Two cities, five industries: Similarities and differences within and between cultural industries in New York and Los Angeles

Abstract

Recent work has pointed towards the possibility that industries are not tied to their specific urban location as much as to their linkages with particular types of infrastructure and to their social and economic networks. Industries have similar clustering patterns even in very different cities. Using Bureau of Labor Statistics data, we conducted geographic information systems (GIS) analysis to compare cultural industries in Los Angeles and New York City, two cities with very different types of geography and urban environments. Two distinct findings emerged: (1) when cultural industries are disaggregated into distinct industrial subsectors (art, fashion, music, design), important differences among them emerge; and (2) cultural industries "behave" similarly in each city because their subsectors tend to colocate (e.g., art with design; music with film) in similar ways, and this colocation pattern remains consistent in both locations. Such notable clustering tendencies of cultural industries help inform future research and further enlighten our understanding of their location patterns. © 2010 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning.