In keeping with the spirit of the previous entry, The Dining Room Takes to the Street, here’s how to start your own informal public dining culture with the Permanent Breakfast.

Founded in Austria, the purpose of the Permanent Breakfast is to promote public areas and places via spontaneous gatherings for breakfast. The very first breakfast was held in Vienna on May 1, 1996 among five people, and has since spread throughout the world thanks to its formal program with the basic rule:

One person plans a breakfast in a public space. Usually at least four of the invited persons commit themselves to organize another public breakfast with different persons in a different place as soon as possible.

Recommendations are that everyone is responsible for their own breakfast (or via potluck); interested passersby are invited to breakfast; and that organizers register their breakfast on the website so that it’s publicized and furthers the mission.

Think of the Permanent Breakfast as a less bureaucratic, more grassroots version of creating a social, dining scene in a public space that may serve as a model for a larger, more permanent destination, such as this dining scene in Siena, Spain.

In one of the best NY Times articles ever published as it relates to what this site is all about, writer Penelope Green pens the phenomenon of creatives in New York City spontaneously crafting their own public spaces in The Dining Room Takes to the Streets. The photographs alone that are associated with the article are a must see, and some of the quotes are priceless.

Referred to as ‘invisible theater’, here are some examples of New Yorkers making their own urban gathering places (clockwise from top left):

- At her “Chez L’Hydrant”, Suzanne Seggerman hosts dinner parties for six or eight on the street in front of her building. People strolling by wonder if it’s a new restaurant and want a table.
- Reno, a comedian uses the loading dock of her building as a front porch, “I was on my loading dock one day and I called my dog and somebody actually shushed me, because her child was sleeping in ‘the fancy condo conversion across the street’. Then I felt bad that I told the lady to go back to the suburbs.”
- Another shot of Suzanne’s Chez L’Hydrant.
- Ten guests gather for a standing dinner party on the Manhattan-side tower of the Brooklyn Bridge. Passersby add to the festive atmosphere.

One of the most progressive agencies in the country, the NY DOT (Department of Transportation), again provides stellar leadership. Janette Sadik-Khan, commissioner of the DOT, “Public space is the glue that holds our city together and makes it worth living in. I always say the streets are the living rooms, so I guess that makes the sidewalks the front porches. We’re trying to remove the barriers to enjoying that space. The D.O.T.’s priority is safety [rather than use regulation]. If someone wants to use the sidewalk for a casual dinner, they just have to be considerate of the neighbors.”

Other cities, take note - if you want a culture and economy as rich and diverse as New York City’s, follow the NY DOT’s lead and you’ll manifest stories like this.

If you think being advertised to is worth free zero-carbon rides through town, then EcoCabs is just for you. Rapidly spreading throughout Europe and North America, this Dublin-based shuttle service relies on pedal power with electric-battery assist. Passengers say the ride is surprisingly smooth with some acceleration kick. Some of the vitals:

Launched: April, 2008
Maximum number of passengers: 3
Top speed: 7 mph/12 km/h
Where: Dublin, Ireland, Toronto, Canada; New York, Chicago, Detroit, California…
Cost to passenger: Free as far as money goes, subject to full vehicle advertising and occasional flyers
Cost per vehicle: $13K

Click here to see videos of EcoCab in the media.

On the one hand, would it be disturbing to be surrounded by a swarm of corporate-branded vehicles? On the other hand, aren’t taxis, buses and subways going the same route anyway? A combination of free, fun and green is an awfully powerful combination to affect peoples’ behavior. What do you think?

The previous entry profiled the Architect magazine story, The Next Coffeehouse, and there’s one that truly stood out to me as something that a creative would say, “You know, I’d actually really want to work there.”

Designed by STUDIOS Architecture, their Modular Community Kitchen concept is the spatial inverse of the piazza, with a 60’ communal table serving as the ‘town square’. Greg Keffer, principal, provided some insight in this CoolTown interview:

Do you think the market is ready for the modular community kitchen now?
“Yes, I think people are ready for this and should have no problem adapting just as they have in workplaces. Our concept is based on ideas we originated over the years in workplace design. By looking at shared table type environments vs. typical cubicles you can immediately understand the effect on communication, spontaneity, and curiosity and how that can translate to idea generation, efficiency, and community in work. If STUDIOS has been successful in transforming how people can interact at work, why can’t we apply those same ideas to how people interact in social places such as a cafe?”

What are the modular components of the space?
“There are the functional pieces such as cases for cold beverages and food, then there are more versatile pieces such as peninsula tables that build off the main 60’ long common table.  These create nodes for gathering, or can be a place where someone might find more privacy rather than sitting on the common area.  The concept also allows for the pieces to branch off from the main table and create areas in the space for special settings such as a poetry reading, or community gathering. The table is simply a framework which elements (and people) work organically off of.”

What is the signature element of such a space that identifies it as a coworking cafe?
“This has to be the 60’ long common table.”

Would you work there?
“Of course I would - I embrace the ideas of community and sharing of ideas - this is an exciting point of view to how [the modern coffeehouse] could become truly localized.”

What will the next generation third place look like? Architect Magazine asked five architectural firms to provide their unique answers which are presented in the article, The Next Starbucks. Clockwise from top left, there’s a definite coffee bar theme:

BARbucks by designLAB, Boston - Coffee served bartender style like at a bar for people that want a more social solo experience. This is how coffee is served in Italian espresso bars. designLAB also presents AUTObucks, the equivalent of the self check-out at the supermarket.

Drink/Think THIN, by Studio Works, Los Angeles and Beijing - This is definitely something you’d expect from L.A., with the idea of thin stretched out coffee bar occupying the edge of a building and the edge of a sidewalk, providing a duality of being in the street yet in the building.

Modular Community Kitchen, by Studios Architecture, New York - The coffeehouse as workplace, focused on the 60’ long communal table. More on this in the next entry.

Push-and-Pull Bar, by William E. Massie/Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI - Almost a perpendicular alternative to the THIN concept, a coffee bar protrudes out towards the sidewalk, providing a sort of take-out/outdoor service. The bar continues into the building for an indoor experience.

*$, by Pentagram Architects, New York - So named to reflect a brand associated with simple, fast, efficient, universal, the focus is on coffee and only coffee via two modes - fast on the bar, or slow at the tables.

Thanks to Braulio Agnese of Architect magazine for the reference and use of images.

There are a slew of ‘most walkable city’ rankings, but the one by Walk Score (profiled previously) is as scientific and practical as they get.  Walk Score is a web-based service that scores the walkability of an address on a scale of 1 to 100 based on access to amenities, groceries, transportation, etc., so it wasn’t difficult for them to map out every single address and display it graphically (the more green, the more walkable, red being the least).

The Walk Score rankings:

1. San Francisco, CA
2. New York, NY - Maps all five boroughs, otherwise Manhattan would easily be #1.
3. Boston, MA
4. Chicago, IL
5. Philadelphia, PA
6. Seattle, WA
7. Washington DC
8. Long Beach, CA
9. Los Angeles, CA - I know, but they’re looking at central L.A., not greater L.A. The same for SF.
10. Portland, OR

Check out the walkability ‘heat maps’ for all of them here.

Bedford Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn’s main street, is pedestrian-only on four Saturdays from July 19th to August 9th, 2008, noon to 7 pm. Check it out at Wiliamsburg Walks. Those in the know are aware this is a NYC DOT led effort through their streets to plazas program, though heavily supported by the local businesses and residents - some quotes:

“It feels a lot more peaceful, people are spread across the sidewalk and road, vs everyone crammed onto the sidewalk.”

“We hope that the community wants to see it happen again. Whether it happens again next summer or extended… the end goal for a number of us is that it can be done permanently on Saturdays, and then maybe be a permanently closed pedestrian street one day.” Business owner Jason Jeffries.

Up until recently, crowdsourced placemaking only made it to the front page of this website. Sunday, July 27, 2008, was a seminal moment as it hit the front page of the fifth largest newspaper in the U.S., the Washington Post in the article Online, a Community Gathers to Concoct A Neighborhood Eatery. The story, written by food writer Jane Black, is focused on the crowdsourcing of a green, healthy, education and community-oriented restaurant in Washington DC called Elements, which has been profiled here a few times.

I actually think this is one of the best crowdsourcing articles for a number of reasons:
- It quotes Jeff Howe, the person who popularized the term crowdsourcing and has a book coming out very soon.
- It quotes a New York-based restaurant consultant. You can’t get much more qualified than that.
- It quotes two of the crowdsourcers; the future restaurant customers. When was the last time you got to read about what they think?
- It quotes, ahem, yours truly, and the owner, Linda Welch, which leads to my favorite part of the article:

“When Welch told him about her plans, Takemoto suggested crowdsourcing the restaurant. “I said, ‘Great!’ “ Welch remembers. “ ‘What the hell is that?’ ”

How do you top Maryland’s first pedestrian-only street in several decades and its first pedestrian-only mixed-use lane? Easy, its first real piazza, which we profiled while in the planning stages here.

The $360 million, 15-acre Rockville Town Square has literally become the city’s center stage overnight, hosting concerts, movies, a farmer’s market and even a rock climbing wall. Being in the space feels right - it’s like an outdoor room, enclosed on four sides, filled with outdoor dining tables and trees that will transform the place as they mature. Two blocks from Washington DC Metro/subway, it features 108,000 s.f. of restaurants and shops plus a 100,000 s.f. library, with 644 condominiums in three stories above.

While far from having a true creative, organic vibe because it was built all at once involving one developer, thus the predominance of national chains, this is a major step forward toward seeing one of these within a natural cultural district.

Maryland’s first pedestrian-only street in several decades, Ellsworth Drive, was profiled in the previous entry, but it’s not the only one.  In Bethesda, a town at the edge of Washington DC, Bethesda Lane opened in June 2008. If Ellsworth Drive reminds people of Downtown Disney, then Bethesda Lane conjures up Universal Studios. It features 44,000 s.f. of retail distributed through 16 shops and restaurants, mostly chains and luxury items, topped with 180 luxury apartments.

It obviously does not appeal to the vast majority of creatives and it looks like a new stage set at Universal (though a very sharp looking stage set). However, it’s an extremely favorable sign of things to come as far as pedestrian-only streets go, all but considered a pipe dream as recently as five years ago.  Plus, it has free public events, lots of outdoor seating and provides a couple hundred alternatives to commute-intensive mcmansions. So no, the average person can’t afford to live or shop there, but at least they can find opportunities to linger.