A tale of cool cities

Forbes magazine rates Cincinnati No. 39 on a list of the 40 best cities for singles. This hardly thrills Sid D'Souza, a native who opted to return home after graduating from Yale three years ago.

He knows the old joke that Cincinnati is the place you'd want to be when the world ends because everything happens 10 years later there. But despite the city's image problems, Mr. D'Souza believes that Cincinnati, like other cities in the same boat, is waking up to the need to attract and retain young residents.

They have to, experts say, because a younger population means a stronger economy.

But what does it take to be considered "cool" by 20- and 30-somethings? And is it likely that places like Cincinnati and 40th-ranked Pittsburgh are ever going to become as hip and desirable as, say, Austin, Texas, (No. 1), San Francisco (6), or New York City (8)?

Some cities have built-in advantages that would be hard to duplicate in Kansas City (36) or Cleveland (37). Austin's music and high-tech scenes, for instance, Boston's culture (which pushed it into third place), or New York's night life.

But other cities need major makeovers, because in today's mobile society, young people seem less tethered than ever to where they grew up. After college, many look as much at lifestyle as jobs in deciding where to locate.

Nothing is more important for singles than to meet and mingle with other singles, according to Forbes. Fun lures them to cities - and jobs keep them there.

Creative workers, such as artists, scientists, writers, and computer programmers, are the most sought-after group.

They hold the key to modern economic vitality, says author Richard Florida, a Carnegie Mellon University professor whose book on the subject, "The Rise of the Creative Class," is influential in urban-planning circles.

A central tenet of the book is that the sense of place and the existence of opportunity-rich job markets are leading factors to help members of the creative class decide where they will live.

Nick Spencer, a 20-something candidate for Cincinnati's City Council, agrees. Today, he says, college grads don't expect to spend an entire career with an established Fortune 500 company. "They think, 'I'm going to have five jobs during the next 10 years,' and because of that they're driven to cities where they know they're not going to have to move every time they change jobs."

Mr. Spencer, who grew up in Cincinnati and attended Xavier University there, believes the Queen City's future is worth fighting for. But he also knows that in the past Cincinnati has been almost the prototype of a city that doesn't excite young people. That's why Spencer founded Cincinnati Tomorrow, a group that supports efforts to make the city appealing to young adults.

There's a parochial quality to Cincinnati that can be a drawback for young singles new to the city, D'Souza says. If they don't quickly crack the social network, they may move away before ever discovering what the city has to offer.

He got a taste of this when he returned to the city after college and noticed that most alumni groups were geared toward older alums and their families. So D'Souza created the Greater Cincinnati Ivy League and Seven Sisters Alumni Club, known more casually as the Cincy Ivy Young Alumni Club. It welcomes graduates of a number of top-notch universities.

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