The Geographic Center of Hipness

Geography major Jory Birkeland did a class project exploring the geographic center of hipness for the Twin Cities. The theoretical basis for his work is found in the writings of economic geographer/urban planner Richard Florida who argues that the future of cities lies in attracting creative workers. Creative class workers are the core of the new economy, writes Florida, and are attracted to places with a hip, tolerant, Bohemian culture. Jory used “Best Of” ratings from Minneapolis-St. Paul Magazine and City Pages to identify hip places. After mapping their locations, a kernel density function was used to identify the highest concentration of hipness. Minneapolis’ South Nicollet Mall and the Hennepin Avenue Theater District came in as the center of hip, with an extension of hipness reaching into the Warehouse District and the North Loop. Uptown came in second place.

Density of Hipness, by Jory Birkeland