Place is predicated on what its people want. If they want to be a tourist destination, if they want to be exclusive, if they want to be "smart" and advanced, they will move toward it.
In other words place is deliberative. That's an extraordinary idea.
It is extraordinary in this way most most of all: Talent will choose or avoid place. If talent wants to leave, the pool gets less interesting. The coral reef starts to look like a mud puddle.
This is what the discourse on "diversity" means. Orange fish are inherently interesting because, well, they exist. Place either has orange fish or it doesn't. You decide.
If you have a good university, you already have orange fish. The rest is much easier. No university, no place. Trying to have "place" without a school as an anchor is like trying to have an ecosystem with no place to hide.
Natural beauty is wonderful. History is fabulous. Local is awesome. None of it carries well without diversity. And diversity is either massively urban (which not every place can be) or it is consciously inclusive (which is hard) or it is associated with large educational institutions. Knowledge and ideas draw diversity. And the absence of knowledge and ideas causes smart people to leave.
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