Garfield's "creative census" now underway

CityLAB and the Bloomfield-Garfield Corp. are now conducting a creative census in their “6% place” project. If you live in Garfield and are reading this, here’s the link to complete the census. You have until Nov. 15. There will also be some door-knocking going on in the neighborhood.

The project hopes to identify the percentage of residents who work in creative fields or who have creative outlets and then to build on that portion of the population to strengthen Garfield.

The theory they are working on is that if at least 6% of a neighborhood’s residents are creative or work in creative fields, that neighborhood is more likely to be stable, vibrant and attractive to newcomers.

To find out more about the project, read this.

Since the U.S. Census stopped recording the juicy details about people's lives, we will lose that kind of understanding of who we are. It was a terrible decision and a shame for posterity. In 50 years, if people have any tender feelings toward their forebears, they won't be able to find out anything about us but dry facts.

Garfield's project is an economic development tool.

In conducting a mental census of my own neighborhood, I'm struck that just among the people whose work and endeavors I know about, there are a slew of creative people, both in their work and free time. We have lots of writers and photographers and a few fine artists.

On my own street, which is one block long, we have a quilter, a caterer, at least two writers, a movie producer, several retired teachers, a viola player, a violonist, five or six people who play piano, a dog groomer, a photographer, a color and fashion advisor, an archivist, at least two architects and a jewelry maker and there are a few people I don't know. Now I'm even more curious because there are creative things people do without your knowing it.

It would be interesting if every neighborhood conducted a creative census to root out the people who may be pounding clay in soundproof rooms, sketching furtively in the coffee shop, building origami mobiles in the garage.

If you're still reading this and know what the neighbors on your street do, make a list of the creative pursuits (no names, please) and send it as a comment or email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and I will compile all the responses in a future blog post.