A CoolTown government would look at enhancing the talent of its own people rather than importing it from somewhere else (ie big corporations).

It would promote ways of utilizing technology (e.g. the internet) and fresh ideas (e.g. universities) to enhance the skills and businesses of its own residents and establish a strong local economy.  Much of this is detailed in Going Local: Creating Self Reliant Communities in a Global Age by Michael Shuman (who also happens to be a CoolTown advocate.)

Visionary governments also specifically prioritize visionary real estate projects, which is anti-thetical to typical bureaucratic procedure of supporting only its governing area as a whole.  As documented in this classic bestseller, when you try to please everyone, you please no one.

Well, the ultimate CoolTowns are in places like Paris and London because of the overwhelming priority of people over automobiles (these cities matured well before cars hit the streets).  The U.S. has its share of cool city governments.

Arts & Entertainment: The City of Austin has a live band play before every council meeting.  That’s the spirit of the city and its live music capital of the world slogan, where there are more live music venues per capita than anywhere else.  In Seattle, the city requires its street musicians to audition first.

Smart Growth: San Francisco leads the west and New York leads the east in promoting pedestrian-oriented over auto-oriented development.  Parking requirements are often non-existent and millions of tourists visit just to walk the streets.  Portland, Oregon provides numerous financial and fast-track incentives at light-rail stations.

Economic Development: Many of Chicago’s most abandoned neighborhoods are undergoing an economic renaissance thanks to Tax Increment Financing (TIF), which is essentially allowing additional (incremental) property tax generated from initial investments to be invested back into the project’s public infrastructure.  Austin, now considered one of the tech capitals of the world as well, utilizes TIF.

The economic bottom line is that if people are frequenting the public realm, then talent is frequenting the public sector.

It depends on who voted them into office.  Since governments are elected by the people, the mindset of its community’s leaders is a good indication of what government will do.  How they perceive risk is a fundamental indicator of whether or not they will endorse a CoolTown:

The risk-takers:  These are the people you read about in the paper, the ones who commit to ideas no one else will and set trends:  Artists and entertainers, Steve Jobs and Oprah Winfrey, entrepreneurial mayors like Richard Daley of Chicago and Susan Golding of San Diego.

The risk-aware:  These are risk-taker wanna-be’s.  They depend on risk-takers to take the lead, but will surely follow.  Established entrepreneurs follow artists/entertainers/entrepreneur start-ups, Target followed Walmart, Microsoft follows everyone, and numerous mayors now realize Mayor Daley’s success with the self-rewarding logic of tax increment financing (TIFs) to spur economic revitalization.  The risk-aware are sometimes more successful than the risk-takers, but wouldn’t exist without them.

The risk-averse:  Gentrification.  The risk-averse want to live among people like themselves and be left alone.  They add to property tax income, but contribute little in terms of job creation and creative culture, and will lobby for expensive infrastructure (ie sprawl).  While they have significant investment capital, it’s usually exported to risk-taking and risk-aware communities. They also finance campaigns.

Perhaps risk is best illustrated by the author of the definitive book on risk (a good read, by the way) in that trend-setters aren’t successful because they take risks, but because they study those risks dilligently enough to turn them into opportunities.  Sounds like entrepreneurs to me.

You need strong, entrepreneurial government leadership to see innovative development implemented.  If the mayor doesn’t support the concept you may as well invest somewhere else.

What does government leadership provide?  For instance, it can produce policies that support entrepreneurial economic development; establish a tax system that reinvests into the project that generated the taxes in the first place; and provide a common vision that inspires community and business leaders to support the project. 

Town Studios completed a study that documented how three progressive communities broke ground in a matter of months through the partnership of committed, ‘whatever-it-takes’ government and business leaders.

The bottom line is that cooltown investors will only work with strong, entrepreneurial government leaders that are willing to establish a trusting daily dialogue and form a lasting public-private leadership.  Anything else eventually ends up resembling a strip mall.

The most effective sense of security comes in being around people you know, and CoolTowns make that easier.  Most importantly, it reduces the fear of being unsafe, which keeps way too many people inside and perpetuates a vicious cycle of ever fewer people going out.  Here’s what investors are looking to do:

1. Create a high enough density of people to have ‘eyes on the street’ security at all times.
2. Attract a diversity of housing types, stores, restaurants, services and workplaces that promote street activity at different hours, day and night.
3. Establish a walkable environment rather than an auto-oriented environment, as previously mentioned by a chief of police from an award-winning community policing program.
4. Promote myriad meeting places, plazas, third places and social venues to get people out in public areas, the best security system of all.

Affinity Lab happy hour: As promised, here’s an update on my workplace’s first community building event last Tuesday, based on the aforementioned principles.  First of all, the anticipation of the happy hour created an unprecedented ‘newsroom’ buzz of activity a few hours before, and this new level of collective energy seemed to motivate productivity.  Then, with a Lab-founder sponsored display of food and mixed drinks, a rhythmic set of tunes and some interesting lighting, the conversation was colorful, passionate and lasted late into the evening.  The plan is do this monthly.

Netpreneur networking event: Several hundred ‘netpreneurs’ (internet-oriented entrepreneurs) gathered last night at the Hyatt Regency in Reston Town Center to network and hear from net-centric leaders (like Ted Leonsis of AOL).  To me, it was kind of depressing, save for an inspiring presentation by Mark Walsh on ‘timing’, mainly because his former theatre skills came into play.  The talk focused on how failures are inevitable, that things were much worse elsewhere and why you shouldn’t give up.  In my opinion, it was like a collection of people from BASF - “we don’t make the products you use, we make the products you use better.“  BASF is a chemical company, and like the internet, is a means to an end.  In other words, the conversations throughout the night focused on other people’s products, none of who were present.  There was little diversity in the crowd and ten or so speakers, the sound system never worked properly (seemed to fit the mood at this tech-focused event) and the venue was an isolated, upscale shopping mall surrounded by parking and a web of freeways - not the kind of environment entrepreneurs need, like say, a CoolTown?

If you want details, a pair of female authors from Toronto (reportedly the safest city in North America?) wrote Safe Cities: Guidelines for Planning, Design and Management.  Here are some of their recommendations for safe cities, which are essentially ‘eyes on the street’ fundamentals:

- Retail street frontages (encourages street life);
- Restaurants/venues that stay open late;
- Outdoor seating; street entertainers and vendors;
- People-attracting food services;
- Mixed-income housing (creating a diversity of residents who frequent the streets at a diversity of hours);
- Pedestrian-friendly streets;
- Late-night transit hours;
- Housing above stores (built-in neighborhood watch);
- Upper-story windows and balconies overlooking the street;
- Street-front buildings built up to a continuous setback line to eliminate ‘hiding places’ and blindspots.

It’s also important to concentrate activity on the main pedestrian traffic corridors, just like the North End in Boston.

That’s pretty easy - just observe how many women are strolling the sidewalks.

Women tend to have higher public safety needs (especially at night) than men do, and instinctively know which neighborhoods are the safest.  The more obvious requisites include excellent lighting, the less obvious is a high enough density, as described yesterday.

If you stand on the streets of the North End in Boston at rush hour (for people, not cars), a significant majority of the ‘commuters’ walking home from the adjacent downtown are women.  ‘Unfortunately’ for the women, the ogling waiters of Boston’s Little Italy form quite the gauntlet along its restaurant-lined streets.

Well sure, if you have a density of criminals.  However, if you have a density of entrepreneurs, entertainers and artists, you’ll cause some serious economic prosperity.

New York City and San Francisco are two of the densest cities in America, yet not only are they two of the most prosperous, but also boast one of the lowest murder, rape and aggravated assault rates per capita.  William Murray of Maryland’s State Attorney’s office and former Suitland, MD chief of police, emphasized to me last week that density and walkability were essential to public safety via the ‘eyes on the street’ phenomenon of community self-policing.  In other words, where there’s lots of people, there’s lots of ‘witnesses’.

Think about the cost savings to the municipality.  Just today I was one of forty people on all-day jury duty suffering through a snail’s pace jury selection process for a laundromat robbery that took place in a rundown, neglected neighborhood.  Just the jury selection alone for one crime equals a couple of police officers’ paychecks!... and if the neighborhood was designed with the eyes on the street concept, you wouldn’t even need that police officer.  Who’d try and rob a laundromat on the street corner below?

Here are the health-oriented town features that investors are implementing in the CoolTown model.

1. Genuine walkability.  I mean ‘genuine’ in that people will actually want to walk to destinations, rather than it being a theoretical possibility.  I see the word often abused as such.  Few people enjoy walking across parking lots, especially at night.
2. Enough fast food joints!  If you read the book Fast Food Nation you may never eat at one again.  You’ll see a lot more local businesses that promote the local economy, culture and people.
3. A 30,000 sf community center for ongoing recreational activities, plus parks and scenic jogging trails.  Also, we should all know that as kids, any street without cars made the ideal playground.
4. Multiple dance venues for all kinds of music!  I can’t think of a better, safer, more social and entertaining way to get exercise at night. It’s the CoolTown version of the tired bar scene.