ARTICLES
The Original Articles archives of CharacterTowns.org presents papers that discuss practical and conceptual ideas for designing, building and managing character towns and small cities that are interesting, pleasant and prosperous places for residents, businesses and visitors.
Ten Great Places to Live
10 Great Places to Live describes not only offers specific towns to consider as a future home, but also describes what makes a city a great place to live. The Kiplinger organization provides a valuable service by presenting both the places and the criteria for great places to live. For small cities and towns planning […]
The 25 Best Places to Live…Where homes are affordable
Character towns are great places to live. “25 best places to live where homes are affordable” is a study of residents who live in 25 growing towns; families that see their incomes go the furthest. The work of the Huffington Post used median home price and median family income as the basic factors to determine […]
The 7 Best Cities for Beer
7 Best cities for beer offers an indicator of a character town. The number of local craft breweries is at an all-time high in the United States. Zoning ordinances are being revised to enable craft breweries as permitted or special uses. From coast to coast, privately-owned breweries are producing delicious brews for ever palate. FacebookTweetLinkedInEmail
The 9 Best Small Cities to Move to…
9 best small cities were recently ranked by Movoto Real Estate. They ranked cities of all sizes across a variety of criteria they considered important when defining the best small cities. Also they recently sought out the nine best small cities in American to move to. The usefulness of this ranking is both the list […]
Character Towns of Central Florida: Report #3, A Survey of Main Streets
“Character Towns” of Central Florida: Report #3, A Survey of Main Streets reports the preliminary results of what has become the Character Town Workshop Analytical Series. Central Florida has been favored with many small cities and towns of character. Most were established at the turn of the last century when Henry Plant brought his railroad from […]
Character Towns as Entrepreneurial Cities.
Character Towns are Ideal Entrepreneurial Cities. Character towns are not just pretty places; when well designed, they accommodate innovators, social and economic adventurers and all sorts of entrepreneurs, some of whom are city employees. Such a city appreciates people interested in doing things in a new and better way. Such a city may use enterprise […]
Best Places for Business and Careers
Best Places for Business and Careers is compiled by Forbes Magazine. The list describes the best places in each state with highlights for North Carolina, Utah and Texas. The cities cited and the ranking criteria offer a glimpse at what an objective viewer believes to be important in building a community that is good for […]
City Building in a Hot, Flat and Crowded Post-American World
City Building in a Hot, Flat and Crowded Post-America World is an essay based on a review of three books. The essay draws heavily upon three books respectively by: Fukuyama [2004] who addresses city building; Zakaria [2009] who ponders a post-American world; and Freidman [2008] who has built on his flat world book to add […]
City Finance Plans; Comprehensive Long Range Business Models
City Finance Plans are the vehicles for small cities and towns to take a comprehensive long range view of their sources and uses of funds that define their business model. The City’s Comprehensive Long Range Finance Plan answers the questions about where the city will find money over the long haul to stay in business. As an […]
The City Sociable, Leveraging Economic and Physical Assets to Create Civil and Sociable Places
The City Sociable is a serious town that works hard to create an environment that is interesting, safe, friendly and pleasant. Such a town constructs its social infrastructure to create an atmosphere that brings people together to find a common vision of their future and participate in community events and decisions. The City Sociable also describes how […]
Financing Redevelopment; City Support for Private Projects
Financing redevelopment for private projects is sometimes in the best interest of small city and town yearning for new infill and redevelopment investments. The city’s vision of being an interesting, pleasant and prosperous place to live includes new and re-purposed uses and activities to its downtown and neighborhoods. Especially in built-out towns, infill and redevelopment […]
Character Town Community Theaters, “Edu-tainment” Emporiums.
Historical Role of Main Street….Theaters in Small Cities and Towns. Character towns with city planners promote community theaters. They attract people downtown to main street to achieve the city’s socialization goals. Movies begat movie theaters. Sound sprung forth in 1927. Movies and movie theaters were like novelties. The Nickelodeons inhabited thousands of storefronts. The first […]
Park Systems Evaluated by PARKSCORE
Park systems evaluated by ParkScore can benefit from the process. ParkScore is a project of The Trust for Public Land, tpl.org, the nation’s largest national nonprofit organization working to create and improve neighborhood parks. The evaluation criteria and process are useful to city planners and urban designers creating parks and parks systems for small character […]
The 10 Best Cities for Public Transportation.
Public transportation as presented in 10 Best Cities for Public Transportation demonstrates that “some cities world’s densest cities run like clockwork, while others are plagued by traffic, flight delays, and utility outages.” By using data on ridership, safety, and government spending, U.S. News has compiled a list of the 10 best cities in the country […]
America’s Social Infrastructure Is Falling Apart – The Atlantic by Eric Klinenberg
Worry Less About Crumbling Roads, More About Crumbling Libraries. Character towns rely on social infrastructure. America’s social infrastructure is falling apart, and it’s hurting democracy. The ASCE does not grade our “social infrastructure.” If it did, the scores would be equally shameful. For decades, we’ve neglected the shared spaces that shape our interactions. The consequences […]
Character Towns: small cities and towns economic development
Concept Small cities and towns economic development depends on character towns that attract residents, businesses and visitors. Therefore, character towns are small cities and towns defined by their authentic, unique and substantive qualities. In addition, they are friendly and inviting physical setting with active businesses and strong neighborhoods. Also, respect is important and useful when […]
Character Towns of Central Florida: Report #2, Socio-Economic Features
“Character Towns” of Central Florida: Report #2, Socio-Economic Features is the second article in a series that describes the features of these ten towns that comprise the main attributes of a character town. The first article of the series describes the Workshop held quarterly with attendees of the featured character towns that discuss issues of common […]
A Strategy for Creating Character Towns
A Strategy for Creating Character Towns is vision-driven. Character towns are the result of much love and careful nurturing of the town’s heritage, cultural assets, natural resources and historic amenities. The vision to see the values of the town and the strategy to protect and enhance them is the process that leads to a continuous […]
The City’s Form and Function – 2014
The city’s form and function based on sustainable urbanism is an urbanist town with its balance of social, economic and physical assets. The two trains of thought that have merge to provide a useful basis for city development are sustainability and urbanism. Sustainability theory tells us to balance the social, economic and physical attributes of the […]
Urban Infrastructure Systems; A Holistic andTechnologically Advanced Approach
Urban Infrastructure Systems in character towns recognize that modern infrastructure critical to a successful community can also be a visual asset. They can be, and should be, beautiful, holistic, mutually reinforcing and technologically advanced. The physical and programmatic infrastructure ensures the health, safety, education and welfare of the town’s citizens. Economic development, business retention and […]