Ever since Richard Florida published his book, The Rise of the Creative Class, urban planners and thinkers around the U.S. have been lining up either to sing Florida’s praises or to knock his ideas as half-formed and unrealistic. “Many of Richard Florida’s critics try to marginalize his theory of the creative class as being just about a few kooky artists in Austin. They are wrong… As governments take a serious look at his ideas, billions of dollars spent on subsidies of politically-connected industries hang in the balance.” So isn’t it time for a serious, substantive debate on the issues that Creative Class raised?