The CoolTown water test

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".

Is there a true piazza in the United States?

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?

What do the most culturally creative Gen Yers want in a town?

As I mentioned regarding last week's event, I surveyed the early adopters, the cultural creatives of town building at the University of Maryland, hosting a focus group of entrepreneurial, architecture and real estate students. Here are some of the results from the group of 32 forward-thinkers:

- The three most desirable public amenities, in order: A piazza, parks and public wireless broadband access.
- The most desirable nightlife venue: Outdoor seating restaurant/cafe
- 88% chose 'vibrant urban' over 'quiet suburban'
- 72% preferred walking or mass transit over driving when commuting to work
- 87% responded that if their company was relocating, they'd prefer a neighborhood or city center over an office park
- Two-thirds chose shared living over living alone

What makes Dubrovnik's urban fabric cool?

Looking at the plan of the town above, you'll notice that all the gray areas are buildings, and all the white areas are pavement. At first, the ratio of building to pavement seems normal. Then, when you compare it to an American town you'll often discover the plans are the inverse of this! Why? The Dubrovnik plan doesn't have any roads, which also means there are no parking lots.

The big pavement areas in the Dubrovnik plan are either piazzas or pedestrian boulevards.

Another feature is that it isn't a rectilinear grid, as you find in just about every American city, but rather more organic. People don't walk in long straight lines (imagine taking a hike like that!) and it's also a much more pleasant walk to have a street terminate with a building, giving the pedestrian the sense of arrival and comfortable feeling of being in an outdoor room rather than going through a tunnel. You'll also notice small blocks and major buildings at the piazzas, as I mentioned in the creating diversity blog.

Now, if we can build something like that with fiber optic internet and loft office space, I'll be happy. We're trying.

From basketball courts to medieval cities

The Department of Labor released a study stating that 70% of what you know about your job is done so informally. Some say it's 75%. That's why in a CoolTown of entrepreneurs and artists, it's so important to have informal 'networking places' such as pubs, piazzas and basketball courts - which leads to today's story.

I present the medieval city of Dubrovnik, Croatia as a model urban fabric for a CoolTown. I've never been there and I've never heard about it before today, but someone on the basketball court between my home and office did. See first paragraph. He added that the streets in the photo below are shiny not because they're wet, but because they're as smooth as marble from centuries (literally) of walking. How's that as an incentive for walkable cities - marble streets!

Tomorrow I'll demonstrate just how this city is a model for a CoolTown's urban fabric.

The average person avoids waiting more than 5 minutes for transit. That's a study that renowned traffic consultant Nick Poulos of Poulos & Chung (no web site) of Toronto, Canada presented, and is the reason why Toronto's streetcar is so successful. The subway in Washington DC has about a 5-minute wait during rush hour, and I can't tell you how great it is not to wait more than 5 minutes. San Jose's fairly new light rail system has a 10-minute wait (common for light rail) and isn't overly popular.

The bottom line? Stick to subways (fast and frequent) and streetcars (slower but frequent) and think twice about light rail (slow and infrequent).

ps Why streetcars over buses? Ride one of Toronto's streetcars and be careful not to fall asleep.

Cool mobility: Convertible skates

I usually walk or take the subway (Metro), but for those trips where neither one will do, you can use Hypnos. These are skates designed specifically to be popped off (like ski bindings) when you get to your destination - or more conveniently for me, at spontaneous stopovers in between. I've had transportation like this for over ten years (unfortunately they don't make 'Metroblades' anymore that did the same thing), and really haven't found any better way to get around AND stay in shape. Just like the Segway though, don't let it replace walking!