The Creative Class, South Side Inn's wretched mashed potatoes, and NASCAR night at Los Indios

Another posting to the Louisville Restaurant Forum, this time one of mine.

Two weeks ago, Gary threw this out as part of the thread on the demise of Chester’s Tavern:

“ Maybe ... there is a reason why there aren't any good restaurants (other than ethnic eateries) in the southend, or southern Indiana, for that matter. I hesitate to address this subject, as it is sure to result in a heated provincial debate, but if someone dares me to do so, I will offer my two cents worth.”

Robin Garr said a few words, expressed confidence in Gary’s judgment, and then the topic disappeared. Perhaps Gary wasn’t dared.

So, I'm going to take a flying leap into the chasm on this one and throw out a theory. Bear in mind that I’m writing this as a lifelong resident of New Albany, and I’m trying to avoid unfair stereotyping.

I'm reading the much-discussed book by Richard Florida called "Rise of the Creative Class."

In it, the author advances the proposition that the American economy is increasingly dependent not only on the service sector, but on a “creative” sector (design, arts, high tech, software, etc.). Florida is an urban theorist, citing many sociological trends that he sees combing to place the newly ascendant “creative class” in those urban areas where working conditions and lifestyle options exist, both fostering creativity and appealing to the needs of the creative sector.

These urban areas range from Austin, TX to Seattle, WA, to Massachusetts, to some cities in North Carolina. Defying stereotypes, the author finds these preconditions in blue state and red state alike.

Among the preconditions are factors that reflect diversity in terms of race, recreational options, tolerance for divergent sexual preferences, respect for art, and so on.

It's worth noting at this juncture that in terms of these preconditions that foster the creative class, Louisville finishes dead last in his admittedly weighted survey of million-plus metro areas. Obviously, the Highlands would rank near the top of any such list … but we’re talking averages here, and the entire metro area must be factored into the statistical equation.

And this brings me to the point. Why, indeed, does it seem that “good restaurants” (other than ethnic, which may or may not be an exception to the “rule” I’m discussing here – see below) don’t thrive in the South End and Southern Indiana?

Now, eateries must be viewed as part of the service sector, but the type of restaurants generally discussed in this forum represent a crossover into the creative sector as defined by Richard Florida. Food may indeed be food, but these establishments include elements of art and creativity that place them outside the norms of mere sustenance.

Then, is it coincidence that good and creative restaurants generally are located in those parts of the metro area that best represent those qualities of diversity that prefigure creativity?

And not located in the areas that don’t?

I can't and won’t comment on the South End, where I've never lived, but New Albany is a different story. This is my home – and as so many have asked over the years, exactly how did I manage to turn out this way?

Traditionally, New Albany certainly would not be the first locale to spring into any conversation on the topic of diversity, for the very good reason that there's been scarcely any diversity to discuss beyond people having the choice of rooting for one of three area college basketball teams.

It isn’t a stretch to say that over the years, people have lived in places like New Albany precisely because there is very little diversity, and hence no dissonance of the sort that might threaten preconceived notions. It is the same motivation that now compels the great (and inescapably white) flight to the exurbs, as so chillingly documented by David Brooks of the New York Times.

The existence of ethnic eateries may or may not have anything to do with this, for reasons of geographical accident or otherwise.

For instance, two weeks ago I ventured into Los Indios (Charlestown Road) on a Monday night, assuming that like most other restaurants, it would be quiet on a Monday. Instead, people were lined up waiting to get inside. It was sheer bedlam – people screaming, babies throwing food on the floor, half a dozen servers racing back and forth.

Great – a Mexican restaurant packed! Perhaps there’s hope! Then I looked through the window at the sign outside: “98 cent Margaritas on Mondays.”

Which is to say, Tumbleweed and high school cafeteria tacos prepared us for this sort of diversity – as well as the eternal lure of a very cheap drunk. I can’t imagine Mai’s Thai achieving the same result with 50-cent Singhas on a Monday.

As for accidents of geography, if memory serves me, the ethnic neighborhoods in the South End came about not because of clamor for diversity in the form of Asians and Hispanics to move there, but because it’s where certain amenable apartment complexes were located. How many non-Vietnamese patrons of Vietnam Kitchen live in the South End?

Closer to my home, there’s not much of a clamor in New Albany right now for diversity, and consequently downtown remains an under-utilized wasteland. I think Florida’s thesis is right on the mark: The less diversity, the less creativity; and the less creativity, the less economic development.

And, almost necessarily, the less the market for fine dining. First attitudes, and then the economic realities springing from them. I see no reason why these theories can’t work to describe life within the various neighborhoods of a metropolitan area as well as the entire urban areas within a national context.

It doesn’t help that (to paraphrase H.L. Mencken), the horned cattle in the fields have as much recognition of all this as New Albany’s dry cleaner of a somnolent mayor, who last read a book some time during the Clinton years.

But, and here’s the bizarre part, almost imperceptibly, pockets of the creative class are taking root here, primarily because one can buy twice the house for less here than in the Highlands. These people are yearning for something more than Tommy Lancaster’s and South Side – both plywood-lined classics in that starchily carbohydrated late 50’s way, but nothing more.

I don’t want these places to disappear, but speaking as a resident of downtown New Albany, I’d like a decent cup of espresso coffee, a good pint of microbrewed ale, and a Thai or couscous place to go with it.

At present, I feel that someone needs to act as gadfly, spokesman, leader -- encouraging those preconditions that I’m now certain can bring about progress. Heaven knows the tired business-as-usual, defenders of slumlord rental property local bonzo politicos we have now don’t have the ability to do this.

If I can do it by making beer and pizza – and it’s always been more than just food and drink to me – then I’ll give it a shot.

Anyway - I’m done. Have fun with the theory.