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 […]
![The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces by William H. Whyte,](https://www.charactertowns.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Social-life-book-by-Whyte.jpg)
The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces by William H. Whyte,
As Mr. Whyte describes, his book is a “pre-book”. His intent was to conduct his research fronted by his Street Life Project and then publish his findings. Thankfully, a funny thing happened on his way to his initial goal. He came upon a rich lode of insights and data produced by his cameras, his interviews […]
Project Management
Project management is a learned skill. The Project Manager can be a consultant or a staff member in a private firm, institution or public agency. In all cases, the project manager is the focus of the enterprise’sperformance to define scopes, schedules and budgets, and then to manage production and communication consistent with the goals of […]
Community Theaters: “Edu-tainment” Emporiums.
HISTORICAL ROLE OF DOWNTOWN THEATERS. Movies begat movie theaters. From the late 19thcentury until sound sprung forth in 1927, movies and movie theaters were like novelties. The Nickelodeons inhabited thousands of storefronts; the single theater in Pittsburgh in 1905 became many theaters across America by 1920s. Sound boomed forth in 1927; with it emerged “Hollywood”. […]
![The Little Theatre on the Square: Four Decades of a Small-Town Equity Theatre by Beth Shervey PhD](https://www.charactertowns.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/beth-sherveys-book-cover.jpg)
The Little Theatre on the Square: Four Decades of a Small-Town Equity Theatre by Beth Shervey PhD
The Idea of Theaters in Small Cities and Towns. Exploiting remnant single screen theaters as venues for live performances or, in some cases, first run movies is an opportunity not to be missed. Who knew there exists a“little theater movement”. The Little Theater on the Square points the way. Performances of travelling shows, local performances, […]
THE DOWNTOWN HOTEL: A Threshold Achievement.
Hotels. Small town tourism is a growing economic development factor. Hotels are the threshold assets that entice people to stay longer and spend more. A downtown hotel is a“proof of concept” that downtown is attractive to visitors and business travelers; because a hotel investor says so. [embeddoc url=”https://www.charactertowns.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/The-Downtown-Hotel-10.17.18.pdf” width=”100%” download=”all” viewer=”google”] FacebookTweetLinkedInEmail
![Character Towns: Attractive to Residents, Visitors and Businesses](https://img.youtube.com/vi/-pt6kY3Uh5g/hqdefault.jpg)
Character Towns: Attractive to Residents, Visitors and Businesses
“Character towns” attractive to residents, businesses and visitors. This webinar was given by the Florida League of Cities University to present the idea to members that vision, strategy and actions can produce interesting, pleasant and prosperous places for residents, businesses and visitors. City managers, planners and economic development directors can find useful ideas in this […]
![The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization by Peter M. Senge,](https://www.charactertowns.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/9780385517256.jpg)
The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization by Peter M. Senge,
The Learning Organization. The idea of a “learning organization” may pre-brought it into the conversation about organizational excellence. The idea that organizations can learn is fundamental to any professional practice; fundamental to any organization that expects to be useful in the future. Increasing intellectual capital is as important as quarterly profits, physical capital accumulation or stock price. […]
![Playing to Win, How Strategy Really Works by A.G. Lafley and Roger L. Martin](https://www.charactertowns.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/27001c04-f7e9-43ae-ab4e-1aab52bb96b3_1.710665161eb2be37f7401def3e528a65-e1539619470734.jpg)
Playing to Win, How Strategy Really Works by A.G. Lafley and Roger L. Martin
Michael Porter inspired A.G. Lafley and Roger L. Martin to write a book about strategy; namely, Playing to Win, How Strategy Really Works. Lafley and Martin present strategy as “an integrated cascade of choices” with five questions: “What are our winning aspirations? “Where will we play? “How will we win? “What capabilities must be in […]
Business Planning for a Professional Planning Consultancy
Planners planning for themselves is an anomaly; however, planning is helpful for the success of a professional planning practice. A review of the literature provides some generic approaches to business planning for service firms. Lists of content, like the one boxed, are instructive and the topics identified need to be addressed in whatever fashion. [embeddoc […]