Retail Entertainment Districts Archive
Emerging retail report: What are the most successful trends in retail for the creative class?
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How to do a pedestrian street right: For a vibrant, active, economically successful pedestrian street (paseo), it must have
Is it time for the return of the pedestrian street?: Hundreds of pedestrian malls built in downtowns across the country in the
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Why do small towns and cities prefer independents merchants?: That’s certainly the case in small towns and cities, but not in
Local businesses give 70% more back to you than chains: A new retail study for a Chicago neighborhood discovered that for every
Burlington’s economy-defying pedestrian mall: What’s immediately striking for such a small town of 40,000 people is
In Athens, indie restaurants thrive over McDonald’s and Subway downtown: It’s true. There are over a hundred retail venues in downtown Athens,
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The secret to Athens’ vibe?: The people. Period. The built environment, music, sense of community and progressiveness
Where would one find Madison’s creative class?: Just like in Cambridge, Madison’s creative class has left the national chain-infiltrating
What are two of the greatest trends in shopping?: From Governing Magazine, “The two greatest trends in shopping, it seems, are
Why are cities infatuated with Starbucks and Cheesecake Factory’s?: The more they are, the less you’ll see one-of-a-kind places like this
How many national chains make a successful town center? AFAP: As Few As Possible. The following evidence is from Kennedy Smith, former
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How popular is dining out?: Quite a bit according to our CoolTown poll. The statistics seem to
More evidence of the live-work trend: One way to realize there’s increasing demand for live-work-play(shop) communities is to
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A welcoming glow: This is one of my favorite images from Siena, Italy. Along the
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Thriving local merchants: It’s around 8 pm and the temperature’s around 40 degrees F, yet
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In the news: More economic reason for infill/CoolTowns: The Washington Post: Retailers Embrace the Great Outdoors There’s no better way
Learning from resort main streets: Look ma, no cars! See yesterday’s blog to better understand why. Look
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Investing in local retail: If you’ve been tracking the local vs. national retail economic impact numbers,
“Secede from Starbucks Nation”: Would you believe that’s a city campaign slogan? Excelsior, Minnesota. “We’re just
Buying in your local community: If you believe that what goes around comes around, you may think
Aloha Tower is Hawaii’s CoolTown spot: I remember visiting Honolulu (a few islands over from Hilo) years ago
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How to overcome the Walmart dilemma: In the small town of Hilo, Hawaii, the nightly hot spot (by
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