The other side to The Next Boom Towns? story is the focus on small towns (

<1 million population).

Because of their size, they have to be much more innovative than the big cities that already have a headstart, and it shows:

#1 on the list is

Boulder, CO.  Not only does it have some of the greatest recreational amenities anywhere, but it boasts one of the best-looking (at night), most-active small town downtowns in the U.S.

#2 is Fort Collins, CO.  I’ve never been there (comments please!), but it’s been named “one

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Coincidentally enough, the magazine closest in content to Fast Company is Business 2.0 (though not nearly as innovation-focused), and their cover story this month is The Next Boom Towns?.

It has the usual high-tech big cities at the top in terms of job and population growth and median salary increase:  Raleigh-Durham, NC; San Jose, CA; Washington, DC; Austin, TX, Atlanta, GA… but of course you already knew this

What’s not factored in is, are people actually happy?  Last week’s indication of

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If you want to understand the CoolTown market from a jobs point of view, it’d be helpful to subscribe to Fast Company magazine.

The magazine is a collection of stories about companies and people that are achieving success faster than their competition.  It’s not so much about speed as it is that they’re combining experience with innovation to perform at a much higher level than their peers.

It’s the only magazine that I’ve read cover to cover (as in every single article) in this century. 

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Building a great community is much, much more than just the buildings, streets and public spaces, but it’s still a major part that’s often overlooked and misunderstood.  So, if you’re looking into what makes a compelling physical place, New Urbanism is the ideal benchmark and resource.  Click here for an informative tour.

In a nutshell, it’s about building places that prioritize people rather than cars.  The directive is simple, but it’s also been hard to pull off, and New Urbanists have

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If you’ve got one hour a week to listen to other people who share many of the CoolTown viewpionts, you have to listen to Carol Coletta’s interviews at Smart City Radio - Weekly urban insights.

The people she interviews have achieved success in using innovation and creativity to make cities and urban life more attractive, from benchmark new school models, economic success through the arts, and efforts that promote entrepreneurial growth.  OK, so there’s a program on using sports arenas as key

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Many people believe Utah may be the most entrepreneurial state in the country - its Mormon values for individual success being a factor.

Joe Alfandre and I visited three towns in Utah this week:  Pleasant Grove, St. George and Logan.  Pleasant Grove valued revitalizing its downtown, though more from a historic preservation point of view.  St. George wanted to revitalize its downtown as a regional destination with some artistic, cultural excitement.  They both understood the CoolTown approach

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Since we define cool by what the future resident/tenant thinks, we* met up with some students last night at BYU to ask them just that.

The collective vision of the 15-20 students was similar to the image above.  Understanding that this is BYU (ie Utah), many of the students were already married and thinking about kids, so it may be rather surprising that two-thirds of them preferred multi-family attached townhouses/lofts, with the other third preferring single-family, though either still

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This was asked by a city manager when discussing where to focus initial CoolTown investment.

The answer for the public sector is obvious:  The city-wide master plan.
The answer for the private sector is obvious:  The built project.

The CoolTown answer would be both, and more specifically, to build a touchstone CoolTown neighborhood that raises the standards for how the rest of the city could be master-planned, ideally at the same time.

A master plan typically looks at the most successful

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I’m in Utah this week visiting small towns that may by interested in the CoolTown concept

This was asked by an economic development director when the idea of revitalizing a long-ignored downtown with gen xers/yers was introduced.

The simple answer is that we’re not asking the younger crowd to take charge.  We’re just focused on better providing for what the customers want, and in many ways, the younger generation is the customer base for the baby boomers.

Another city official said it best

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Some people move to specific places because of a job they couldn’t get anywhere else within their desired area.  Others move because of recreation they couldn’t get anywhere else in the area.

People move to/visit coastal towns for the beach, mountain towns for the skiing and river towns for the fishing and boating.  Now, since affordability is such a fundamental element of fast-growth prosperity, think of how people with limited budgets could spend a week in your town, recreationally.  This

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