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June 15, 2007

Community vs Financial Wealth

Community vs money? Is it really that simple?

Balancing a sense of community vs. financial wealth isn't a known inversely proportional correlation, but probably more so than you think.

Based on the recently published book, Deep Economy by Bill McKibben, here are some interesting perspectives:

- From a study measuring happiness, increases in incomes produce large hedonic gains in developing countries, small variable gains in Europe, and negative gains in the U.S., while companionship "yields more happiness in individualistic societies (like the U.S.) where it is scarce, than in collectivist societies (like China) where it is abundant." Economist Richard Layard
- The richer you get, the more you tend to move to the suburbs, then to the exurbs, becoming more and more isolated.
- Many of us look upon our college years as the best years of our lives, when we were at our poorest and lived more closely and intensely as a community than at any other time.
- Local, indie restaurants/retail can't compete with the leases national chains/franchises are able to pay, but they contribute much more to the local community.

What does this mean for cities and neighborhoods? People in the U.S. are increasingly more willing to open up their wallets for events and experiences that build community in a way that suits their contemporary needs (ie social networking amenities in buildings, MySpace, American Idol, cause-oriented happy hours, dodgeball leagues...) rather than the latest and greatest coffee maker, luxury car or stereo system.

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June 14, 2007

Cafe Sperl, Vienna, Austria

Vienna, Austria - The origin of 'coffee culture'

No, coffee culture did not originate from that corporate chain based in Seattle, but its history is indeed rooted in the 'kaffeehaus' of Austria, where it's been a fixture of Vienna’s everyday life since the 17th century.

Like today's coffeehouses in the U.S., Viennese coffee houses are meeting places not only for fresh brews, but also intellectuals, politicians, businesspeople. They're famous for their laid-back atmosphere and the now familiar reputation as a third place.
"Let's have a coffee" is a very common phrase, and it's unique local venues are still the favorite place to be in spite of the Starbucks invasion.

How serious is the coffee culture in Vienna? Its history is part of the school curriculum. As the story goes, "a Polish man disguised himself as a Turk as Ottoman troops were invading Vienna in 1683. He became a spy for the city's defenders and helped to liberate Vienna. As a reward he was offered the sacks of coffee beans left behind by the retreating Turks, and he became the city's first 'coffee boiler'."

Thanks to Kevin Kawasaki for the reference!

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June 13, 2007

Pioneer Square, Portland, OR

WSJ: 'TOD's are hot

What do investors think of TODs? (Transit-oriented development) The Wall Street Journal is reporting that "in many cities, the hottest development is taking place along the train lines" and "mass-transit lines are the new frontier in urban development." You'd better check out the article, The Little Engine That Could before it gets archived.

The evidence?

- There are 100 TODs in the U.S., with 100 more in the pipeline.*
- By 2030 the number of households near transit stations will rise to 16 million, from 6 million today.*
- Shrinking household sizes and increasing single households (link)
- The public sector attracts three to five times every dollar they invest in a transit system in private money.**
- Between 1997 and 2001, office and residential property values near Dallas transit stations increased 53% and 39% respectively more than comparable properties not served by rail.***
- Arlington, Virginia's overall transit-oriented plan has resulted in 40 million s.f. of development so far, while from 2002 to 2006, land values in the surrounding area grew 84%.****

Sources:
*Reconnecting America.
**Marilee Utter, president of Citiventure Associates LLC
***Economists from the University of North Texas
****Dennis Leach, Arlington County's director of transportation


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June 12, 2007

Lucerne, Switzerland

Top 10 ways to build a modern sense of community

A common question is how does one build a sense of community? Here's a CoolTown take on that, based on the article, The Top Ten Ways to Kill a Community, from the infinitely resourceful work-life blog, Lifehack.org.

Local investment
- Support economic gardening where cities invest economic development dollars in growing their own companies vs stealing them from other cities.
- Invest in local lenders that care and know how to assist in the development of local businesses vs attracting only national lenders who have no ties to the local market.
- Establish programs to hire and train from within the community with the help of the beta community vs training local companies to rely on outside entities for talent.
- Identify the core beta community of conscious creatives in your region/city/neighborhood and draw on them for leadership, vision and talent vs hiring people from outside the community. Related to above.

Leadership
- Maintain the diversity in leadership meetings by including local, younger and emerging businesses and creative organizations vs relying on only the more established representatives that often represent maturing and declining industries, trends.
- Ensure that government officials are located in or at least near the neighborhoods they make decisions for vs allowing governmental authority to migrate to distant locations, which is why inner cities are often denied high achievement-oriented charter schools by suburb-residing boards.
- Keep gifted leaders in the local communities that they know so well and have helped prosper vs forcing them to move to a larger governmental body as a 'promotion'.

Industry
- Encourage experience industry development that emphasizes local culture vs the traditionally lower-paying service industry that doesn't.
- Pay people what they're worth in a meritocracy - more talented people will come and stay, your company will grow, and so will the local economy... vs paying people by seniority only and watching the opposite happen along with inflation.

Placemaking
- Build the most beautiful places: streets, building, blocks, parks and plazas that you/your city can afford throughout the city vs allowing the build up of substandard housing in one area and luxury housing in another, with the conscious creatives, the source of your job and culture creation, left with little choice than to move to the suburbs.

Thanks to Robert Richman, director of community for PeopleJam for the reference.

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June 11, 2007

Pasadena Westgate

Pasadena's urban village a result of city's vision

A year and a half ago we profiled Pasadena's Central District Specific Plan as a model for visionary urban planning. A year or so later the city welcomes Westgate Pasadena, some of the fruits from that labor, in the form of a 12-acre urban village emerging from currently abandoned brownfield industrial buildings and parking lots.

Located right at a transit station, the award-winning three-block development consists of 22,000 s.f. of retail and 820 new condos and apartments, 110 of them affordable - the most in a market-rate project in the City's history.

Look for Westgate to be green as well, since on March 13, 2006, the city passed a green building ordinance requiring the following to be LEED certified:
- All city buildings with 5000 s.f. or more of new construction.
- Non-residential buildings with 25,000 s.f. or more of new construction.
- Mixed-use and multi-family residential buildings that are four or more stories.

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