Sizing up the city to fit your life's goals

In life, we give great thought to choosing

a career and choosing a mate.

Career experts tell us to pick a job that stokes our passions. Relationship experts insist we find a significant other who is compatible on multiple levels.

Richard Florida wants us to add another dynamic to that life-altering pair of decisions: where we live.

I have to admit I gave short shrift to picking a city when I arrived in the Tampa Bay area 20 years ago. I came for a good job opportunity, but it could have just as easily been in Cleveland, Kansas City or Austin, Texas. I chased my passion to be a sports writer, not giving much thought to what the community offered.

Florida, author of the national bestseller The Rise of the Creative Class, argues in his new book Who's Your City? that deciding where to live can be the most important decision of your life. And it's a decision people make more than once.

"There are three times in life when you have to make big location decisions: when you graduate college, when you have kids and when you're empty-nesters," Florida explained during a recent telephone interview.

"At each of these points, even if you love where you live, you owe it to yourself to think about this more systematically."

Florida's thesis makes a lot of sense. He says the nation and the world are divided into mega-regions that account for two-thirds of the world economy and nearly 95 percent of its new innovations. Being in these centers determines your access to jobs and career opportunities.

Florida said the So-Flo mega-region (roughly South Florida, Orlando and the Tampa Bay area) ranks among the world's best with 15-million people and $430-million in economic output.

"It's not a lagging place," Florida said. "It has serious economic assets."

Being in the region certainly helped me expand career possibilities. In the late 1980s and '90s, So-Flo added six professional sports franchises, including the Rays and the Lightning. That created opportunities throughout the sports media world and opened more doors.

But I benefited more from dumb luck than systematic planning. Florida says that doesn't have to be the case.

In Who's Your City?, Florida explains why these mega-regions matter in the new global economy and how the world really isn't flat. He also includes demographic data on what places offer the best chance to find a mate. New York is a great place for single men. Los Angeles is even better for single women.

Tampa scores well in the author's "Best Buy" category for midcareer professionals and retirees, but doesn't rank as high for singles. It's an area he says we need to work on.

"The winning places are the ones that establish an edge early on, by attracting residents in their mid-twenties," Florida wrote in the book. "These places gain a long-lasting advantage; those that lose out find it all but impossible to catch up."

It's also interesting to note that Florida ranks Ocala as one of the best small regions for midprofessional gays and lesbians. Yeah, Ocala. Who knew?

Whether you end up moving after reading Florida's book remains to be seen.

But his easy-to-grasp concepts will increase your understanding of where you live, why it matters and what you can do to make your community better.

That's all I'm saying.