University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Masters Theses Dissertations and Theses April 2020 Food-Based Businesses and the Creative Class in New England's Post-Industrial Cities Francesca Cigliano University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.edu/masters_theses_2 Part of the Regional Economics Commons, and the Urban Studies and Planning Commons Recommended Citation Cigliano, Francesca, "Food-Based Businesses and the Creative Class in New England's Post-Industrial Cities" (2020).edu/masters_theses_2/873 This Open Access Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact scholarworks@library. FOOD-BASED BUSINESSES AND THE CREATIVE CLASS IN NEW ENGLAND’S POST-INDUSTRIAL CITIES A Thesis Presented by FRANCESCA M.
CIGLIANO Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF REGIONAL PLANNING February 2020 Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning FOOD-BASED BUSINESSES AND THE CREATIVE CLASS IN NEW ENGLAND’S POST-INDUSTRIAL CITIES A Thesis Presented by FRANCESCA M. CIGLIANO Approved as to style and content by: ____________________________________ Henry Renski, Chair ____________________________________ Mark Hamin, Member ____________________________________ John Mullin, Member __________________________________ Robert Ryan, Department Chair Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning ABSTRACT FOOD-BASED BUSINESSES AND THE CREATIVE CLASS IN NEW ENGLAND’S POST-INDUSTRIAL CITIES FEBRUARY 2020 FRANCESCA M., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST M., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Henry Renski This master’s thesis examines how the density of food-based businesses in New England’s post-industrial urban neighborhoods relates to neighborhood demographic characteristics. The relationship between food-based businesses and demographic change has been examined in larger metropolitan areas, such as New York City and Chicago, and has found that younger, wealthier, and more highly educated residents tend to live where there are greater densities of food businesses. However, there has been little research on the topic in New England’s post-industrial cities that have historically struggled to attract highly-sought knowledge workers.
I find that food business density and the share of residents employed in creative class professions is positively correlated in most cases; however, over time, the share of creative class workers and food businesses per capita has a negative relationship. Additionally, the share of residents living below the poverty line and food business densities have a significant and positive relationship. Neighborhood racial composition is a less significant factor, overall. In sum, the findings from this study suggest that food business density and creative class populations have a more nuanced relationship in regional post-industrial cities compared to larger metropolitan areas.
iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT. iii LIST OF TABLES. v LIST OF FIGURES. 5 Industrial Growth and Decline in New England’s Urban Centers.
7 The Creative Class. 8 Location Decisions of the Creative Class. 11 Food Amenities and the Creative Class. FOOD-BASED REVITALIZATION STRATEGIES IN NEW ENGLAND’S POST-INDUSTRIAL CITIES.
19 City Planning Documents. 19 Business Programs and Incentives. 23 BIDs, Cultural Districts & Restaurant Associations. 37 Correlations between Demographic Characteristics and Number of Food Establishments Per Capita: 2016.
38 Correlations between Changes in Demographic Characteristics and Number of Food Establishments Per Capita: 2012-2016. 52 APPENDIX: SUMMARY STATISTICS. 56 iv LIST OF TABLES Table Page Table 1: List of Cities Included in Research…………………………………………….30 Table 2: Demographic Variable Definitions and Sources……………………………….33 Table 3: Food Business Variable Definitions and Sources…………………………… 34 Table 4: Food Service and Retail Subsectors……………………………………………35 Table 5: Pairwise Correlations Between Demographic Characteristics and Number of Food Establishments per Capita: 2016………………………………. 38 Table 6: Pairwise Correlations Between Changes in Demographic Characteristics and Number of Food Establishments per Capita: 2012-2016…………….42 Table 7: Summary Statistics of All Variables………………………………………….54 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page Figure 1: Map of Cities Included in Research.
311 vi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION This study examines the relationships between neighborhood demographic characteristics and the food business environment in a post-industrial New England urban context. Similar research in larger American cities such as New York and Chicago has revealed that younger, wealthier, and more highly-educated residents tend to live in areas with greater densities of certain food businesses (Clark, 2003; Meltzer et al., 2010; Martin, 2014; Glaeser et al. Many of New England’s mid-sized post-industrial cities are similarly pursuing the expansion and diversification of food-based amenities as a means of attracting “creative class” residents, in order to advance their wider goals of economic development and urban revitalization. Leaders in New England’s cities have considered a wide range of strategies over the years to reverse decades of economic stagnation in their regions, including business attraction and retention efforts, place marketing, and small business development and support programs.
More recently, the belief that regional economic growth is a function of a region’s ability to attract talented workers has led many city governments to focus on activities geared toward attracting “human capital” in the form of a highly-skilled workforce (Mathur, 1999). Richard Florida’s Rise of the Creative Class describes a new cohort of highly- skilled workers - the creative class - that for many city leaders personified the human capital theory of regional development. According to Florida, this cohort of professionals, including artists, engineers, lawyers, and educators, prefers to live in environments that possess a “cultural infrastructure” (Florida, 2002, p. 234) characterized 1 by cafes and restaurants along with other cultural amenities such as museums, , public parks, vibrant nightlife, and a diverse, tolerant population (Yigitcanlar et al.
Florida’s work on the Creative Class and Creative Cities became incredibly popular among city leaders of slow-growing regions by suggesting that city governments could help attract highly-sought knowledge workers by cultivating rich cultural environments, which could in turn strengthen their local economies (Clifton & Cooke, 2007). A growing interest in dining and related experiences also coincides with a relative decline in brick and mortar retail sales, with online sales exceeding general merchandise sales for the first time in history in early 2019 (Rooney, 2019). As a result, many city leaders in New England’s post-industrial cities have invested in projects aimed at improving local cultural environments, hoping that such improvements may attract members of the creative class and in turn stimulate growth in their local economies. Furthermore, growing societal interest in food experiences has inspired cities to leverage food-based amenities as a major component of their economic development strategies.
A surging interest in food experiences is well-reported in market research. In 2016, the restaurant sector led employment growth in the overall economy for the sixteenth year in a row (National Restaurant Association, 2016). Even national clothing retailers such as Urban Outfitters and Tommy Bahama have begun experimenting with in-store dining options, finding that stores with dining components generate more sales per square foot than stores without (Maheshwari, 2012). While creative knowledge-workers come in all ages, policies aimed at cultivating amenity-rich downtown environments have largely catered to the preferences of well- educated professionals of the “millennial” generation (Moos et al.
Research 2 suggests millennials prefer food-based experiences more than previous generations: in 2015, 52% of millennials reported that their holiday spending would be spent on experiences compared to 39% of older consumers (PWC, 2015). Millennials also dine out more often (3.4 times per week) than older consumers (2.8 times per week) (Barton et al. Food amenities may spur additional spending in local economies. For example, a survey by the Project for Public Spaces (n.) reports that 60% of farmer’s market shoppers reported that they only shop at nearby retail outlets on the days that they visit the farmers market.
As such, many of New England’s post-industrial cities have concentrated their efforts to spur the growth of local food-based businesses with the hope that greater concentrations of food-based experiences will influence desirable creative knowledge workers to move to their cities. This research examines how changes to the food business landscape in post- industrial neighborhoods correlates with certain demographic characteristics associated with members of the creative class, such as higher rates of educational attainment, higher incomes, employment in “creative” knowledge-based fields, and younger age groups. Additionally, this research examines how the racial and ethnic composition in neighborhoods relates to the local food business environment. As New England’s post- industrial cities are historically ethnically diverse communities, serving as important “gateways” for the assimilation of new immigrants to the United States, it is critical to examine how an increase in food amenities is related to neighborhood composition.
By examining the relationships between these independent and dependent variables, the location preferences of those considered members of the creative class and food-based 3 amenities in the context of New England’s older industrial regions may be better understood and may better inform decision-making at the local, regional, and state level. This research seeks to answer the following questions: 1. How do changes to a neighborhood’s food business environment in New England’s post-industrial cities relate to changes in its population’s demographic composition, specifically: a. Percent of population with a bachelor’s degree or higher; b.
Percent aged 25 to 34; c. Median household income; d. Employment in “creative” or knowledge-based jobs; e. Percent Hispanic or Latino of any race i.
Percent other race or ethnicity 2. What implications do these relationships have for planners, policymakers, and public officials working for these cities and regions? 4 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter provides an overview of the literature discussing industrial growth and decline in New England’s urban centers, consumption cities, the “creative class”, the location decisions of creative knowledge-workers, and the effect of food-based amenities on neighborhood demographics. Examining the literature on these topics establishes the critical context that grounds this thesis research and informs the interpretation of results, as well as the resulting discussion and policy recommendations. Industrial Growth and Decline in New England’s Urban Centers In the latter half of the 20th century, New England’s urban industrial centers were transformed by deindustrialization.
For decades, these cities were vibrant political, social, and economic hubs, characterized by a “salt and pepper mix” of “small shops, two- and three-family houses, boarding houses, factories, [and] workrooms.[which] created [cities] of multiethnic neighborhoods as immigrants and natives alike settled near their workplaces” (Warner, 2011, p. In New England’s 19th century cities, the workplace was often a mill, with many cities master-planned around elaborate mill complexes. However, manufacturing in New England suffered greatly in the mid 20th century. The New England textile industry, in particular, faced severe decline around mid-century, when “nearly 200 mills were shut down [and] many others drastically reduced their scale of operations” (Saxon, 1988, p.
This led to widespread job loss: over 100,000 mill 5 workers lost employment in textile mills from 1949 to 1954, which constituted over forty percent of all textile mill employees in the region (Saxon, 1988, p. The closing of textile mills occurred for several reasons, one being that many New England manufacturers moved their operations to southern states to escape high wages, union labor rights, and other employee protections that characterized New England’s labor force (Koistenen, 2000). New competitors in the emerging southern economies led to further decline in New England’s established industries (Koistenen, 2000). The effects of this industry migration were great: according to Koistinen (1988), “the shutdown of textile mills in New England in the 1920s produced high unemployment, widespread social distress, municipal bankruptcies, an overall slowdown in the regional economy, and deep concern about whether prosperity would ever return” (p.
Concurrently, in the mid-20th century, inner city neighborhoods nationwide – including those in New England - began losing population due to suburbanization. Jackson (1985) describes how in the postwar years, “the best symbol of individual success and identity was a sleek, air-conditioned, high-powered, personal statement on wheels” – the automobile (p. Between 1950 and 1980, vehicle ownership exploded, increasing by 200 percent while the U. population increased by 50 percent (Jackson, 1985).
Automobile ownership became all the more necessary upon the passing of the Interstate Highway Act of 1956, “when the Congress provided for a 41,000 mile (eventually expanded to a 42,500 mile) system” (Jackson, 1985, p.