Cooltown Studios
The official blog for crowdsourced placemaking

Friday, February 13, 2004

Q&A: How do you build a CoolTown in an area considered rural?

Banff, Canada

Some people move to specific places because of a job they couldn’t get anywhere else within their desired area.  Others move because of recreation they couldn’t get anywhere else in the area.

People move to/visit coastal towns for the beach, mountain towns for the skiing and river towns for the fishing and boating.  Now, since affordability is such a fundamental element of fast-growth prosperity, think of how people with limited budgets could spend a week in your town, recreationally.  This ‘test drive’ may convince them to move there permanently, especially if it’s 24/7 - recreation entertainment.

For instance, in a mountain town, you can organize a “freeloader mountain bike program” where people from all over the world can use a visitor sharing system like GlobalFreeloaders.com to find ‘sponsors’ to stay with and go on biking trips with them on their extra bikes, in return for a recreation trip in the ‘sponsoree’s’ town.  It doesn’t even have to be a direct exchange.  Then make sure they have an active downtown to unwind at night - like Banff, Canada (image above).


Posted by Neil Takemoto in • Health & Fitness | (0) Comments | Link
  • Enjoy this post? Share it with others.
  • Digg Favicon
  • Email Favicon
  • Facebook Favicon
  • LinkedIn Favicon
  • StumbleUpon Favicon
  • TwitThis Favicon