“We don’t make an effort in Iwate,“ prefecture (state) Governor Hiroye Masuda has declared in a nationwide government ad campaign running since 2001.  By the way, that’s really what it says on their business cards.  Realizing his people couldn’t compete in Japan’s fast-paced economy, “Here, I want people to go home early in the evening, take a walk with their family, and talk to the neighbors.“

It makes more sense than it sounds.  An economist put it best, “Why should they work themselves to

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I’m not one for trends, but Rachel Ashwell’s Shabby Chic methodology of affordable individuality has long been applied to some of the most successful main streets - anywhere, as well as the best third places.

Shabby chic is about combining the old and new for timeless comfort, which explains why it’s no longer ‘the hot trend’ in L.A. Then again, it’s these very principles that make Joseph’s Cafe (image) a premiere ‘who’s who’ hot spot in L.A.

While the concept centers largely on the home

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Ever wanted to start a band but couldn’t find neighbors who were that hard of hearing?  Or, ever knew someone who did?

There’d probably be a lot more bands, and maybe a lot more new, creative and polished music out there if musicians, and ‘aspiring musicans’ had a place to play.

That’s what Nuci’s Space in Athens GA is all about.

First of all, it’s no coincidence that for a small town, Athens has quite a history of spawning bands (REM, B-52s, Widespread Panic).  It’s one of the most

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The best college towns are entirely unique.

Students are looking for a diversity of very affordable choices to entertain and feed themselves within walking distance from the university. The most popular venues within these places provide something unique that can’t be found anywhere else, whether it’s an award-winning draft beer at a factory-turned-brewpub, an 18-block art & entertainment fest, or a musicians’ incubator.

Creating a successful college town is more about establishing a

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What makes Charlottesville the place to be for University of Virginia’s 22K students?

Unique entertainment
- - A heavily-attended, extremely popular 24-week long event held in the Downtown Amphitheater, attracting over 150,000 people to the Downtown Mall each season. It started off as a small gathering over 8 weeks at a makeshift stage.
- The Annual Downtown Blues Festival
- Court Days, the semi-annual downtown arts & crafts festival

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What makes Chapel Hill one of the most desired college towns for UNC’s 25K students?  In the words of the students themselves…

Entertainment
“On any given night you can find a hang-out on Franklin Street.“
“Franklin Street boasts an impressive string of bars and restaurants ranging from Players, the college meat market, to the Dead Mule, a members only bar that caters to the slightly older set who won’t get drunk and rowdy. BW-3 runs NTN trivia and is always a great place for a tall beer and

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Keys to Ann Arbor’s popularity with the University of Michigan’s 41K students:

1. Entertainment
- The Ann Arbor Film Festival is one of the oldest and most prestigious film festivals in North America. The Ann Arbor Art Fair: Every year, from Wednesday to Saturday of the second week in July, the population of Ann Arbor explodes (1200 exhibitors, 750,000 visitors) with three art fairs on eighteen blocks. Then there’s the Blues and Jazz Festival in the fall and the Ann Arbor Folk Festival in the

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What makes Athens (University of Georgia - UGA) such a great college town?

1. Great entertainment
Great music scene - Athens claims The B-52s, R.E.M., Widespread Panic and countless other groups of at least local renown. It hosts AthFest, a summer weekend festival showcasing local and regional bands that perform on outdoor stages by day and in downtown clubs by night. There’s even a musicians’ incubator.  Also, the work of local artists can be found on display all over town, UGA hosts a

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Wayne State University announces CoolTown plans

Wayne State University press release:

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If anecdotal evidence isn’t enough for you (ever notice the weight difference in people as you walk in a Walmart in suburbia vs. a main street in the city?... or travel from the city to the suburbs on the subway and see the size of people getting on board increase rather noticeably?)

Well, here’s yet more scientific evidence, highlighted on the front page of Monday’s Washington Post, and adding to that already being collected in this part of the blog.

- A major University of Maryland study

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Houston Chronicle: Pistons a model worth duplicating

Click here to learn what economic gardening did for the Florida Marlins, and what it did for the Detroit Pistons as they won the NBA championship on Tuesday.

“The virtues of teamwork, sacrifice, dedication and determination defeated one of the most glamorous collections of superstars assembled… The Pistons beat a Lakers team with four future Hall of Famers… Pistons guard Mike James - “We call ourselves the misfits. The NBA overlooked us.

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The Wall Street Journal today featured the article Cities Launch Programs To Lure College Graduates: To Combat Brain Drain, Cities Boost Efforts to Court Graduates.

The reason is that only 14 of the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. had more 25-34 year olds in 2000 than they did in 1990, according to an analysis by economist Joseph Cortright, who studies regional economies.  A Philadelphia study showed that only 29% of non-native college graduates stayed in the area (vs. 86% of

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It’s slowly starting to happen - people are gradually getting the opportunity to take part in shaping the kinds of communities they really want to live in.

The small town of LaGrange just signed an agreement with a private sector group, along with a to-be-established CoolTown pre-tenant community to build CoolTown neighborhoods on strategic sites in the city.

Meanwhile, Wayne State University (first mentioned here) has selected The Town Builders Collaborative as the investment/development

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Here’s a radio short with CoolTown Studios represented for a few seconds (if that) of air time.  Crystal City Reborn is an 8-minute piece on how an urban office district is trying to become an entertainment mecca.  Click here for the official radio story description.

This story inspired a second radio piece, Affinity Lab, which is where the CoolTown Studios office is, and mentioned a fair amount throughout this blog site.  Click here for the official radio story …

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Quite a bit according to our CoolTown poll.

The statistics seem to back that up.  Growth figures for US retail sales from 1967-1993 (alas, they don’t have the last ten years):

Restaurant and Entertainment: 102%
Food at home (i.e. groceries): 26%
Furniture: 79%
Building materials: 78%
General merchandise: 46%
Clothing: 31%

(Personal income growth: 83%)

That’s why we could use more places like Brek, a very affordable, fresh hot food, self-serve restaurant with class (see image).  The kind of

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50% of marriages end in divorce.  Why so high?  Well, first of all, if you didn’t count people who divorced two to ten times, that rate is more like 25%.

What’s this got to do with CoolTowns?  If great marriages are about finding the right people just as much as committing to make it work, the more people we meet, the more people we have a chance of clicking with.  It’s common sense - if we’re working 60 hours a week, then going home and watching TV the rest of the evening, chances are we’re

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Because they’re fit!

CoolTowns are designed for walking.  A new study says the more people drive, the more out of shape they get.  The findings:

For every extra 30 minutes commuters drove each day, they had a 3 percent greater chance of being obese.

People who lived less than a half mile from shops were 7 percent less likely to be obese.

About 91 percent of the people surveyed said they didn’t walk to destinations. This coincides with the fact that 64.5% of Americans are

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McMansions refer to those cookie cutter neighborhoods of big homes that look alike, essentially 90% of new home construction.  There are more parallels to fast food than I thought…

Fast food is designed to be cheap and mass produced.  So are most new homes, with little variation in floor plan and style.

Fast food uses the cheapest ingredients.  Most new homes use the cheapest materials, which explains why they start falling apart after a few years.

Fast food is very satisfying initially,

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So what happens when the entrepreneurial development system (EDS) is integrated into a CoolTown?

You get fast and slow.  Imagine the people of Silicon Valley in the urban fabric of Venice, or if Austin looked like Paris…

The entrepreneurs and creatives at each skill level (from rookie to A to AA to AAA to the majors) would have a multitude of casual venues to meet and discuss ideas and deals.  People would be meeting at just about any hour of the day, all within walking distance from one

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There’s no better way to understand a concept than to see it in real life, and the Urban Industry Initiative in Philadelphia is a great example of the entrepreneurial development system and its branded version, the Entrepreneurial League System (R), explained earlier here this week.

You can read about the program here, but it’s essentially the EDS applied to an industry district in Philadelphia.  It saved 350 jobs of 12 companies planning to leave, generated millions in new business and is

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It’s all about building relationships.

Building a place for creative entrepreneurial people to live and work is part of the story.  Helping them build truly meaningful relationships to succeed individually and as a community is just as important, and what the Entrepreneurial League System® (ELS) provides.

Known as the branded version of the entrepreneurial development system described yesterday, the ELA provides these key services:

The Talent Scout identifies and recruits the entrepreneurs

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Cool towns focus on job growth through home-grown companies.  Thankfully, that’s become a nationwide business trend called economic gardening.  However, how does one implement economic gardening?

Look no further than professional baseball.  Major league baseball develops the talent in its players through a farm system with four skills levels.  Players with the most undeveloped skills begin in the “Rookie” league, gradually advancing from A, to AA, to AAA before ultimately reaching the …

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