On the Road in Denver: Beatniks, Bohemians, the Creative Class and the Economic Geography of Talent

I recently visited the New York Public Library’s exhibit on Jack Kerouac and his seminal 1957 novel On the Road and it reminded me that the City of Denver is one of the important stops on the in the legendary journeys chronicled in the novel and that Metro Denver has its own unique connection to the history of the Beat Generation.

Figure I: Cover of On the Road by Jack Kerouac

Figure II below is a map from Kerouac’s journal of the 1947 road trip that ultimately inspired him to write On the Road.













Figure II: Hand Sketched Map from Kerouac’s Personal Journal of the 1947 Road Trip Which Inspired On the Road

Note that Figure II to the left could just as easily be a partial map of important cross country rail networks, or of internet backbone routes. On the Road implicitly points out that Denver has long been an important economic, cultural and transportation junction in the middle of the United States.

In On the Road, Sal Paradise, Dean Moriarty and the gang make stops in Denver as they are traveling between New York and the west coast. The Denver portrayed in the novel is urban, ethnically diverse and alive with energy. The descriptions of Denver’s historic African American District, Five Points, are vivid and memorable.

In real life, Denver also played an important role in the development of the Beat Generation. Neal Cassady lived in Denver for many years and was responsible for brining Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg to Colorado. They all spent time in Denver listening to jazz at places like the legendary El Chapultepec and at clubs in Five Points. For a great introduction to Denver’s role in the history of the Beat Generation visit Denver’s Beat Poetry Driving Tour written by beat historian Andrew Burnett (http://www.denvergov.org/aboutdenver/today_driving_beat.asp). Many figures from the Beat Movement had long standing connections in Metro Denver and Colorado including Allen Ginsberg who was affiliated with Naropa University in Boulder.

This is all very interesting but how does it apply to economic development which is the theme of this blog?

Richard Florida, an urban economic theorist, has written several well known books about the creative class and its growing importance in the contemporary knowledge-based economy. One of Florida’s ideas is that places that are open, diverse, and tolerant will be able to attract well-educated and creative workers who are the key input into knowledge-based businesses such as software, internet and biotechology companies, leading to sustained economic prosperity for those places. Florida argues that places with “Bohemian Culture,” large gay populations, ethnic diversity and other indictors of tolerance and opportunity will be home to tech industry clusters. Florida defines Bohemians, using U.S. Census Bureau data, as people with creative occupations such as authors, designers, actors and directors, musicians and composers, photographers, craft-makers, dancers and perfumers.

Figure III below, taken from Florida’s book, Cities and the Creative Class, shows the high concentration of Bohemians in Metro Denver. Notice the large dark circles on the three maps below representing Denver's large absolute number of Bohemians, high concentration ofBohemians per 1000 people and high score on the Bohemian index. It is interesting to note the spatial isolation of Denver from other Bohemian centers and to compare the maps in Figure III below with the road trip route in Figure II above. If you horizontally connect the largest dots on the maps below you get a route that is pretty similar to Kerouac's 1947 road trip.


Figure III: Bohemia and Economic Geography, from Florida’s Cities and Creative Class


Denver’s role in the history of the Beat Generation is solid evidence of the region’s long-standing ability to attract creative and talented people. However, Denver’s association with the Beat Generation is less widely known than that of cities like New York and San Francisco. The online Beat Generation Driving Tour should be further developed into an actual self guided tour with historic markers, descriptive plaques and related cultural events to promote and celebrate this side of Denver’s personality to local residents and visitors alike and to help attract even more creative people to the Denver Metro Area.