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July 20, 2007

South Beach, Miami

How South Beach became popular (before it became too popular)

Today South Beach, Miami FL is no longer known as a place where you go out to see your friends, but a place to go with your friends to see and be seen, where you're not fixated on the persons at your dining table, but at who may walk in at any moment.

However, before it become such a Hollywood-oriented mecca, how did it go from a district of decaying buildings and drug dealers in the 1970s to a place desirable by the most creative in the industry, the host for one of the largest art festivals in the world, Art Basel?

As with so many of these stories, it started with an extraordinary person. In 1979, a woman named Barbara Capitman made it a personal mission to preserve the deteriorating art deco buildings as nationally historic structures, and succeeded. Once they were officially recognized as treasures, artists began painting them in the brilliant colors you see today, inhabiting many of the spaces, followed by visionary developers like Tony Goldman who saw the potential in transforming them into truly desirable retail and entertainment destinations and homes. Says Goldman, "On Ocean Drive, the vision was a promenade for cafe life. Those of us who were working on it were very clear we had to keep The Gap out. This couldn't be any old street anywhere in the country.'' Pretty much sums up its path to desirability by the cool and creative right there.

The district became such an artistic haven that celebrity photographers insisted having their shoots there, followed by the celebrities, followed by much of the current population described in the very first sentence. At least it's still photogenic.

Read more about its history here in the Miami Herald.


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July 19, 2007

Ars Electronica

The preeminent event for art and technology

"This (Hatchfest) (profiled yesterday) looks really cool! But for us who don't live in the states... do you know if there are any similar things going on in Europe?"

That would easily be the Ars Electronica Festival showcasing art and technology, which has had a major economic and cultural impact on its annual host city, Linz, Austria.

Not only was Linz a declining steel town that knew it had to transition to the information economy to survive, but the city's leaders were committed to doing something about it way back in 1979 with the inception of the first Ars Electronica festival. That's right, 1979. They knew they had to make an impact with a Wow factor from day one, and with the help of the media they accomplished that with The Cloud of Sound, a spectacular open air event with music, fireworks and lasers (remember, this is 1979) that attracted 100,000 people. Linz at the time had a population less than 200,000.

The organizers wanted to let the community know that they were participants, not just observers, and they succeeded in a big way. The city's main square is the stage for many of the arts and technology events. By experiencing technology in a fun, playful way, it allowed city economic leaders to ease the fear of change in evolving from an industrial-dependent city to a technology-embracing one. The Ars Electronica Center (Museum of the Future, the leading museum of digital art and media art, allows the public to experience this year-round. The Ars Electronica Futurelab, a laboratory focused on developing artistic and technological innovations, benefits emerging businesses and provides the seeds for local economic development.

Hear more from the festival's founder, Gerfried Stocker here on Smart City Radio. His key advice to cities is that it takes 5-10 years for such community-wide efforts to make a noticeable economic and cultural impact.

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July 18, 2007

Hatchfest

Film, music, writing, fine arts, fashion, photography, architecture, design...

...are some pretty desirable talents in establishing both a cultural and economic base for any city, but what has that got to do with Bozeman, MT and Asheville, NC? A lot, thanks to an increasingly popular event known as Hatchfest.

Held annually in Bozeman since fall 2004 and for the first time in Asheville in spring 2008, students from around the world participate in competitions and exhibitions while being mentored by seasoned veterans already accomplished in the field, as the veterans go home energized by fresh innovation and unbridled enthusiasm. The benefit to the city of Bozeman? $5 million in economic returns plus a serious boost to industry development in said fields of film, music, writing, fine arts, fashion, photography, design and architecture.

Asheville for instance, which has licensed the festival for the next ten years, plans to feature its cutting-edge visual artists who are turning scientific data on climate into graphic tools. Its goal is to become the visualization literacy capital of the U.S., and it already has a great headstart in establishing a high quality of life to attract and retain those creatives.

Thanks to Sandy Maxey for the reference.

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July 17, 2007

Best cities for young professionals

'Best (big) cities for young profes-sionals'

Where to go if getting a job is just as important as having a life? Forbes provides their annual Best Cities for Young Professionals to help you decide based on the following criteria:

- Where the graduates of top universities ended up 10 years later (only counting those who moved right after graduating to discount any 'unfair advantages', as well as adjusting for population);
- Where the best business opportunities exist (based on Forbes' list of 400 best big businesses and 200 best small businesses);
_ Which cities had the most young and unmarried people (ie nightlife);
- Which cities paid young professionals the best.

Keep in mind that in this ranking size matters - there should be another list for cities under 500,000. The top 40:

1. New York City, NY
2. San Francisco, CA
3. Atlanta, GA
4. Los Angeles, CA
5. Washington, DC
6. Boston, MA
7. Seattle, WA
8. Minneapolis, MN
9. Philadelphia, PA
10. Denver, CO
11. Austin, TX
12. Portland, OR
13. Charlotte, NC
14. Ste Louis, MO
15. Providence, RI
16. Chicago, IL
17. Raleigh, NC
18. Cincinnati, OH
19. San Diego, CA
20. Milwaukee, WI
21. Pittsburgh, PA
22. Nashville, TN
23. Columbus, OH
24. New Orleans, LA
25. Houston, TX
26. Cleveland, OH
27. Phoenix, AZ
28. Sacramento, CA
29. Dallas, TX
30. Salt Lake City, UT
31. Greensboro, NC
32. Miami, FL
33. Las Vegas, NV
34. Norfolk, VA
35. Orlando, FL
36. San Antonio, TX
37. Kansas City, MO
38. Detroit, MI
39. Indianapolis, IN
40. Tampa, FL

Check out the slide show here.

Thanks to Scott Hart for the reference.

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July 16, 2007

Merchants Row, Curtis Park, Denver, CO

Neighbors form their own development firm to do it right

As they say, if you want something done right, do it yourself, and that's just what the neighbors of historic Curtis Park (just outside of downtown Denver) did.

It started with one progressive-minded resident (and architect), Cathy Bellem, who realized an empty lot in their ethnically and economically diverse neighborhood was being bid on to build a project to maximize profit at the expense of the local character. She took it upon herself to rally her neighbors to raise the money to buy the lot themselves. The next day she had $40,000 in checks and soon raised the $150,000 to buy the site. A bit of crowdsourcing and beta community if you will.

They formed an LLC, named it the Curtis Park Investors Group, and sold $5000 shares, with each share garnering a vote. There was enough collective talent within the neighborhood to provide all the expertise needed, resulting in the contemporary four-townhouse Champa Terrace (lower image), which sold out within a month. Not only that, the resident investors enjoyed both a 65% return on their investment along with enhanced property values.

The logical next step for Bellem was to establish a development company, Grassroots Neighborhood Development, and completed a second project - a $2.5 million, award-winning six-townhouse development called Merchant's Row (upper image), achieving that rare balance of human-scaled modern design. Attainability for both owner and renter is key - the homes feature a rentable basement, and a fully integrated Building Information Modeling (BIM) process cut subcontractor bids by almost a third in some areas.

The group is now seeking a third project. Read more about this phenomenal process and its resulting buildings here.

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