Signs of Pittsburgh’s creative renaissance - zombies

Happy halloween…

Pittsburgh has had a tough transition from its prosperous industrial economy to the knowledge economy, but there’s a sign it’s now on track - zombies.

As there is now a creative, bohemian neighborhood in every city, and creativity leads to jobs, the South Side neighborhood is one of Pittsburgh’s key generators of economic revitalization. Some unexpected evidence of its creative influence manifested itself via its first

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What will the next generation of Manhattan look like?

No cars on 42nd Street, for starters, if Vision42 is executed, an initiative for a cross-city pedestrian mall with light rail backed by seven NY elected officials, the Hilton Times Square Hotel and numerous organizations.

This is not just another social cause, it’s a significant economic one.  With the overall economic trends of cities gaining in popularity and population, Vision42 recently completed a study concluding that business

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So you want a co-op supermarket downtown...

Good neighborhood supermarkets are hard to come by. Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods are the de facto choices by the downtown crowd, though the former has a limited selection and the latter caters to an upper class income. The most progressive neighborhoods in forward-thinking cities like Madison WI, Burlington VT, Cambridge MA and Ann Arbor MI have it figured out - co-op supermarkets.

As you can see (above), co-ops have evolved - they’re organized

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Pennsylvania hasn’t exactly been at the top of the list in states that attract knowledge workers. However, Collegia, which works with colleges and communities to attract and retain top student talent, is helping them change that.

Collegia president Todd Hoffman, interviewed at Smart City, puts it in perspective, “Quality of life is more important now than ever.  It’s really the jobs that are migrating to where the students want to be - they seem to have the upper hand in most places.”

One

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If there was ever one definitive graphic, this is it

The table is from Linking the New Economy to the Livable Community, published by Collaborative Economics, sponsored by the James Irvine Foundation.

It clearly outlines how our one-size-fits-all mass production economy is evolving toward a customer-driven mass customization model based on choice, adaptability, distinctiveness, vital centers and quality of life, and even better, how communities will begin to reflect that.  You can also see

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What’s so hard about building a piazza? That’s the general thinking of the creative class, and tired of waiting for non-creative City and real estate development leaders to probably never invest in such a thing, the local creatives in Manhattan decided to do it themselves.

How did this Gansevoort Project (the name of the neighborhood, aka the Meatpacking District) start?  A neighborhood preservationist and restauranteur got together with their fellow business owners and residents, brought in

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A slice of creative class nightlife

We know there are studies (Competing in the Age of Talent) that correlate population diversity to a city’s economic growth; that young adults create jobs and are a key source of the creative class’ job base of designers, scientists, engineers and artists, and that nightlife is a key determinant in choosing a city…

So, what is an example of this nightlife that everyone’s talking about?  Washington Post writer Ellen McCarthy finds out what that means in

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Celebrities investing in inner cities in a big way

Henry Cisneros. Magic Johnson. Shaquille O’Neal. Oscar De La Hoya. From a member of President Clinton’s cabinet to a world title holder, these four have one thing in common - investing in inner cities, and with significant economic and social impact.

Henry Cisneros - Henry founded CityView after his White House service “to help create the highest quality housing for America’s working families”, partnered with a $500M revolving fund from

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Business Week: ‘IDEO’s Urban Pre-Planning’

The story behind the BusinessWeek article, IDEO’s Urban Pre-Planning, is already creating a buzz in the real estate industry.

First of all, who is IDEO and second, what is urban pre-planning?  IDEO is like the Apple Computer of the design world.  They’re experimenting with a new practice called Smart Space (it’s not even on their website yet), which is to utilize the wads of dollars wasted on marketing after a development is completed and invest

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NY Times - What did three college graduates have to do with a $15 million urban village?

That’s right, they’re the developers, and four years later, they’re in the New York Times - Young, Idealistic and Now Developers.  Starting out four years ago as 22 to 23-year olds with liberal arts degrees and no real estate development experience, Ben, Naomi and Joshua realized that they already had what it took to take on a $15 million urban village - integrity, motivation and capacity.

Located

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How artists can more formally help vitalize cities

We know there are studies that relate artists to economic impact, attracting other creatives in science, engineering and high tech that create jobs.  However, how can a city more formally utilize their talent, and how can artists more formally participate to more effectively enhance their impact?

In a Smart City Radio interview, Ann Daly of Ann Daly Arts Consulting provides some answers with a strategic vision.

She states while it may

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Is your city a burden to creatives?

If it doesn’t have walkable urban neighborhoods, it could very well be.  Based on a recent study, A Heavy Load: The Combined Housing and Transportation Burdens of Working Families by the Center for Housing Policy, in many ways for creatives, living in an auto-oriented small town is less affordable than subsisting in Manhattan.

The study covered low- to moderate-income (ie including artists, musicians, entrepreneurs just starting out) working families

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ZeroOne - Where art and technology create compelling experiences

The TV set. Computer. Cell phone. Movie theater.  These are technologies that showcase art, but it’s hardly what you’d call immersive or remotely profound.  Enter the ZeroOne San Jose Festival, a biannual digital arts festival featuring 2000 of the world’s most innovative contemporary artists from 40 countries, focused on the intersection of art, culture, community and technology.

The purpose? To celebrate Silicon Valley’s

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Your uh, bus is here? Making mass transit cool

That’s the thing about mass transit isn’t it?  It’s extremely practical and environmentally-conscious, but sooooo uncool. Well, one of the only uncool things left about city living is destined to change in a few years as well.

Almost two years ago, this website profiled the benefits of bus rapid transit (BRT), and how it is able to operate on both high-speed paths and regular roads.  Well, mass transit is evolving pretty quickly in light of

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A look at NYC’s creative class strategy

Being that New York City is the pinnacle of urban living in the U.S., ever wonder what it’s current creative class strategy is?  The answer is provided by Beth Siegel, president of Mt. Auburn Associates where she provided a creative sector economic development strategy for NYC.  She also headed evaluations for the U.S. Economic Development Administration.  You can listen to her via her Smart City Radio interview.

Beth’s major accomplishment may be

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The creative class isn’t just artists!

Because of the name, creative class, many perceive it to consist of those only in the arts, music, design and entertainment.  Not true at all.  Here’s the official definition from the author that started it all with Rise of the Creative Class, Richard Florida:  “I define the core of the Creative Class to include people in science and engineering, architecture and design, education, arts, music and entertainment, whose economic function is to create new

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Why do cities shrink and grow? Can cultural regeneration help?

It’s a simple question, and there are thousands of case studies.  One person who’s been researching the answers is Jasmin Aber, an architect leading research on culture-led regeneration with an international group of research specialists at the Institute of Urban Design & Regional Development at UC-Berkeley.

Why do cities shrink and grow?
Globalization.  Technological progress.  Educational progress. Aber states in a Smart

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It depends on it. Especially if you feel your community is lacking in the kinds of events you want to attend.

In today’s experience economy and customer-made world, we are literally becoming the sum of what we individually create, rather than forced to accept what is mass-produced for us.  This means that instead of finding what’s on TV that night, you could be hosting your own event, experience, concert, fundraiser…

Of course it helps to have partners, which is why indie businesses are

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1.5M s.f. new shopping center, zero new parking

A neglected series of buildings is expanding by an additional one million s.f. of retail, entertainment and university, yet there’s no additional parking being added?  Yes, the $460M San Francisco Centre is indeed in a city like no other, but it just goes to show you that living-without-a-car is one of the hottest trends going.

Granted, by its sheer size and location it is a regional shopping destination, so that means predominantly chains,

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Does your city ever emanate the ‘innovation overload’ buzz?

It’s like jumping into a hot spring in the winter - not something you experience everyday, but when you do, how incredibly invigorating.

If it wants to grow economically, culturally and intelligently, some of its residents should at least know what it feels like.  Innovation overload is defined by the folks at Trendwatching as the “clever entrepreneurs, inventors, and marketers from all over who are coming up with so many

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Not enough downtown to go around in Southern town

What happens when a small city invests in attracting the creative class?  You have a city like Columbia, SC with a population of 117,000 adding 7000 new residences downtown within the span of a few years.

How so?

- It has a major university, and is building a university research village (Innovista), not a university research park, that will create 8700 knowledge-economy jobs.
- Developers are building appealing, human-scaled lofts and

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