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January 18, 2008

How cities can invest in cool places, and why they often don't

Utilizing the Fifth Discipline principles of systems thinking, we bring to you a representation of why cities, especially their economic development departments that manage the largest of budgets, choose to invest in the outdated practice of landing 'the big one' rather than cultivating its own creative economy that is known to create jobs more effectively.

The Context:
First of all, it's important to understand the long tail. The vertical axis in the graph to the left is economic output, the horizontal axis is size of company. The 'short head' (blue) represents the Fortune 1000 companies cities often spend most of their budget to secure (which dooms a country since it's a zero sum gain), while the 'long tail' (orange) represents all the rest. Notice how the total area in orange exceeds that in blue (ie Amazon, Netflix...).

The Result:
The declining industrial economy model of economic development is represented by the loop on the top, contrasted with the creative economy loop at the bottom. Red arrows show a negative effect, green arrows are positive. The balanced icons signify a static situation, while the snowball icon symbolizes an escalating situation for better or worse. Notice how investment in the 'short head' leads to occasional success, which gives the false impression that there's no other way. This takes investment away from places and programs that attract the creatives, which spur economic growth. Unfortunately, this requires time (represented by the hour glass) to recognize the windfall while landing a large company is immediate, thus the slow addiction to investing more $ in stealing other people's companies rather than economic gardening one's own.

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January 17, 2008

Global cities a guide for global-minded neighborhoods

While not every city can be classified as a recognized global city, one can take the spirit of its characteristics and apply it to becoming a global-minded neighborhood. This is especially relevant given that diversity is linked to economic growth.

The following are the elements of a global city, followed by how a neighborhood can apply its mentality:

- International, first-name familiarity - "Paris" (pictured), not "Paris, France". Neighborhoods that don't need the city's name attached include the French Quarter and Greenwich Village - that's when you know your neighborhood has become a world unto itself. No coincidence that such places tend to be walkable, creative, human-scaled.
- Influence on and participation in international affairs - While a global city will host international summits, a global-minded neighborhood will have a day-day international online social and business network. Outsourcing here isn't politically incorrect, it's survival.
- A fairly large population (at least one million, typically several million) - A global neighborhood need only have the density of a global city, not the size, to ensure constant, spontaneous physical connections that lead to virtual international ones.
- A major international airport - A global-minded neighborhood won't have an air hub, but it will have comprehensive broadband wi-fi to allow multi-person videoconferencing.
- Freeways and/or a large mass transit network - Global-minded neighborhoods were fortunate to bypass the industrial age proliferation of freeways, and while they may not have sophisticated mass transit, they don't need it if they're inherently walkable - the most effective transportation infrastructure overall.
- International cultures and communities (ie Chinatown, Little Italy) - Diverse neighborhoods are too small to have ethnic neighborhoods, but they'll have a reputation for being a hub of ethnic restaurants (like Adams Morgan) and immigrants.
- A lively cultural scene (ie film festivals; music or theatre scenes; art galleries, street performers) - A global-minded neighborhood will have smaller versions of all of these, and of course, representing music from all over the world.

Thanks to Christian MacAuley of Fab Apps for the reference!

Image source: Paris by A-List.

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January 16, 2008

Metropolitan areas with the most 'walkable urban areas' per capita

If you want to know the metropolitan areas with the greatest number of 'walkable urban places', this is a respectable list. However, if you want to know the metropolitan areas that are the most walkable urban places overall, this is not the list to look at (it counts Midtown in Manhattan as 'one' walkable urban place, and say, Reston, Virginia as 'one' walkable urban place, which is questionable unto itself, and with no weighted difference to account for it being 1/30th as dense) - otherwise New York would be #1.

Urban strategist Chris Leinberger's Brookings Institution study, highlighted in this AP article, Metropolitan areas ranked for walkability, counts the sheer number of 'walkable urban places', defined as:

- compact (regional-serving walkable urban places, as defined below, are generally between 100 and 500 acres in size), thus why Midtown and Reston get the same (flawed) credit;
- at least five times as dense as drivable suburban (floor-area-ratio of between 0.8 and upwards to 40.0),
- mixed-use (residential, office, retail, cultural, educational, etc.);
- generally accessible by multiple transportation means (transit, bike, car and walking);
- walkable for nearly every destination once in the place.

Key findings:
- There are 157 walkable urban places in the U.S., 65% served by rail transit.
- The largest number by type are adjacent to downtown.
- The NY metro area has the highest number of most walkable urban places, brought down by it having 19.3 million people in the statistical area).

Ranking the 30 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S.:

1. Washington, DC (pictured)
2. Boston, Massachusetts
3. San Francisco, California
4. Denver, Colorado
5. Portland, Oregon
6. Seattle, Washington
7. Chicago, Illinois
8. Miami, Florida
9. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
10. New York, NY
11. San Diego, California
12. Los Angeles, California
13. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
14. Atlanta, Georgia
15. Baltimore, Maryland
16. St. Louis, Missouri
17. Minneapolis, Minnesota
18. Detroit, Michigan
19. Columbus, Ohio
20. Las Vegas, Nevada
21. Houston, Texas
22. San Antonio, Texas
23. Kansas City, Missouri
24. Orlando, Florida
25. Dallas, Texas
26. Phoenix, Arizona
27. Sacramento, California
28. Cincinnati, Ohio
29. Cleveland, Ohio
30. Tampa, Florida

The study, Footloose and Fancy Free: A Field Survey of Walkable Urban Places in the Top 30 U.S. Metropolitan Areas can be downloaded by clicking on it.

Image: Gallery Place, Washington DC by craigs9683.

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January 15, 2008

Crowdsourcing an eco-company, 'places' next

While green cafes are being crowdsourced in Washington DC and New Orleans, they're not being crowdfunded, mainly because the concept is so new. Thankfully there are companies like nvohk (pronounced 'invoke') that are providing models for that inevitability.

nvohk is a crowdfunded, eco/green clothing company based in L.A. with the following structure:
- It will be community-managed by a minimum of 20,000 members, no more than 40,000 (currently at 400);
- Each member invests $50 for the opportunity to co-develop the business;
- Major business decisions include the logo; web and product design and advertising;
- Members receive 35% of the net profits as points to purchase products, and 25% off all nvohk goods.
- nvohk will donate another 10% of the net profits to environmental organizations chosen by the members.

As its president, Brendan Lynch says, "Consumers are concerned with the environment and want to be associated with brands that are too. With nvohk, members have the opportunity to make critical decisions that not only affect the direction of the brand, but also make a positive impact on the world around them."

For a more in-depth look at the legal structure of nvohk's crowdfunding model, check out their FAQ.

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January 14, 2008

Pedestrian walk in NYC? 'Hey, let's try it'

Apparently that was the attitude of New York's (DOT) Department of Transportation, a powerful entity in any state, when approached about turning this street into what you see above. According to Streetblog's Ethan Kent,

"They've created a destination for downtown office workers, for people from all over Brooklyn, to come and spend some time in a way they hadn't been able to before. They great thing about this is they just went ahead and did this. It wasn't a lot of studies. It wasn't a long plan. They just said, 'Hey, let's try it. Let's experiment, see if it's possible.'"

Check out the video here, on YouTube of course. There's a nice little crowdsourcing trend here of locals taking matters into their own hands to build the kinds of places they want to be in, the latest being the Meatpacking District's new public square.

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