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November 17, 2006

Temple Bar, Dublin, Ireland

$10,000 reward for helping get 'cool towns' built!

Why is it that one look at the image above tells you this is not in the U.S.? The bigger question is, why not? How about a place like this in your own town, with your own local, independent cafes and shops below, entrepreneurial offices above, and lofts above that? Or perhaps a section where the whole street is full of outdoor dining? Wi-fi everywhere. Nightly happy hours and live music, weekly poetry readings and plays, monthly international socials and cultural events, a genuine sense of community...

It's time we used the power of the net, crowdsourcing, and the beta community - in other words, you all - to help spend what amounts to $150 million in equity capital that would invest in places like this, at a minimum of $5 million per investment (not enough impact otherwise). The related question to the one above is who are the next generation of real estate developers and cities that want to see that happen and only lack capital to do so?

So, CoolTown Studios is offering a $10,000 reward, payable immediately upon the actual investment transaction, if you can refer such a progressive, high-integrity real estate developer (yes, they're not all bad) to utilize this kind of capital (I will keep you updated on what happens with your leads no matter what happens). To the developer's relief, the investment entity takes a passive role. Now, because of the amount of $ involved, it has to be a development team (rather than an individual) who has demonstrated success among its members, and remember, this is about building communities for the audience associated with this site's readership. That's what this is all about. If you'd like to be part of a national beta community to help develop such a place, wherever it is in this country, contact us (email link to the right) and start meeting other people who share your vision.

Image: This is the Temple Bar district in Dublin, Ireland It was almost demolished in the 1980s, and is one of the most economically, culturally prosperous destinations in the country today.

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November 16, 2006

Latin Quarter, Paris

Paris aims to become 24/7, attract the creative class

Did you know Paris, unlike New York, London and Tokyo, is not a 24/7 city? Most restaurants close on Sunday and do not serve after 10:30 pm in the evening; supermarkets close at 9 pm; long working hours are unheard of; the subway closes between 1 am and 5 am...

Does that make a difference? Tremendously, according to Christian Sautter, the deputy mayor in charge of economic development and finance, "When we came into office in 2001, we had a city proud of its history, its beauty, its tourism, but employment was decreasing, population was decreasing, young families could not afford to stay here because they had trouble finding affordable housing. So we decided to work in three areas: culture, high technology and transportation.." And to Paris Mayor Bertrand Delano, that means greener, more high tech, less uptight.

So, to help attract the vaunted creative class by making it easier to work (as well as live and play) 24/7, they're:

- Building a tram system to circle the city so they can Metro across neighborhoods rather than having to transfer at the city center each time and considering extending the Metro hours;
- Establishing 400 free wi-fi hot spots with plans to lay fiber-optic cables to 80% of its buildings by 2010;
- Providing more public events and amenities so citizens who can't afford to live in Paris can at least hang out there, such as at the summer-time 'Paris Beach' along the river Seine;
Paris Biopark- Introducing the Paris Biopark., a 333,000-square-foot complex for biotech companies, creating jobs for 700 high-tech workers that will add to the demand for a 27/7 city. Note how the landscaping is concentrated as an outdoor place inside the buildings, not as sprawling landscape around it as you see in most research parks.
- Measuring progress by how much people don't drive or use motorized vehicles, which allows more space for people, pedestrians, walking commuters.

Read more in this L.A. Times article.

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November 15, 2006

Images of the media economy

'How Cities Compete In The Media Economy'

Media economy - "an economy based on media, mass communication and services over mass-produced goods, no longer based on large, centralized companies. Instead, it flourishes amid a decentralized network of small businesses and entrepreneurs and the creative, urban places that support them."

What better way to illustrate and understand how cities can compete in the information age than to co-publish a report with someone from the millennium generation, its emerging target market. CoolTown Studios teamed up with Mike Lydon, a Planetizen correspondent (see the article at the top of their home page) and a Masters Candidate at the Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning at the University of Michigan to bring you How Cities Compete In The Media Economy.

It wouldn't be a CoolTown-sanctioned report however, without a connection to implementation. Just about every city now has a creative, entrepreneurial district (or at least a vision for one) that embraces the media economy, and to support that, CoolTown provides a $150 million real estate equity fund that's looking to invest a minimum of $5 million per project in developers that 'get it'. That's something city leaders can take a lead on as far as catalyzing. We don't define what the developments for these investments are, we enable people to define it for themselves and as a community, then have developers build it for them. That's what our beta communty program is all about, and something the aforementioned investors prefer because it reduces their risk by having the tenants secured beforehand.

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November 14, 2006

French Street, Istanbul, Turkey

Transcending retail chain districts: The VIBE beta guild

Creatives, urbanites want local, indie businesses. Developers know about investing in real estate, not small businesses, and not only do national/regional chains make it easier for them, they can pay 3-5 times more rent. That's a crippling dilemma.

Enter the VIBE beta community, where VIBE (introduced in the previous entry) stands for variegated independent business entrepreneur and the beta community is a future group of tenants organized as a community with a progressive vision tied to a progressive implementor/developer (and ideally the City as well).

That is, rather than anchor a retail/entertainment/business district with five-seven chains, anchor it with five-seven established independent business entrepreneurs that have the best track record of success in the region. Not only are they organized as a complementary group with intent of creating a well-designed public destination, but the local beta community provides the founding patrons.

VIBEs can't pay the same rent as nationals, but they can pay more than start-up businesses. Besides, the City should provide low-interest loans, tax credits and tax breaks since it's well documented that indie businesses contribute more to City tax revenue than chains, not to mention the local culture as well and even civic tourism.

Still, this doesn't address the problem that the typical developer has agents for national chains beating down the door while the indies are doing their own thing, which is what indies do. That's why CoolTown is establishing the VIBE beta guild as well as working on a revolving fund to invest in them, with the help of a former top executive from the National Main Street Center... because an urban retail/entertainment district is a terrible thing to waste.

If you're a VIBE looking for a beta guild to join, or a City/developer looking for VIBEs, contact us.

Image: French Street, Istanbul, Turkey

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November 13, 2006

A VIBE's work in Washington DC

Transcending the national retail chains with 'VIBE's

Here's the catch 22 - the most culturally, economically rich cities and towns focus on local, independent, diverse restaurants and retail, however, it's the national chains that can pay $60-$100/s.f./year when most start-up indie businesses can only afford $7-$20/s.f./year. That's a serious problem if cities don't share in the economic benefits they receive from local independent businesses.

There's an answer somewhere in the middle, and today I'd like to announce a new term in the CoolTown lexicon. First we introduced the beta community in 2004, and as a solution to the growing aforementioned dilemma, we're now recognizing the rise of the V.I.B.E. - the variegated independent business entrepreneur, defined as a successful entrepreneur who has the 'midas touch' as far as opening multiple unique, experience-economy-oriented, authentic, independent, often triple-bottom-line restaurants, shops, galleries and entertainment venues, or even all of them combined into one.

For instance, Adams Morgan in Washington DC has a few VIBEs, and the image above shows three such destinations established by a single VIBE within a few blocks of one another within the last five years or so, all of which have become overnight neighborhood institutions.

Tomorrow, the VIBE beta guild.

ps The CoolTown Studios office is directly above The Diner. See the door to the right?...

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