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WHAT’S UP IN NEW DEVELOPMENT
Economic Development: We've been hearing
a lot lately about economic development and
the different approaches our local govern
ment and other institutions can take in this
worthy pursuit. Should we invest in roads?
Convention centers? Education?
This week we will take a look at urban
spaces themselves as generators in the local
economy, channeling two luminaries of urban
economics: renowned urban thinker Jane
Jacobs and Harvard economist Edward Glaeser,
whose book Triumph of the City was released
last week and referenced in David Brooks' Feb.
7 A'eiv York Times column. Both Jacobs and
Glaeser find that cities gain stable, lasting
prosperity not from attracting major outside
investment—"smokestack chasing"—but from
cultivating local assets like creative innova
tion, 3 skilled workforce, entrepreneurship
and quality of life. Both authors emphasize
the inherent capacity of cities to create
prosperity—in particular, bringing people into
actual physical proximity to exchange ideas
and goods. Out of this comes innovation, col
laboration, competition, higher productivity
and new businesses and employment.
What They Say: For Jacobs, face-to-face
contact is essential for innovation. Spaces
that encourage personal, real-life exchanges
encourage the rapid transfer of informa
tion that helps firms develop and compete.
Increased interaction also forms social capital:
networks of trust and cooperation that help
businesses, suppliers and other local institu
tions work together to their mutual benefit.
Glaeser affirms that "for centuries, inno
vations have spread from person to per
son across crowded city streets." Think of
Renaissance Florence, where artists shared
pioneering techniques amid a bustling busi
ness environment, or of the "other" Athens,
where the greatest contemporary minds gath
ered in the marketplace and produced the fun
damental concepts of Western civilization*.
It should be a no-brainer that the quality
of our urban spaces is related to our prosper
ity as a city. Urban proximity pushes human
ity forward, says Glaeser. Bringing people
together goes along with civic engagement
and exchange of ideas.
We've already seen it happen in our
close-knit local music scene, where collec
tives that support, inspire and intermingle
produce bands that create a national splash.
Yet there is still great fragmentation and
misunderstanding among the more formal and
businesslike institutions: the ones with the
most power to impact the economic envi
ronment. Imagine leaders of these institutions
strolling regularly in a mythic central market
place, gathering ideas from chance meetings,
feeling the pulse of the community...
Developing Local Assets: What does Athens
have to build on? Plenty. The university is
certainly foremost. Surely, myriad business .
venture ideas have come out of the Terry
College—are they taking root in Athens? While
UGA provides consulting resources for new
businesses, other cities also provide incuba
tion spaces: low- or no-rent office buildings
where young ventures can establish them
selves with minimal initial risk before "moving
up" as new local employers. UCLA, as a quick
web search reveals, has
an on-campus incuba
tor "for startup com
panies based on UCLA
research and intellectual
property" which offers
shared core facilities
and meeting space.
Vibrant, Temporary
Spaces: And speaking
of low entry thresholds,
we're back to public
markets, where local
entrepreneurs can
test their approaches
without major startup
space costs, and where
a local economy can
often truly flourish. The
Athens Farmers Market
is a periodic space that
connects local produc
ers with local consumers, which fosters local
self-sufficiency and employment—and on
top of that, serves as a vibrant, if transitory
social space for the exchange of ideas. J&J
Flea Market is a similar asset for an inclusive
local economy, but what about a more central
flea market location to enliven weekend days
downtown? (Picture a Sunday stroll at one of
the Parisian flea markets.) How about a week
day street market, able to respond flexibly
to local demand, perhaps to suit passing stu
dents and professors who might like to pick up
fresh vegetables or cheap toiletries on their
way home from campus?
Personal Interaction: Public space in our city
is economic development space in its most
basic conception and possibly its most impor
tant. Our urban realm—streets, sidewalks,
squares, parks—is a venue for dialogue, for
connecting ideas and people. It is the space
or links the space where face-to-face interac
tion produces innovation. And since "face-to-
face" does exclude those in cars, we support
a prosperous, connected city by designing our
spaces foremost to appeal to pedestrians, not
motorists. Downtown and local centers need
continuous walking routes bordered by human-
scale frontages, full of variety and interest at
eye level, to encourage fruitful interactions.
Kalie Goodrum athensrising@flagpole.com
•Speaking of exchange of ideas, the second of three
public information work sessions on the Classic Center
expansion design will take place Tuesday, Feb. 22 from
6-9 p.m. at the Classic Center. We’ll see you there!
Building social capital:£eople engage in sociable conversations four and a half
times more often at a farmers market, like this one in Acton, MA, than in a su
permarket, according to psychologist Robert Sommer and the Project for Public
Places (pps.org).
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FEBRUARY 16, 2011 • FLAGPOLE.COM 7
