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October 6, 2006

Glasgow, Scotland

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 City Radio interview, "At no other time in the history of capitalist organization, there seems to been have so many opportunities to bring economy, culture, community and place back into some sort of practical and human harmony. So the global society of the 21st century is experiencing a shift from the nation state to the city. In the U.S., we're experiencing a new renaissance in what a city is. If you don't have a downtown that's representative of your strengths... to represent the rest of the world, you cannot compete. You cannot compete through the suburbs - "Come to our region because we have the greatest suburbs" - it just doesn't sink in, you need to have a center."

What are cultural regeneration strategies for growth?
"There are very few places that are memorable. The first thing that usually springs to mind is a physical manifestation. What makes it memorable is the celebration of the place through some physical form."
Glasgow, Scotland - A long-time shrinking city, place-based investments in architecture and culture as a memorable place on the riverfront and now a regular on magazine covers. (pictured)
Singapore, Indonesia - It's One-Degree project (it's location relative to the equator), a public-private investment in R&D clustering, creating an environment for work and play, creativity, experimenting, and playing.
San Jose, CA Hosting an events that potentially leads to investments. It's annual Zero One Festival showcases cutting edge technology and art. More next week.

How are cultural regeneration strategies implemented?
Simply put, leaders from both the public and private sector. Every city has visionary private sector leaders, so it's essentially up to city leaders (since there are proportionally much smaller in number, especially when it comes to the mayor) to rise to the occasion with them.

Update: Listen to how Mayor Jay Williams is leading Youngstown from shrinking to growth on Smart City Radio.

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October 5, 2006

San Francisco Centre

Add to your town's creative experiences

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 so important to the local culture and economy (chains require approval from national headquarters), and now there's even a way to be your own Ticketmaster, and without being evil, as they say. Based in Seattle (is it a coincidence that's where Pearl Jam is from, the David to the Ticketmaster Goliath?), Brown Paper Tickets allows you to print and sell your events' tickets online for free, while buyers pay a 99 cent fee plus 2.5% of the ticket cost, half the typical fees. Then put it on your own neighborhood's TV guide of events, like MidCity in Washington DC does.

One fun opportunity is to print tickets for a downtown 'mad money' event that involves the indie merchants, where people buy $10, $20, or $30 tickets for once-a-month price-fixe specials at restaurants or gift packages at stores, creating a vibrant buzz of activity in your neighborhood. Now you're in control.

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October 4, 2006

San Francisco Centre

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, but take a look at the number of amenities it provides everyone:

- A 9-plex theater, seven full-service restaurants, a specialty food 'emporium' in addition to the standard food court, free window shopping at 200 stores, a San Francisco State University extension and one of the most beautifully restored, intensively used interior public spaces (see larger rendering and fly-through) in a time where such places are rarely ever built. In fact, it was christened as the Emporium in 1896 as "the most beautiful store on earth'', opening with an orchestra playing twelve numbers including the William Tell Overture. Now that's an experience.

The lesson for smaller cities and towns is not to shoehorn something of this scale into your downtown, but to strategize how to provide the same amenities (with indie stores) into the existing pedestrian-oriented urban fabric.

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October 3, 2006

Innovation overload

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 innovative ideas, that even innovation blogs have a hard time keeping track..." such as their sister site, Springwise, what is to products/services as this site is to places.

Take a look at Springwise and ask yourself, do you see these kinds of innovations happening in my city? Are people having conversations about these topics, like sexy supermarkets and office supplies, artist-painted rental cars, indian food to go or Second Life? Just as important, do you experience this innovation buzz in an innovation district or neighborhood where creatives like to hang out, like say The Mission in San Francisco, East Village in Manhattan, or even the future Innovista in Columbia, SC, whose name means just that? How about a single venue for starters, like Busboys and Poets?

If so, we'd all like to hear your story! If not, then it's time to establish your own beta community and write your own!

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October 2, 2006

Adesso, Columbia, SC

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 apartments, both contemporary and historic to appeal to different tastes and ages. In fact, while the research village provides for the younger population, the downtown is filling with boomers.
- Of course there are changing market conditions that every city is experiencing, like the fact that less than 25% of all households consist of married couples with kids.

Then again, all you have to do is listen to the new downtowners:
“Neither one of us wants to commute,” Larry said. “We don’t want to drive.”
“It’s the lifestyle of being able to walk to places.”
“We fantasized about London or New York but couldn’t afford it. We looked at Asheville, but having the USC campus here outweighed the good things Asheville had to offer. And Greenville didn’t have a theater that showed art films."
"I live downtown, and 98 percent of my meetings are downtown.”
“I don’t like suburbs. I want to be closer to the action. Closer to Five Points, to the Vista, to life, to music, the theater. From downtown, I walk to all these things. We walk everywhere.”

However, the downtown amenities are so desirable that it may take a while before the supply catches up with the demand, as prices aren't necessarily what you'd expect from a small Southern town. The units in the Adesso (pictured) start at $275,000! Most of the more attainably-priced homes are forthcoming in the 3000-residence university research village. So, developers, keep developing!

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