What Makes a City Cool? Not Telling Everyone You're Cool

Grand Rapids should really benefit from Jennifer Granholm's departure. Another "are we cool enough?" debate has broken out on the Grand Rapids Press website, after an article in its horribly named "Michigan 10.0" series started pondering Western Michigan's ability to be cool. It was followed with a story about ArtPrize, a local arts event, written in the context of making Grand Rapids a destination for the "creative class". It has also re-ignited debate on the website's message boards about how to build the local economy.

I say at this point, Grand Rapids is descending from sounding like a foolish place that actually listens to Richard Florida's bullshit, to one that sounds like a wannabe Jeff Spicoli. When you can't showcase local art without wondering if that makes you a cool city, you might as well just have the mayor skateboard around town asking 18-29 year olds if they're 420 friendly.

Grand Rapids, please stop. I've never advocated book burning, but if that's what it takes, create a bonfire with all the copies of "The Creative Class" you should be torching. Other industrial cities are looking at ways to rebuild their economies, and in spite of tremendous challenges, you don't see Youngstown acting like a 15 year old who can't make the cheerleading squad.

Lambda Lambda Lambda and Omega Mu

USA Today has a story today on how college towns have done better than many places during the recession.   One of the themes of the article is that colleges are playing a greater role in regional economic development.

Over the last couple of years, I've been to college towns like Auburn, Alabama and Lawrence, Kansas, and they are appealing places.  But I also grew up around a college town - New Haven, CT - that is hardly a model of economic development, in spite of getting huge sums of research grants through Yale.   I also know a lot of people here in the DC area who moved from Syracuse, because it provided so little in the way of jobs in spite of its large university.

I think USA Today would have better off saying smaller towns with land grant universities are doing ok during the recession, because college cities that have lost manufacturing jobs are not.

Obama Allocating $100 million of NASA Budget to Economic Development

I used to cover the satellite industry, and can assure you if there's one industry that's not going to be a jobs powerhouse the next 10 years, it's space. And in response to the coming end of the Space Shuttle program, President Obama is allocating $100 million of the FY2011 NASA budget to help Florida, Alabama, and Texas workers associated with the 80s-era initiative find new jobs.

NASA is often the repository of odd Presidential aspirations, George W. Bush wanted to put a man on Mars, and not to be outdone by bizarre ideas, Obama wants to send a man to an Asteroid.

While I don't think it's likely we'll get a man on an Asteroid anytime soon, we can shoot Asteroids like we did in the 80s (Atari version) at this online gaming site.

Walking in L.A.

According to one of my favorite early 80s songs, "only a nobody walks in L.A."   But according to walkscore, LA is more walkable than Portland.    Will be there soon, wonder how much it's really changed.