City of the Century: the Epic of Chicago and the Making of America.
The City of the Century focuses on Chicago from “the founding” to “the fire” to “the fair” to the First World War; a period of extraordinary civic and business achievement in America and Chicago. The giants of industry were imbued with civic responsibility in addition to their private ambitions. The architects and city-builders established an […]
The 10 Best Cities for Job Seekers
Economic development is at the heart of this report. The 10 Best Cities for Job Seekers presents the criteria for classifying cities as great sources of employment; a trait of a character towns of any size. http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2014/01/10/the-10-best-cities-for-job-seekers/ RANKING CRITERIA Population Growth 2010-2012 Median Monthly Homeowner Costs Median Income Unemployment Rate FacebookTweetLinkedInEmail
Vibrant Downtowns; Dynamic and Multi-‐Faceted Centers for Social and Commercial Engagement
Vibrant downtowns define character towns. People seem to enjoy life in certain small town downtowns and special places with bigger cities. A vibrant main street is where society, commerce and tourism meet in a rich setting of active engagement. The interactions are enables by the quality of the street itself, the inviting-nature of the sidewalks, […]
The City’s Form and Function – 2015: A Model for a Sustainable Character Town
The city’s form and function is based on sustainability theory tells us to balance and cross-leverage the social, economic and physical attributes of the town. This essay examines the ideas behind the sustainability approach as it applies to small cities and towns. The call goes out to enlarge the city’s long-range plan to make it […]
Systems Thinking; The City is a System of Systems.
Systems Thinking is a learned skill. Systems thinking and creative thinking are the yin and yang of thoughtfulness; apparently conflicting but actually complementary. Systems thinking is about structure and discipline. Creative thinking is about organic free-form exploration and associative ideating. Like the duality of yin and yang, when practiced correctly, systems and creative thought are […]
Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth
Futurism based on conventional thinking finds an uncomfortable home in Professor Fuller’s book. Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth is another “oldie but goodie” that has fallen out of public view. Buckminster Fuller, 1885-1983, is a character, impatient with conventional thinking. He was also a professional futurist who forecasted significant events decades in advance of their occurrence. […]
The 10 Best Small Towns
10 best small towns provides insight into what traits are important to a character town. “Livability.com explores what makes small-to-medium sized cities great places to live. Through proprietary research studies, engaging articles and original photography and video, we examine topics related to community amenities, education, sustainability, transportation, housing and the economy. We then leverage that expertise […]
Shaping Our Nation: How Surges of Migration Transformed America and Its Politics [2013].
Population origins make a difference. Shaping Our Nations by Michael Barone tells the story of several mass migrations and imigrations that have happened in the United States since the 1600s and a few that surprisingly did not happen. His research is broad and his data is compelling; it explains the demographic composition of contemporary America and […]
The Company Town
The Company Town [2010] describes an idea we associate with the turn of the 19th century when, in fact, it continues to this day with BMW in Greenville, Microsoft in Seattle and SEMATECH in Austin. This is a book with big ideas and lots of information packed into a tidy, readable and powerful package. Stories […]
The City’s Form and Function – 2015: A Model for a Complete City based on Sustainable Urbanism
The City’s Form and Function essay in 2014 presented the form and function of a character town in light of its sustainability, i.e., its ability to balance its social, economic and physical attributes in a manner that produced an interesting, pleasant and prosperous place for residents, businesses and visitors. This 2015 essay adds the concept […]