Contents – March 2023
CONTENTS – March 2023 PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT IDEAS FOR SMALL CITIES AND TOWNS… Cities, small and large, build social cohesion, civic pride and community connections with libraries, museums, community gardens, civic theaters, public galleries, parks and the pathways that connect them; this month we focus on downtown theaters: “Community Theaters, ‘Edu-tainment’ Emporiums”…wck. “Amphitheaters, […]
![“TRIUMPH OF THE CITY, How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier and Happier” by Edward Glaeser](https://www.charactertowns.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Triumph-of-the-City-book.jpg)
“TRIUMPH OF THE CITY, How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier and Happier” by Edward Glaeser
Summary. Mr. Glaeser is an unabashed advocate of the importance of cities. This doesn’t mean he approves of the current state of our cities, but in fact, his study offers useful and insightful ideas to better our inventory, as listed below. His final words in the chapter entitled Gifts of the City; “I suspect that […]
Bloomberg Carbon Clock through December 2022.
The monthly values reflect the cyclical or seasonal changes in an inexorably upward secular trend. Check out the graph of long-term trends on the webpage cited below FacebookTweetLinkedInEmail
Energy Sources of Electric Generation
Until fusion is perfected for commercial use, there are only a few sources of energy available to produce electricity or steam. Natural gas, coal and petroleum produce about 60% of our electricity. Non-GHG producing sources, nuclear and renewables, produce about 40% of our electricity. FacebookTweetLinkedInEmail
NOAA Annual National Climate Report – September 2022
From CT.org…This report, like all NOAA reports, is chock full of data about temperatures, rainfall and other climate data. Check out the full report at the cited web address below. NOAA issues the National Climate Report every November. FacebookTweetLinkedInEmail
Main Street’s Active Zones: Not Too Tall, Not Too Long.
THE ORLANDO REGION’S CHARACTER MAIN STREETS. The five county Orlando Region is fortunate to have many small cities and towns with character downtowns; towns that are attractive with successful retail and civic “main streets”. A survey of nine towns reveals a commonality in the length of the main street active zones and the height of their […]
Downtown Community Theaters, “Edu-tainment” Emporiums.
Historical Role of Main Street Theaters in Small Cities and Towns. Movies begat movie theaters. From the late 19th century until sound sprung forth in 1927, movies and movie theaters were like novelties. The Nickelodeons inhabited thousands of storefronts. The first single theater in Pittsburgh in 1905 became many theaters across America by the 1920s. […]
The Main Street Hotel, A Threshold Achievement
Hotels for Tourists and Businesses. Small town tourism is a growing economic development fact. Hotels are the threshold “proof of concept” that the city or town is attracting visitors and perhaps a few business travelers. The “boomers” are traveling; looking for character and authenticity in small cities and towns as they travel the country. Tourists […]
The Design and Content of Nine Character Main Streets in Central Florida
Overview of the Towns. Population. Central Florida’s character towns are of a size and age that befits their condition. Their populations range from 20,000 to 75,000 in 2021 a far cry larger than their populations upon founding. Age. Each is a “centennial” town, being over a century old. Most were built in the era of […]
Auburndale FL, A Quintessential Character Town
HISTORY. “The town was founded in 1880 by Frank Fuller and originally named Sanatoria for a hotel located here. When the railroad came to town, the town renamed itself Auburndale after a town of the same name in Massachusetts. Thousands of acres of citrus were planted and the area began to boom. Big Freezes destroyed […]