The Creative Class,Urban Boosters,and Race

Abstract

Cities such as Kansas City, Missouri, have struggled to reinvent themselves and to attract new residents in order to revitalize their urban centers in the wake of over sixty years of urban sprawl and population contraction. City leaders since the early 1980s have focused on large-scale urban projects to attract convention and tourist dollars to spur urban revitalization. In many so-called rust belt cities, urban boosters have been slow to recognize and to capitalize on the pioneering role of artists and creative types in urban areas. City officials have also proved reluctant to discuss stereotypes about race that, in many cities, are at the heart of “urban problems.” I use the film The Next American Dream to question the ways that the redevelopment of postindustrial cities is portrayed.