A wise man* once told me that the key to building a community is getting the tenants committed first, as in before design, permitting, capital raising, construction, etc.

So, the first step in the implementation of a great arts & entertainment (A&E) town would mean building a virtual community of artists and entertainers.  That was crystalized to me tonight when I stopped by a hosted reception of those practicing in and supportive of A&E .  Not only did they already have a virtual community, but they all clearly understood the multiplying benefits of building a counterpart physical community, especially one with complementary tenants in marketing and distribution technology that could significantly grow their business.

So, after meeting a painter, a musician, a singer and a producer tonight (as well as a dance instructor, film maker and photographer the previous night) and hearing their genuine enthusiasm for the social and economic benefits of building a cooltown (physically and virtually), I knew I was on the right track.

*The legendary Joe Alfandre, founder of Kentlands and my good buddy.

In my opinion, this is one of the most important elements in building a place that cultural creatives will be attracted to.  At least one economically successful city swears by it.

The easiest way to realize the power of music is to understand history.  For instance, in the book Capitol Rock, the author describes Washington DC’s Georgetown renaissance in the 1960’s, when Beatlemania with its wake of local rock & roll bands and bohemian crowds sparked the transformation of a “bleak concentration of neighborhood shops and restaurants” into what is today the city’s nightlife centerpiece.  Live bands and artists gained exposure nationally through American Bandstand, and locally through teen dance centers that rocked on weekend nights.  Two older ladies in my building will attest to that, “It was a lot of fun back then.“

Now, take Jane Jacob’s diversity requirements for a great city, which calls for major amenities that draw large crowds amid residential neighborhoods of small blocks with old and new buildings, and you’ve got the CoolTown recipe for building a music scene.

It’s like peanut butter & jelly in a PB&J sandwich - what you see on the outside is the ‘bread’ (the city’s buildings, streets), but it’s what’s inside that makes it great - just like the people at this film festival ‘in between’ the buildings of Switzerland.

This week I’ll cover specifically how some visionary investors plan on adding the best in arts & entertainment (A&E) to the CoolTown model.  In the meantime, I’ll recap what the blog has covered:  Creativity stimulates economic development, grand public spaces provide outdoor stages for performances, third places provide the indoor stages, artists’ need for inexpensive housing and workspace, and HP’s cooltown rocks, a futuristic video of how A&E and technology could fuse in a CoolTown (although the technology needs to be way, way more invisible.)

Since the price of shoes today is typically over $100, maybe not (unless you know someone who works at Footlocker like I do).  There’s even CoolTown shoes for walking commuters, which I’ll cover down the road.

For regular readers of the blog or those familiar with the concept, you’re probably more than aware of the walkable theme.  Cars in CoolTowns are often actually more hindrance than help, and when they’re truly needed, ownership can be temporary.  Subways and streetcars are a relative bargain and often faster than driving in the city (believe me!).  Then there’s always biking, scooting and my personal favorite.

As a close to CoolTown affordability week, may I suggest this award-winning magazine to keep on top of how you can get more for less.

I always held the opinion that the best forms of entertainment were free, and CoolTowns have plenty of it.  Here’s a few reasons why:

1. Plenty of outdoor ‘stages’.  Entertainers need stages, and piazzas, squares, plazas, courtyards and amphitheaters provide these with ready-made audiences.  We simply need more of these natural stages.
2. Indoor stages, aka third places.  Outdoor stages are third places as well, but because they’re not enough good examples in the country, they’re not mentioned in the press.
3. Lots of people who aren’t afraid to have outside-of-the-box fun.  San Francisco has the Midnight Rollers, a 13-mile Friday night skate through the heart of the city.  The record is supposedly 702 skaters.  My favorite part was circling under the Palace of Fine Arts dome, one of the grandest stages anywhere in the city.
4. Did I say plenty of outdoor stages?  Whether it’s swing dances in my neighborhood square, bon dances in Hawaii, or dance festivals in the piazzas of Europe, it just seems antithetical to have such events without passing the CoolTown water test.

1. Preserve old buildings and walkable neighborhoods (less parking costs).  Outdated, inflated parking requirements is easily the #1 reason why investors ignore cities and town centers.
2. Build office interiors with an open floor plan system (few or no walls, just like the new home trend) and exposed ceilings.  Not only does this reduce costs, but it also creates a greater sense of space and creativity.
3. For entrepreneurs and artists, provide offices that share reception areas/conference rooms/office equipment (like where I’m at) that provide the advantages of a big office without the hassle and price tag.
4. Use your free ‘neighborhood offices’; the third places with 50 mb/sec wireless megaband (50x faster than DSL), from local hot spots like Tryst Cafe to nationals like Starbucks*.
5. Work at home!  In a CoolTown, you’d have at the very least 100 mb/sec (100x faster than DSL)

* CoolTowns prioritize locals over nationals, simply because they’re more in tune with the community.
** Do the lamps in the third photograph look familiar?

It is fundamental to understand that cities often prosper because of artists.  Artists can also be more broadly defined as the creative class.  Here’s how they thrive in the midst of city neighborhoods with million dollar homes:

1. Artists look for better-designed homes that are not so big, which means more light, an open floor plan/less compartmentalization and maybe higher ceilings.
2. Artists would trade off expensive front and back yards for great views and lots of nearby parks, both free.
3. As Jane Jacobs says, old buildings play an important role here. Most artists prefer older buildings with more character as well.
4. Housemates provide company and cut rent/mortgage payments in half or more.
5. Car? Don’t need one in a walkable community - which coincidentally, is what the most expensive city neighborhoods are.

If all else fails, perhaps Artspace is building an inexpensive artists’ loft near you, but you really have to be an artist!

Combine affordability and great design.  Prosperity comes from jobs.  Jobs come from job creators, the most prolific being entrepreneurs.  Entrepreneurs, when they’re cash-strapped before their business ideas hit it big, need affordable housing (lofts, shared living), affordable office space (unfinished, open floor plan), affordable transportation (walkability, mass transit), and affordable entertainment (parks, piazzas, bars, dancing, casual dining).  The trick is, it can’t be cheap, but very well designed.

Doesn’t great design mean ‘more expensive’?  Not any more.  With our information-age ability to understand customer preferences and mass customize, we can get great design very affordably.  Some companies have a great headstart, like Ikea (love this web site!), Target, and Nissan.  The lamp below, which you’ll find in a lot of modern interiors, is $7.95 at Ikea.

How does this translate to town building?  Stay tuned this week.

Take one city model, pour water over it, tilt slightly.  How much water is left?  Use the same principle for people.

The mark of a truly great city is that it not only has great third places indoors, but outdoors as well.  This was easy to provide in pedetrian-oriented cities, but difficult in auto-oriented cities where much of the outdoor space was already taken up by roads and parking lots.

In the Nolli Plan of Rome below (one of the most famous plans in history, where you’ll find it on living room walls, wrapping paper and ties), not only will you see a lot of ‘water’ collected after ‘tilting’, but you’ll see it on just about every single block!  What makes this cool?  In terms of people, this translates to an abundance of conversing, laughing, playing, performing, dancing, flirting, dining and the quiet reassurance that “life is good”.

No.  There will be one day, but right now there really isn’t anything close.  A true piazza is an urban square enclosed on all four sides by buildings to make a grand outdoor ballroom of sorts.

The closest new development resembling a piazza is Pentagon Row by Post Properties, image below.  It’s much better than what’s been developed over the last 50 years.  However, they’re calling it a piazza, and here’s why it’s not:

1. It’s only enclosed on three sides, not four.
2. Just as a grand ballroom has an open floor, so should a piazza.  This plaza has permanent landscaping all over the place, but at least they left enough open floor for an ice rink.  I skated there at night, and I felt more enclosed by the street lamps and trellises than the buildings, which also looked more suburban than urban.
3. Just as a grand ballroom has flat walls (sounds silly doesn’t it?), so should a pizza.  Unfortunately, the “walls” of Pentagon Row are all fighting for attention.  In contrast, what’s cool about Drubrovnik is that the architecture is beautifully subtle, providing a soft backdrop to highlight the real attention-getters - people.  What would YOU rather look at?