Using corporate power to revitalize an urban core

In his 2002 book The City In Mind, author and urban critic James Howard Kunstler was scathing in his assessment of Las Vegas, a city which he described as having reached a tipping point of unsustainability — especially the Strip, with its enormous gaming complexes and massively built thoroughfares.

Now through Richard Florida's "Creative Class" concept, there could be hope for the urban vitality of at least part of this metropolis. That is the story from writer Venkatesh Rao, a contributor to Forbes, who describes how Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh is trying to transform downtown Las Vegas into a hip haven for city-oriented tech professionals. Rao calls the concept "Corporate Neo-Urbanism."

Hsieh, reports Rao, wants "every downtown bar and eater to serve as an extended conference room for Zappos employees." Zappos, a major online shoe and apparel store with a reputation as a progressive employer, needs to attract the kind of Creative Class employees that will enable it to thrive. There are three approaches, "represented by Google, Meetup and Zappos respectively," Rao notes:

You could attempt to create the right environment within a large campus, located sufficiently far away from the main urban hub so that it is relatively cheap (Google), you could suck it up and compete for the hipster talent that is willing to pay the costs of Big City life and limit your growth (Meetup), or you could attempt to swallow a likely cheaper location whole, and catalyze the emergence of the neo-urban scene you need for your workforce (Zappos).

The transformation of Las Vegas poses significant challenges, among them:

Vegas is (to be honest) a somewhat unpleasant city in the middle of a desert that endures an awful six months of extreme heat. Outside of a few pockets, it lacks an existing creative class.

The transformation of Las Vegas is beyond the capacity of any one corporation. But the idea that Zappos wants to make its downtown better is a hopeful sign for corporate America and urbanism.

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