As explained in the previous blog, today’s modern, progressive, people-oriented city planning codes are graphical-based.  However, what are the graphics of, and are they supportive of CoolTowns?

Building frontage standards: The idea is to create great public rooms, so a uniform setback of buildings best achieves that, and sometimes further back to establish a grand outdoor dining plaza.  Burlington, Boulder and Barcelona do it best by having the entire street as the outdoor dining realm,

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The results of the planning process described in the previous blog below are transformed into a city code or ordinance, usually in hundreds of pages of legalese. Like how Apple evolved command lines into graphical user interfaces, Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company has done the same for these piles of text, turning them into just a handful of graphic-based codes - SmartCodes, although it could still be less car-oriented.  The code is based on the underlying structure of the transect (see image)

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So how did the City of South Miami’s Hometown Plan that led to investment in model development happen?

It began in 1992, when South Miami Hometown, Inc., a nonprofit, was established by local visionaries that raised funds to create a blueprint for an uninspired 55-acre area in the city, with the cooperation and matching funds of the City.  Through a charrette process that involved key business associations (very important), government agencies, nonprofits and citizens facilitated by Dover

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As you know, most of what has been built in the last 80 years looks like what’s pictured in the top left-hand corner of this image.  Here’s a summary of how it happened, and how it literally became illegal to build anything else, no matter if developers and investors wanted to to build, say, cool urban villages.

The rest of the image is what cities and developers are beginning to invest in, as highlighted in Dover Kohl’s HomeTown Plan in the previous blog.  The fundamental difference is that

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The Cool

Town approach to bringing economic and social vitality to an area via a compelling pilot project doesn’t have a better legislated example than South Miami’s HomeTown Plan: “The “100% Models”  idea was to choose an area (however small) then totally transform it to create as dramatic and visible an impact as possible.  Instead of spending precious funding across large areas, public funds are to be concentrated on these 100% Models.“

The best part is that it’s not another unused city

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While there’s a movement afoot to preserve the 300-400 historic theaters that bring vitality to downtowns across the country, another inspiring trend is taking shape - new theaters are also being being built in urban areas, and pretty snazzy ones at that.

Last night thanks to a friend, I had the pleasure of experiencing the new E Street Cinema theaters in downtown Washington DC, featuring only foreign and independent films (i.e. more authentic), one block from the subway entry. Not only that,

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It’s simple supply and demand - the more desirable a neighborhood becomes, the less affordable it is.  One solution is this - you can afford the home you will want if you choose a neighborhood that’s just a few years away from becoming universally desirable.  Use this guide for starters.

Now, the real question is, why isn’t there a greater supply of cool, urban neighborhoods?  The same reason why mp3 players weren’t very popular before the iPod - there aren’t too many real estate developers

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Based on yesterday’s blog on the prominence of authenticity, how is this helping towns thrive economically and socially?

First of all, based on the definition of authenticity given yesterday, how would this manifest itsely in a ‘real’ town?

- Local businesses rather than chains (this is probably at least half of the test right here).
- Organic foods in restaurants and groceries rather than chemically treated or genetically modified.
- Co-ops rather than corporations.
- Merchants’ walls with

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The best-selling, award-winning books, The Experience Economy and Mass Customization (this site has an entire category on the latter, and should on the former), explain better than any others, the economic evolution that will inevitably lead to more, ever increasingly cool towns.  So it was great to hear from one of the books’ authors (Joe Pine) when he called to let us know that their next book is due in the Fall of 2007, on authenticity.

The authors’ premise?  Authenticity is anything not

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If you wanted to grow a forest, but had money for only one tree, what would you do?  You’d get the best tree you could possibly find and plant it in the middle of where you wanted the forest to grow.  Neighborhood revitalization is no different, whether your budget only allows one venue, or an entire block, like The Can Company in Baltimore, Maryland.

The Can Company (noun turned verb) is a renovated one-block industrial campus of a former can company in Baltimore’s Canton neighborhood, with

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