Economic Development – What are They Thinking?

by Robert Orr, Contributor @ The Bourse – New Haven’s Coworking Loft

Economic Development seems a total mystery when it comes to American cities. For those who bring enthusiasm and energy, fresh ideas, and hard cash to sorely “wanting” urban blight, but end up bashing their heads against inscrutable, intransigent and impregnable municipal policies that leave no choice but to walk away licking one’s wounds and scratching one’s head, Aaron Renn offers a poignant diagnosis in his blog Urbanophile. Renn answers the question:

Do Cities Really Want Economic Development?

by Aaron Renn

Ask any civic leader the number one thing they want for their town and “jobs,” economic development, is what they will likely tell you. Yet when you look at the incredibly poor economic development track record across America, despite various untold billions of public dollars pumped into projects ostensibly … Read More »

At The Bourse, Coworking Means Getting Work Done
by Josh Allen, Contributor @ The Bourse Coworking Loft – Coworking New Haven

A recent article from a blogger in Brussels, Belgium detailed the fascinating rise, success, but somewhat shocking, sudden recent closure in November of 2012 of a coworking space called The HUB Brussels. It’s part cautionary tale, part investigation into what exactly went wrong in a place where things seemed to be going right. The blogger, who goes by the name Anis, clearly details how management at The HUB Brussels focused its energy on creating a passionate community, but did not facilitate the necessary parameters to keep that community coming back and engaged with each other and the space. The space was noisy, distracting, and inhibitive of real work getting done, rather than centered around cultivating a highly focused and energetic … Read More »

Coworking = Less Bills = Happy You
Rapid Growth For Your Business is at The Bourse, New Haven’s Coworking Loft

By Robert Orr, Master of Coworking New Haven @ The Bourse

These days, where can you find office space where you never have to worry about all those hidden charges on top of “rent” that crash any business plan. You know, all the bills for electric, heat, janitorial services, coffee (and all the related refrigerators, sinks, grinders, espresso machines, stocking coffee/tea varieties, microwaves, etc.), common area management (CAM) fees, building insurance, faxing/data plan, wireless services, printing, toilet paper, staples, rubber bands, etc., etc., etc. They never seem to stop. All month. Every month. All year. And how about the responsibility of finishing a term lease if business heads south, not to mention the hefty deposit up front?

Going it alone can be risky AND expensive!

Wouldn’t … Read More »

Not Far Far Away PV Panels, Low Energy Lightbulbs, Wind Turbines, Electric Cars, LEED Platinum Gizmos Will Wear Out. Then Where Will We Be? We must plan for urban climate change through adaptation, not merely mitigation.

by Robert Orr

To the continuing debate on sustainability of which the shared workspace of coworking is an important part, The Bourse Coworking Loft adds this discussion regarding the best approach to address Climate Change (CC): whether to mitigate (take preventative measures) or to adapt (change habitat/expectations to accommodate the inevitable).

Earlier this year I attended a conference on Climate Change at Yale’s business school, the School of Organization and Management (SOM). Everyone in the room was wearing a dark suit. One after another, like at an AA meeting, presenters approached the lectern and began their talks, “Hi, My name is ______. I’m a Republican and I believe in … Read More »

Homework or Cowork? Here’s more evidence on the increased stress of working at home over working with others. The Bourse, New Haven’s Coworking Loft offers the cheer-up alternative. In the company of other people, you get more done in less time and with a lot less stress. Drop downtown and try-out our shared workspace (Free for 3 days). Instantly, you’ll find how much more accomplished you’ll feel than you do when working at home. At least, here you can share the pain! Read more, reposted from FORBESWOMAN, written by Meghan Casserly.

Taking It Easy Through The Holidays? Working From Home Won’t Help

Working from home = just more work. Homework!

U.S. employees have something to celebrate this year as more employers are giving time off around the holidays than ever before. 58% of employers are offering at least three paid days off at the end … Read More »

Coworking. Is there a skills gap cause for unemployment today? Mounting evidence suggests descending wages for labor are more the problem in the new economy. Increasingly, people are passing job offers, not because they lack skills, but because they don’t like the trend in wages. Wage labor has never been a panacea since its inception at the dawn of the industrial age. In fact, just about everyone in the 19th century, from the far left to the far right, greeted wage labor with suspicion and downright disdain because they considered it a step backward from slave labor.
To those with vision, self-motivation and energy, coworking, such as The Bourse Coworking, offers an alternative route to wage labor. Whether artisan or analyst, people seeking inexpensive and interactive routes to explore their unique gifts and ambitions find support and affordability in the shared … Read More »

Choosing Workspace. Coworking Space Vs. Office Space
Here at The Bourse, New Haven’s Coworking Loft, we have both private cubicles and shared workspace to offer. But how does one choose? Here are some thoughts pulled together by Robert Orr from writings by Joli shared by ShareDesk.

Whether your business is a start-up or you’ve been around a while, deciding on a new office space can be challenging. While location is definitely important, you first have to decide what sort of space you’re looking for. No matter the size of your company, you’ve got two basic choices for spaces. You can choose between either a large coworking space where your employees can work in a collaborative environment, or you can choose a space with many small offices and cubicles.

The Argument for Offices

The main argument in favor of having many small offices and cubicles … Read More »

There is much more to resilience than simple strength

Reposted from the Financial Times, Review of Antifragile: How to Live in a World We Don’t Understand, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

Review by Gillian Tett

Now Taleb is back. Antifragile goes much further in developing his Black Swan idea. Little wonder that men such as King are paying attention: after pouring a vast amount of taxpayers’ money into the financial system, British regulators, like those elsewhere in the western world, urgently need to know whether or not the economy is any less prone to violent shocks. In recent weeks Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, has taken to quoting Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the maverick Lebanese-American trader-cum-author-cum-statistician. Taleb shot to fame five years ago with The Black Swan, which explained why modern societies are apt to be hit by low-probability surprises that can sometimes (but not always) be damaging. … Read More »

Online Tool Helps New Hampshire Municipalities Examine the Cost of Sprawl
 Reposted from EngagingCities, written by GENEVA FAULKNER

Urban planners can often find it difficult to assess the impact of sprawl in their municipalities. Calculating future infrastructure needs and the various fiscal impacts of different land use decisions can be challenging and time consuming. Enter New Hampshire’s new Cost of Sprawl tool (www.costofsprawl.org). The New Hampshire Cost of Sprawl (NHCOS) is an internet-based model to examine the impact of land uses and sprawl on municipalities in New Hampshire and allows planners to get a sense of the fiscal impact of certain land use patterns on municipalities. Created under the auspices of the New Hampshire Office of Energy and Planning (NHOEP) and developed by RKG Associates, Placeways, and Urban Interactive Studio, this tool is geared toward town planners in New Hampshire.

Model creation involved two major and interrelated challenges. The first … Read More »

Suster Blasts ‘Entrepreneurshit,’ But Still Misses the Game

Reposted from Inc, written by Leigh Buchanan

Former entrepreneur Mark Suster drops a much-deserved bomb on those who glamorize start-ups. But even he wouldn’t mind another go.

The reality checkers were out in force yesterday. The New York Times ran an article about the lottery-esque economics of app development, focusing on a couple who earned less than $5,000 from eight apps that cost them $200,000 in lost income and savings to create. On the blog Both Sides of the Table, entrepreneur-turned-VC Mark Suster posted “Entrepreneurshit. The Truth About Building Startups.” Spoiler alert: launching a business is the financial and emotional equivalent of water-boarding and no more certain to produce good results.

I experienced the gold-in-them-thar-hills ethos last spring while public-transiting around San Francisco with an aspiring app developer. To an East Coast salarywoman like myself, it was a world … Read More »