Richard Florida vs. Creative Class Struggle Celebrity Deathmatch!

If only ... but in mere minutes (like, 30 -- gotta hurry) at the Toronto Free Gallery, a panel convenes about the sad mythologies and (hopefully unintended) class warfare fallout of the Creative Class line that has given Richard Florida (that's Mr. Happy himself, at right) a living far beyond the means of most of his academic colleagues at the University of Toronto.

I have to run, or I'll be late; but the town hall discussion, organized by the ever-active Toronto Free director Heather Haynes, takes on the Florida-proposed cure-all for urban decay that it's the culture, stupid; expect a lively discussion on the heavy collateral damage of gentrification and the worrying class warfare that such single-mindedness is fostering before our very eyes.

And while you're at it, read this, the website tossed up into the ether by the provocative group Creative Class Struggle, who will be represented tonight. It doesn't get near enough attention, and it ought to.

As to the deathmatch, we'll see; Haynes told me he was invited. Think he'll show?

See you there.