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February 22, 2008

Gen Xers get credit for rise of walkable urbanism

Who is sourcing the growing popularity in walkable urban areas and city downtowns?

Chris Leinberger is an industry leader in defining financial models for urban developments and the author of The Option of Urbanism: Investing in a New American Dream. He's also a baby boomer, which is significant in his answer to the Smart City Radio interview question, "Why is there pent up demand for walkable urbanism?"

"It's basically being driven by the Gen Xers, and I'm sure the Gen Xers will be happy to hear this, it's finally not the baby boomers doing something. The Gen Xers were brought up on 'Friends', 'Seinfeld', and an image of urbanism that was different than their parents and grandparents and they saw walkable urbanism as a very exciting, safe way to live their lives."

Chris also goes on to explain why real estate in walkable urban areas are so costly:

"There just isn't enough of this stuff. The market is in front of our ability to produce this. Somewhere between 30-45% of the households want walkable urbanism (with another being 30% are urban agnostic). Most American metropolitan areas have no more than 5-10% supply. So you've got this pent up demand and little supply, you get those 40-200% price premiums for 'walkable urban product'."

Image source: Haarlem, Netherlands by slabbers.

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February 21, 2008

Pecha Kucha Night - 'Speed art & chit chat' for creatives

In 2003, two employees of Klein-Dytham Architecture (KDa) in Tokyo felt there was a profound need for a place that young creatives could socialize, network and present their work publicly. Thus was born Pecha Kucha Night, which has since spread to 103 cities around the world.

Each month a group of designers, creatives, artists meet in, well, a creative space to view peer presentations of their work. Ah, but what makes it all so compelling is that ego is factored out of the equation - each presenter is allowed only 20 images, each shown automatically for 20 seconds, for a total of 6 minutes and 40 seconds before the next presenter is up.

Thanks to Braulio Agnese of Architect Magazine for the reference.

Image source: Pecha Kucha night in Austin, by photoboothpictures.

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February 20, 2008

'Crashed Ice' brings cultural identity to northern cities

Cities love having an event followed by the sentence, "Only in ____", even if it's just for that year. It provides them with a unique cultural identity that sets them apart from every city in the world, such as the Running of the Bulls, only in Pamplona.

Speaking of which, who knows if that was part of the inspiration behind Crashed Ice, where four gutsy padded-up skaters fight through elements of roller derby, hockey and the bobsled as they race close to 40-miles an hour on a one-third mile-long ice track winding through the historic city.

It's hard to tell if the this description of the event, which last attracted 75,000 screaming fans, is a play-by-play account of the race or a historical tour of the city, all the better...

You have to check out the videos. What's in your city?

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February 19, 2008

Establishing a music scene 101

Every district wants a music scene, but not every district has one. Creative class author Richard Florida, a music fan to the nth degree, is spending a lot of research time providing the answers why, the first findings of which can be found in his recent report, Music Clusters: A Preliminary Analysis.

First of all, one needs to understand that only this with music as primary employment are defined in this study, not self-employed musicians, secondary musicians (in addition to their day job), or hobby musicians. I personally get the feeling that much of a music scene is manifested via the latter group.

That said, the key findings in this initial wave of understanding:

- Employed musicians really like to cluster. Only 32 of the 331 metropolitan areas have more than the average number of musicians/capita. NY, Chicago and L.A. account for 40% of all employed musicians, and NY more than half of that.

- Population size has the strongest correlation to a concentration of employed musicians. The bigger the city, the greater your chance of attracting a music scene - or at least employed musicians.

- Income has the second greatest correlation, stemming from the fact that people with more disposable income can afford to experience music more often. Of course, employed musicians typically refers to symphonies more than they do the typical rock band that only meets up after work and on weekends.

- Other influential factors include ethnic diversity and the concentration of overall arts and entertainment activity.

- Variables that the study found little or no effect are human capital (education), service jobs (availability of day jobs for musicians, which factors itself out given that they wouldn't have day jobs if they were primarily employed as musicians) or whether or not it's a college town.

Music scene 201, with self-employed musicians and secondary musicians accounted for, should be much more telling. Rich is working on that one.

Image source: Florida music festival, Orlando, by Wetsun.

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February 18, 2008

'The 50 Greenest Cities in the U.S.'

Sure, it's yet another green city list, but we try to cover ones that have something to add. The last one we covered, Best Green Cities in America, provided a top ten ranking of smaller cities that seemed to best measure green consciousness per capita.

This list, Popular Science's (U.S.) America's 50 Greenest Cities covers cities with populations over 100,000 using the following green criteria:

Electricity from renewable energy - 10 points.
Transportation regarding mass transit or carpool; air quality - 10 points.
Green living via certified green buildings, public parks and nature preserves - 5 points.
Recycling and green perspective measured by city's recycling program and level of citizen environmental concern - 5 points

Click here to see the full list of 50 with criteria scores, and here for a gallery of six technologies green cities are adopting. The top 25:

1. Portland, OR - 23.1 - The state of Oregon has had a significant green movement going for at least 30 years.
2. San Francisco, CA - 23.0
3. Boston, MA - 22.7
4. Oakland, CA - 22.5 - Former Mayor Jerry Brown (also former California governor) is one of the country's leading green advocates.
5. Eugene, OR - 22.4 - Leader in Electricity (hydroelectric dams, wind farms, solar panels)
6. Cambridge, MA - 22.2 - MIT is a major green tech influence.
7. Berkeley, CA - 22.2 - University of Berkeley is easily one of the most progressive schools in the country (Pictured - the city's commuters, and the city's 'tuning fork').
8. Seattle, WA - 22.1 - Easily one of the most progressive cities in the U.S.
9. Chicago, IL - 21.3 - Leader in Green Space - thanks to Mayor Richard Daley.
10. Austin, TX - 21.0 - Home of the green building movement.
11. Minneapolis, MN - 20.3
12. St. Paul, MN - 20.2
13. Sunnyvale, CA - 19.9
14. Honolulu, HI - 19.9
15. Fort Worth, TX - 19.7
16. Albuquerque, NM - 19.1
17. Syracuse, NY - 18.9 - Manifesting through the upcoming Gear Factory for green creatives...
18. Huntsville, AL - 18.4
19. Denver, CO - 18.2
20. New York, NY - 18.2 - Leader in Transportation - No surprise given that only half the population even has drivers' licenses.
21. Irvine, CA - 18.1
22. Milwaukee, Wis. 17.3
23. Santa Rosa, Calif. 17.2
24. Ann Arbor, Mich. 17.2
25. Lexington, Ky. 16.8 - Leader in Recycling and green perspective - No citizenry ranks environmentalism higher.

Image source: Berkeley's Constitution Square by Lori B_.

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