They are indeed linked — no surprise that the creative cities are the places people want to live, and that these are the places attracting great companies and birthing the new ones.
As Fred Wilson mentions this week:
Tolerance and Prosperity go hand in hand. History tells us this. I hope the good citizens of North Carolina listen to Bob because I agree with him strongly on this one. via Tolerance and Prosperity – Business Insider.
But remember the Richard Florida “creative classes” argument of about ten years ago that was very popular? Whither that whole spiel? Nobody is talking much about it in the recent round of culture wars (abortion, gay marriage, immigration, health care).
I can’t think of a *better* social/cultural environment to attract tons of awesome hackers than European cities like Paris, Copenhagen or Stockholm — of course we have great cities here which also have massive industries: NY, SF. It’s definitely not low taxes that brings us to New York. (Or keeps the top low-tax complainer I have ever seen in tech, Marc Cenedella from TheLadders, e.g. here)