Let’s face it - creative urban development is costly, much more so than in suburbia, for reasons previously explained.  Land and parking provisions are simply too expensive for the private and public sectors to handle alone - which is why public/private partnerships (PPPs) accounted for $75 billion in real estate last year - ‘creative alliances’ if you will; meeting both financial and social bottom lines.  There are ways to do it right.  Here’s a CoolTown version of ULI’s Ten Principles for

read more…

As presented yesterday, first came the renaissance of the downtown, then CityPlace, now West Palm Beach’s first transit-oriented development (TOD).  The buildings in the bottom right of the image make up CityPlace - notice the pie-shaped ‘square’ that is the epi-center of free entertainment in the area.

With three times more housing than CityPlace (2000 residences vs 600), a million s.f. of office (CityPlace has none) and 100,000 s.f. of retail (a third more), it’ll be a true urban village in

read more…

In 2000, downtown West Palm Beach had no more than 2000 residents with only 20% of its main street occupied.  Today the main street is at 90% and the downtown population is on track for 10,000 in a few years.

“I’ll have what they’re having.“

Leadership, vision, and more leadership.  It starts with one forward-thinking mayor, Nancy Graham (pictured), initiating a form-based planning code that guides what the urban fabric will look like (i.e. think San Franciso, Charleston), but not the uses

read more…

Everyone knows what ‘the projects’ are - ugly, federal-government-financed, high-rise stand-alone buildings surrounded by parking lots in neglected regions of the city, or low-rise concentration-camp-looking complexes.  No defined public or private spaces, just leftover space in between the structures.

Thank goodness for evolution.  This is an image of Bradenton Village, a $70 million ‘garden urban village’ replacing failed federal government projects (the origin of the term ‘the projects’.) 

read more…

You’ve heard it before, “There aren’t any young people here.“ “This place has no women.“ “This town is so dead.“ Perception is reality.

Why do 90% of us choose death over changing for a prolific future - socially and economically?  In continuing the series that began yesterday, Change or Die, the answer is perhaps that the brains of city and business leaders have become physiologically incapable of change, unless…

Contrary to popular belief. neuroscience researchers like Dr. Michael

read more…

Continuing our look at how CoolTowns are supported via city codes, beginning here, building heights are one of the most noticeable features in any built environment.

While the code pictured above shows height limits of up to six floors in T6 zones (see transect), that’s the default if one was building a town from scratch.  It would certainly change over time, or if it were applied to an existing area like downtown Chicago.  The point is that this is a code designed for creating places where

read more…

In relation to the previous blog on retail and civic uses, today’s will illustrate why CoolTowns are walkable and suburbia/rural neighborhoods aren’t - by law.

Understanding that higher densities and mixed-uses are key elements in walkable neighborhoods, notice in the CoolTown-friendly zones (T4-T6) (see transect), every single house type is allowed except the estate house (mansion with extensive greens) and manufactured housing, which is only allowed in T3, suburbia.  In the most walkable T5

read more…

Continuing our look at what a city code needs to allow CoolTowns, it’s amazing to realize how many uses (retail, civic) are often illegal in a majority of what’s built today.  Using the transect image in the blog two days ago, you’ll see what kinds of uses are generally not permitted in ‘T2’ (rural) and ‘T3’ (suburban) zones, or even ‘T4’ (borderline suburban/urban).

No fooling, shops and restaurants aren’t permitted in suburbia!... unless they’re isolated away in a special district (‘SD’)

read more…

As explained in the previous blog, today’s modern, progressive, people-oriented city planning codes are graphical-based.  However, what are the graphics of, and are they supportive of CoolTowns?

Building frontage standards: The idea is to create great public rooms, so a uniform setback of buildings best achieves that, and sometimes further back to establish a grand outdoor dining plaza.  Burlington, Boulder and Barcelona do it best by having the entire street as the outdoor dining realm,

read more…

The results of the planning process described in the previous blog below are transformed into a city code or ordinance, usually in hundreds of pages of legalese. Like how Apple evolved command lines into graphical user interfaces, Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company has done the same for these piles of text, turning them into just a handful of graphic-based codes - SmartCodes, although it could still be less car-oriented.  The code is based on the underlying structure of the transect (see image)

read more…

So how did the City of South Miami’s Hometown Plan that led to investment in model development happen?

It began in 1992, when South Miami Hometown, Inc., a nonprofit, was established by local visionaries that raised funds to create a blueprint for an uninspired 55-acre area in the city, with the cooperation and matching funds of the City.  Through a charrette process that involved key business associations (very important), government agencies, nonprofits and citizens facilitated by Dover

read more…

As you know, most of what has been built in the last 80 years looks like what’s pictured in the top left-hand corner of this image.  Here’s a summary of how it happened, and how it literally became illegal to build anything else, no matter if developers and investors wanted to to build, say, cool urban villages.

The rest of the image is what cities and developers are beginning to invest in, as highlighted in Dover Kohl’s HomeTown Plan in the previous blog.  The fundamental difference is that

read more…

Usually, unfortunately, honestly, yes.  Planners are often from the left, economic development the right.  Planners look 5-20 years ahead.  Economic development reps focus on the now.  Planners have policy backgrounds, academic debate and focus on, well, general plans.  Those in econ dev have business educations, think entrepreneurially and concentrate on site/company specific projects.  These of course are generalizations, but guess what?  It won’t matter to the cities that forge ahead, as

read more…

The neighborhoods we really want are illegal.  Really.

Creative people are taking charge in building their own neighborhood. ChangeThis is a national forum for change, publishing daily manifestos and guides to improving one’s quality of life and purpose.  One of their most recent publications is Legalize Neighborhoods Again!

City governments control the way our streets and buildings are laid out through zoning.  The worst part is that this zoning mandates an auto-oriented built environment,

read more…

September 19, 2003: Governor Jennifer Granholm launches Cool City initiative

Inspired by Richard Florida’s Rise of the Creative Class: And How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life, Governor Granholm has asked 250 Michigan mayors to form advisory groups and design plans to attract this creative class.

The ideas from these advisory groups will be presented to the statewide advisory panel consisting of representatives from 30 of those cities. The panel will then use that

read more…

“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

read more…

Many people believe Utah may be the most entrepreneurial state in the country - its Mormon values for individual success being a factor.

Joe Alfandre and I visited three towns in Utah this week:  Pleasant Grove, St. George and Logan.  Pleasant Grove valued revitalizing its downtown, though more from a historic preservation point of view.  St. George wanted to revitalize its downtown as a regional destination with some artistic, cultural excitement.  They both understood the CoolTown approach

read more…

This was asked by a city manager when discussing where to focus initial CoolTown investment.

The answer for the public sector is obvious:  The city-wide master plan.
The answer for the private sector is obvious:  The built project.

The CoolTown answer would be both, and more specifically, to build a touchstone CoolTown neighborhood that raises the standards for how the rest of the city could be master-planned, ideally at the same time.

A master plan typically looks at the most successful

read more…

To answer the previous entry’s questions:

Municipalities (economic development agencies in partnership with planning agencies) have the power to reverse the ‘greenfield easier’/‘infill-harder’ reality.  The overwhelming desire to truly accomplish this is years away unfortunately.

What municipalities can do to help build CoolTowns:
1. Property/site identification and assembly assistance.
2. Tax increment financing (TIF) program to fund public infrastructure, namely project-killing parking

read more…

To answer yesterday’s question:  Why is it easier to build greenfields/sprawl?

Because it’s legislated that way, and the private sector has followed.  How’d this happen?  A quick history:

Early 1900s to 1934:  A group of home builders lobbied the government relentlessly to allow them to mass-produce homes just like Henry Ford mass-produced automobiles.  Of course, people lived in villages, which were anything but.

1934:  As a result, Congress passed the FHA (Federal Housing Administration)

read more…

Greenfield/sprawl developments are easy for the private sector to do, but not economically, socially and environmentally beneficial.  Meanwhile, infill/urban/redevelopment projects are difficult, but highly beneficial economically, socially and environmentally.

Greenfields/sprawl vs. infill/urban/redevelopment impacts, as it relates to the creatively entrepreneurial CoolTown audience:

Economic:  Workers are increasingly bolting office parks to work for companies (and themselves) in cities

read more…

The image to the left is the Wynkoop brewpub in Lower Downtown (LoDo), Denver - keep that in mind…

Economic development ain’t what it used to be.  Just listen to Mayor John Hickenlooper from this Denver Post article:

“The days when offering a big subsidy was enough to attract a major company are over. Cities used to consider cultural life as symphonies, operas and ballet companies. All those are still important, but now we should embrace struggling artists, bluegrass bands, young talent of

read more…

OK, so you still have to pay $3 for the beer, but the City of West Palm Beach choreographs the beer truck and local live bands every Thursday night in its revitalized town square.  I was there on one of those nights and wish we had it here in Washington DC.

Clematis by Night was initiated by then Mayor Nancy Graham as a means of revitalizing the City’s neglected downtown.  Not only that, but she established a progressive, young planning department and attracted innovative investors to carry

read more…

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 …

read more…

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

read more…