Lydia Depillis, reporting for the Washington Post:
“It’s the dumbest idea in the world,” said Phil Levine, mayor of Miami Beach, Fla., speaking at this week’s U.S. Conference of Mayors winter meeting. “People cling on to things that are not the highest and best use for their city. Miami Beach is never going to be a high tech hub. As much as it sounds great, it’s sexy, that’s not who we are.”
Why not? Well, the city has neither a bunch of cheap office space nor good universities, which are two of the key ingredients of a successful start-up culture. But it does have a lot of cruise ships. Instead of buying into the “creative class” dogma, Levine — who himself built a huge cruise ship concessionaire in Miami Beach from scratch — thinks the city should focus on the things it does well.