CoolTown Studios

« December 2, 2007 - December 8, 2007 | Main | December 16, 2007 - December 22, 2007 »

December 14, 2007

Beta community update Q4 2007

Gear Factory, Syracuse, NY
Developer Rick Destitio is renovating a historic 1910 five-story gear factory building into a artist-musician live-work center via a beta community now consisting of 170 of the city's most progressive creatives. They're now working on the floor plans for the 65,000 s.f. structure and will start taking reservations next month. If you live in Syracuse and want to be a future tenant or patron, join the effort here.

Elements, Washington DC
A VIBE-sponsored beta community crowdsourcing a green cafe/education center presently at 157 members. The business owner is looking to establish a partnership with the most successful green cafe in the city and is negotiating a lease for 3000 s.f. Read more in this Washington Business Journal article, and join the beta community if you live in the area.

O.C. Haley, New Orleans
With the concerted efforts of neighborhood leaders and young urban rebuilding professionals (aka NOLA YURP), a building owner is offering his building as a benchmark for revitalization in the economically-neglected neighborhood of O.C. Haley. The project, just a few blocks from downtown, commenced just last month, and they're looking at a March 1, 2008 (optimistic) opening date for a green, fair-trade, community-oriented coffeehouse. If you're a local, especially to the neighborhood, please do join the beta community.

Keep track of these beta communities by joining the nascent CoolTown social network.

Image: This scene in Buenos Aires captures the vibrancy being sought by these beta communities.

Posted by Neil | Link to Article | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 13, 2007

'How To Be Creative' - from Gapingvoid, (3 of 3)

The last in this three part series interpreting Gapingvoid's How To Be Creative tips as it relates to cool towns and beta communities...

21. Selling out is harder than it looks. Don't water down/commercialize your ideas before you absolutely need to - you may be doing everyone a disservice. Our beta communities have a 'Building Exterior/Interior Image Brainstorm' where we encourage everyone to submit whatever place in the world inspires them.

22. Nobody cares. Do it for yourself. In other words, do, don't talk about why you want to. Beta communities don't leave you a choice but to 'do', otherwise nothing will get built, which is why...

23. Worrying about "Commercial vs. Artistic" is a complete waste of time.

24. Don't worry about finding inspiration. It comes eventually. This illustrates the beauty of the beta community's social network - participants find inspiration comes naturally just being around so many creative people, and its online bulletin board captures those fleeting epiphanies for posterity. I can't emphasize the value of this enough.

25. You have to find your own schtick. People in beta communities not only have roles, they create ones they want to have, like a green-minded architect without a practicing license contributing exciting design examples, or simply a born leader who never had a chance to lead, but none of it matters if you don't...

26. Write from the heart.

27. The best way to get approval is not to need it. Developers and investors repeatedly say the reason they don't build walkable, green, indie-business oriented destinations is that the market won't support it. Beta communities allow these ignored, progressive markets to build their own such places without their approval. This is when beta community members soon realize...

28. Power is never given. Power is taken.

29. Whatever choice you make, The Devil gets his due eventually. If you suffer for your art, you suffer. If you sell out, you suffer from the accusation. You'll suffer either way, so you may as well build the live/work/play destination of your dreams in the process.

30. The hardest part of being creative is getting used to it. Here's a gold nugget from director Tim Burton to gapingvoid author, Hugh MacLeod, "If you have the creative bug, it isn't ever going to go away. I'd just get used to the idea of dealing with it." If you've got it, flaunt it... and throughout your community.

31. Remain frugal. There's a whole category on this site for this one, and it's a fundamental theme for all beta communities and their resulting cool places. Why? Because one can't always balance the fine line between doing only what you want to do and selling out :)

Posted by Neil | Link to Article | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 12, 2007

'How To Be Creative' - from Gaping-void, (2 of 3)

Continuing our look at Gapingvoid's tips on How To Be Creative as applied to cool towns and beta communities, from the previous entry...

11. Don't try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether. Keep in mind 'crowds' as defined here means 'markets'. Don't try and stand out by attempting to build an even better place and then selling it, but avoid that model altogether and co-develop it with people who share your values and principles, and it'll already be sold when it's built.

12. If you accept the pain, it cannot hurt you. This applies to the risk-takers and early adopters who pioneer revitalization in a neighborhood - they readily accept the negative consequences of being the first ones, and thrive on its gradual evolution.

13. Never compare your inside with somebody else's outside. This relates to rule #7, the Sex & Cash Theory, where something you find spiritually rewarding is extremely difficult to make a living from without feeling like you're 'selling out'. The great thing about cool town beta communities is that there are always others who find it more spiritually rewarding than you.

14. Dying young is overrated. This is the value of establishing a community for creatives - a slew of drug-tastic artistic geniuses died young because they couldn't bear the pain when they were alone. Genius needs company.

15. The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, and what you are not. The most significant red line when crowdsourcing a place is knowing what decisions the developer/building/business owner is willing to let the group make, and which they aren't. For instance, the number and type of residential units may be decided by the group, but the final exterior designs may be left to the developer's professional design team.

16. The world is changing. This is the context under which beta communities are most valued, providing a collective intelligence in a vastly evolving world is the only way to truly compete anymore (see YouTube and eBay).

17. Merit can be bought. Passion can't. Beta communities aren't made up of the most qualified in development, planning and policy, they're made up of the city's most passionate about experiencing inspiring places. It's up to the developer to bring in the expertise to facilitate that passion into built reality.

18. Avoid the Watercooler Gang. The Watercooler Gang as defined by gapingvoid are the people who gather to complain about the jobs they're inevitably going to leave or be fired from. That's because they have no control of the future. Beta communities are literally about defining that future, and complainers need to be reminded of the group's manifesto declaring why they have such a passion for the development they're co-creating.

19. Sing in your own voice. Beta communities and the developments they produce are only as good as how much its members self express themselves honestly, genuinely, authentically.

20. The choice of media is irrelevant. When it comes to beta communities, it doesn't matter if you express yourself via music, painting, film, writing or business, as long as you express yourself and contribute to making the place happen. All that stuff about artists thinking business guys are sell-outs or business guys thinking artists are slackers... irrelevant in a beta community.

Posted by Neil | Link to Article | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 11, 2007

'How To Be Creative' - from 'Gaping-void' (1 of 3)

You know creativity = economic growth, so how do you get more creative? Here's an alternative look, How To Be Creative, from none other than an extremely creative resource, gapingvoid, "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards". The site has a full description of the following tips, but here's a cool town, beta community-oriented interpretation of it:

1. Ignore everybody. People often can't handle good, original ideas for great places until you build them, so ignore them until then.

2. The idea doesn't have to be big. It just has to change the world. Think less of revitalizing an entire community by yourself, think more of helping build a great place in a community that sets the standard... to change the world.

3. Put the hours in. It takes years, sometimes decades, to effect change in a neighborhood. If you're committing any less, forget about it.

4. If your biz plan depends on you suddenly being "discovered" by some big shot, your plan will probably fail. Don't wait for those magical investors to appear to finance your development. They won't come. Start building on your existing relationships, now.

5. You are responsible for your own experience. Don't stunt the growth of your experience waiting to be 'discovered' or having that 'big idea' or the 'right opportunity' - find what you can do now to make a difference in your community and start immediately (ie join a beta community).

6. Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten. And you know what, in Syracuse people are once again finding that box of crayons as they co-develop their very own place to live, work and play.

7. Keep your day job.
Here's a gapingvoid nugget, the 'Sex & Cash Theory' - keep at least two jobs, one job to manifest your passion (the sex), another to pay the bills (the cash). Hmm, that means beta communities would be analagous to a...

8. Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity. This is essentially the aforementioned fact that creativity drives the economy now more than ever, so if you're not working with a creative developer or live in a city without creative leadership, prepare to be patient.

9. Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb. When it comes to your own neighborhood, make it clear to everyone! An Italian piazza? A pedestrian-only district? Only local independent shops and restaurants? It may not be possible to 'reach the peak', but you'll get a lot further knowing where it is. Everyone in a beta community gets to define their 'peak' as a 'Personal Objective'.

10. The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props. Props, as in tools, or 'pillars' as gapingvoid describes it, like the lousy tennis player with the $500 racket. If there's one rule creatives live by it's this one, which is why they're creative, and why they seek out fringe neighborhoods - because they don't need anything more. The luxury condos and trendy restaurants are for the less talented.

More to come...

Thanks to Rasul Sha'ir at Vosica for the reference.

Posted by Neil | Link to Article | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 10, 2007

'Subways: The New Urban Status Symbol'

That's the headline of this week's BusinessWeek article, reflecting the fact that subways are the 'new hybrids', the ultimate status symbol of being a progressive major urban city.

According to a VP at Alstom, one of the largest transit car builders in the world, "You have in some cases a prestige issue, which is more the case in young cities in need of an image. Unless funding is an issue, cities usually will spring for a subway. The tramway [light rail] has a very old image of the 19th century, with horses in the streets." Now you know a company is on the cutting edge if light rail is considered 'historic', and in many ways it's one of the least efficient mass transit systems.

In Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, 25 cities are building or extending subway/metro lines. Here's a look at 10 up and coming subways:

1. Algiers, Algeria, the country's capital and second largest city in North Africa, commenced construction of their first subway (5.6 miles) last year.
2. Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city should get its first subway (5.3 miles) next year (pictured).
3. Copenhagen, Denmark opened its automated metro system in 2002, and began a line this year to circle the city.
4. Dubai, United Arab Emirates will begin service in 2009 on the world’s largest automated metro system. Given the city's building boom, no surprise.
5. Dublin, Ireland with a relatively modest subway population of 1 million (like those of Porto, Portugal and Cologne, Germany), will start construction in 2009.
6. Palma de Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain - With only half a million people, this tourist destination inaugurated a $164 million subway in April after two years of construction, though it's temporarily shut down due to flooding and mismanagement.
7. Parma, Italy will see construction start on a subway in 2008, which is avant garde for a city of only 170,000.
8. Rennes, France of 212,000 people, opened a fully automatic metro line in 2002, spanning six miles in just 16 minutes. The world's largest is in Lille, France.
9. Tel Aviv, Israel - 44% of the Israeli population may finally get a subway in 2010, covering 13.7 miles.
10. Turin, Italy - Opened in time for the olympics in 2006, commuters enjoy a maximum two-minute wait during rush hour. Now that's progressive.