The argument in Richard Florida's famous book, The Rise of the Creative Class, can be traced back to his 2001 Brookings Policy Report, "Technology and Tolerance." In this report, Florida calls attention to an interesting trend--the cities with the most tech firms tend to be the cities with the most diversity. The implication is that economic development is linked to a city's level of tolerance for "diverse" population groups.
This argument makes sense in a place like Austin where a thriving music scene and the slogan "Keep Austin Weird," probably plays a role in attracting techies from other tech poles. But is this model replicable everywhere? How about most places? Or perhaps just in a few places? I think that the top tech cities with the most diversity-friendly cultures might hold an advantage over other tech cities that are lacking, but I doubt this theory holds for those cities in the bottom half of the Milken Institute Tech Pole (e.g. Buffalo, Richmond, Louisville).
Ironically, Florida who toured the country advocating diversity and tolerance to places big and small, vibrant and declining, has since adopted the position that some cities stand no chance to return to prosperity. He now argues that we should be giving aid to mobilize people in declining cities toward those cities that were at the top of the list for tech firms and diversity. Florida comes off as a populist and his intentions seem dubious, but does his argument actually hold any value for policy makers and planners?
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