Issue link: http://www.insightdigital.biz/i/425993
D e c e m b e r 2 0 14 • I NSIGH T | 23 "One of the first things that struck us was how nice people were," says Dr. Wayne Bentham, a psychiatrist recruited to Affinity Behavioral Health from the University of Washington earlier this year. Bentham's credentials would allow him to go just about anywhere. Aer spending time in Appleton during a recruiting visit, he was sold. "It matches a lifestyle choice we were looking for. It was safe, affordable and had the morals that we were looking for to raise a family," he says. Of course, he gave the region a bit of a litmus test before agreeing to the interviews and tours. "I did ask them, 'Are you comfortable with gay, biracial families?'" Bentham says. "It's a question meant to explode and they handled it really well." Indeed, the recruiters at Affinity were quick to explain both the political and practical situations in Wisconsin as a whole and the region in particular. Bentham and his partner had positive experiences during the recruiting visit and, since locating to Appleton, have already purchased horses and began house hunting. "We are really encouraged with what we have experienced so far," Bentham says. "People are really engaged in this community." Engagement is a common theme among the creative workers who choose to remain in, relocate to or return to Northeast Wisconsin. ey want to make a difference both in the workplace and the community, and are typically champions of economic and social diversity. at engagement also makes them readily voice their opinions about what else the community needs to increase its attractiveness and further develop a creative economy. Some are universal, such as a vibrant night life, places to exchange ideas, high-speed wireless Internet — but mostly, it is a chance to create. "It's so much more than the artists and musicians, it's the hackers and the makers and so much more," Litt says (hackers being innovators). "If you create companies that create jobs, then you are part of the creative economy." "(This area) was safe, affordable and had the morals that we were looking for to raise a family." – Dr. Wayne Bentham, Psychiatrist, Affinity Health System consulting firm founded by Richard Florida. "Government permitting can be an impediment," he says. "We have to make them realize it's a benefit to do it more efficiently." He cites cities such as Boston and Portland, Ore., which have created one-stop permitting operations that have greatly reduced time and paperwork. HURDLES TO OVERCOME Some of the challenges seem incidental or trivial but are critical to creating the sense of place that members of the creative class want. When Stephany added chairs to Houdini Plaza during the Dr. Seuss event at the museum, the city wanted to remove them right aer the event. Stephany wanted to keep them in place to encourage people to gather. Other challenges seem to put cities and county government at odds with the artisans and creators who will power the future economy. Take mobile food trucks, for example. While those trucks have become a staple of the summer months, the process of getting them on the street took several months of wrangling with government agencies. It's a slow, methodical process that runs counter to the quickness and agility with which the creative class moves. It doesn't have to be this way, Stephany and other downtown champions say. ey see it as a cultural clash that needs to be overcome. "(Government) sees itself as a regulator that either permits or denies," Stephany says. "What we need is more vibrancy, more of a partnership." City and county governments will have a role in the creative economy, she says, creating the needed infrastructure to support it. Indeed, both government and private-sector leadership helped spark Green Bay's resurgence, Mirkes says. e city undertook needed infrastructure projects. Private companies such as Schreiber Foods and Associated Bank invested millions to create the downtown business space. "Without that leadership, maybe things don't happen," he says. Litt suggests it's time for government to see itself a collaborator in the process, rather than an enforcer of regulation. "ey are so used to looking at things in a pro- forma way," Litt says. "We don't need it to be the Wild West. It just needs to be more of a partnership." BUILDING BLOCKS IN PLACE ere is no denying that Northeast Wisconsin already has many of the things in place to build its creative economy. In addition to the housing, safety and cost-of-living attributes, recent transplants have noted the lifestyle and welcoming attitude as positives.