Robert Bell of the Intelligent Community Foundation has a must read article on how the Creative Class (Richard Florida's brainchild) is not delivering the results many cities were expecting. To the extent that a city is able to recruit Creative Class residents and workers, those upscale residents tend to displace blue collar workers and raise the cost of living in the area, which cancels out some or all of the positive effects. Bell points out that technology can make cities more efficient, but that the real potential for technology to have transformational effects is in rural areas. I agree, and the digital divide in the U.S. has been and still is largely between urban/suburban areas with generally available moderate broadband speeds, and rural areas with no or grossly inadequate broadband.