the creative freedom that’s inherent in a college town like ours. Here, we’re closer to the idea that in life we never stop learning, never stop experimenting, and our music scene reflects that.

The reason I’m most tempted to give, however, is that the South just has a mojo to it that compares to no other place in the world, and Tallahassee is undeniably a part of that. There’s so much untapped talent lying in wait among the workplaces, churches, high schools, colleges and youth leagues in our area.

But when you think of where cultural hubs and artistic opportunities are in the United States, your default answer won’t be a college town our size. You may not even think of a Southern city at all. The most common, and obvious, answer is New York or Los Angeles. But for about two centuries before the New York-L.A. axis became a given, New Orleans was a giant cultural hub and America’s most diverse cultural center, making major contributions to two of the most profound musical genres any society has ever given humankind — blues and jazz.

Tallahassee exists in the wake of that primordial stew of Americana. I’m a fan of the Greil Marcus-coined term “Old, Weird America.” Its spirit definitely exists in NOLA’s blues and jazz, but it’s also present in a more modern form in Atlanta’s rap music, Nashville’s country and Memphis’s soul and rock ‘n’ roll. Those cities may get a lot more national attention than we do, but Tallahassee’s badges of honor are nothing to sneeze at. We’re the home of T-Pain, Dead Prez and the Adderley brothers. We have Florida A&M’s Marching 100 and are the namesake of Freddy Cannon’s “Tallahassee Lassie.”

It’s not super glamorous, but it’s ours. We have all kinds of music coursing through our streets and souls, and we’re blessed to be so close to such an original, primal source. Below you’ll find just some of what you can move to and be moved by on any given week in Tallahassee. Offerings include electronica, hard rock, heavy metal, synth pop, blues, indie rock, folk and way more. Some of these artists are sticking around, some just passing through. Either way, please show them your support and enjoy.

To see the remainder of this article, visit the Tallahassee Democrat by clicking here.

By Kimberley K. Yablonski

Originally published in the June/July 2010 issue of 850 Magazine

In today’s struggling economy, one would expect funding for the arts to have taken a big hit and, in many cases, it has. However, a recent study gives arts advocates the ammunition they need to show local and state leaders that the visual and cultural arts provide an unparalleled opportunity to deliver real benefits to the local economy — and with an impressive return on investment.

The study, conducted by the national nonprofit Americans for the Arts, revealed that nonprofit arts and culture in Leon County generates $7.5 million a year in revenue, which supports about 2,700 full-time equivalent jobs. The report, “Arts & Economic Prosperity III,” also concluded that the nonprofit arts and culture organizations spend about $42.1 million a year and generate $32.4 million in additional spending by audiences who partake at local restaurants, hotels, retail stores, parking garages and, for local residents, may even pay a babysitter.

“The arts is an unusual industry in that it has a double opportunity to generate economic impact, not only with the product, such as a musical event, but it is a double whammy because it produces an audience, and that audience generates further economic impact,” said Peggy Brady, executive director of the Council on Culture and Arts for Tallahassee and Leon County (COCA).

Americans for the Arts, with offices in Washington, D.C., and New York City, celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. In conducting the economic impact study, the organization put a call out for participating regions to identify their complete universe of nonprofit arts and culture organizations. In Leon County, 70 of the 121 total eligible nonprofit arts and culture organizations responded to the detailed survey, which asked for information on budgets and spending.

Audiences were also surveyed, a unique aspect of the report that helps paint a clearer picture of the spending habits of attendees. In Leon County, 836 audience members from various nonprofit events were surveyed. The study is unusual in this way, Brady noted, because it captured data from the audience.

“We’ve always known the arts impact tourism, but it is very telling to see how much economic impact is generated from local citizens in the arts,” she said.

Non-local attendees of arts events help bolster cultural tourism, which harnesses even greater economic rewards. Non-local audiences spend twice as much as their local counterparts, the report concluded.

“The arts help the economy in a number of ways,” said Lee Daniel, executive director of Visit Tallahassee. “First, with my tourism hat on, the arts are a very important reason people travel and visit a destination. The cultural arts are a segment that has held up very well in this economy. Having a vibrant visual and performing arts product really helps me to encourage travel to Tallahassee.”

In Florida, the connection between tourism and jobs is compelling. Every 85 visitors into the state equals one job, according to Daniel. In addition, from 20–25 percent of all sales-tax dollars are related to tourism, he added.

“These are local businesses that create jobs,” Daniel said. “I think they also foster well-educated work forces, enhance our quality of life and, as part of that, they make Tallahassee a much more attractive place to relocate or visit.”

Brady further pointed out that this study only examined the nonprofit arts sector, noting that if the commercial arts sector had also been included the impact would have been even greater.

“We don’t usually hear the words ‘small business’ or ‘entrepreneur’ in relation to the arts, but that is what many are,” she said. “An artist is a small-business owner whose product is their own work. We overlook that sometimes. Private artists were not included in the study or commercial art, music or dance studios. They are all kinds of businesses related to the arts in a private, commercial way.”

The Leon County arts and cultural organizations that participated in the study ranged from the larger, better-known events and venues, such as the Tallahassee Film Festival, Seven Days of Opening Nights and the Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science, to a variety of art galleries, museums, choirs, writers and poetry clubs, and even a belly-dancing group. The Council on Culture and Arts for Tallahassee and Leon County has created the “More Than You Thought” website (MoreThanYouThought.com), which lives up to its name with a multitude of listings of arts and cultural events in Tallahassee, categorized by month or event type.

“When a business is looking to relocate, they often are surprised at the breadth of arts we have here,” Brady said. “They will often comment on how we have a Bach parley. These things send a message about the community as well. The different types of arts-related activities are also important — the kinds of things for kids, for example, such as Young Actors Theatre and the Tallahassee Youth Orchestra. You evaluate the arts from many, many different perspectives.”

The study did not use a multiplier, which estimates the number of times a dollar changes hands within a community and makes “gross estimates of the industries within the local economy,” Americans for the Arts pointed out. For example, the report states that if the arts are a $10 million industry and a multiplier of three is used, then it is estimated that the total economic impact is $30 million. The problem with this assumption is its reliability.

“It was a pure economic survey,” Brady said. “We got a 65-percent respondent rate, which is very good, but there is still another 40 percent that did not respond. The report is not telling the whole story.”

The arms-length review adds validity to the findings.

“It has opened a lot of eyes,” Brady said. “COCA did not do this study ourselves. It was analyzed by engineers at Georgia Tech, not us. The report had an excellent random sample and didn’t use a multiplier, which makes it more impressive.”

Despite the statistical good news, there is no denying that the struggling economy has taken a toll on the area’s arts community. Daniel said it has affected every nonprofit arts organization he knows.

“A number of nonprofits are undergoing difficult times right now,” he said. “I know it has been extremely challenging for an awful lot of visual and performing arts organizations. Hopefully, we are starting to see an uptick and will see the market start more in earnest in 2011. I’m optimistic. I think the worst is behind us, but it will be a slow recovery.”

Brady said that much is driven by the public’s perception of the state of the economy — not necessarily reality.

“The arts and culture in this area are booming while they are suffering at the same time,” she said. “Some audiences have increased and, in some cases, they’ve decreased. From a giving perspective, the arts have been significantly affected. The bad market has trickled down, and many of the philanthropists who donate large amounts have seen their sources hit by the market. And their sources have significantly dried up, so they are able to do less.”

For leaders of art-related nonprofits, efforts to secure funding can mean make-or-break for their organization’s future.

“The government does not provide the largest amounts of money to the arts, but their funding is leverage for other funding,” Brady said. “There are many who misunderstand how the money is allocated. The arts entities compete in a very competitive application process for local funding, and those applications are reviewed by a citizen panel. It is not just handed out.

“We’ve seen disastrous effects from the state that are legislatively driven,” she added. “Clearly everyone has to make these incredible cuts and the priorities have to be set, and it is a very difficult thing. We have to educate leaders that the arts aren’t a frill. Our local governments, city and county, have seen that the return on their investment is gigantic. I’m not sure there is any other industry that can say that.”

Many people, Brady said, consider arts as the icing on the cake, overlooking them as a source of economic stability for local economies. She pointed to the Depression years, when “people turned to music and other forms of art as a way to get together in a social setting. The arts bring people together which, in turn, creates an economic impact.”

In his overall assessment of the findings, Robert L. Lynch, the president and CEO of Americans for the Arts, may have said it best: “Understanding and acknowledging the incredible economic impact of the nonprofit arts and culture, we must always remember their fundamental value. They foster beauty, creativity, originality and vitality. The arts inspire us, soothe us, provoke us, involve us and connect us. But they also create jobs and contribute to the economy.”