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January 19, 2007

Bia's, Upper Haight, SF

SF increasingly pro indie, NYC becoming pro chain?

According to the NY Times, the word on the street is that New Yorkers are worried that “it’s getting boring around here.” "The chain proliferation and the sameness they have brought to so many blocks has become a pet peeve for many New Yorkers, and the butt of jokes for others. On a recent episode of the NBC comedy “30 Rock,” a character sent to pick up a prescription was stymied by the presence of “Rite Drugs” outlets on all four corners of an intersection."

Meanwhile, last November San Francisco residents approved a proposition (60% of the vote) to require review by a planning commission of any proposal to open a new chain store outlet or restaurant within city limits. Gerardo Sandoval, city supervisor, “Our position is: ‘We’re San Francisco; you can do what you want in other cities, but here we are going to protect local neighborhood character." Lawrence B. Badiner, assistant director of that city’s planning commission, on the subject of Starbucks, “The predominant view in most parts of the city is, ‘We’ve got enough; if we want to go to Starbucks we know where to find one."

The Times article states the reason why NYC has no such policy is because surveyed residents back in the 1980s preferred gentrifying neighborhoods (where chains are attracted to) vs those with stable rents. Well, back in the 1980s cities were largely undesirable, and any neighborhood with rising rents was a good thing, as opposed to today. Also, back then in a mass production economy, chains represented the economic norm. Today, in a mass customization economy, successful indies are out-performing the chains.

The bottom line is a well-run indie business (ie a VIBE) is economically healthier for a neighborhood than a chain (chains are by definition well-run, otherwise they wouldn't exist), but a chain is economically healthier than an ill-run indie business. We haven't quite hit the tipping point yet of VIBEs, but city policies like that of SF and Austin are certainly helping.

Image: San Francisco's Upper Haight, mostly indie, a few chains.

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January 18, 2007

Renton, Washington

Small town of Renton smartly evolving from industrial to knowledge economy

The city of Renton, just south of Seattle, has long been synonymous with Boeing. However, visit their website today and there's not only no mention of the airline giant on their home page, but missing from their economic development and vision, mission, and business plan pages as well. There's just a picture of a jet on the business home page, but no mention of Boeing when listing the city's assets.

Why? The City is steadfastly, wisely, deftly moving Renton away from the industrial economy into the knowledge economy, and the NY Times recognized as much in their article, Daylight in Boeing's Shadow. What you'll instead see on the aforementioned web pages is a consistent focus on quality of life, affordability, and entrepreneurship.

What's more important is that you'll see this vision actually manifested throughout the city, from attractive, attainable, transit-oriented mixed-use development (images above) to hosting twice the national average of college-educated workers to providing a streamlined permitting process to reward rather than impede innovation.

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January 17, 2007

People's Cafe, Upper Haight, San Francisco

Wow! Free wi-fi AND internet for ALL in San Francisco

Above: Patrons of People's Cafe in Upper Haight, San Francisco. Soon they'll be able to work via their laptops too...

As we all know, since 1949 the government's been paying for all our roads (ie our asphalt infrastructure), but since the advent of the internet we've had to pay for it. Well, San Francisco is the first city to sign a contract to provide free wi-fi and internet for all in the city... a digital infrastructure. Earthlink is providing the wi-fi network, and Google the free internet access.

What's the significance? As an envious Pasadena entrepreneur puts it, "It's also good for the continued development and maturation of what Richard Florida dubbed The Creative Class. Cities that offer free WiFi service will do much to attract the young, the hip, the creative, the geeky, the artists and entrepreneurs and aspirers who breathe life, business, and spending into the urban... It's time for the Powers That Be in Pasadena to beg and worship and plead with Google/EarthLink to bring some of the free WiFi love to Pasadena."

It also means in an ever increasing information-based economy, we'll be relying less and less on vehicular traffic and experiencing less downtime in traffic congestion, and more on literally working wherever, whenever we want for pennies a day (the equivalent of taxes.) No other U.S. city can claim that for every single resident as far as I know. Internationally, that's another story.

This story would have been published several hours sooner if DC had city-wide wi-fi as well...

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January 16, 2007

Temple Bar, Dublin, Ireland

Cool towns: Stories - How to get people to act

We've come to the final entry in this series of Made to Stick's Six Principles of Sticky Ideas as it relates to building cool places...

The sixth principle is Stories. How will you get people to act, to implement, the ultimate goal of any idea. You would tell a story, and not just any story, but in reading the last several entries, you'll know it would be a Simple Unexpected Concrete Credentialed Emotional Story (notice the acronym, which is a bit cheesy, but easy to remember and relevant).

First of all, avoid suffering from the Curse of Knowledge (a fundamental Made to Stick rule of thumb) in telling abstract stories that reflect your grand vision (ie most commercials and conference presentations), but instead tell real stories of how your grand vision was implemeneted, like...

The story of how a neglected, historic, pedestrian-only neighborhood in downtown Dublin, Ireland slated for demolition cheated its planned destiny to become the most popular (maybe too much so!), photogenic destination in the city, or...

The story of how progressive residents in Freiburg, Germany took it upon themselves to become a co-developer with the City (ie a beta community) so they could live, work and play in what is literally their dream neighborhood. Ironically, now that's what the American Dream should be known as.

For a primer on business storytelling, you may want to use this structure from Bill Jensen's Simplicity: The New Competitive Advantage:
1. Conflict:  'Burning Platform' - The business case for change
2. Transition:  'Where We Are' - Successes/progress and failures to date
3. Climax:  'Success this year'
4. Close:  'Destination' - Mission, can also include Vision, Values

Image: What became of that abandoned neighborhood in Dublin, Ireland, today known as the Temple Bar district

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