Our Purpose

1
(No Transcript)
2
Purpose of Research

• What are the most effective strategic actions
  to take to reach our full potential as a
  community?

3
Research Methodology (Update of similar
research five years ago)

• Intuitive
• 100 interviews with diverse leaders
• Youth (high school) focus group
• Young executive focus group
• Three Leadership Knoxville focus groups

• Systematic
• Review of local and regional economic studies
• Review of Salt and Light community research
• Review of Nine Counties. One Vision. research
• Review of national studies on community building

4
Results of Interviews and Focus Groups
5
Dramatic Increase in Optimism

• Question
• On a scale of 1 to 10, how optimistic were you
  five years ago that our community was moving in
  the right direction toward achieving its
  potential, and how optimistic are you today?
• Five years ago 4.68
• Today 7.40

• Why?
• Changes in leadership UT, ORNL, County
  Executive, County Commission, TVA, school system,
  and quality of candidates for Mayor
• Downtown revitalization gaining momentum

6
What are the greatest obstacles to reaching our
full potential as a community?
7
Need for Connections

• Were getting better at building bridges, but our
  independence still creates problems
• Still have difficulty working together
• Need better
• Organizational cooperation
• Governmental cooperation (even unification)
• Regional cooperation
• Racial understanding and relationships
• Connection of the faith community to the real
  needs of the community
• Need for more of what social scientist Robert
  Putnam calls bridging social capital

8
Losing our Best and Brightest

• Not fully competitive in retaining or attracting
  creative, talented drivers of the new knowledge
  economy (what researcher Richard Florida calls
  the Creative Class)
• Regional workforce underprepared for the new
  economy
• Lack of decent-size corporate headquarters
• Inadequate support system for new-economy
  entrepreneurs

9
Need for Confidence and Leadership

• Desperate need for successes
• Too many starts and stops (particularly downtown)
• Downtown revitalization is seen as the key
• Must deepen the pool of servant leaders with
  high standards and a willingness to take risks

10
Environmental Concerns

• Air and water pollution
• Urban sprawl
• Gradually destroying one of our dominant
  strengthsour natural environment

11
Dysfunctional Families, Disadvantaged Kids

• Overwhelming response in 1997 not mentioned
  nearly as often in these interviews
• Very positive comments about potential to build
  on Knoxvilles Promise and Project GRAD

12
What are the greatest strengths to build on as a
community to reach our potential?
13
Economic Building Blocks

• University of Tennessee
• Great confidence in Dr. John Shumaker
• Planwith performance scorecardto raise UT to
  international prominence by 2010
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory
• Great confidence in Dr. Bill Madia
• Major facility and scientific upgrade already
  under way
• Aiming to be seen as the premier federal research
  lab
• Best place in world for research on new materials
  (Spallation Neutron Source)
• Other internationally recognized core
  competencies include computational science,
  biotechnology, nanotechnology, nuclear science,
  and energy research
• Partnership between UT and Battelle Corporation
  to manage ORNL brings together educational,
  research, and private sectors in new wayenhances
  potential for commercialization of technology and
  new business formation

14
Social Capital Building Blocks

• Good people
• Strong work ethic
• Giving and generous spirit, caring and concern
• Relative absence of racial discord
• Respect for the importance of family
• Spirit of volunteerism
• Love for the community and hunger to improve it
• Potential of the faith community
• Potential to build on Compassion Coalition and
  Venture 29/7
• Good leadership coming together across
  denominational and racial lines

15
Social Capital Building Blocks

• Bridges already being built
• Way region has been brought together by Nine
  Counties. One Vision.
• Potential to build on Project GRAD, Knoxvilles
  Promise, Leadership Knoxville, United Way
• Increasing awareness of need for cooperation
• Generational changes and broadening of leadership
• Size and nature of community
• Easy to become involved in community
• Large enough for plenty of options, small enough
  for solvable problems
• Effective institutions like KCDC, PBA, and
  Airport Authority
• 91 of kids are in public schoolsmost public
  schools perceived as good

16
Quality-of-Place Building Blocks

• Natural beauty and geography
• Great Smoky Mountains National Park
• Four seasons
• Recreational opportunities
• Central location
• Unique culture and traditions
• Music
• Folk art
• Storytelling
• UT sports
• Potential of arts and culture community
• Unique history
• Historic stock of buildings downtown
• Great place to live
• Cost of living well below national average
• Comfortable place to live and do business
• Great place to raise children

17
Most Relevant Systematic Studies

• Three major compilations
• MDC The State of the South 2002
• Richard Florida The Rise of the Creative Class
• Robert Putnam Bowling Alone The Collapse and
  Revival of American Community

18
All Other Studies and Writings Reviewed Validate
the Trends and Implications Detailed in the
Three Major Compilations

• Economic Review 2002 East Tennessee Economic
  Development Agency
• Knoxville Economic and Demographic Profile,
  November 2002 Mike McCarthy
• Cities on the Rebound William Hudnut
• Entrepreneurial Hot Spots Cognetics
• Regional Creative Scorecard Catalytix, Inc.
• Americas High-Tech Economy Milken Institute
• Small Business Survival Index 2002 Small
  Business Survival Committee
• Attracting the Best and Brightest to Memphis
  Memphis Talent Magnet Project
• Measuring Progress Toward a Vibrant Silicon
  Valley Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley
• Social Capital Benchmark Survey Seguaro Seminar
  (East Tennessee research by Mary Kay Sullivan,
  Maryville College)
• ORNL Renaissance Knoxville News Sentinel
• UT Scorecard Office of UT President Dr. John
  Shumaker
• Nine Counties. One Vision. A Region Growing
  into Greatness
• Salt and Light Guidebook Compassion Coalition
• The Church of Irresistible Influence Robert
  Lewis and Rob Wilkins
• Seeking the Peace of the City and The Myth of the
  Dying Church Doug Banister

19
The State of the South 2002

• Report for Southern Growth Policy Board and
  Southern Governors update from 1986
• Days of economic growth through recruitment of
  low-wage, low-skill manufacturing are over
• Need a broader vision and new framework for
  economic and community improvement

20
Big Forces Pushing the South

• Globalization Communities must measure
  strengths and weaknesses in context of a global
  economy
• Technology Transforming all businesses, yet
  Southern states (Tennessee included) rank low on
  preparation for the knowledge economy
• Demographic Destiny Population gains turning
  the South from biracial to multiethnic
• Metropolitanization Shifting from a largely
  rural to a predominantly metropolitan region
• Fiscal Anemia None of the states has
  modernized its tax system to conform to todays
  more service-and-knowledge oriented economy
  therefore states ability to respond to new
  challenges is weakened

21
In light of the forces of globalization and
technology, todays South confronts a sweeping
economic challenge with an impact more
devastating that the sum of its parts.
The State of the South 2002
22
Three Most Important Priorities

• Education
• Regionalism
• Leadership

23
Education

• In an economy gone global and technological,
  education has become a lifelong imperative.
• Education is also an equity issue
• The line that separates the well educated from
  the poorly educated is the harshest fault line of
  all.
• Former Governor of Mississippi William Winter

24
Regionalism
Talent clusters in geographic regions good jobs
will grow best in those metropolitan regions that
are the greatest talent collectors

• The South needs leaders who can guide their
  communities in forging regional partnerships and
  new metropolitan governance structures (such as
  regional confederations)

25
Leadership
Leadership needed that can help communities adapt
and change in a knowledge economy can build a
common vision can create an entrepreneurial
culture can create opportunity for everyone and
is inclusive

• Every Southern state should pursue leadership
  development at the grassroots, in the civic
  sphere, and for public elective office.
  Universities have a vital role to play in
  bringing knowledge to bear on the major issues
  facing states and communitiesand in arming
  elected and civic leaders with knowledge and the
  skill to lead in an often fractious democratic
  society. Traditional leadership development
  programs that focus on building a network among a
  limited representation of the community are not
  the answer. States, cities, towns, and counties
  require the development of leadersknowledgeable
  of trends and issues, representative of all
  residents, skillful in guiding citizens in a
  participatory processto meet the public-policy
  and human relations challenges of the 21st
  Century.

26
Richard Florida The Rise of the Creative Class
(2002)

• H. John Heinz III Professor of Regional Economic
  Development, Carnegie Mellon University
• Substantial new research, and
• review of existing research, on the
• people who are driving the new
• economy, and their effects on
• communities

27
Major Findings

• Regions that are succeeding in the new economy
  have high concentrations of creative people (what
  Florida calls the new Creative Class).
• Access to talented and creative people is to
  modern business what access to coal and iron ore
  was to steel making. It determines where
  companies will choose to locate and grow, and
  this in turn changes the way cities can compete.
• Cities that retain or attract the Creative Class
  are greatly outperforming other cities
  economically.

28
The Creative Class

• Distinguished from lower-wage Working Class and
  Service Class, who are paid to execute according
  to a plan
• Creative Class is paid to create
• They have considerably more flexibility in their
  jobs
• Scientists, engineers, architects, designers,
  artists, musicians, educators, researchers, and
  those who use creativity in business, law, and
  health care
• 30 of U.S. workforce over 38 million people
• The Best and Brightest
• Choose places to live on the quality of the place
• Companies are moving to places with a thick
  concentration of the Creative Class, and
  companies are forming and growing up there

29
Creative Class seeks the three Ts

• Talent Attracted to places where there is a
  critical mass of other bright, creative people
• Technology Attracted to areas with a strong
  technology base, and by being there they help
  build an even stronger base
• Tolerance Attracted to places with tolerance
  for diversity. Creative people come in all races
  and styles. They value individualism,
  self-expression, and openness to differences.

30
Floridas Creativity Index measures the Creative
Capital of every City-Region in the Country
(Composite measures of the three Ts)

• Knoxville ranks 89th out of 331 U.S. metropolitan
  areas
• We rank 15th out of 32 Metropolitan Statistical
  Areas (MSAs) between 500,000 and 1 million in
  population
• At the national average on measures of talent
• For example, Knoxvilles MSA has college graduate
  of 24.6 Raleigh DurhamChapel Hill region has
  41.2 Austin has 36.7
• Above average on general entrepreneurship above
  average on patents per capita, but below average
  on supporting technological entrepreneurship
• Below average on measures of tolerance

31
Importance of Floridas Research

• A country of rapidly developing economic winners
  losers
• Widening divide between Creative Communitieshigh
  wage, wealth, and economic prosperityversus
• Working and Service Class Communities with much
  less prosperity
• Why communities lose their best and brightest

32
Economic Prosperity
Creative Capital
High Medium Low
33
How to build a creative community that retains
and attracts the Creative Class and creates a
place where it can flourish

• Creative Class prefers authentic urban cores with
  renovated historic buildings
• Major research university or research facility is
  a basic infrastructure component, more
  important than the canals, railroads, and freeway
  systems of past epochsand a huge potential
  source of competitive advantage
• Attracted to a world-class people climate
  urban parks, greenways, bike lanes, excellent
  schools, outdoor recreation, reduced sprawl, and
  a great natural environment
• Attracted to thriving arts and music scenes, an
  active street and neighborhood life, and
  authentic cultural activities
• Communities need to be open to diversity and
  invest in the kind of lifestyle options and
  amenities people really want

34
Robert PutnamBowling Alone The Collapse and
Revival of American Community (2001)

• Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public
  Policy at Harvard
• Details study after study showing disintegration
  of sense of community (social capital) over last
  30 years, and how it has affected us

35
Over the last three decades a variety of social,
economic, and technological changes have rendered
obsolete a significant stock of Americas social
capital. Television, two-career families,
suburban sprawl, generational changes in
valuesthese and other changes in American
society have meant fewer and fewer of us find
that the League of Women Voters, or the United
Way, or the Shriners, or the monthly bridge club,
or even a Sunday picnic with friends fits the way
we have come to live. Our growing social capital
deficit threatens educational performance, safe
neighborhoods, equitable tax collection,
democratic responsiveness, everyday honesty, and
even our health and happiness. Robert
Putnam
36
Bridging vs. Bonding Social Capital

• Bridging inclusive (example Nine Counties. One
  Vision.)
• Bonding exclusive (example country clubs)

37
Putnams Recommended Agenda To yield a more
civil, more trustworthy, more collectively
caring community

• Focus on civic engagement of youth civics
  education, community service, increased
  extracurricular options in schools
• Make workplace more family and community friendly
  (reward volunteerism)
• Reawaken the faith community (arguably the
  single most important repository of social
  capital in the country) to get outside its walls
  and deeply engage in the community (Bridging
  Social Capitalbuilding trust and tolerance)
• Foster new uses of electronic communications to
  link people
• Enhance opportunities for active participation in
  arts and cultural life
• Encourage more active participation in the public
  civic life of the community

38
National Benchmark Study of Social Capital

• East Tennessee Foundation participated as one of
  40 communities
• 21 counties in East Tennessee study
• We ranked higher in measures of faith-based
  participation and generosity with time and money
• Ranked lower on measures of trust and tolerance
• Conclusion We need more bridging social capital

39
Strong Sense of Community
Social Capital
High Medium Low
40
Disturbing Fact
Communities that ranked highest on creative
capital ranked low in social capital and vice
versa.
Creative Capital
High Medium Low
Social Capital
41
What is really needed, and what growing numbers
want, is a new model. More and more people in my
interviews are leaving places like the Silicon
Valley to build what they envision as real lives
in real places. They yearn for some balance
between being themselves and having some sort of
community, not the old-style community Putnam
romanticizes, but a new and more accepting kind.
-Richard Florida
42
Social Capital and Tolerance Robert Putnams
Four Types of Society
Low Social Capital
High Social Capital
HIGH TOLERANCE LOW TOLERANCE

• Individualistic You do your thing, and Ill do
  mine
• Anarchic
• War of all
• against all

• Civic Community Inclusive, tolerant, bridging
  sense of community (Bridging Social Capital)

Sectarian Community In-group vs. out-group
(Bonding Social Capital)
43
Knoxvilles Unique Opportunity

• New Model Community that achieves the balance of
  which Florida and Putnam speak
• Community with its own three Ts
• Talent.
• Technology.
• Trust.

44
Why Knoxville Can Achieve This Balance
Vibrant downtown and confidence Support for
technology entrepreneurship More tolerance for
diversity
More trust and tolerance Need for more
connections
High Medium Low
Social Capital
Creative Capital
Size nature of the community Bridges
already being built Potential of faith
community Giving,generous people
Quality of Place Building Blocks ORNL UT
45
What are the strategic actions to take as a
community to achieve that vision?
46
Talent

• Building on Project GRAD to ensure educational
  excellence and opportunity for our most
  disadvantaged kids
• Building on the relative confidence in the Knox
  County Schools to aggressively pursue a
  world-class school system
• Encouraging and supporting regional and state
  efforts to make excellence in education the top
  public policy and funding priority (Education
  Means Jobs)
• Creating a strong, authentic downtown with a
  vibrant street life and a creative music, arts,
  and cultural scene
• Investing in parks, greenways, bike lanes,
  recreational opportunities, and other amenities
• Supporting policies and initiatives that limit
  sprawl and protect the natural environment

Create a world-class people environment through
47
Technology
Build on the technology research and development
assets of the region by

• Supporting the efforts of Dr. Shumaker to
  transform UT into an internationally recognized
  research university
• Supporting the efforts of Dr. Madia and
  UT-Battelle to solidify ORNL as the premier
  federal research laboratory.
• Using targeted recruitment and the synergy
  between UT and ORNL to become a talent attractor
  for world-class scientists, researchers, research
  and development consortia, and technology
  companies
• Determining how to support UT, ORNL, and
  Technology 2020 in commercializing technology and
  creating a more entrepreneurial regional culture
  (e.g., incubators, research foundations, seed
  capital, the Center for Entrepreneurial Growth,
  the Technopreneurial program)

48
Trust
Although seemingly at opposite ends of the
individuality spectrum, the strategic actions to
build both tolerance for diversity and
togetherness (stronger community) in Knoxville
are the samethat is, building bridges and new
levels of trust between diverse people through

• Creating a leader full community by including,
  training, and engaging people in leadership
  development across the full diversity spectrum
• Making a particular effort to engage young adults
  in the efforts to plan for and improve the
  community
• Mobilizing the community of faith to get outside
  its walls into bridge-building community
  volunteerism and partnerships, continuing the
  work already started by Compassion Coalition and
  Venture 29/7
• Seizing every opportunity to build bridges of all
  kindsbetween competing governments, regional
  partnerships organizational partnerships and
  new ways, direct and electronic, to link
  individuals together

49
The New Model Community

High Medium Low
Social Capital
Talent Technology Trust
Creative Capital
50
A place where we want our kids to grow up, and a
place to which they will have an economic
opportunity to return.