There’s nothing more important to a great downtown/main street than the entrepreneurs who open that signature restaurant or venue that starts a chain reaction of quality venues behind it.

Warren Brown had dual degrees in law and public health from George Washington University, but hated his work as a lawyer for the federal government.  Meanwhile, friends and family loved anything he baked.  So he did what most lawyers do - quit his job and opened a bakery.

A few awards and an Oprah

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Is it a place full of cool, or clones?

The people at the New Economics Foundation, an economic think-tank in London, put together a great tool for finding out, and you can get the pdf survey via the link at the bottom right of their website.  It’s more or less giving 5 points for every town center shop/venue, 5 points for every clone (ie chain), 50 points for every independent, then dividing that total by the number of venues.

The five towns we analyzed on our CoolTown tour had a score of

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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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That’s the advice of downtown consultant Susan Nigra Snyder of CivicVisions, in this so-titled article on the revitalization of a small college town main street.

“It’s how Madonna reinvents herself every few years,“ she says in the article. “You have to transform the way people see it and use it, so it gets connected to the contemporary buzz.“

That means think like an entrepreneur, and entrepreneurs focus on how to use their existing assets to provide something that people want today.  That

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In this edgy ChangeThis manifesto, Made In USA, the Paul Graham, the author of Hackers & Painters claims, “Americans make the best software and films, and the Japanese the best cars and consumer electronics. There’s a reason for this, and it goes far deeper than cultural differences or the quality of autoworkers, it has to do with who’s in charge.

...and it’s the people in charge and/or the prevailing culture that prioritizes design and craftsmanship that will produce the kinds of products

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There’s more to nightlife than restaurants and bars, and one of the fastest growing recreations that fit into that timeslot is dodgeball.  In fact, the International Dodgeball Federation (yes, there is such a thing) says the 25-35-year demographic is the fastest growing in the country.

Where do you find them?  In cities, even smaller ones like Richmond, VA, that cater to the creative class.  Here’s a rather interesting quote, “It has become an ‘in thing’ to play childhood sports again

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What are one of the benefits of being in a workplace full of entrepreneurial, creative people?  You get something entirely spontaneous like High Tea at the Lab.

Take one very creative person recently inspired by a trip to London (no coincidence that London is a compelling place to be), and watch them do the following:

Provide an announcement for “high tea” after work at 4 pm, and play some rather English-oriented music.  Then provide everyone with a menu for tea, sandwiches and pastries,

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Austin is already one of the coolest cities in the country, so it’s no surprise that it has some of the most progressive developers as well, such as Interurban Development, documented in this business article, Developers target ‘creative’ class with infill projects.

Their first two projects are Bel Air - ‘urban lofts on South Congress Avenue’; and SageBrush, ‘bungalows in the heart of Round Rock’.  What makes them especially cool is that they truly are affordable, in a world where ‘affordable

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Here’s the exact question someone just posed, “Can I invest small amounts of money in this fund or other New Urbanist projects? There don’t seem to be any ‘socially responsible’ mutual funds that screen out sprawl.“

The short answer is yes, but… The industry hasn’t matured enough to the point where large sums of money (ie billions in pension funds) can be trusted to be invested in what is considered a relatively new market, however, that does mean there are smaller sums of money (ie millions

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That’s the tagline of this article on why independent businesses rock, and Wal-mart, uh, doesn’t.
It notes that “in Iowa alone Wal-Mart wiped out 555 groceries, 298 hardware stores, 293 building supply stores, 161 variety stores, 158 women’s clothing stores, 153 shoe stores, 116 drug stores, and 111 men’s and boy’s clothing stores in 10 years.“  One of the premier business consultants in the world, C.K. Prahalad, states “The world’s largest company today, Wal-Mart, was created to serve poor

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Got a cool project that needs capital? Need a project to invest in? CoolTown Investments is assisting a diverse network of real estate investors across the country ($150 million to date) to invest in medium and higher risk, medium-high return urban rehab/developments.  One such fund focuses on investments of $3-$10 million each, which translates to $10-$30 million developments. The underlying philosophy of the investment sources?  They understand the immense value of providing the kinds of

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I get the feeling that there’d be a lot more CoolTowns built if the capital were there for them, because there’s certainly enough demand for them, from either the tenant or city government’s point of view.

What would be an ideal source of capital?  It would have to come from visionary people, and managed by visionary people.  It’d need at least $20 million or so to start off with, then grow as more and more projects were successfully funded.  The fund would need to be flexible in terms of

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A few years ago I assisted in the founding of an investment group, The Town Builders Collaborative (TBC), that was looking to invest in university towns via new urban villages that focused on the post-graduate crowd - what they referred to as ‘new economy towns’.  They sought cities that were interested in such investment to build places like this image that’s used on their website.

The TBC ‘plate is now full’, as they are involved in four projects, one in Detroit, two in Illinois, and

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Can you believe they were thinking of razing this building?  It’s a good thing it’s in DC.  If it were in Detroit, it’d probably be gone.  That’s not a slam on Detroit, that’s an all-too-well-known fact.

Built in 1924 as a 2500-seat grand theater, the Tivoli was left for dead after the 1968 riots, which pretty much left most city downtowns in the same condition until recently.  This is why diversity is good not only for social well-being, but the economy as well.

Revitalized and re-opened in

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It’s become common knowledge in the real estate industry that people are buying condos like crazy.  Condo buyers make up 13% of the housing market, a 33% percent increase over the past ten years, and more noticeably, have appreciated in value at an unprecedented double-digit pace for the past four years, according to a recent real estate report.  I know - I bought a condo five years ago.

Why?  The report says that traditional homes are too expensive.  Too be more truthful, it should say that

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What would a city look like from an arts point of view?  That question was answered in detail by Jeff Speck, long-time associate and director of design at the National Endowment for the Arts, where he oversees the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, and presented by Planetizen.  Here’s our synopsis of his top ten principles:

1. Design Streets for People - That’s people, not cars.
2. Overrule the Specialists - Traffic engineers prioritize cars, not people.  Don’t put them in charge.
3. Mix the

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You should.

This historic Georgia town, made pop culture famous by its prominent roles in Midnight in the Garden of Evil and Forrest Gump, has what is arguably the most beautiful squares in the country; a green, albeit slightly more auto-oriented version of Europe’s piazzas.  You instantly know where in the world you are, and that’s not very easy to do in 99.9% of our built landscape.

Not only that, but they’re also implementing a wireless downtown using the cutting edge entertainment

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Continuing yesterday’s blog, here’s the rest of Fast Company magazine’s rulesfor establishing a creative community.

6. Teach them a new language - The creative community needs to learn the ‘language’ of placemaking and economic development in real estate and economic terms (ie new urbanism, economic gardening, so that they can apply their market insight into the built environment.

7. Allow time for blue-sky thinking - This is the importance of third places, where creatives share ideas and

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Hope you enjoyed your vacation.

Here’s a set of resolutions for building a creative community that sparks investment, vitality and positive growth around it when there is none to little to begin with, based on Fast Company’s magazine’s rules for establishing a creative community (at a smaller scale.)

1. Recruit for diversity, hire for philosophy - Start with a diverse group of risk-takers who relish the idea of initiating a new community of creativity and innovation.
2. Rehab the

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