Brand Avenue

You Can't Send Places As Attachments

For a city to be worth seeing, there must be something unique about it, said Douglas Coupland.

A Vancouver native, Coupland is an artist and novelist famous for his book Generation X. He’s also the author of a number of non-fiction books, including City of Glass, which features a collection of essays about Vancouver. He’s a proud Vancouverite, and though he argues that his is one of the greatest cities in the world, he told a crowd at the recent Cities Summit in Vancouver that his city and others need to do more to differentiate themselves from each other and from the digital world.

"The download revolution affects everybody, cities especially," Coupland said. "Your new competition isn’t that city down the river with three-bedroom hotels and a slightly better golf course. Your competition now, for citizens and tourists, is World of Warcraft ... It is season-long bingeing fests of Breaking Bad and Downton Abbey.”

Cities should celebrate the assets that only they have, and the embrace the fact that to see and experience them, people have to actually be there. He says our overly digital lifestyles are making physicality that much more crucial.

"The places that people are going to want to visit are those places that spark their imagination," Coupland said. "People want experiences that cannot be downloaded, however you want to define that. People want to see physical things and they want to do things with their bodies. You can’t download a Henry Moore sculpture and you can’t attach a ski slope to an email."

via www.theatlanticcities.com

To Survive in Rochester

Creative destruction will continue to wreak havoc across the global economy. The experience of Rochester, San Diego, Pittsburgh and other cities in surviving offers several lessons.

The first is to make better use of local intellectual capital, starting with universities. One challenge Rochester faces is replacing the young people who once came to work in Kodak’s laboratories. Here’s where higher education comes in handy: public and private organizations should build connections with students through internships and other efforts that give graduates a reason to stick around.

Moreover, universities provide stability in a rough economy by drawing in state and federal dollars, which can compensate for the decline of a major employer.

Of course, private companies need to be part of the game as well. Those left behind when a dominant employer disappears must be willing to pivot to a longer view, as Kodak did for generations. Instead of managing quarter to quarter, they must help reinforce the local work force, as well as invest in the community so as to keep it attractive to new high-skilled workers.

Put differently, there is no single answer for cities facing the departure of a major employer, and there are many things unique to Rochester, Pittsburgh and San Diego that have allowed them to thrive where others have foundered. But long-term investments in education, culture and community have made all three postindustrial success stories, and there is no reason such a strategy can’t help the next city hit by a big-business bankruptcy to follow their lead.

via www.nytimes.com

"Coffeeshopification"

Coffee is the fuel of the modern world. When Europeans began drinking less ale and more caffeinated beverages in the 17th century, and talking about ideas rather than just seeking a break from manual labor, the Age of Enlightenment was born.

Today, in many American cities, there are coffee shops on every corner, whether they’re independent cafes or Dunkin’ Donuts or Starbucks. Amid all the business and institutional models that are changing in the face of our growing ability to do everything online, the coffee shop alone seems secure: an irreplaceable gathering place full of beverages that cannot be downloaded.

This fact is not lost on those businesses and institutions that are struggling. And, probably wisely, they are all beginning to remake themselves in the coffee shop’s image. What we are about to witness: the coffeeshopification of everything

via articles.boston.com