Urality

Looking forward to the launch of this!

New Partner Alert 🚨🚨🚨
Welcome to , the newest member of Team !

Cranford will be using Unified to manage their business district and communicate with their businesses and teams on the ground making Cranford a great place!

I'm going to admit to something publicly - I watch Hallmark movies at Christmas Time. Outside of the entirely cliche, predictable plot lines, I want to focus on the themes that typically play out in these movies:

1) There is character development. You're learning about the people in the story.

2) There is a place. A place that is bustling and full of people, that is aesthetically pleasing.

3) There is a goal, most often a shared goal of the people and the place.

Yes, there's the love interest, the love conflict, and the resolution.. but

You ever see a Hallmark movie filmed in a deserted downtown? A street filled with trash?

You ever see a Hallmark movie where there was no character development?

You ever see a Hallmark movie where there was no goal to be worked toward to achieve?

Yes, these movies may be formulaic, but they are tapping into our nature, mirroring the things we like.

Maybe we need to do the same in community development.

Near the tail end of 2023, an article was going around talking about Lancaster, CA and the transformation of their downtown from a driver friendly pass through to a pedestrian's paradise. Here's the link if you're interested:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12859917/California-city-Lancaster-spent-millions-america-best-main-street.html

The TLDR; of this article is that the ROI on this project is incredible.

It bewilders me that we (the royal "we") still consider the conventional economic development strategy (court large corporation, bring jobs, etc) is still the de facto standard in many states across the US.

I think we're to the point where we can say that there's an emerging property in development: Enhancing Quality of Life creates higher ROI.

The three main Quality of Life buckets we should be focused on:
1) Aesthetics. Make places pretty and people will want to live there.
2) Social Opportunity. Give people places to dwell in the public sphere and they will. William H Whyte proved this a long time ago.
3) Local Ownership. When you invest in the people that live in your place, they become more vested and engaged citizens, and they care more about your place.

So which version of capitalism sounds better: Chasing cash cows, or making awesome places?