Global Austins

Global Austins are cities around the world that, like Austin, generate technology as well as talent, along with the culture, entertainment and quality of life to retain them.  The term was coined in Richard Florida’s new book, The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent.

As stated in the previous blog, the key is to understand the creative neighborhoods that catalyzed these cities and not to worship the city in its entirety, especially when it

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Global competition among cities fierce

Economic competition among cities is greater than ever according to the Globalization and World Cities - Study Group & Network.  Remember, creativity drives economic performance. Here’s their list of the top economically-performing cities in the world, in order:

Alpha (First-Tier) Cities
New York, London, Tokyo, Paris, Chicago, Los Angeles, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Milan, Singapore

Beta (Second-Tier) Cities
San Francisco, Sydney, Toronto, Zurich,

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Why do cities die rather than change?

You’ve heard it before, “There aren’t any young people here.” “This place has no women.” “This town is so dead.” Perception is reality.

Why do 90% of us choose death over changing for a prolific future - socially and economically?  In continuing the series that began yesterday, Change or Die, the answer is perhaps that the brains of city and business leaders have become physiologically incapable of change, unless…

Contrary to popular belief.

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Change or die

When given the choice between change or death, 90% of us choose death, according to medical findings highlighted in the Fast Company magazine cover story, Change or Die, which has since become a book.  So if you’re looking for significant change in your community toward building better places, you’d better be more than prepared.  Here are a couple myths of change:

Change will happen when crisis occurs. Not true for 90% of people who’ve had coronary bypasses, or how the

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Truly innovative CoolTown developers

When’s the last time you came across a real estate developer with these principles, in this priority:

1. Progressive, livable communities
2. Comfortable, engaging, healthy homes and workplaces
3. The lowest total monthly costs to own on the market
4. High quality for the price and low maintenance
5. A commitment to the environment we all live in
6. Renewable energy-powered whenever possible

These are word-word from Solar Village, as

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The Design Economy

In the spirit of the newly refined CoolTown Studios website!… today’s focus is on design.

In a globalizing economy based on mass production and commoditization, the business of design is more than ever the path to productivity and profit, not to mention a sense of soul.  What elements does this design economy entail?  Fast Company magazine provides a look:

Be project-based: Aka the hollywood model, creativity thrives when there’s a finite beginning and end (like

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The tipping point to positive urban epidemics

Have you ever wondered why it is, that say, on one fine spring day in 1999, a downtown condo can be had for under $100,000, then just three years later an urban buyer’s epidemic breaks out and you can’t find one for less than $300,000?  Thousands believe that business consultant Malcolm Gladwell covered the reasoning quite well in his best-seller, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference.

The three rules of epidemics, as

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How to create places for pedestrians...

Ever notice that taking pictures of streetlife without having cars in the way is often much easier in other countries?  Or that some of the most popular streets in the U.S. (and the world) are pedestrian-only?

There is a demand for these kinds of people-oriented places, but the supply of auto-oriented places far exceeds them. Why?  Because, as economist Donald Shoup states in his newly published book, The High Cost of Parking, city governments decree

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Back to the future main street

The 14th & U main street district in Washington DC was a jazz mecca in its heyday in the first half of the 20th century, when the likes of Duke Ellington, Billy Holiday, and Louis Armstrong were regulars.  40 years after the riots, jazz has not only returned to 14th & U, but its legacy is also spawning a new era of live music, entertainment and a population explosion to the area.

How did this happen?  It helps when you can retain institutions like Bohemian

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Stress-free urban living?

Many who live or work in the city or downtown may think of stress-free urban living as an oxymoron.  However, according to Dr. Allen Elkin, author of Urban Ease: Stress-Free Living in the Big City, it depends on whether you’re an:
- urbanite that truly enjoys being immersed in urban life;
- urban mismatch of the ‘nice place to visit, but not to live in’ viewpoints
- unhappy camper who wouldn’t be happy anywhere.

Urbanites not only are able to manage the stress

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Florida’s sequel: Flight of the Creative Class

Richard Florida’s latest book, The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent just came out three days ago, the global-focused follow-up to his 2002 business best-seller, The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life.

In his first book, Florida expounded on the “three T’s”: talent, technology and tolerance, as the means to creativity ultimately leading to economic

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A neighborhood designed for work

In today’s evolving workplace of mobile workers, work-at-home entrepreneurs and employees, and satellite offices, the idea of an office park is getting to be increasing outdated.  It certainly isn’t a favorite even in today’s times.  In fact, for the aforementioned workforce, it’s the most inefficient workplace you could possibly design.

From a work point of view:

- Office parks are isolated.  That means you’re wasting one to two of time each day

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When your significant other is ‘Work’

For millions, the single, career-driven life is the way to go.  Maybe it’s a phase, maybe there’s a higher calling, but for many, having a family or even a serious relationship is not a current priority.

The Families and Work Institute reports that women’s reported workweek rose to 44 hours from 39 in 1977, with men at 49.9 from 47.1.  People are working longer hours not because they have to, but because they want to - and researchers say there’s no

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The impact of automated parking garages?

Based on the previous blog, Modern Parking 101, the urban parking garage as we know it will eventually be gone - thankfully.  How will this affect cities as a whole, and ultimately your quality of life?

- At the image shows, now that you have three times more space for people than cars, that’s a lot more space to build cool lofts, workplaces and retail venues, and a greater supply means more reasonable prices.  It’s also an opportunity to build

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Modern parking garages 101

Say goodbye to parking garages, and hello to valet parking systems.

Requiring only as little as a third of the space that regular parking garages horde, automated parking systems such as Robotic Parking Systems and
SpaceSaver Parking Systems are letting urbanites have their cake and eat it too.

The system automatically delivers your car right at the front of the building, like the moving rack at the dry cleaners does for your business attire.  You can call

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How did St. Louis’ downtown attract $2.5 billion?

It started with public-private leadership.  City officials, business groups, banks and nonprofits formed a public-private partnership, Downtown Now! in 1997 to develop a 5-7 year plan to revitalize downtown St. Louis. The City of St. Louis officially adopted this Downtown Development Action Plan in December of 1999, directing $1.5 billion in public (one-third) and private (two-thirds) investment into four clearly distinct areas (see

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Contemporary workplaces in downtown St. Louis

While downtown St. Louis enjoys a residential renaissance, taking advantage of commercial loft conversions in a city with a 15% office vacancy rate, that doesn’t necessarily mean there’s too much office space.  It may also mean there’s too much undesirable office space - who wants to work in a dark building with 100 foot corridors and cubicles?

The prices tell the tale.  As recently as two years ago, downtown office buildings could be acquired

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Cool finding its way to downtown St. Louis?

Let’s put it this way - just the population increase of already maxed-out Manhattan, NY from 1990-2000 is five times greater than the entire downtown population of St. Louis today; 9610 people.  Still though, it’s the present that counts, and 1863 residential units have been added since 2000, with another 1050 in 2005 and an additional 1359 planned.  Figuring 1.5 people per unit, that’s a doubling of the downtown population since 2000!

Why are

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Elements of a city code for CoolTowns: Building height

Continuing our look at how CoolTowns are supported via city codes, beginning here, building heights are one of the most noticeable features in any built environment.

While the code pictured above shows height limits of up to six floors in T6 zones (see transect), that’s the default if one was building a town from scratch.  It would certainly change over time, or if it were applied to an existing area like downtown Chicago.  The point

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Elements of a city code for CoolTowns: Residential, office uses

In relation to the previous blog on retail and civic uses, today’s will illustrate why CoolTowns are walkable and suburbia/rural neighborhoods aren’t - by law.

Understanding that higher densities and mixed-uses are key elements in walkable neighborhoods, notice in the CoolTown-friendly zones (T4-T6) (see transect), every single house type is allowed except the estate house (mansion with extensive greens) and manufactured

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Elements of a city code for CoolTowns: Retail, civic uses

Continuing our look at what a city code needs to allow CoolTowns, it’s amazing to realize how many uses (retail, civic) are often illegal in a majority of what’s built today.  Using the transect image in the blog two days ago, you’ll see what kinds of uses are generally not permitted in ‘T2’ (rural) and ‘T3’ (suburban) zones, or even ‘T4’ (borderline suburban/urban).

No fooling, shops and restaurants aren’t permitted in suburbia!…

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