As I mentioned regarding last week’s event, I surveyed the early adopters, the cultural creatives of town building at the University of Maryland, hosting a focus group of entrepreneurial, architecture and real estate students.  Here are some of the results from the group of 32 forward-thinkers:

- The three most desirable public amenities, in order:  A piazza, parks and public wireless broadband access.
- The most desirable nightlife venue:  Outdoor seating restaurant/cafe
- 88% chose ‘vibrant

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Looking at the plan of the town above, you’ll notice that all the gray areas are buildings, and all the white areas are pavement.  At first, the ratio of building to pavement seems normal.  Then, when you compare it to an American town you’ll often discover the plans are the inverse of this!  Why?  The Dubrovnik plan doesn’t have any roads, which also means there are no parking lots.

The big pavement areas in the Dubrovnik plan are either piazzas or pedestrian boulevards.

Another feature is

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The Department of Labor released a study stating that 70% of what you know about your job is done so informally.  Some say it’s 75%.  That’s why in a CoolTown of entrepreneurs and artists, it’s so important to have informal ‘networking places’ such as pubs, piazzas and basketball courts - which leads to today’s story.

I present the medieval city of Dubrovnik, Croatia as a model urban fabric for a CoolTown.  I’ve never been there and I’ve never heard about it before today, but someone on the

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The average person avoids waiting more than 5 minutes for transit.  That’s a study that renowned traffic consultant Nick Poulos of Poulos & Chung (no web site) of Toronto, Canada presented, and is the reason why Toronto’s streetcar is so successful.  The subway in Washington DC has about a 5-minute wait during rush hour, and I can’t tell you how great it is not to wait more than 5 minutes.  San Jose’s fairly new light rail system has a 10-minute wait (common for light rail) and isn’t overly

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I usually walk or take the subway (Metro), but for those trips where neither one will do, you can use Hypnos.  These are skates designed specifically to be popped off (like ski bindings) when you get to your destination - or more conveniently for me, at spontaneous stopovers in between.  I’ve had transportation like this for over ten years (unfortunately they don’t make ‘Metroblades’ anymore that did the same thing), and really haven’t found any better way to get around AND stay in shape. 

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I was fortunate to host a focus group of about 20-30 University of Maryland students at the Hinman CEO entrepreneurial center to ask them what kind of the town they wanted to live in.

The most popular?  The affordable side of Georgetown, Adams Morgan, Annapolis, Greenwich Village and Manhattan Beach.

What are they looking for?  Nightlife, nightlife, nightlife.  Also, convenience/mobility, affordability (big one, almost goes without saying), and even sense of community.  More next week when I

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In a pedestrian-oriented town, it’d be nice if you had a car to do the occasional big errand, picking up friends at the airport or going out on a date.  However, the frustration of finding parking and getting parking tickets is usually too much to bear.

So I tried Zipcar.  I made a quick online reservation, walked a few blocks, waved a ‘smartcard’ at the windshield and opened the keyless door.  Away I went, and back I came, right to the Zipcar’s permanent reserved parking spot.  Brand new

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If you don’t want to get yelled at, don’t ride it on the sidewalks in the city.

If you want to look cool riding a Segway, you’ll have to ride it in the streets.  That way, the public perception will be that you’re someone who’s triumphed over traffic congestion, saved thousands by not buying a car and is starting a trend for pedestrian-oriented streets.  However, if you ride it on sidewalks, people will give you looks like you’re lazy, have way too much money for your own good and simply

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Sometimes, even better than those who are making decisions in how we plan and build our communities.  The more we listen to a diversity of people, including age and gender, the healthier our places will be.  For instance…

In the industrial age, mass production allowed only a few lucky managers to make the decisions of many.  This is quite evident in one of the greatest mass production results of all time:  suburban sprawl - which has little reflection of the needs of children, teens, the

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At least that’s what the cultural creatives, the early adopters and today’s kids are saying.  One may need to look no futher than Jane Jacobs to find answers.

In her 1961 The Death and Life of Great American Cities, which by the way, has probably prompted the renaissance of more than several cities, she says if there’s any one word that defines success for a city, it’s diversity.  To achieve it, she says you need:
1. A concentration of people.  This explains why pedestrian malls without

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