Applying freakonomics to CoolTowns

What is freakonomics and why should it matter?  Renowned economist Steven Levitt began applying economics to everyday fields of study and began discovery rather extraordinary facts.  Some of his findings are below (and these are his conclusions, not my opinions):

- Roe vs. Wade did more for crime prevention in the 1990s than any conscious effort to reduce it, as babies were born into more stable households.
- Parents moving to a ‘better neighborhood’,

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Charlotte a destination for affordability

That is… attainable housing that doesn’t look like subsidized affordable housing.  For example, homes in The Renwick (pictured) are said to be starting in the mid-100Ks.  Seems to be a great example of no-frills chic.

The area’s overall cost of living is 3% below the national average, yet the median home price in Charlotte is $169,400, about 10% below the national average, according to the National Association of Realtors.  What’s surprising is that

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‘Upper Rock District’ finally gets the green light

It shows you have to be patient to be progressive.  A year and three months since we first introduced you to Upper Rock District, a proposed ‘CoolTown’ in Rockville, MD, it received formal city approval to be built.  More here.

Municipalities take note, not many developers are this patient, and serious institutional investors (like this one) will not wait more than six months, and certainly not fifteen.  Even then, the developers did not

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How to experience the hidden community

Yesterday we talked about how the coolest neighborhoods can be, well, a little ugly, and how some places may pass the postcard test, but have little soul.

So how do you discover the hidden soul in the coolest neighborhoods?

1. Find a ‘neighborhood agent’ - anyone who lives, works or hangs out there.  It’s really not worth visiting anywhere without one if you truly want to get to know a place.  Period.  Otherwise, you’ll get that ‘been there, done

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‘Been there, done that’ doesn’t always fly

Ever walk into a neighborhood that people rave about, then wonder what all the fuss was about?  At the same time, wonder why there are so many beautiful neighborhoods that people rarely talk about?

When a person gushes about their neighborhood, they’ll often mention the great restaurants, hangouts and entertainment, that it’s affordable, walkable and convenient, and that they like the people. It’s a bit rare for them to say how well designed the

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Houston the latest downtown on the verge of growth

There were only 2560 people living downtown, but that population jumped 43% since then.  Still, that’s only 3655 people, though that number is expected to increase to 20,000 in 20 years - that’s eight times the population at the turn of the century.  Why the sudden increase in popularity?  Understanding the principles of the tipping point helps.

So how will supply meet demand, given the trends described here in the last two entries?  “Build

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What? Single households now outnumber families

Yep, Stouffer’s will be selling a lot more of these.

The census bureau reports that for the first time households with one single adult (31.6%) are now greater than those of couples with kids (31.3%.) Further details here.  This should come as no surprise to those who are now aware that the average condo sells for more than the average single-family, as reported in yesterday’s entry.  The demand for condos (increase in number smaller

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What? Condos now worth more than single-family houses?!

Yep, it’s true.  The National Association of Realtors reported that in fourth quarter of 2005 the national median price of a condo ($223,500) was higher than that of a single-family home ($218,600.) Of course for regular readers of this blog, it’ll come as no surprise - we know what we want, and we know what our peers want - affordability, walkability, convenience, entertainment… and the fact that married with kids’ are less than 20%

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Branding a city (like Chicago)

How do you brand such a big city like Chicago?  Smart City radio interviews Paul O’Connor of World Business Chicago to get the answer, and I must say his answer is rather ‘CoolTownish’.

His focus is on branding the quality of life and global diversity of Chicago.  In his words, “The big change has been that by working on the quality of life of the city, making it safe and clean and attractive, a place where gen x and gen y want to be, then what has happened is

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Why is it that you have to choose neighborhoods that other people design?  Wouldn’t it be great if you could collaborate on designing the coolest neighborhood, then have it built?

Perhaps that dream isn’t far away, and Lego may have laid the foundation. Its newly introduced Lego Factory allows people to design their own buildings, neighborhood, even an entire town via the free software they provide.  That’s just the beginning, because you then submit that design to Lego to buy all the

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Dispelling a few urban myths...

Is this urban housing migration mentioned on Monday true?  Here are some myths that the urban boom is ending… and the realities:

Suburban growth is still outpacing urban growth. Of course it is if you’re only measuring new construction, as the Census does.  That means they don’t count a downtown population going from 800 to 9500 (like in Charlotte) if the buildings were simple renovated.  Besides, people only started moving back to cities a few years ago,

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The value of ‘no frills chic’

Now that the national homebuilders are on the urban homebuilding bandwagon, let’s hope they don’t take the Walmart, GM, Safeway, United Airlines approach of mass-production.  While it’s unlikely, there is hope that one of them will indeed come to a true understanding of what no-frills chic is, defined by Trendwatching.com as “low cost goods and services that add design, third-party high quality elements and/or exceptional customer service to create top quality

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National homebuilders going urban?!

Ok, so now you know everybody’s doing it if the likes of the largest homebuilders, like Beazer, Ryland and Pulte are focusing on urban housing.

In the long run this is a great thing, as they’ll be helping to shift national institutional dollars (where an overwhelming majority of all investment dollars are) toward urban housing as well.  In the short run, we’re going to see some tacky, over-priced urban buildings with chains on the ground floor (with signs

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Making ‘planned spontaneity’ easier

If there’s one thing that appeals to our audience, it’s planned spontaneity - making spontaneous decisions to go somewhere or do something”, aided by the web’s “physical and virtual web of no-frills airlines, always-on phones and PDAs, affordable hotels, last-minute/find-and-seek websites” as described by Trendwatching.com.

Well, here’s a CoolTown tool to plan some spontaneity in your neighborhood or favorite district - via our urban vitality engine. 

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The $5 independent-business lunch dilemma

It’s lunchtime (for entrepreneurs, that could mean anytime between noon and 6 pm.) You’ve got $5 for food and drink, whether it’s all you got or all you want to spend.  Why is it that the only choices are either unhealthy or chains? McD’s, Subway… What if you wanted to support your fellow entrepreneur, that independent sandwich shop down the street, but the bill always totals over $7? Surely there’s a no-frills chic answer.

Why does this matter? 

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‘Being spaces’ - productive, social or both

Is your workplace becoming your characterless home?  Is your home becoming your isolated workplace?  There’s no need to be in either all the time, thanks to the proliferation of being spaces: “commercial living-room-like settings that facilitate small office/living room activities like watching a movie, reading a book, meeting friends and colleagues, or doing your admin.” It’s a specific example of a third place.  I even mentioned being spaces here

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Introducing ‘Generation C’ - CoolTown-ready

I often have difficulty formally identifying the market for CoolTowns, mainly because it’s a market that doesn’t like being ‘identified’.  It’s an amalgamation of gen xers, yers, empty nexers, creative class, free agent nation, early adopters, cultural creatives (the last four each had entire books dedicated to them,) knowledge workers… and now there’s Generation C.

The ‘C’ stands for content.  As Trendwatching.com states, “Instead of asking

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‘Collaborative filtering’ for towns

Collaborative filtering: the method of making automatic predictions about the interests of a user by collecting taste information from many users

You’ve used this before, like Amazon’s “Customers who bought this book also bought...” and iTunes’ “Listeners also bought...” where you learn about things you might like based on things liked by like-minded people

Now, how about applying ‘collaborative filtering’ to town building for the creative

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10 great public places

I presented Project for Public Spaces’ principles for what makes a great public place.  Today I list their annual ten best additions to their great places archive:

United States:
The City Museum, St. Louis, MO
Museum of Modern Art Interior and Sculpture Garden, New York, NY
Wisconsin State Capitol, Madison, WI
Devon Street, Chicago, IL
Canada:
Stanley Park, Vancouver, BC
Central/South America
Jardin Juarez and Market Hall, Juchitan, Mexico
Largo

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‘What makes a public place great?’

What makes a public place great?  A good start is to ask Project for Public Spaces, a leading nonprofit that documents public places for a living.  Below is their http://www.pps.org/info/newsletter/august2005/august2005_what_makes_place_great
“four-point criteria, with a CoolTown slant to it:

- “Accessible and well-connected to other important places in the area.” The best public places are at the center, like the Italian piazzas or town/neighborhood

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Speaking a spicier language

Many of us have heard the negative terms NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard); dejavenue (when one place starts to look like ‘Generica’); Nothing Anywhere Near Anything); mcmansion; and maybe even DUDE (Developer Under Delusions of Entitlement).  Believe it or not, there are dozens more where this came from.  Why the negativity?  Because so much of what’s being built is, well, negative.  So what about some positive ones - we need some direction here folks.  Perhaps

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Finally! Health insurance for free agents!

It’s long been a frustration for individual entrepreneurs (aka free agents) who have to pay a lot more to get less health insurance than that of larger companies.

This is no longer the case for the independents and free agents in urban downtowns! Thanks to the National Main Street Center, a nonprofit that assisted well over 2000 main streets across the country.  They helped initiate the National Trust Insurance Services which provides health

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Shopping for a loft?

You’re in luck if you’re in Washington DC, as far as finding out where to buy.  Loft afficionado Tim Liu has put together one of the most extensive loft shopping guides anywhere at DC Lofts.  However, being able to afford them is another story, because the supply hasn’t caught up with the demand - even with the 150 loft/loft-style buildings listed on the site.

The question is, “When will one be able to truly afford a loft?”.  One way is to move to a more obscure where

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