Physical clusters make for faster innovative breakthroughs
More than anything else, I think a physical creative cluster makes for faster development of innovative breakthroughs. There’s a lot to be said for places like Temple Bar in this regard. I’ll never forget walking into potholes on East Essex Street in 1995, wondering what was happening to the place. By the time I started working in Arthouse a year later, I knew the place was sitting on top of an intersection of creativity and small business. The intersection was possible because the place fostered the connections between rough cut ideas, clever people and friendly venues.
We need more of that again.
http://www.insideview.ie/irisheyes/2009/01/remembering-the-catacombs.html