The attitude among creatives is increasingly becoming aligned with the notion that Cars are the new smoking (the article lists ten reasons why). What’s more interesting is the growing evidence...

New York City’s Department of Transportation Commissioner is featured in Forbes magazine, Taking Back the Streets, on the city’s progressive investments in prioritizing people over cars, featured throughout this site’s Pedestrian Only/Car Free section.

Seasonal street closings have rapidly become

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It’s well known that local retail far outweighs the national chains in benefitting the surrounding neighborhood (see previous entry), but how can local indie retailers compete, especially with national chains now going local?

For one, they can crowdsource their customer base with their unique community brand. Second, they can become a VIBE (variegated independent business entrepreneur) and open a diversified portfolio of different, unique businesses in the same neighborhood. Brooklyn is a

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I never thought I’d have an entry with Starbucks in the title, but here it is.  Starbucks is letting new stores be branded locally with their own name, products and culture, the first of which is 15th Avenue Coffee & Tea in Seattle (pictured).

First of all, this is not about taking business away from the true local independents. Their customers are loyal and not fooled by the corporate stealthiness. This is more about international corporations allowing local culture to be part of their

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While Travel + Leisure busts out their America’s Coolest College Towns list, here’s a look at their possible ‘killer apps’ that provide the core attraction. Also, a look at the ‘killer hardware’ that enables these killer apps to flourish.

Oxford, MS (University of Mississippi) - While the killer app in each of these towns can easily be the university, it’s hard to find a better case than a city that named itself after the England’s university city of Oxford just to attract the state

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The City of Lowell, Massachusetts is committed to growing its creative economy.

An historic downtown canal will be the centerpiece of the Hamilton Canal District, a new 15-acre, transit-oriented, mixed-use neighborhood. Renovated historic mills will be integrated with one million s.f. of new construction to provide loft apartments and condominiums, shops, offices and public parks.  The development follows LEED ND (Neighborhood Development) principles, 30% of the buildings will be LEED

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In fact, according to a study covered in Time’s Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin, exercise may not be as important as being in an environment where you’re constantly moving.  As the article states, “Many obesity researchers now believe that very frequent, low-level physical activity - the kind humans did for tens of thousands of years before the leaf blower was invented - may actually work better for us than the occasional bouts of exercise you get as a gym rat.  It would be better to

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While this debate can extend endlessly, and this entry is surely to be one of controversy, architecture in general seems to fall under two categories in the eyes of the general public - that which is traditional and that which is modern.

The former is inspired by just about anything built before the 1930s, while the latter was, and is, inspired by what’s possible with technology.  Creatives however, prefer contemporary, and seem to gravitate to a remixing of such styles into something with

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Here’s a wrap-up of the latest news and trends that are signaling a shift to a more creative culture and economy…

Cities are starting to go green by the district rather than just by buildings…
Cities are now looking at going beyond green building standards and focusing on green district standards, starting with eco-district plans in Portland, Oregon; climate benefit districts in Seattle, and eco blocks in China. Green at City Scale in Governing Magazine.

...making way for a New American

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How can your city best weather an economic downturn? Based on research, make sure it has a university.

As reported in New Geography’s College Towns: High Marks for Lifestyle, college towns consistently have unemployment rates below their state figures, and nationally as well.  Columbus, Ohio (Ohio State University) stands at 8.9%, below the 11.2% state and 9.4% national rates.  Manhattan, Kansas, (Kansas State University) rates at 4.6%, the second lowest small city rate in the nation, and

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