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September 14, 2007

Lessons on how to spark an indie rock scene

Rule #1. It has little to do with intentionally creating a music scene, especially genre-oriented. Musicians are fiercely independent - they'll go where they're personally inspired, not where city bureaucrats are trying to engineer it. Besides, once they're successful they no doubt enjoy being big fish in little ponds (ie REM in Athens, GA) rather than vice versa, so don't expect them to move to the equivalent of a Hollywood for musicians. There really isn't any, and they're on tour half the year anyway.

Rule #2. It has more to do with investing in the kind of place that attracts creatives in general, as the Slate article, The Indie City: Why Portland is America's Indie Rock Mecca will attest,

"Portland is like a resort community for indie rockers [members of Modest Mouse (pictured), The Shins, Spoon, Sleater-Kinney, Death Cab for Cutie...] who spend half the year working themselves ragged on tour. You can venture into public dressed like a convicted sex offender or a homeless person, and no one looks at you askew. It's lush and green. Housing is affordable, especially compared with Seattle or San Francisco. The people are nice. The food is good. Creativity is the highest law. For young, hip Portlanders, financial success is a barista job that subsidizes your Romanian-space-folk band or your collages of cartoon unicorns."

So, the point is that every city has a nascent music scene and the question is, how do you unleash it? Perhaps affordable, diverse, safe places to live; affordable, diverse, safe places to practice; affordable, diverse, safe places to perform and listen to music... stay tuned for a pretty cool story in the making on just that...

Image source: stop.down.

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September 13, 2007

New film 'Contested Streets' a must-see

If you're trying to convince city and business leaders in your city to plan a more creative, people-oriented destination for current and future generations, it sure wouldn't hurt to have them watch Contested Streets, a new film produced by Transportation Alternatives.

You can watch a few minutes of the 57-minute production here on YouTube, and I must say that the one second of footage at the 2:54 mark is almost surreal - why can't more cities have scenes like that. It should be no surprise that it's a shot of a pedestrian-only square in Copenhagen, coincidentally profiled here this week. Copenhagen enjoys a reputation as having the 'happiest people in the world' as well as being among the most progressive economically. You can see why given all the images of street life without cars in the film.

The short answer in the film as to why the U.S. is severely deprived of such pedestrian-prioritized places is simple. Elections. The majority of the current population is car-oriented and city governments will keep it that way as long as voters do. Ah, but that's slowly changing, and it'll be just a matter of time before a the tipping point occurs. In the meantime, perhaps beta communities will crowdfund such places in spite of the current generation of 'leadership'.

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September 12, 2007

Real estate investment of the future = Crowdfunding?

The current financial model for real estate investment is pretty depressing for the creative-minded, where an overwhelming majority of real estate investment capital is reserved for object-oriented buildings at least a block in scale (ie office parks, strip malls, towers, subdivisions...)

However, just as YouTube is slowly redefining television and wikipedia has rendered encyclopedias obsolete via crowdsourcing, just wait until $ are applied to this customer-driven phenomenon then used in real estate.

For a hint of what's to come, check out what happens when $ are applied to crowdsourcing, resulting in crowdfunding:

tribewanted
- What the funded target gets: $1 to 2 million to develop a non-intrusive timeshare community as an alternative to massive landscape-changing resorts.
- What crowdfunders contribute: $210
- What crowdfunders get: 7 nights each year in a 100-unit eco-community on Fiji they co-design with 4999 others.

Slicethepie
- What the funded target gets: An island in Fiji
- What crowdfunders contribute: $30 per band plus votes and reviews supporting them.
- What crowdfunders get: The opportunity to see their favorite unknown bands record their first album and a return based on sales over two years.

Sellaband
- What the funded target gets: $50,000 to record an album.
- What crowdfunders contribute: $10 per band.
- What crowdfunders get: A limited edition CD of the band's recording.

Liverpool Cultural Cafe (profiled here)
- What the funded target gets: $1 million to bistro/bar/live music venue to develop local entertainment talent.
- What crowdfunders contribute: $40 per donation.
- What crowdfunders get: Ability to influence the venue's development as well as Liverpool's up and coming talent.

My Football Club
- What the funded target gets: $3.5 million to buy a professional soccer team.
- What crowdfunders contribute: $70 per share.
- What crowdfunders get: Voting on strategy and personnel decisions with 49,999 others. An armchair coach's dream.

A Swarm of Angels
- What the funded target gets: $2 million to produce a movie.
- What crowdfunders contribute: $50 per share.
- What crowdfunders get: Voting on creative decisions with 49,999 others.

What's next? Crowdsourced Beta Communities?
- What the funded target gets: $10-20 million to build the kind of place in the image above.
- What crowdfunders contribute: Commitment to buy a home and/or lease commercial space in the development ($100,000 to $500,000).
- What crowdfunders get: The kind of community they've always wanted but nobody cared to build, plus a great return on their investment because of that.

Read more in BusinessWeek.

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September 11, 2007

'The happiest people in the world'

...live in Copenhagen, Denmark, say the polls. Continuing our series of looking at European cities as resources for cool, here are more things about this Danish city you may not be aware of:

- As stated previously, 62.5% of its employees are in knowledge-based jobs, the highest in Europe.
- 32.5% of its residents have an academic degree, more than 80% speak English (and speak it well!).
- It is known as Europe's leading biotech and medical research location, with a new Biotech Research Innovation Center expected to compete with MIT.
- The Copenhagen region is far and away Europe's leader in patents.
- The city is also on top in international studies on competitiveness, quality of life and recreational value.
- It's reputation in magazines is as a 'cool, cultural and creative' 'trend destination'.
- 90% of its businesses are run by self-employed entrepreneurs.
- It's gaining international recognition for fashion, film and music.

Of course, none of this is possible if Copenhagen didn't have some of the most beautiful, pedestrian-oriented urban fabric in the world.

Read more in the German news site, Spiegel.

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September 10, 2007

Cities making efforts to promote people over cars

Succeeding generations really do want more pedestrian-oriented downtowns, and cities are starting to recognize that, such as London with its auto congestion pricing.

In 2003, Mayor Ken Livingstone enacted a congestion charge of $10 per day for auto usage within the central city. Congestion is down 25%, and so is air pollution. After an initial drop of 7% in retail sales, it has since not affected the city's economy, and its popularity has increased to the point of allowing it to be raised to $16 earlier this year, as well as being expanded to other regions (Kensington, Chelsea...)

Stockholm, Sweden and Oslo, Norway also have congestion pricing, but New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan of $8 for cars and $21 for trucks failed.

Other programs to promote pedestrian traffic:
- Rome has strict emissions standards for all vehicles in its historic core.
- Copenhagen, Denmark has a fuel surcharge for downtown travel, and implemented a “safe routes to school” program that ensures schools can be accessed by safe, walkable and bike-friendly paths.
- In London, in the decade before 1995 more than 600 parking spaces were removed from the inner core, and recent policy allows new development only within 1 km (0.6 miles) of a transit station.
- Many European cities are completely car free in parts of their historic core, which you can find here.

Pictured: Very Important Pedestrian (VIP) day in London where two major auto-filled downtown streets (Oxford and Regent) were closed to cars in order to raise awareness for pedestrian life.

Read more about how European cities are taking the lead in the ULI article, Change of Climate.

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