Retail Entertainment Districts Archive Emerging retail report: What are the most successful trends in retail for the creative class? More + How to do a pedestrian street right: For a vibrant, active, economically successful pedestrian street (paseo), it must have More + Is it time for the return of the pedestrian street?: Hundreds of pedestrian malls built in downtowns across the country in the More + Why do small towns and cities prefer independents merchants?: That’s certainly the case in small towns and cities, but not in More + Local businesses give 70% more back to you than chains: A new retail study for a Chicago neighborhood discovered that for every More + Burlington’s economy-defying pedestrian mall: What’s immediately striking for such a small town of 40,000 people is More + In Athens, indie restaurants thrive over McDonald’s and Subway downtown: It’s true. There are over a hundred retail venues in downtown Athens, More + The secret to Athens’ vibe?: The people. Period. The built environment, music, sense of community and progressiveness More + Where would one find Madison’s creative class?: Just like in Cambridge, Madison’s creative class has left the national chain-infiltrating More + What are two of the greatest trends in shopping?: From Governing Magazine, “The two greatest trends in shopping, it seems, are More + 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 More + How many national chains make a successful town center? AFAP: As Few As Possible. The following evidence is from Kennedy Smith, former More + How popular is dining out?: Quite a bit according to our CoolTown poll. The statistics seem to More + Slow Food Nation: If suburbia and sprawl are about fast food, then what are cool More + More evidence of the live-work trend: One way to realize there’s increasing demand for live-work-play(shop) communities is to More + A welcoming glow: This is one of my favorite images from Siena, Italy. Along the More + Popular dining out: One of the most popular restaurants in Venice is the Brek Ristorante. More + Thriving local merchants: It’s around 8 pm and the temperature’s around 40 degrees F, yet More + In the news: More economic reason for infill/CoolTowns: The Washington Post: Retailers Embrace the Great Outdoors There’s no better way More + Learning from resort main streets: Look ma, no cars! See yesterday’s blog to better understand why. Look More + Investing in local retail: If you’ve been tracking the local vs. national retail economic impact numbers, More + “Secede from Starbucks Nation”: Would you believe that’s a city campaign slogan? Excelsior, Minnesota. “We’re just More + Buying in your local community: If you believe that what goes around comes around, you may think More + Aloha Tower is Hawaii’s CoolTown spot: I remember visiting Honolulu (a few islands over from Hilo) years ago More + How to overcome the Walmart dilemma: In the small town of Hilo, Hawaii, the nightly hot spot (by More + 123