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February 23, 2007

Baltimore homes

$2000 reward for living near your work

If you live in Baltimore MD, work for one of these companies and buy a home nearby, you'll be rewarded $2000 via the Baltimore City Live Near Your Work Program.

That's $1000 from the City, and $1000 from the employer. The State used to contribute $1000 as well - don't know what happened to that. What's in it for the City? Less expense on public roads and transit. What's in it for the employer? Happier, more productive employees who don't waste 1-2 hours a day in traffic, and safer surrounding neighborhoods through the residential investment. The employer stipulates what 'live near your work' really means as far as eligibility goes, and you have to repay 20% of the grant back for each year under five years that you live there.

What makes the program so effective is that both the City and the employer actively promote the initiative. Check out this statement from Johns Hopkins University to its employees back when the program first began:

"Johns Hopkins has been working with its neighbors for decades to ensure the vitality and stability of the communities near our campuses. To that end, we have long encouraged our faculty, staff and students to live in these neighborhoods. This new partnership with the state and city gives us an opportunity to back that encouragement with cash."

My workplace is five blocks from home - I'd say that's worth some kind of reward :)

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February 22, 2007

Streetcar

Romance with streetcars reviving

They're back! ...and people are glad to see them again, for the country had a love affair with them before the infamous streetcar funeral pyres in the early 20th century via GM's relentless agenda to replace them with their buses. But they're not back for the reasons people may think - nostalgia. No siree, for believe it or not, cities are bringing back these lovable people movers because they make economic sense, and a lot of it as well.

Read more in this USA Today article, and check out what the streetcars look like in other cities here.

In Tampa, the city spent $55 million in a streetcar system, and it attracted well over $1 billion in private investment. In Portland, their brand new, modern streetcars attracted about 100 projects worth $2.3 billion within two blocks of the line in less than five years, including over 7000 housing units and 4.6 million s.f. of office and retail.

Why are streetcars such good investments?

- They arrive more frequently (see 5-minute rule), since they're lighter, smaller, and more nimble than light rail.
- They're very affordable. They cost about $10-$15 million a mile compared with $5-$75 million a mile for light-rail
- They're less than 5 miles in length compared with 10-20 miles for light rail, which makes them less costly politically as well.

Streetcar systems are in place in cities throughout North America, in Toronto, Portland OR, Kenosha WI, Little Rock AR, , Tampa, St. Louis, New Orleans, with over three dozen on the way, including Tucson, Birmingham AL, Miami, Trenton NJ...

As one city transportation official put it, "Streetcars have sex appeal."

Read more in a recent Wall Street Journal article, A Streetcar Named Aspire: Lines Aim to Revive Cities, June 20, 2007.

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February 21, 2007

Outdoor cafe in Brussels, Belgium

It's the entrepreneurs, stupid! (2 of 2)

Based on yesterday's entry identifying the uneven distribution of extreme entrepreneurship and job growth in a few fortunate places that take advantage of innovation that is ubiquitous and portable, how can cities become more like one of those few fortunate places?

The answer, according to the Council on Competiveness in their comprehensive report, Where America Stands:
Entrepreneurship, all of which are adopted by successful regions:

1. Creating Angel Networks. It not only starts with money, but money that believes in your local talent. Angel investor groups, often assisted by local economic development organizations, help organize such capital. In 1996 there were only about 10 formal angel groups, while today there are over 200. Sierra Angels is the largest investment group in the Northern Sierra region (Northern California and Nevada), placing over $110 million into more than 140 start-up companies.
Meanwhile, CoolTown has an angel investment group, with a capital source of at least $150 million, seeking cities to 'adopt'. What is your city waiting for? :)

2. Leveraging Knowledge Assets. Talent starts with universities, and there's no shortage of evidence on this website for that. Invest state dollars in a world class university, build a living/learning program for entrepreneurs, and provide business opportunities to students before they graduate (and leave town), and after.

3. Catalyzing Connectivity. This is what the content on this website is all about. From the report, "The combustion behind innovation often emerges from chance encounters, face-to-face communications, and close interactions among people, ideas and resources." A 'cool town' is the physical manifestation of those connections, and the beta community is the virtual means that lead to that end.

Image source - Street in Brussels.

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February 20, 2007

Business in Clipper Mill, Baltimore

It's the entrepreneurs, stupid! (1 of 2)

Cities are constantly trying to get companies to move to their region, but what about growing their own (aka economic gardening) and supporting you? Here's some compelling evidence on why that's an increasingly popular trend:

A recent Small Business Administration study found that the most entrepreneurial regions in the U.S. had:

- 125% more employment growth
- 58% more wage growth
- 109% higher productivity than the least entrepreneurial regions
- spent 54% more on R&D and had 67% more patents per labor force participant
- 63% more high-tech establishments

Not surprisingly, it also finds that regions with more innovation (ie patents) than entrepreneurs yield little local economic impact. However, because innovations are portable and entrepreneurship is place-based, this is unfortunately more the rule than the exception. The study found that 75% of small, 59% of medium and 44% of large regions are not developing enough entrepreneurs to match the existing innovation capacity it will support. Talk about losing jobs...

Why is this the case? While innovation is everywhere, 66% of high-growth entrepreneurial activity (based on venture capital investment) is concentrated in only four regions: San Francisco/Silicon Valley, Greater Boston, New York Metro and Southern California.

Not fair, is it, but it can be. How can other cities tap into this uneven distribution of extreme entrepreneurship and job growth to match their unmet levels of innovation? The answers tomorrow...

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