Is The Quality Of A Place Important?

http://www.citylab.com

Fourth of July fireworks
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Hello Everyone:

Before we get started on today's subject about the relevance of quality of place, Blogger just wants to acknowledge that we have reached the 100,000 page view mark.  Woo hoo.  Thank you so very much for your continued support, it really does mean a lot.  What started as simply a "keep busy" project has become something so special.  Yours truly always looks forward to that time of the day, when Blogger can sit down and talk to you about architecture, historic preservation, urban planning and design.  Cheers to the first 100,000 and onward to the next 100,000 and so on.

Aerial view of Washington D.C.
loc.gov

Shall we begin?  When you consider moving to a city, what kinds of amenities do you consider?  Museums, parks, historic places?  In a recent article for CityLab, "Why Quality of Place Matters," Richard Florida writes, "For years, cities measured their success in purely economic terms-jobs created, rising incomes and wages, the number of corporate headquarters, or the extent of high-tech industries,"  However, emphasis on the quality of life has entered the place-making conversations in cities throughout the United States.

Cities have invested in amenities such as better parks, more bicycle lanes, arts and cultural venues as a way to attract and keep talent and increase residents's level of happiness.  Mr. Florida writes, "These quality-of-place amenities were once thought of as an afterthought or something that happens after places get rich."  We are now aware that cultural, institutional, and recreational amenities play a primary role in attracting highly-skilled knowledge-based economy workers to the cities, "bringing economic growth with them."

Skeptics have looked askance at these strategies and urged municipalities to concentrate on employment and traditional economic development.  Richard Florida asks, "Can quality-of-place strategies aid in building stronger, more economically vibrant communities, or are they a fad and a waste of money?"

Two recent studies closely examine at the function quality-of-place factors, dissecting their effect on small and medium-size cities; young versus elderly people.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
lonelyplanet.com

Quality of place in smaller places

Quality of place is usually considered the function of large cities and metropolitan areas.  Conventional wisdom holds, "...simply by virtue of their size, larger places have more to offer."

A recent study, Placemaking as an Economic Development Strategy for Small and Midsize Cities (journals.sagepub.com; accessed Feb. 21, 2017) authored by Janet Kelly, Matt Ruther, Sarah Ehresman, and Bridget Nickerson, provides an empirical analysis of the impact of quality of place determinants on small and medium-sized metropolitans (250,000 to 500,000 inhabitants) and 83 mid-range metropolitans (500,000 to 2.5 million residents).

The study focused on 23 elements of quality of place-not only cultural amenities, but also important quality-of-life-measures: crime rates and housing costs; population indicators: diversity or university matriculation.  The study divides the elements into six primary quality-of-place determinants: crime rates, entertainment, density, diversity, housing, and knowledge workers.

Culpepper, Virginia
map.net

The study followed these components from 2000 to 2013, looking at the impact in three primary results: overall change in the population aged 25 and older, the number of adults with a university degree, and the size of the university-educated population between 25 and 34 years-old.

Mr. Florida writes, "Overall, the authors find that quality of plays a bigger role in medium-sized metros than in small ones.  For medium-sized metros, the quality-of-place variable explained between 38 percent and 58 percent of the variance in outcomes."

That aside, the situation changes when it comes attracting university-educated adults.  Here, both small and medium-sized metropolitans reap the benefits from greater density; the latter metropolitan also experienced significant benefits from greater entertainment options and lower crime rates,  Greater density, in medium-sized metropolitans, was a magnet for university-educated adults.  Mr. Florida notes, "Surprisingly, for both small and medium-sized metros, density was negatively associated with overall with population growth."

Portland, Oregon
travelandleisure.com

Even more surprising and counterintuitive was the conclusion that a large concentration concentration  knowledge-based worker is "...negatively associated with the ability to attract young college-educated people in both small and medium-sized metros."  This result, the study noted, "...may reflect the simple fact that such metro already have high levels of college-educated young people and thus have experienced small rates of growth of them."

Overall larger population increase in mid- to small-cities in the southern and western metropolitans, compared to the Northeast and Midwest's greater share of university-educated residents, uncovers a key element to successful talent magnets.  It infers that amenities do make a difference as an attraction for young talent to non-boldfaced cities.  For this demographic group, "...amenities inform moving decisions nearly as much as low crime rates or housing availability."

Madison, Wisconsin capitol building
moot.com

Quality of place and happiness across age groups

A second study, Happiness and health across the lifespan in five major cities: The impact of place and government performance by Michael J. Hogan, Kevin M. Leyden,...Phoebe E. McKenna-Plumley (http://www,sciencedirect.com; date accessed Feb. 21, 2017) studies the link between quality of place and happiness.  This 2007 study is based on a survey of 5000 people between the ages of 25 and 85 in the cities of New York, Toronto, London, Paris, and Berlin.  The survey posed questions regarding happiness and the level of quality of place that are considered to to effect it-availability of and access to good schools, parks, quality healthcare, transportation, retail, entertainment and cultural amenities.  The survey inquired about safety, employment, income, marriage and family status, health, and so on.

This study concentrated on the impact of quality of place determinants on the happiness of four demographic groups: "'young (ages 25 to 34),' 'young middle age (35 to 49),' 'older middle aged (50 to 64),' 'older (65 to 85).'"  The study carefully brought out the effects of place-based factors like: entertainment and cultural amenities versus performance elements such as overall quality of government services.

"Critical ratios (z-scores) for the path coefficients between place,
performance, and happiness across different age groups
(Andrew Small/CityLab/Data from Hogan et al.0
citylab.com

The chart on the left compares the ratios for the amount of place-based variables (performance variables) affected happiness the four study groups.

What we find is "While quality-of-place factors matter for all for all four age groups, they matter much more for younger people."  The study noted

the happiness of younger residents is a function of having easy access to cultural, shopping, transport, parks and sport amenities and the attractiveness of their cities.

Older residents's level of happiness is correlated with their attitude toward government performances on issues such as: education, healthcare, and safety.

Additionally, the study concluded "that place and performance variables work together in shaping overall health and the strength of social connections and relations, which are in turn strongly associated with residents' happiness across the board."  To maintain the level of happiness of all surveyed residents, the study concluded, "...cities should focus on providing quality services while also emphasizing access to parks and amenities and bolstering local beauty and character."

Together, both studies spotlight the role of quality of place in cities and communities.  Quality-of-place determinants do matter but different elements have greater importance for different age groups and in cities of various sizes.  Finally, the studies do suggest that quality of place is a useful and important component in drawing talent and creating healthier, happier, and wealthier communities.