6% Place

Blighted neighborhoods struggle to reinvent themselves, often with expensive physical investment. The 6% Place experiment has taken a divergent path. Instead of just focusing on physical infrastructure, it looks carefully at how people, not just buildings, can drive change. Studies have shown that creative workers and industries cluster together in the center of metropolitan areas. These studies have also shown that a worker population consisting of just 6% of creative workers can tip the balance towards a neighborhood that is thriving. cityLAB is experimenting with this one simple assumption in its 6% Place experiment. Their goal is to systematically populate a neighborhood with creative workers to reach that 6% goal. cityLAB chose an overlooked and underpopulated neighborhood in Pittsburgh called Garfield, as its first 6% Place. Read how cityLAB defines the problem and the solution with a set of sixteen incentives all designed to drive creative workers to live in the 6% Place.