Designing the Gen X urban village

Affordability:  Design smaller-sized 4-6 story unfinished loft-style units (like these here by Dover Kohl, an urban design firm that fundamentally understands this market) with flexible open floor plans and some detailing to add character.  Do the same with office space.  Encourage the retailers to keep it simple and aim for artful practicality and efficiency over status.  Think Parisian neighborhoods.

Entertainment & Nightlife:  Center the village around

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What is Gen X looking for in a home?

Something less than $150,000 in the inner city or near an outer transit station.  It’d be low maintenance with high ceilings, both community and environmentally friendly.

Gen Xers prefer something stylish, efficient and flexible and did I say affordable?  They will not let homebuilders pre-determine their needs and feel they over-design new homes.  In fact, they’d like to customize their living spaces and want homes that express “Who I am.” Non-bearing

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What is Gen X looking for in a town?

It should be clear from yesterday’s blog:

Jobs, affordability, entertainment.
Jobs, affordability, entertainment.
Jobs, affordability, entertainment.

Jobs:  This is the starting point, but the good news is that companies (and city economic development agencies) are realizing that they also need to relocate where Gen Xers most likely want to live, which means affordability with great entertainment.  That works just fine with company executives as

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Where is Gen X moving to?

Well, since most Gen Xers are single/divorced (over 70%), they sure aren’t looking to settle down in a family-oriented neighborhood.  Here are the top 10 cities that Gen Xers are migrating to:

1. Orlando: An abundance of new tech jobs and limitless entertainment are hard to resist.
2. Las Vegas:  The entertainment and affordable living capital.
3. San Francisco:  Diversity, entertainment and hundreds of great dining experiences.
4. Denver:  The outdoor

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Sex and the City

It’s not called Sex and the Suburbs for a reason.

The popular HBO series is based on the dating adventures of four women.  Quite simply, there wouldn’t be much to write about if they all lived and worked in, say, a subdivision and an office park, and socialized at the local Walmart power center.  The bottom line is that the city is where you go to meet people, the burbs are where you go to avoid them, and one of these choices probably isn’t going to advance society as we

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Only in New York City

Where else can you have a #1 show about nothing?  Where else would the #1 comic book hero reside?

If you want to know if you’ve got the makings of a CoolTown, see what people are willing to associate with your town.  It’s not a coincidence that the biggest TV hits of the last three decades: The Cosby Show, Seinfeld and Friends, were all set in New York.  Why?  Because not much happens in the suburbs, except the 10:00 local news headlines, and that to me isn’t worth

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The CoolTown movie test

A few days ago I was listening to a traveling sports announcer exclaim that San Francisco and Seattle were two of the country’s greatest cities (New York goes without saying).  Sure, I agree.  Then today I saw some evidence of that.

I came across three movies during the day on my travel day from Hawaii to Washington DC:  Life or Something Like That, A Guy Thing and The Rock.  They were set in Seattle, Seattle and San Francisco, respectively.

Watch a lot of movies

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Apple introduced videoconferencing for the masses yesterday which will help connect entrepreneurs and artists in unprecedented ways, but it’s the company’s philosophy that blends with CoolTowns. Here’s their tribute to the same kind of people that will pioneer CoolTowns - with one slight opportunistic edit:

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.

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What do the most culturally creative Gen Yers want in a town?

As I mentioned regarding last week’s event, I surveyed the early adopters, the cultural creatives of town building at the University of Maryland, hosting a focus group of entrepreneurial, architecture and real estate students.  Here are some of the results from the group of 32 forward-thinkers:

- The three most desirable public amenities, in order:  A piazza, parks and public wireless broadband access.
- The most desirable

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Special Report: Hanging with the future

I was fortunate to host a focus group of about 20-30 University of Maryland students at the Hinman CEO entrepreneurial center to ask them what kind of the town they wanted to live in.

The most popular?  The affordable side of Georgetown, Adams Morgan, Annapolis, Greenwich Village and Manhattan Beach.

What are they looking for?  Nightlife, nightlife, nightlife. Also, convenience/mobility, affordability (big one, almost goes without saying), and even

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