“Providence Effect” Can Most Definitely Benefit Coworking

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

The small scale incrementalism of the “Providence Effect” can most definitely benefit Coworking. The synergy of individuals getting stuff done in shared workspace, AKA coworking, is the happy bedfellow of the synergy of bustling small scale incremental urbanism. Bustle is the small scale stuff where Taleb’s messy antifragile world of disordered relationships flourish. Most definitely, it’s not the silver bullet “project” stuff born out of the cash and fossil energy flush 1980s that still captivates so many planners and economic development officials grasping today at lost causes.

So then what’s hot in bustling American urbanism today? Do a search and you’ll find hot cities pop up: Austin, Portland, Charlotte, Denver, Atlanta, Oklahoma City… Why is there never anything in New England?

…but not so fast cowboy. There’s something called the … Read More »

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 »

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

In these blogs, we have often drawn comparisons between coworking and the cities within which coworking is located. Here is another post inspired by the decline and regeneration of Rome, back from ashes. Rome’s experience as a city in decline for centuries, then sudden regeneration can offer lessons to modern American cities still struggling in decline on how they too can come back from ashes.

Back from Ashes – “Coworking” Glimmer in the Decline of Rome

One can draw parallels between the decline of American cities, such as New Haven (the largest city in Connecticut until 1935), brought on by the insidious cancer of automobiles in the 20th century to the decline of European cities, such as Rome, brought on by the insidious cancer of the Black Death in the 14th century. … Read More »

What do LA Freeways and the Lewis and Clark Expedition have in Common? Why do Science and Numbers Matter?

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

On Los Angeles freeways as in the far reaches of the Louisiana Purchase “explorers” are quickly daunted by a sense that there’s no discernible order. All pathways and landmarks defy logic or categorization. But Angelenos and Lewis and Clark prescribe order from chaos through the use of numbers. For Angelenos it’s Freeway numbers, for Lewis and Clark it’s longitudes, latitudes, and temperatures.

But these numbers are not so much scientific determinants as they are circumscribing nomenclature. Just as aboriginals develop complex naming systems to organize the complexities of nature within their imaginations, as documented by Claude Lévi-Strauss in his The Savage Mind, the mapping numbers of freeways and river routes render instant visualization nomenclature … Read More »

What’s all the Fuss over New Urbanism?
Posted by Robert Orr, Master of Coworking New Haven @ The Bourse Coworking Loft

Frequent posts on The Bourse Coworking Loft blog address issues of urbanism since urbanism is considered a key component of Coworking. Coworking is based on the fact that enterprise and imagination find far greater productivity in the company of like-minded people, just like the success of enterprise and imagination of people living in the thickly settled environment of cities.

New Urbanism, as a movement, has been a 30-year unearthing of those qualities which contribute to successful urbanism. Successful urbanism is simply those places that make it really worth it to be human.

Although architects initiated the New Urbanist movement thirty years ago, and architects succeeded in attracting a host of other professions to the … 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 »

Note from The Bourse: Coworking works best when there’s a thick population of people working in shared workspace. That’s why coworking spaces most often locate in downtown areas, like The Bourse, New Haven’s Coworking Loft. This post on the prosperity of bustle and density for city centers gets at the central nugget of relationship between bustle and prosperity.

Cities With Denser Cores Do Better, Bustle Equals Prosperity

Reposted from Atlantic Cities, by Richard Florida

Bustle and Density — the close clustering of people together in communities — is a big factor in the technological and economic progress of cities and nations. Economists, urbanists, and place makers have found density to be associated with everything from greater energy efficiency to higher levels of skilled and talented people, higher rates of innovation, and higher income.

Most studies of the effects of density measure it rather crudely, … Read More »

Hipster Plague. Shut Up…

Reposted from Geez, written by Jonathan Shipley

Credit: David Jones, http://www.flickr.com/photos/dgjones/2524886615/

They’re everywhere. A scourge. A pestilence.  Shut up…

They’ve taken over coffee shops, laundromats, bistros, barber shops, ball games. There’s no containing them, no ridding ourselves of this virus coursing through our city’s streets.

I hate them – hipsters. Maybe people think I’m one of them, but I’m not. Not really, anyway. Sure, I wear Chuck Taylors and cardigan sweaters and smart Scottish caps, but I was doing it long before the hipsters started to. That’s not to say I’m cooler than them, but I deserve some credit.

I read the recent Travel + Leisure poll: Seattle, where I live, is the “Hipster Capital of the World.” It’s true. There they are in their lumberjack outfits (freshly laundered), their wry mustaches, the fingerless gloves they knitted themselves, their big glasses with no lenses. There goes a pack … Read More »

A boulevard runs through it: the Queens Quay remake
Reposted from The Toronto Star

Written by Christopher Hume

An artist’s conception of the planned remake of Queens Quay, which will include a broad pedestrian/cycling boulevard along the south side, facing the water.

After an absence of decades, the boulevard is coming back to Toronto. Despite long ago having fallen from favour among North American city planners and traffic engineers, the multi-lane, multi-use, tree-lined avenue will soon return to our fair burg.

For this, we have to thank Waterfront Toronto, the tripartite agency that has emerged as one of the main proponents of urban thinking in this city. On Friday, WT will break ground on the transformation of Queens Quay. What’s now a messy and dyfunctional downtown thoroughfare will become an elegant street shared equally by cars, public transit, pedestrians, cyclists — and trees.

The remake of Queens … Read More »

In Relationships I Might just be the Perfect Hipster Repellent

by Simone

Ever since I wrote this post, I’ve been mulling over the issue of male/female relationships in this town. It’s been a few months and although I no longer feel like I’m emitting a “don’t fucking touch me” vibe, it still seems like flirtation is non-existent in New Haven. I’m not ready to for a relationship with anyone but I wouldn’t mind if a guy passed me on the street and smiled at me. I might actually smile back.

When I’m in Toronto, there never seems to be a shortage of male attention. I regularly get hit on by a colorful collection of characters that include sketchy single dads, teen thugs, Greek guys over the age of 75, nerdy awkward collegiate types, and the criminally insane. With that said, the one kind of guy … Read More »