One of the best technical descriptions for the kind of district or neighborhood that attracts creatives is the natural cultural district.  These are retail and entertainment zones that grow organically.  One destination in the Philippines takes that to heart literally, and is an inspiring example of when creativity meets business effectively.

The Z-Bar, a tapas lounge on the second floor of The Tinderbox Restaurant, located in Banilad, Cebu City (pop. 800,000, metro pop. 2 million), in the

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In order to to help governments and major companies place employees on international assignments, Mercer Consulting conducts an annual Quality of Living survey ranking and comparing 215 cities around the world by quality of life and infrastructure.  When you look at the list, keep in mind that Mercer is a U.S. company.

Here’s their ranking of cities with the highest quality of life based on the following criteria: Political and social environment, economic environment, socio-cultural

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Creatives know art has the power to transform, but not when it’s only confined to enclosed galleries. The creatives in Grand Rapids, Michigan have taken this to heart, initiating two stellar art-transforming programs that cultivate artistic expression throughout the city.

One ongoing program, ACTIVESITE, hosts art/sculpture exhibits and shows in empty buildings within revitalizing neighborhoods in partnership with real estate developers and multiple university and college art programs.

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When it comes to crowdsourced placemaking, it’s very difficult to do if the crowd doesn’t have a concrete goal in mind. This is especially the case when it comes to ‘green development’, which can have thousands of interpretations. Thankfully, via the County of San Francisco’s partnership with Cisco, Mayor Gavin Newsom launched Urban EcoMap pilot in San Francisco, which provides neighborhoods and citizens with defined benchmarks to crowdsource to. Announced on Earth Day 2009 (April 22), the

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As a follow up to the previous entry, Bike sharing the next mass transit system, here’s a look at what New York City is cooking up.

Via one of the most comprehensive bike sharing reports anywhere, New York City’s Department of City Planning produced Bike-Share: Opportunities in New York City, which details not just a vision, but a business plan for what would be one of the most extensive in the world. The plan calls for 10,500 bicycles to start, with expansion plans to 49,000, which is

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We’ve had streetcars, then buses, then light rail and subways… now bike sharing systems are also becoming standard mass transit systems in major cities.

Some noted bicycle sharing systems from around the world:

Europe
Paris, France - Velib, 20,600 bicycles, opened July 2007, pop. 2.2 million - and by far the benchmark.
Barcelona, Spain - Bicing, 6,000 bicycles, opened March 2007, pop. 1.6 million
Toulouse, France - Velo, 1400 bicycles, opened November 2007, pop. 435,000
London - 6,000

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People who live in cities are healthier, say researchers from San Diego State University. Why?  Some of the conclusions:

- Cities offer easier, more convenient access to sidewalks where people naturally walk or jog, especially for exercise of at least 30 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity five days a week.
- People in cities often walk to stores or transportation stops (ie amenities).
- City residents have more access to low-cost recreation opportunities (ie amenities).
- They ride

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Just as our evolution to the knowledge economy is providing opportunities to recycle suburbia, as Time Magazine puts it, a less intimidating precedent would be how we’ve recycled manufacturing industrial districts to suit contemporary needs.

The Minneapolis Warehouse District is one of the best examples of recycling warehouses into an entire 50-block retail and entertainment neighborhood, with a core of about 60 historic warehouses (pictured) in a seven-block area. Known as the SoHo of the

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It’s been well documented recently that suburbia is on the decline, and artists have been scooping up foreclosed homes in such neighborhoods, as covered in the Wall Street Journal’s Artists vs Blight. The good news is that progressive crowds are finally able to afford a home.  The bad news is that they’re in neighborhoods that are anything but progressive, and in fact creatively and economically isolated. What to do?

How about recycling the old and crowdsourcing a new neighborhood, by and for

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Back in 2005 we featured Ben, Naomi and Josh, founders of the next generation real estate development firm, Sustainable Community Associates (SCA) in this article, Developing a community for their peers, whereas their peers were recent college graduates. At the time they were in the planning stages of a mixed-use green development, which in fact was profiled by Ben on this site as far back as 2004 in A CoolTown block in Ohio.

Well, here’s a message from Josh with some rather exciting

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