Reader log: Having the market come to you instead

We’re all familiar with the public market as either a large regional market, or a small neighborhood famer’s market. The public market originated in Europe, and here’s a reader’s account of how they still provide an ideal model for markets elsewhere.

“Pictures of San Gimignano, Italy (all images) show how the market comes to the people vs. people needing to drive to the market. These markets sold everything from produce to panty hose. 

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The grocery store every downtown wants

Why is there such a frenzy to score a Trader Joe’s in one’s neighborhood? To sum it up with a quote sourced amid the hysteria of NYC’s first Trader Joe’s ever last year (pictured above), “It’s kind of like the Grateful Dead of supermarkets.“

Yes, it’s a chain, but for the neighborhood that isn’t able to organize its own co-op supermarket, finds Whole Foods too pricey for normal shopping, detests the suburban chains, and can’t get everything it wants

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Last night, 14 people - Lisa, Angela, Christian, Mike, Sarah, Joey, Justin, Ayari, Raj, Ritu, Heather, Robert, myself and business owner/VIBE Linda - met over pizza, beer and wine to discuss, as a beta community, what Washington DC’s next cafe/bar/coffeehouse should be. It was the first ever VIBE beta community, as well as DC’s first beta community. Two hours later we had laid out the foundation for what very well may be the coolest, most innovative venue in Washington DC.

You’d actually

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A contemporary take on coffeehouse design

In contrast to the grungy, bohemian, shabby chic warehouse coffeehouse/bar/restaurant/art gallery warehouse profiled yesterday, I thought I’d present a modest, contemporary, yet progressive coffee stop known as Vic’s in Boulder, Colorado (not hip enough to have a website apparently). It’s one of the few good examples of modern architecture presented at a humanistic scale, but thankfully we’re seeing more of this.

Live music, poetry, free wireless,

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Here’s the catch 22 - the most culturally, economically rich cities and towns focus on local, independent, diverse restaurants and retail, however, it’s the national chains that can pay $60-$100/s.f./year when most start-up indie businesses can only afford $7-$20/s.f./year. That’s a serious problem if cities don’t share in the economic benefits they receive from local independent businesses.

There’s an answer somewhere in the middle, and today I’d like to announce a new term in the CoolTown

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Art galleries will always have their place in the city, but to survive, they’ll have to become more than just venues to sell art pieces - they need to become venues to sell art experiences.  Check out these two trends:

1. The rise of the design economy. Think how Target has the world’s top designers designing their everyday products at affordable prices.

2. The rise of the experience economy. Think of a progressive bookstore with an in-house organic cafe amidst a poetry slam.  Or

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‘Brand spaces’ create an experience

Continuing yesterday’s theme… We know that the third place is a general term (our ‘home’ away from home and work), but how about when a business successfully defines it in their terms? Once again, Trendwatching.com has the definition:

Brand space - a space that capitalizes - in the broadest sense of the word - on consumer expectations set in motion by being spaces (aka third places). Think literally accommodating consumers outside the home and office,

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So you want a co-op supermarket downtown…

Good neighborhood supermarkets are hard to come by. Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods are the de facto choices by the downtown crowd, though the former has a limited selection and the latter caters to an upper class income. The most progressive neighborhoods in forward-thinking cities like Madison WI, Burlington VT, Cambridge MA and Ann Arbor MI have it figured out - co-op supermarkets.

As you can see (above), co-ops have evolved - they’re organized

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Is there a standard definition of what a local, independent business is?  Or in other words, when does an independent business become a chain?  There’s probably no better person to ask than Stacy Mitchell, a senior researcher at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and author of the just-released Big Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America’s Independent Businesses.

An excerpt from the book:
“There is no commonly agreed upon definition, but in this book, a

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Every great neighborhood needs a truly authentic pizzeria

Not surprisingly, one can find a pizzeria every few blocks in Italy.  It’s also not surprising that they use fresh ingredients, especially the mozzarella cheese.  Here’s a little recap.  However, it is surprising that one is often hard-pressed to find such a place anywhere in an entire city in the U.S., which is why Brooklyn’s Difara Pizzeria garners reviews like the following:

“I am the most impatient person you’ll ever meet and

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In continuation of the last entry on retail trends that will influence the future of local, independent retail in your town…

Community activism: More and more community resentment and opposition to growing chains like Walmarts and Starbucks arise as residents seek to prioritize their own community’s uniqueness, authenticity and economy.

Health care costs: Entrepreneurs (individuals) still have to pay significantly more in health care insurance than employees of companies - that’s just the

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How local, independents retailers can compete

Creative urbanites prefer unique, local, independent retailers to the Ruby Tuesdays and Walmarts, but these desired retailers need to keep up with the current trends to survive.  The National Retail Federation Foundation helped sponsor a report to help them do just that, called Challenges of the future: The rebirth of small, independent retail in America.  Here are the trends they need to be aware of, from a creative urban point of

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Theaters of the future?

Would you believe that theaters in the 1940s sold 4 billion tickets each year, at half the current population?  Today, with the advent of TV, cable, DVDs and the internet, that number is down to 1.4 billion.  So will theaters slowly disappear?  The more accurate prediction is that they’ll evolve with multiple uses...

A multiplex theater in Millbury, MA (pictured) features a bar, ice creamery and coffeehouse (unfortunately chains,) a wifi lounge and even screenside

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And the winner for best ‘third place’ for teens is…

Manboo in Japan.  Maybe.  Think of it as a social hangout/cafe/living room/gaming room/entertainment center/salon/computer school/hostel.  Let’s break it down…

At Manboo, for $4/hour you can:

- Relax in big comfy chairs or sofas in cubicled living rooms and surf the internet, watch one of hundreds of DVDs, read comics, or play one of hundreds of PS2/Xbox games.

- Stay overnight for $11/hour.  There are lots of couches to sleep on, plus

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Make way for the retail condo

We know about the residential condo craze, but do you know about the retail condo craze?  Probably not because it’s not quite a craze yet, but $1.1 billion in retail condos were made in 2004-2005, up from $120 million in 2002-2003.

What’s a retail condo?  Like a residential condo, it’s simply an individual unit in a larger building that one purchases rather than leases/rents.  What may not be as well known is how beneficial they can be to the local economy, to

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I’ve covered live band karaoke at the workplace and dancing at an art show, so why not a rock band at a shoe store?

That’s what happened at this undisclosed* shoe store last Wednesday night to introduce a new product line.  The goal is to put on four of these events a year, and with free beer, chocolate-covered strawberries and a top notch band (Morningwood, reminded me of Garbage - the band), it’ll create quite the loyal following.  The point is, the successful retailers are no longer

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How to keep a successful independent venue from ‘retiring’

The tragic story no one wants to hear - your favorite, popular, neighborhood institution, the one that has the only ‘insert-unique-product/service-here’ in town and anchors the area’s history - is going out of business because the owner’s next of kin don’t want to carry it on and they can’t find anyone else.

What to do?  What to do?!

There are some city/neighborhood efforts to identify young entrepreneurs who want to continue the

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What makes San Francisco, San Francisco

There is no other San Francisco, and that in itself is the secret to its success.  No other city has such steep hills, the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, etc., but to a resident, those icons become invisible after a while - they’re not representative of the uniqueness that makes it one of the most desired cities in the world.

A place like El Balazo, in the Upper Haight (my old neighborhood), San Francisco, is.  Now it’s a crime to single out any one

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The mark of a neighborhood to watch - the cool indie coffeehouse

Other than the prolific amount of loft-type housing going on in Oakland’s Jack London Square (profiled yesterday), you know it’s a place to invest in once that funky, independent coffeehouse opens, the one that qualifies as a third place.  In Jack London Square, it’s the World Ground Cafe, and in fact the only indie coffeehouse in the neighborhood.

The East Bay’s signature alternative weekly, the East Bay Express, determined

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If you’re looking for entertainment and a place to stay, then you may need to check into the San Jose Hotel the next time you’re in Austin, giving the Jupiter Hotel in Portland OR a run for its money.  Make sure you have an appreciation for music as well.  Some the amenities of this popular destination…

- Courtyard under the stars, probably the single-most memorable experience of a stay at the hotel
- Located near one of Austin’s active neighborhoods on South Congress Avenue
- Coffeehouse

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This is a restaurant?

Looks like home doesn’t it?  With a name like Mrs. Wilkes Dinining Room, in the hospitality of the South (Savannah), it’s no surprise.  It’s communal dining folks, where people join other people (yes, strangers) and start digging in as if they were a personal guest of Mrs. Wilkes herself. It’s a buffet right on your table, and every cool town could use one.

While first-timers may express apprehension about dining at a communal table with people they’ve never met, they

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The revitalizing power of a great third place

A well-conceived third place built at the right time in the right place is known to revitalize its surrounding block, and the Flying Star Cafe in downtown Albuquerque is no exception.

Journalist Jim Belshaw of the Albuquerque Journal writes, “I have lived here long enough to have seen the 30-odd downtown revitalization plans come and go.  We all wish the revitalizers well, but the sails never seemed to catch the wind… Things have changed… By

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Now this is one cool hotel

If ever a hotel was designed for creatives, the Jupiter Hotel in Portland OR is it.  From it’s website:

“One of the 116 best new hotels in the world.” - CONDE NAST TRAVELER MAGAZINE (May ‘05)
“One of the top four new (old) hotels in the US.” - GQ MAGAZINE (Sep. ‘05)

Why the recognition?  The list is extensive, and it gets better and better:

- It’s in the city and close to dining and entertainment.
- It’s affordable (and remember, this is in the

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Reading, dining, theatre… in one place

If you feel like relaxing at the end of the day with a good book, then meeting friends for drinks, staying for dinner, then catching a rather intellectual film, lecture or comedy show, you can do all of that in one place at the newly opened Busboys and Poets in MidCity, Washington DC.

The name of the venue is inspired by Langston Hughes who was discovered as a poet while he was a busboy, and the theme carries through.  There’s a literature-oriented

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Going out in pursuit of some trivial fun…

Connect Four, Trivial Pursuit, Backgammon… the games you played as a kid… or as an adult.  As stated in a previous article, Next gen housing for changing households, the urban crowd stays home less, goes out more.  So, some venues are bringing the living room to them.

Pharoah’s Rock & Blues (pictured) in Adams Morgan has a ‘living room’ on their second floor that provides the aforementioned ‘board games’ for their patrons to use.  The best part is

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