Earlier this year, Molly and I facilitated “Cool School” in Washington, D.C. (Yup, that’s our Cool School in the photo.)
The purpose of the two-day class was to discuss how to measure quality of life…and then to smell/taste/experience it. The feet-on-the-street experience was stellar. It’s one thing to talk about local breweries and their contribution to the community’s social fabric. It’s better to quaff a beer while participating in said discussion. (Heads-up: Cool School moves to San Francisco in 2010, part of the C2ER Annual Conference.)
We asked our participant-brainiacs to open their treasure chest of data, and help us rethink how we measure “cool communities.” Starting from scratch, they said that cool cities are:
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Resilient (Has anyone else noticed that this term, “resilience” is taking over where “sustainability” once stood?)
- Authentic
- Have a sense of who they are, e.g. culturally
- Are beautiful, and value good aesthetics
- Are pedestrian friendly
- Have leaders who are open to change
Here’s a list of resources they recommended. Some are quirky and some are pretty incredible. All of them were suggested to help measure various “Quality of Life” measures:
- BeerAdvocate.com - How many local microbreweries are in your community?
- CARRI - The Community and Regional Resilience Institute measures a community’s physical infrastructure, economic and social capital, natural environment, and systems/essential services.
- The Alliance for Innovation “works to transform local government and advance community excellence through the discovery and application of leading ideas and practices.” They have research and white papers on best practices in government.
- The Urban Institute - Want to know about crime rates, or education statistics? Find non-partisan statistics for over 20 categories of community and social issues.
- OECD - How connected is your area, and who’s online?
- State and Territory Brownfields reuse from EPA - Identify where redevelopment is happening in your area.
- Index of Dissimilarity from the Lewis Mumford Center at the University of Albany - Identified a community’s level of segregation, based on census data.
- National Science Foundation Awards Database - Search by your city, state, or zipcode to identify who’s being funded in your community. Could be a leading indicator of innovation?
- Innovation Index from Stats America - Assesses a county, MSA, state’s innovation in five areas: (1) Human Capital: 30% (2) Economic Dynamics: 30% (3) Productivity and Employment: 30%, (4) Economic Well-Being: 10%, and (5) State Context (for reference only). You can compare your area to up to two others.
- The Corporation for National and Community Service measures volunteerism.
- The American Institute of Architects, American Society of Landscape Architects, and the American Planning Association give communities design awards. These could indicate a community’s aesthetics/beauty.
- Historic building are listed on the National Register. This could also indicate a community’s sense of place/authenticity
- Walk Score - How walkable is your neighborhood? Find out here.
- CEOs for Cities - Carol Colletta and her crew do a great job adding solid research to a series of issues important to cities. The Talent Dividend, for example, shows that for every 1% increase in BA-degree holders who move to a city, the economy expands $763 per capita.
- International Regions Benchmarking Consortium - includes ten large international cities and bills itself as a network of sophisticated city-centered metropolitan regions that find it mutually beneficial to compare and learn from each other through economic and social data statistics and in-depth research into specific issues of common interest.
- Fast Company Magazine’s Fast Cities - Conducted annually, a hipster’s way of looking at cities.
- Planetizen - Urban planing, design and development network. Follow them on Twitter, too!
- Next American City - Designed by and for a new generation of urban thinkers. Annual mag subscription is $29. Metro Matters podcasts - with the Brookings institution - are free. (It’s the only mag we’ve ever paid to advertise, as of this post.)
- Governing - Economic Engines - Covers everything from the impact of small business to the impact of airports. It’s good to read what the politicians read…
- New Geography - Covers demographics, housing, suburbs, and has an annual Best Cities list.
- Smart City Radio - A podcast hosted by Carol Coletta, the head of CEOs for Cities (above.)
- Creative Class - Powered by Richard Florida and his posse, the author of The Rise of the Creative Class and (now) The Great Reset, shares his perspective on the role of cities in economic transformation.
- Congress for a New Urbanism - Committed to walkable, sustainable cities, the Congress is a membership based organization with the usual stuff: conferences, awards, and issue-areas of focus. The June 2011 conference is right here in Madison. If you’re in town, let’s connect!
