Wheels on your feet that is.

One of the most popular outdoor recreational activities is exploring, whether it’s by foot, kayak or cross country skis.  In the city, especially San Francisco and Paris, it’s by skate.  When you bring hundreds of them together on a Friday night, it turns into entertainment as well.

Let me describe the Friday night skate in San Francisco:  In the early evening an average of 300-400 skaters (beginners and advanced) get together at the Market Street waterfront tower, quite the urban icon.  From there, they skate to the famous Pier 39 fisherman’s wharf (rest and socialize (R&S)), move on to the photogenic Ghiradelli Square (R&S), up a winding hill through a serene park and along the coast to the mausoleum at the Palace of Fine Arts, one of the most beautiful night scenes in the U.S. (R&S).  Then it’s on to the Pacific Heights main street (R & S), up to an urban playground (R&S) through China Town and down a tunnel to Union Square (the most popular plaza in SF, R&S), and down the main drag of SF (Market Street) to the Mission’s district nightclub hot spot (R&S, quick slice of pizza), and finally past the new ballpark, under the giant Bay Bridge on the waterfront and back home.

Now that’s entertainment, recreation and one unforgettable experience.  Every week.

The best kind of entertainment, in my opinion, is the kind that keeps you fit:  Dancing, rock climbing, roller-blading, sports and again, dancing.  Dancing deserves to be mentioned twice.

In the bestseller Tuesday’s With Morrie”, Morrie, who is terminally ill, describes his perfect day (evening) from the point of view of someone who cherishes his last few days: “In the evening, we’d all go together to a restaurant with some great pasta… and then we’d dance the rest of the night.  I’d dance with all the wonderful dance partners out there, until I was exhausted.“

Within a few very short blocks from my home, I can drop in on salsa lessons when I feel like it ($10 for 2 hours of lessons!), swing dance for free, or choose from no less than a dozen places to groove to 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, 00’s, hip hop, R&B, techno or whatever the DJ feels like playing.  As one of the area’s leading swing dance instructors told me, “You can’t dance angry.“

A CoolTown will always have great places to dance.  Ideally, an open air piazza would be one of them.  The AIR Outdoor Party in the grand plaza of the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center is a good one.

Investing in the large-scale workplace

While much of the focus in CoolTowns is in providing workplaces for the entrepreneurially creative, larger companies will find tremendous benefits in relocating to a CoolTown as well.  Here’s how some progressive investors are planning on that:

The key reason why most corporations don’t occupy downtown space is that it simply costs a lot more than in the suburbs, the same exact reason given by Gen Xers.  The solution provided by capacity-rich investors is investing in large economically-disadvantaged areas that can be developed into a safe, vibrant stand-alone mixed-use community.

With a pre-tenant financing program, corporate and individual tenants alike can ideally purchase land for workplaces at 3-5 times less than high-rent urban areas, yet be part of the design-process to establish a sense of community, nightlife and services that exceed those areas.

The photo is from Gensler, one of the leading corporate workplace designers in the world.

This summary of workplace trends is brought to you by a long-time associate of mine, John Vivadelli, CEO of Agilquest which focuses on enabling modern workplaces.

“Telework/Telecommuting allows employees to work from home or a telework or touchdown center.  Teleworkers generally work off-site 2-3 days per week, and are linked to the office by cell phone, laptop and/or email.  To reap the full benefits of teleworking, organizations often implement office hoteling in conjunction.
Office Hoteling is the practice of providing office assets to employees as a dynamic pool of reservable resources.  When an organization “hotels”, its mobile employees reserve workspaces and resources through a real-time reservation system of a first-call basis.
Telecenters are conveniently located work facilities with on-site managers and sophisticated communications technology.  They are typically shared between organizations to reduce overhead costs.
Office Suites provide fully equipped office space on a short-term lease basis.  Many corporations use office suite providers for overflow (when too many employees are in the office at once), or for mobile workers who need to work in an area where a branch office is not located.
Virtual Offices are offices that travel with mobile employees.  Virtual office workers rarely require dedicated office space since their office is a network of communication devices, voice mailboxes and hotel rooms.
Free Address/Free Ranging is the practice of assigning offices or workstations on a first-come, first-serve basis.  Similar to office hoteling, free address/free ranging normally lacks an organized reservation system.“

You can get the entire report here.

10,000 happier employees

BellSouth, one of Atlanta’s largest employers, is building three workplaces for 10,000 employees near three light rail stations.  Not only that, but they’re providing parking specifically for their employees at four outlying transit stations.*  To top it off, three of those transit stations will have satellite office space.

Now the buildings and surrounding fabric aren’t exactly creative or inspiring, but I’m sure the possibilities of zero traffic and adjacent, active nightlife is.

BellSouth’s Metro Plan, as it is called, is based on the theme of “Building Great Places to Work”.  For instance, other than the friendly locations, every floor of every building has a stylish ‘living room’ of sorts for spontaneous meetings.  How did they know the employees would use it?  It was their idea.  You could say it’s the CoolTown way.  Maybe that’s why the positive response rate is 95%.

Here’s another incentive: the monthly parking permit is $60 while the monthly light rail pass is $12.  BellSouth expects 30% of the workforce to use transit.

*Ideally, that parking $ could go for down payments on housing near transit stations.

The distributed, decentralized workplace

How’s this sound if you have a current 9-5 job:

Monday: - “It’s been a long weekend - I sure feel like working at home this morning.“
Tuesday: “I woudn’t mind a 15 door-door commute to my company’s satellite office.
Wednesday: “I should meet up face-face with some people at my company’s headquarters, even though it’s 45 minutes door-door.“
Thursday: “I’ve got to sleep in.  I’ll just work late at the office today.“ 
Friday: “I’m going in early so I can take off at 3:00 pm.“
Friday alternate: “I’m glad I put my hours in earlier so I can take off Thursday evening for my bi-weekly three-day weekend!“

Based on yesterday’s survey trends, not only are today’s more progressive companies (Sun, E&Y, AT&T) providing flexible hours, but they’re also providing flexible workplaces.  Too good to be true?  Stay tuned this week.

The future workplace

A national workforce survey this month reveals a desire for the evolution of the decentralized, distributed workplace as isolated office parks continue to suffer vacancies:

54% seek stable income outside the conventional work structure
86% cite work/life balance & work fulfillment as #1 career priority  
73% are were willing to curtail careers to make time for family
96% are attracted to employers who offer ways for them to make time for personal responsibilities and personal development such as flex-time, job sharing and telecommuting.

The Dilbert-rat race-cubicle-9-to-5 corporate office world is becoming increasingly outdated, even intolerable, as people are finding better, more livable ways of getting more done with a whole lot less stress and monotony.

Investing in the Gen X Town

How do you do it without busting the Gen X piggy bank?

Let’s face it, 80% of the effort in building a true Gen X town is providing affordable homes in the coolest parts of the city.  So, while it’s hopeless to buy a $200K condo in Manhattan, it’s not out of the question to buy a cooler home between $150-$180K in a one-of-a-kind, nightlife-oriented neighborhood.

Here’s how these investors will do it:  Build not so big, stripped down/customizable units between 900 to 1200 sf, 10 ft. ceilings, and “unbundled parking” (lease rather than buy parking spaces, which is great if you don’t have a car).  The buildings would be six stories, with the lower floor hosting your third places - anything above six stories requires rather costly steel and concrete.

Since the average debt for college graduates is $12-$15K, work with them a year in advance to manage their debt load to afford a home, then provide a rent-to-own program where a portion of their rent goes toward a down payment to buy.  Not owning a car also increases the value of home one qualifies for - another reason why a CoolTown is designed to be walkable.

Finally, provide three bedroom units that provide Xers with rent income in the early years, office/workout space in subsequent years, and kid rooms when they’ve crossed that domestic bridge.

Designing the Gen X urban village

Affordability:  Design smaller-sized 4-6 story unfinished loft-style units (like these here by Dover Kohl, an urban design firm that fundamentally understands this market) with flexible open floor plans and some detailing to add character.  Do the same with office space.  Encourage the retailers to keep it simple and aim for artful practicality and efficiency over status.  Think Parisian neighborhoods.

Entertainment & Nightlife:  Center the village around a carless piazza (that should be a pleonasm) where people can socialize spontaneously 24/7 without having to buy anything.  Support a proactive community center and online network that focuses on building people connections - they’ll in turn advocate for the kind of entertainment they want.

Jobs: For the entrepreneurs, just focus on the above and support them as a guild to secure health insurance and venture capital.  For those seeking more established 9-5 jobs, seek out CEOs like Charles Brewer of Mindspring who wanted to relocate his 3000 employees in a “Gen X urban village”, but just couldn’t find one anywhere in the U.S.  At least that’s what he told me.

What is Gen X looking for in a home?

Something less than $150,000 in the inner city or near an outer transit station.  It’d be low maintenance with high ceilings, both community and environmentally friendly.

Gen Xers prefer something stylish, efficient and flexible and did I say affordable?  They will not let homebuilders pre-determine their needs and feel they over-design new homes.  In fact, they’d like to customize their living spaces and want homes that express “Who I am.“  Non-bearing walls that can be easily changed to deliver no-additional-cost, customized space would be ideal in choosing new homes.

They’ll choose open floor plans over conventional/compartmentalized floor plans, bright over dark, and affordable craftsmanship (wood-trim, porches and exposed beams) over mass-production interiors.

They assume basic utilities means electricity, water, gas, cable and broadband internet.