[this is going in the business model of the hour, simply because someone else should spend an hour on it]<\/p>\n
years ago, i got involved (well, instigated) a preservation and urban renewal project that still, in a very mild form, ongoing. today, it’s basically a watchdog operation, and there isn’t much to watch. anyway, this effort brought me into a very interesting set of meetings and networks, with architects and historians and other very learned people. it also happened to coincide with a city-wide effort to establish a long-term city plan.<\/p>\n
one of the keystones of this plan was a raze-and-redevelop operation in what used to be an urban shopping area. long since abandoned by shoppers, the large, beautiful, architected buildings (as compared to cinder-block boxes), stood largely vacant. the city’s plan for the area was to tear down a large number of these buildings and restore an existing theater into a “broadway quality” venue. i didn’t like this plan very much. at the time, i looked around at examples of successful urban redevelopment and saw that artists (in general) were the key.the classic example is greenwich village in new york – and it’s a pattern that repeats itself often: the area gets rundown and cheap, the artists move in, the place gets cool, the rents go up, and the artists are driven out because they can’t keep up with the new rent on their tiny apartment.<\/p>\n
at the time, i made several comments about artists being the cockroaches of urbania – and i mean that in a positive sense. in that nothing can kill them. they move in to places where no one else will go.<\/p>\n
so i suggested a plan where the few needs of the artists would be met through grant\/incentive packages by the city, “in the zone” – 24-hour access to coffee, hardware and artist supply retail, groceries, and public gathering places. the reasoning was: provide these things, and the artists will fill your vacant buildings, do interesting things in them, make them cool, create a community, and over time (and yes, this will take time), the area will “revitalize” itself.<\/p>\n
now, coming from the post-bubble perspective, perhaps geeks are the new artists – or artists are becoming more geeky. in any case, i want to add something to this formula: wireless, free internet access.<\/p>\n
for the price of a couple coffee shops, a liquor license or two, and property-tax rebates for a few (and only a few!) retail operations willing to “take a chance” on the neighborhood, plus blanket coverage of the area with wireless internet, the geeks (and artists) will move in. post-bubble, a lot of amazingly skilled geeks are now living on artist salaries (that is, they make some money when they can, where they can), and the opportunity is just amazing – or at least i think so.<\/p>\n
is anyone doing it? has any city or state government sprung for a few dozen access points?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[this is going in the business model of the hour, simply because someone else should spend an hour on it] years ago, i got involved (well, instigated) a preservation and urban renewal project that still, in a very mild form, ongoing. today, it’s basically a watchdog operation, and there isn’t much to watch. anyway, this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rojisan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rojisan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rojisan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rojisan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rojisan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rojisan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rojisan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rojisan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rojisan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}