What does it take to be authentic?

Real is in. Fake is out. We profiled the rise of authenticity over a year ago, and how it applies to towns. Now Fast Company magazine helps answer the question of what it takes to be authentic with the following four primary elements of being real:

A sense of place - You either leverage your brand through replication (ie Starbucks) or the community (local popular coffeehouse). Only the latter is considered genuine by the locals.

A strong point of view -

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New urban demo-graphics point to urban housing (2 of 2)

Continuing our look at the Brookings Institution’s Robert Puentes’  report, A Review of New Urban Demo-graphics and Impacts on Housing...

So what are the key drivers leading to the downtown population surge profiled in the previous entry, which had been decreasing prior to the 1990s?

Look at the net changes in household types over the last 25 years - 11.8M singles vs 1.4M families with kids, the latter of which only represents 4.5%

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Do women prefer walkable communities?

Based on this National Geographic map outlining concentrations of single women and single men, I’d venture to say yes.

It’s apparent on the map that men prefer to locate in cities built in the post-1940s auto-oriented era, while women prefer the more walkable, pre-1940s neighborhoods.  It should be no surprise, given the studies that document what women prefer in their neighborhoods and what attributes make for a safe city (see findings at links). So,

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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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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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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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Business Week: ‘IDEO’s Urban Pre-Planning’

The story behind the BusinessWeek article, IDEO’s Urban Pre-Planning, is already creating a buzz in the real estate industry.

First of all, who is IDEO and second, what is urban pre-planning?  IDEO is like the Apple Computer of the design world.  They’re experimenting with a new practice called Smart Space (it’s not even on their website yet), which is to utilize the wads of dollars wasted on marketing after a development is completed and invest

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Based on this chart spanning the last 15 years, the increasing % of Americans who now consider driving a chore is equivalent to 20 million more people, in addition to the 40 million who already find it a chore, on top of the 90 million who don’t/can’t even drive.  Since crowdsourcing was defined in yesterday’s entry, here’s a way to apply the means (crowdsourcing) to the end (driving less/walking more).

First, crowdsourcing is an excellent tool to communicate a vision.  For instance, have you

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Study: Attracting young adults to your city

Continuing a look at the study (profiled in the previous entry) that concluded 64% of young adults choose place over job, here are the researchers’ recommendations on how to attract them.

First, cater to their top three aspirations:
- To be healthy and safe. A clean, green, and safe city.  Investment in attractive public places, green building and active streets (public safety).
- To be your own boss. Lots of opportunities for entrepreneurs. 

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64% of young adults choose place over job

How important is it for cities to invest in their quality of life over jobs?  If they expect to attract 25-34 year olds, it’s pretty darn important.  According to a recent study*, 64% of college-educated 25-34 year olds chose the city they want to live in before the job.

Women were more apt to choose place over job than men, 69% for women, 60% for men.  How clean, green and safe a city is factors more into a woman’s decision than men regardless of

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To buy or rent?  To invest in condominiums or apartments?

The buzz is that the condo market is slowing down.  Thus, the hot question is whether to go condo or apartment, a key one for both developers and potential home buyers alike.  First, a couple of facts:

- Condo sales in the U.S. set a tenth consecutive sales record last year (896,000 units), 9.3% better than 2004.*
- Condos for the first time ever at the end of last year sold for more ($223,500 average) than single-families

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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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Thanks to ‘infolust’, no more ‘dumb’ buildings

Take note - these are the trends that are shaping our current economy…

So, what the heck is INFOLUST?!  A definition from Trendwatching:

“Experienced consumers are lusting after detailed information on where to get the best of the best, the cheapest of the cheapest, the first of the first, the healthiest of the healthiest, the coolest of the coolest, or on how to become the smartest of the smartest. Instant information gratification is upon

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How much are women influencing the future of our neighborhoods?

More and more every year as evolving demographics show, with positive results…

- The National Association of Realtors states that the percentage of single female home buyers in the past 20 years has doubled, second only to married couples.  Considering their neighborhood buying preferences, expect even an even stronger market for cooltowns.

- Women make up 58% of the undergraduate college population, and rising, which will

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Top cities for the ‘young and restless’

Continuing this week’s review of The Young and the Restless In A Knowledge Economy, and a listing of that report’s top cities for young talent:

Percent of Population Ages 25-34 in Metro Areas, 2000
1. Austin-San Marcos, TX MSA 18.2%
2. Atlanta, GA MSA 17.6%
3. Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, NC MSA 17.5%
4. Dallas-Fort Worth, TX CMSA 16.8%
5. Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, NC—SC MSA 16.6%
Access to recreation year-round (warmer weather) is obviously

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How do you best understand your customer?  We looked at ethnography (being Jane Goodall) a while back - and it’s time to immerse it in the internet generation.

From our friends at Trendwatching comes Virtual Anthropology - As consumers around the world pro-actively post, stream if not lead parts of their lives online, you (or your trend team) can now vicariously ‘live’ amongst them, at home, at work, out on the streets. From reading minute-by-minute online diaries or watching live webcam

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‘Been there, done that’ doesn’t always fly

Ever walk into a neighborhood that people rave about, then wonder what all the fuss was about?  At the same time, wonder why there are so many beautiful neighborhoods that people rarely talk about?

When a person gushes about their neighborhood, they’ll often mention the great restaurants, hangouts and entertainment, that it’s affordable, walkable and convenient, and that they like the people. It’s a bit rare for them to say how well designed the

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What? Single households now outnumber families

Yep, Stouffer’s will be selling a lot more of these.

The census bureau reports that for the first time households with one single adult (31.6%) are now greater than those of couples with kids (31.3%.)  Further details here.  This should come as no surprise to those who are now aware that the average condo sells for more than the average single-family, as reported in yesterday’s entry.  The demand for condos (increase in number smaller

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Introducing ‘Generation C’ - CoolTown-ready

I often have difficulty formally identifying the market for CoolTowns, mainly because it’s a market that doesn’t like being ‘identified’.  It’s an amalgamation of gen xers, yers, empty nexers, creative class, free agent nation, early adopters, cultural creatives (the last four each had entire books dedicated to them,) knowledge workers… and now there’s Generation C.

The ‘C’ stands for content.  As Trendwatching.com states, “Instead of asking

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‘Collaborative filtering’ for towns

Collaborative filtering: the method of making automatic predictions about the interests of a user by collecting taste information from many users

You’ve used this before, like Amazon’s “Customers who bought this book also bought…“ and iTunes’ “Listeners also bought…“ where you learn about things you might like based on things liked by like-minded people

Now, how about applying ‘collaborative filtering’ to town building for the creative class?

Creative

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‘Married with kids’ less than 20% of net growth

Singles living alone, together or with kids; and married couples without children will account for 90% of the net new household growth in this decade, according to U.S. Census figures.  In 15 years, married couples with kids will represent only 1 out of every 5 households.

No, the country isn’t going dysfunctional.  Boomers are aging, turning into ‘nexers‘ (boomer empty nesters) and ‘never nesters’ (childless couples who both are working

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What urban type are you?

Here’s an abridged quiz to ‘discover your true urban style’, found on the back cover of a highly acclaimed book on downtown life: Get Urban! The Complete Guide to City Living by Kyle Ezell, who’s also a speaker (I hope you appreciate the spontaneous plug Kyle).

If you have Post-Industrial style, you…
- Find beauty in hard-core, edgy urban environments.
- Are drawn to basic building materials such as steel, glass and concrete.
- Insist on stunning downtown skyline

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Change or die

When given the choice between change or death, 90% of us choose death, according to medical findings highlighted in the Fast Company magazine cover story, Change or Die, which has since become a book.  So if you’re looking for significant change in your community toward building better places, you’d better be more than prepared.  Here are a couple myths of change:

Change will happen when crisis occurs. Not true for 90% of people who’ve had coronary bypasses, or how the

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Stress-free urban living?

Many who live or work in the city or downtown may think of stress-free urban living as an oxymoron.  However, according to Dr. Allen Elkin, author of Urban Ease: Stress-Free Living in the Big City, it depends on whether you’re an:
- urbanite that truly enjoys being immersed in urban life;
- urban mismatch of the ‘nice place to visit, but not to live in’ viewpoints
- unhappy camper who wouldn’t be happy anywhere.

Urbanites not only are able to manage the stress of

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How authentic is your town?

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

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