Economic development goes through fads.

At the turn of the millennium, every city wanted to clone what was happening in Silicon Valley. A bit later, states shoveled big money to attract biotech companies.

Few sectors are hotter now than the “creative economy.”

City Council held a hearing on it Wednesday afternoon, taking testimony from professionals from Philadelphia’s cultural, educational and business communities.

The creative economy can contain just about any business you can imagine as long as it’s staffed by the 25- to 34-year-old demographic that city officials kept saying they wanted to retain.

Ask people what they think the creative economy is and they’ll say the arts in all its forms. But it broadly encompasses things like software development, product design and engineering.

(One economics firm’s definition of Philadelphia’s creative economy is so vast it might’ve been easier to describe it as anything but the law, health care and accounting, although that too has been creative at times.)

The experiences of several creative entrepreneurs who testified sounded familiar. They seemed no different from every other small business operating in the city. They struggle to find affordable office space and good talent. They are bewildered by a bureaucracy that sends delinquent tax notices when they, in fact, are paid up.

Everyone who took the microphone agreed that Philadelphia doesn’t have to create a creative economy like other cities. Sean Buffington, the new president of the University of the Arts, said he was amazed how many museums, theatre companies, and music and dance groups are here.

Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown asked what the city should do to help. A couple businesspeople were brave enough to say, “Stay out of our way.”

That’s advice the city should heed.