Putting the spirit into co-designing your own community

The beta community is well underway in Louisville, KY, allowing future tenants to co-design and co-develop a key downtown block.

However, sometimes it’s easier to explain this customer-led, co-design, crowdsourcing at a much smaller scale, which is what CrowdSpirit does for us.  The basic concept is straightforward, as defined in their image above (excluding the urban village elevation, developed by Urban+West+Strategies). The goal is

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The ‘Inner City 100’

Need some inspiration for inner city job growth?  Want to know what the fastest growing inner city businesses are? Inc Magazine and Initiative for a Competitive Inner City provide an annual Inner City 100 list to answer just that. Inner cities here are defined as economically-challenged core urban areas excluding central business districts, and the candidates must be independent businesses.

The top ten, which seem to serve more than just the financial bottom line:

1.

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‘Cities Compete in Hipness Battle to Attract Young’

Why are cities so focused on attracting and retaining 25-34 year olds?  According to the NY Times article, Cities Compete in Hipness Battle to Attract Young, “by 2012, the work force will be losing more than two workers for every one it gains.  Cities that do not attract them now will be hurting in a decade.“

The cities with the greatest % of young adults seem to be doing quite well, while the cities with the largest gains from 1990-2000

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True piazzas (pedestrian-oriented plazas completely enclosed by buildings, ringed by restaurants and shops and offices and housing above) are everywhere in Europe, but nowhere to be found in the U.S.

Rockville in Maryland is doing their part with its upcoming Rockville Town Square, a new $360 million, 15-acre town center for their rather suburban town just north of Washington DC.  It’s not a true piazza in that there are auto-oriented streets on two sides, but if you take a look at the map,

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Is the U.S. too rich to invest in human- scaled places?

The Conflict. Take one look at GlobeSt, the portal for real estate news and see for yourself. A vast majority of real estate investment dollars are held in institutional funds (trillions, via banks, insurance funds, retirement funds) and not surprisingly, they don’t invest in projects less than $10 million, preferraby much higher. What’s worse is that in the past they’ve advocated against human-scale development in order to ensure

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The first multi-unit LEED-certified residential building in the U.S.!

Hard to believe, but according to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and its evaluation arm, Conservation Services Group (CSG), 53 Standish Street in Cambridge, MA is the first multi-unit residential building to be LEED-certified, which is the criteria for green development.

Constructed by AEDI Development, 53 Standish scores high with the following green building features:

- Within walking distance of public

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Brain drain - a visual map

The map above, from a Choices Magazine article, displays U.S. counties’ competitive share for college-educated population as a percent of total population over age 25 from 1970 to 2000 - in other words, brain gain vs. brain drain.

The accompanying study concluded, not surprisingly, that major metropolitan areas enjoyed a relatively large brain gain in every region while the nonmetropolitan, nonadjacent counties suffered brain drain. New England is an exception,

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Why is it that one look at the image above tells you this is not in the U.S.? The bigger question is, why not? How about a place like this in your own town, with your own local, independent cafes and shops below, entrepreneurial offices above, and lofts above that? Or perhaps a section where the whole street is full of outdoor dining? Wi-fi everywhere. Nightly happy hours and live music, weekly poetry readings and plays, monthly international socials and cultural events, a genuine sense of

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Paris aims to become 24/7, attract the creative class

Did you know Paris, unlike New York, London and Tokyo, is not a 24/7 city? Most restaurants close on Sunday and do not serve after 10:30 pm in the evening; supermarkets close at 9 pm; long working hours are unheard of; the subway closes between 1 am and 5 am…

Does that make a difference? Tremendously, according to Christian Sautter, the deputy mayor in charge of economic development and finance, “When we came into office in 2001, we had

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‘How Cities Compete In The Media Economy’

Media economy - “an economy based on media, mass communication and services over mass-produced goods, no longer based on large, centralized companies. Instead, it flourishes amid a decentralized network of small businesses and entrepreneurs and the creative, urban places that support them.“

What better way to illustrate and understand how cities can compete in the information age than to co-publish a report with someone from the millennium

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Transcending retail chain districts: The VIBE beta guild

Creatives, urbanites want local, indie businesses. Developers know about investing in real estate, not small businesses, and not only do national/regional chains make it easier for them, they can pay 3-5 times more rent. That’s a crippling dilemma.

Enter the VIBE beta community, where VIBE (introduced in the previous entry) stands for variegated independent business entrepreneur and the beta community is a future group of tenants

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Here’s the catch 22 - the most culturally, economically rich cities and towns focus on local, independent, diverse restaurants and retail, however, it’s the national chains that can pay $60-$100/s.f./year when most start-up indie businesses can only afford $7-$20/s.f./year. That’s a serious problem if cities don’t share in the economic benefits they receive from local independent businesses.

There’s an answer somewhere in the middle, and today I’d like to announce a new term in the CoolTown

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The rise of Gen X, Y home buyers spur new models

Is there a reason to expect a change in the standard subdivision and apartment tower housing models?  Yes, according to experts at the leading real estate development organization, the Urban Land Institute (ULI), as documented by the Wall Street Journal.

Generation X (born between 1965 and 1979) comprise a little more than half of the market for newly constructed homes, says the president of a leading advisor, forgoing master suites for

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Cities with the best value

We profiled Bohemian Bargains recently to give you an idea of what are the most affordable creative cities. A complement to that is Kiplinger’s 50 Smart Places to Live measured on fun, vibrant, and affordable with a strong economy.  Note that all but one are college towns to some degree, according to College Town Life.

1) Nashville, TN 1,398,214
2) Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN 3,138,324
3) Albuquerque, NM 782,916
4) Atlanta, GA 4,765,845
5) Austin, TX 1,415,324
6)

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Art galleries will always have their place in the city, but to survive, they’ll have to become more than just venues to sell art pieces - they need to become venues to sell art experiences.  Check out these two trends:

1. The rise of the design economy. Think how Target has the world’s top designers designing their everyday products at affordable prices.

2. The rise of the experience economy. Think of a progressive bookstore with an in-house organic cafe amidst a poetry slam.  Or

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‘Brand spaces’ create an experience

Continuing yesterday’s theme… We know that the third place is a general term (our ‘home’ away from home and work), but how about when a business successfully defines it in their terms? Once again, Trendwatching.com has the definition:

Brand space - a space that capitalizes - in the broadest sense of the word - on consumer expectations set in motion by being spaces (aka third places). Think literally accommodating consumers outside the home and office,

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Transumerism: freedom-oriented, boredom-fighting quality of life

Nomads move from city to city, but what about those who still want to enjoy new and different experiences without changing addresses?

Our friends at Trendwatching.com refer to them as transumers - “consumers driven by experiences instead of the ‘fixed’, by entertainment, by discovery, by fighting boredom, who increasingly live a transient lifestyle, freeing themselves from the hassles of permanent ownership and

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Attracting jobs with food

Food, shelter and clothing - our three basic needs. Notice however, how food comes first, but it’s rarely even on the list when it comes to building cities that attract people, or even specifically, the creative, entrepreneurial population that spurs job growth.

This graph, from CEOs for Cities’ City Vitals: New Measures of Success for Cities (full report for members here), is just a hint of innovative insight into understanding how food can, and should, play a

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Nashua’s downtown boom

With a #1 ranking in Money magazine’s Best Places to Live in both 1987 and 1997, Nashua, a small city of 87,000 on the southern border of New Hampshire, aims to become even more livable.

Within the span of just a few years, the downtown is expected to have 885 new housing units built: 158 that are already completed, 445 approved, and another 440 being planned.  One of the most notable is the proposed Cotton Mill Square which will offer 32 of its 162 new condominium

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Pittsburgh’s creative center - South Side

As stated yesterday, every city has its creative center, and South Side, now with its own zombie walk, may very well be the Pittsburgh’s long sought source of talent for job growth in the knowledge economy.

Here’s a few of the reasons why it’s Pittsburgh’s destination for creatives:

- Home to more restaurants and bars than any other neighborhood, with up to 80 watering holes in the area. That’s a lot of conversations, the basis of economic growth

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