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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A little over a year and a half ago I explained in this blog entry what a CoolTown really is -  it’s the collective answer of the local area’s most innovative, entrepreneurial, active people to the question: “So, what kind of town do you think is cool?“

It’s time to hear from you all out there, or at least some of the 5000 regular/repeat visitors from last month.  For this site to work and really help make a difference to build the kinds of communities you know you want, but don’t see

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In continuation of yesterday’s blog and Entrepreneur Magazine’s Hot Trends for 2005, a look at what’s hot in the economy and culture, and how it applies to CoolTowns…

Third places.  Yep, CoolTowns are full of third places, and there’s an entire section of this site dedicated to them.  The article focuses on corporate examples like Starbucks, Barnes & Noble and even McD’s and Coca-Cola, but we know it’s the unique local ones that most people like hanging out at.

Obesity.  While there’s a

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Entrepreneur Magazine released their Hot Trends for 2005, reflecting an ever evolving economy and culture.  What’s hot, and how it applies to CoolTowns…

Authenticity.  Homemade cheese.  Levi’s.  What’s more real than a Mom & Pop shop, a local pub, an independent bookseller, a diner?

Age 35.  Apparently more of us want to be at the age where you’re old enough to run your own business but young enough to still be a little silly.  That’s called freedom, and the most prosperous places provide a

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If you ever wanted a concise read on how biodiversity relates to urban diversity, read this article that relates the necessity of genetic diversity for our survival, to the need for a diversity in our downtowns (ie one less Starbucks, one more cool independent coffeehouse) for its own economic and cultural survival.

“Where loss of genetic diversity threatens the survival of species and leaves ecosystems vulnerable to collapse, clone shops and towns imperil local livelihoods, communities and

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Oh what place-making wonders await us when we get the truth

The real question is, if there are so many people in the U.S. who want better places to live and to socialize in, that want the world-class public places that they have to travel abroad for, why aren’t they building them here?  Maybe because no one really asked them.  If you think this is preposterous, maybe this brief story will change your mind.

The story centers on how companies use market studies and surveys to determine new

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So many cool public places… overseas?

First of all, the cool public piazzas, paseos and courtyards in other countries were built when people walked to get from one place to another.  Because they’re still so popular, they set precedents to continue building such great places.

Not so much in the U.S.  The country is an infant compared to others, and most of the great places we built in the all-too-brief ‘pedestrian age’ that could have served as wondrous precedents were made of wood, a short

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Give me informality or give me death

Nation’s Building News:  Vanilla Not a Favorite Flavor of Generation X Home Buyers

What else does the report say, in addition to yesterday’s blog?

A lot of it comes down to affordability and being informality, both of which are related as well.

Informality:  Xers are attracted to places where spontaneous, casual conversation occurs.  These are the well-designed parks, squares, plazas and third places.  The dining table as the communal table is making

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“Vanilla Not a Flavor of Gen Xers”

Nation’s Building News:  Vanilla Not a Favorite Flavor of Generation X Home Buyers

Marketing service consultants and architects summarize their research on what Gen X is looking for in their communities.

Family: “Family” includes close friends, a commitment to fewer divorces and more participation in raising their kids.  Neighborhood-oriented playgrounds, schools and daycare are prioritized.

Neighbors: Friends, not foes.  Sense of community, but without

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Is your town a lovemark?

If you think it’s hard enough for a place to have brand status, becoming a lovemark is the stuff legends are made of.

From the web site based on the popular book, Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands:

“Lovemarks transcend brands. They deliver beyond your expectations of great performance. Like great brands, they sit on top of high levels of respect - but there the similarities end.

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Is your town a good brand?

You’ve heard of the iPod and Oprah and Las Vegas.  But what about your town?  How does it rate as a brand?  Fast Company magazine, the unofficial monthly of the creative class, takes a look at the six trends influencing current brands as we evolve into the experience economy.  Does your town rate?

1. Brands will be authentic: Does your town stand for something meaningful without selling out?  Wilmington, NC has a prolific and highly respected film industry.

2.

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CNN: Unfashionable cities trying to create cool

CNN July 14, 2004 home page link: Cities, states try to lure young professionals

The article focuses on programs in four cities actively seeking a younger, more creative, entrepreneurial population:

Michigan leads with its to attract the creative class.

Philadelphia has a civic leadership and jobs program to retain its graduating students.

Memphis is investing in its citywide fiber optic network and music scene to

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Yes, as this blog has aluded to here and here, referring to the North End in Boston (popular with women) as an example.

Since financial attainability is fundamental to CoolTowns, they often have their earliest beginnings in the up and coming creative, artsy, edgy, entrepreneurial urban areas (what the upper class refers to as economically ‘distressed’ before they find themselves moving there in droves).  Thus, the following women’s group position is key to supporting the genesis of future

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We all have our favorite eating establishment, the place where we depend on as our second dining room… or for many of us, as our primary dining room. What’s yours? Or, if it doesn’t exist in your neighborhood, what would it be?

Click here to vote, add your own suggestions or view results. You need to register (just once!) to vote.  Results will be used by visionary institutional investors to design and build future CoolTowns.

See the blog below to read more about the slow food …

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The reason why over 90% of new homes are built as sprawl is simply because it’s much easier for developers to do so - they can mass produce them.  It’s no coincidence the neighborhoods end up resembling an assembly line.  Soon enough, its residents start behaving like products on an assembly line - talking the same language, doing the same things, driving the same cars to the same places…  Keep an eye out for the movie The Stepford Wives, coming out in July.

Here’s the vicious circle though…

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75% of home buyers want the option of walking or biking to work or to shops, according to a survey by American Lives, an innovative market research firm.

A Belden, Russonello and Stewart national focus group study suggests renters with no children and empty nesters are more likely to choose a smaller lot in a livable community area where they can walk to stores, etc.

A Fannie Mae survey found that people believe a great neighborhood is more important than a great house.

Finally, in the SF

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The entire premise of building a CoolTown is based on what its future tenants, as a community, think it should be.  Thus, it’s about time we started learning about you all as potential CoolTown tenants, as a community, via CoolTown polls.

We’ll start posting polls here once a week, and you’ll not only be able to view the archive of results, but discuss it at length as well.  Since the example in the image is one of where you spend your money, let’s start with that.  Click here to vote or view

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What time shall I wake up for work tomorrow?  Shall I walk or drive to work today - should I go into the main or satellite office?  Which route do I feel like taking - the one with the grocery store on the way to pick up some orange juice, or the one through the park?  Do I even want to go to work today and just finish up this evening instead?

Do I go to the corner market to buy a few things, or drive to the supermarket to load up for a couple weeks?  Watch an independent film down the block,

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BOBOs (bourgeois bohemian boomers) and Nexers (empty nester boomers) are as keen on CoolTowns as Xers and Yers.  Why?  The National Association of Home Builders and market researchers have concluded:

Nexers will keep working to stay mentally active or stay solvent.  In other words, no retirement communities.  In fact, ‘active adult communities’ turn nexers off.  “They wouldn’t want their friends or children to know they were living in this type of community”, says Myrl Axelrod, president of

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McMansions are out.  Small is in.

Smaller homes.  Smaller schools.  Small towns.  Smaller workplaces (ie home office nooks vs. corporate campuses), roads, stores, cell phones, laptops, ipod minis, cars, egos, etc.  Going from the industrial mass production age to the knowledge age, we’re finding we can do a whole lot more with a whole lot less.

In the coming weeks, I’ll take you back to the future through a tour of the kinds of places that represent this trend.  In the meantime, here’s a

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Conventional developer:  “We look at what’s been financially successful and replicate it.  Then we’ll customize it according to the local culture.“  Sounds fair enough, until you realize the result is something like a McDonald’s in Texas marketing “Spicy Ranch” bbq sauce for their McNuggets.  “Oh, but no other McD’s has it!“, they say.

This business model explains why you can’t tell one suburbia from another.  Add the opinion that suburbia is ugly, and you’ve got a pretty depressing

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That seems to be the myth.

The ‘coolest places’, especially to the creative and entrepreneurial, are the most affordable with the best food/service.  Atmosphere takes a back seat, not by choice, but by necessity.  For instance, the favorite pub is commonly the dark, dingy one with the $2 draft beers, low ceilings, 1970s chairs and 30-year old carpets (ie the ugliest/cheapest building in an often ugly neighborhood).  Pub designers, this does not mean ugly is cool - it means $2 draft beers

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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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Article in San Francisco Chronicle
By Richard Paoli, November 16, 2003

The survey, What Women Really Want in Neighborhoods, Homes and Community Life, conducted by EDAW, seemed focused on women with the greatest buying power/influence, typically boomers.  Still, their priorities are much more CoolTown-oriented than their male counterparts.

Their two key qualities they’re looking for in buying a home are: Social interaction and convenience.

Topping the list of amenities are:
- Access (ie

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