Good design - applied to neighborhoods

What area of business do more companies need to invest in to provide more appealing products and services for their customers?  As the leading magazine for innovation in business, Fast Company calls attention to the power of design, “The evidence of design’s power is everywhere. It’s apparent in the mere fact that the bar has been raised. Customers expect, even demand, more from the design of everything they buy.“

Does this apply to neighborhoods as

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...the Smart car would be it, and as of yesterday, it’s officially coming to the U.S. (finally) in less than two years… and speaking of Dublin’s medieval pedestrian-only streets in yesterday’s entry, this is probably the only car in the U.S. that would fit, not that they’re allowed in the Temple Bar district.

Though not quite stackable, Smarts are found all over Europe, especially in the narrowest streets throughout Italy where pedestrians come first.  They were originally designed to be as

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As profiled in the previous entry, the Temple Bar quarter is a wildly popular and economically successful multi-block pedestrian-only district in Dublin, Ireland.  The question is, how did a city begin to establish such a place to reap such fiscal and cultural benefits?

It starts with affordability and pedestrian-oriented urban fabric.  As late as the 1980s, the state began to buy up and demolish buildings in the area in favor of a major bus terminus. While the plans were delayed due to

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Reader experience: Pedestrian-only district in Dublin

Since there are too many inspiring places for one person to absorb, it is our customer-driven fashion to let our readers show you what’s out there, and more importantly, what could be realized in your city.

Today’s reader discovery is on Temple Bar, a cultural, retail-entertainment-residential pedestrian-only (see map) district in downtown Dublin, Ireland, as experienced by Kamile Kay, a knowledge worker in Virginia and occasional

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First a lumberyard is transformed into an urban village. What next - a pub?!

Most people haven’t exactly heard of Collingswood, New Jersey.  It borders Camden, and is within the greater Philadelphia metropolitan area.  Well, having a ban on the sale of alcohol in restaurants and bars (which I guess means there are none) doesn’t exactly help in attracting the demographic that tends to start new companies and spawn jobs, but at least you can bring your own, which to many may be even

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Universities grow the economy, but they also advance change for a higher quality of life and health.

It’s well documented that universities are talent and economic engines for cities - the economic impact of ‘higher education’ is $1.2 trillion per year, 10% of the U.S. economy. 20 million Americans either work for or attend an institution of higher education - 1 out of every 15 people. In Canada, 35% of its total R&D ($9 billion) was done by universities.

However, universities and colleges

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If you want to live in the next Silicon Valley auto-free and safe, these two city rankings are for you.  Cities that appear in both lists are in red

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The first is Beyond Silicon Valley: 10 Blooming U.S. Cities for Tech from tech news portal, eWeek, followed by the companies that are based there:

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- HP, Intel, Apple, Sun, Oracle, Cisco, Google, eBay, Yahoo!
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- Microsoft, Amazon, RealNetworks, AT&T Wireless, T-Mobile
2. Atlanta - Cingular, EarthLink, Internet

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Given the not so big home trend, here are the reasons why people are downsizing with zest:

Less $$$
Less house means more disposable income through smaller mortgage payments, heating and cooling bills, and property taxes.  This is especially a concern where interest rates and energy prices are rising.

Less Maintenance
Less house means less house to clean, lawns to mow, things to fix.  If you’re single, you’d rather be out socializing.  If you have a kids, you’d rather be spending time with

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The average area of living space per occupant in the U.S. was 290 s.f. in 1950, 446 s.f. in 1970, 800 s.f. in the 90s, to a whopping 939 s.f. today.  However, according to the Wall Street Journal, that trend may have hit its peak:

“The golden age of McMansions may be coming to an end. These oversized homes - characterized by sprawling layouts on small lots, and built in cookie-cutter style by big developers - fueled much of the housing boom. But thanks to rising energy and mortgage costs,

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In an economy that is becoming increasingly customer driven, it’s critical for the creatives to be able to communicate what it is they actually want in order for developers to bring it to reality.  Design psychology, a field founded by Toby Keith Ph.D. of Toby Israel Consulting, can help.

Design psychology is defined as “the practice of architecture, planning and interior design in which psychology is the principal design tool used to create not just aesthetically and functionally beautiful

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Necessary for cities to grow.

Let’s put it this way… Say there are 100 people who want to live in a new town by the river.  90 of them want to live on the 10 acre ‘downtown’ next to the river, while only 10 of them want to live on the surrounding land.  However, the ‘town builder’ never bothers to ask people want they want, and instead builds only 10 big homes on the 10 acre downtown area, with 90 homes around it.  Of course, the scarce ten downtown homes sell for huge sums of money because

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It’s the same old story - creatives would kill to buy a home downtown, but they’re simply too expensive, so they end up in a less desirable location on the outskirts while all the lawyers and executives move in instead.

Enter the ipad (though the name may have been challenged by Apple), pioneered in the UK by Barratt Homes, and packing a whole lot of value in a tiny package, get it?

Granted, the ipad isn’t the solution for most of the creative class, but if you’re looking to own a cool

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In looking at the top sustainable US cities as reviewed yesterday, how did those cities get to the top of the rankings and how can others move up?

There are many factors, but the only category that weighted more heavily than others in the rankings is city commuting, based on use of transit and walking or biking to work. It’s no surprise, given that it affects a city’s public health (fitness), local economy (less car and oil dependence) and quality of life (walkable neighborhoods and

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What are the most sustainable cities in the US?  One organization, SustainLane keeps track, via their annual US City Rankings.  It’s not a measure of how green a city is, it’s a measure of how sustainable its public health, local economy and quality of life is.  The criteria:

Public health - air and drinking water quality, walkability;
Keeping money in the local economy - renewable energy and alternative fuels, transit, walkability, green building and local food production;
Quality of life

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Sound crazy?  Not when you’re Ms. Birch and Mr. McGrath - in their twenties with good jobs, wanting to live in New York City…

Developers, listen up.  If creatives had a choice between living in a conventional 1000 s.f. apartment in suburbia vs a high-style 500 s.f. loft-inspired apartment near the most active, vibrant neighborhoods, you’d better pay close attention to this NY Times interview with Anne Birch and Brendan McGrath, because they represent where the market is headed for at least

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While The Work Factory, presented yesterday, is a model for the creative class workplace, how it was established is just as representative of its role in a progressive economy. Once again, in the words of co-founder Ted Randler:

“Last year Work Magazine (Richmond, VA’s slick biz dev mag) and C3 (profiled here) held a business conference call, “What’s the Big Idea?“ We brought together corporate executives, designers, academics and media folks to spend the day in seminars and sessions dealing

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That’s a little contradictory, because the office is your ‘second place’, your home being the first, with your favorite hangout often referred to as the third place.  But that’s compelling the premise behind The Work Factory in Richmond, VA - the office as third place.

From $299 a month, like any true third place, you’ll have literally dozens of places to set up your laptop and get to work, as described by co-founder, Ted Randler:

“Between the community spaces and the meeting room, a $299

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In the last of our three-part series on civic tourism (remember, this is about attracting travelers like you and me, not the ones sought by Disneyworld), we’ll look at how to actually implement it in the real world, based on these tools:

Integrate the Product
Especially if you’re a progressive destination, you’d already have an eco-tourism or cultural heritage tourism program in place, or an entertainment-oriented one like Athfest.  Invest in squares, parks and buildings that enhance these

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Continuing yesterday’s entry, how does a city use civic tourism to stay true to itself, and in so doing, attract the creative class, like perhaps Austin and Manhattan?  In order to understand how they deftly invest in their public amenities: historic districts, nature/adventure, culture, heritage, sense of place, entertainment to do so, it’s first imperative to know the four basic civic tourism principles:

Think Outrageously
That is, invest a plan where civic tourism actually helps

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Tourism is usually regarded by residents as a necessary evil in order to maintain a viable economy.  Luckily, there’s a civic tourism movement that is redefining tourism as an enhancement to preserve and grow local quality of life and culture.

It wouldn’t be such a big deal if tourism wasn’t the largest industry in the world and in the top three in each and every state, but it is.  May as well use it to your city’s advantage.

In this Smart City Radio interview, civic tourism founders Dan

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Every great neighborhood needs a truly authentic pizzeria

Not surprisingly, one can find a pizzeria every few blocks in Italy.  It’s also not surprising that they use fresh ingredients, especially the mozzarella cheese.  Here’s a little recap.  However, it is surprising that one is often hard-pressed to find such a place anywhere in an entire city in the U.S., which is why Brooklyn’s Difara Pizzeria garners reviews like the following:

“I am the most impatient person you’ll ever meet and

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If tech expert Paul Graham is right, all you need to build the next Silicon Valley is $600M to spend on professors to attract the talent, and quality neighborhoods to attract the investors.  In his words:

“I think you only need two kinds of people to create a technology hub: rich people and nerds. The exciting thing is, all you need are the people. If you could attract a critical mass of nerds and investors to live somewhere, you could reproduce Silicon Valley. What nerds like is other nerds.

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