Density and diversity, according to a new article in Psychology Today, give urban dwellers a potential edge.

For every doubling in city size, there's a 14 to 27 percent increase in productivity per worker, and psychologists and others are trying to explain why. They believe the gains "can be… more

Douglas McLennan continues his exploration of mass culture with another provocative blog entry.

Why are People, Us, and Time considered "mass culture" when they sell to less than 1.5 percent of an audience in a country of more than 300 million? And why is The New Yorker, with its… more

Design Observer reports on the campaign developed by Nichelle Narcisi to raise the turnout of voters between 18 and 24. The campaign was developed in less than 24 hours at last month's Next Conference sponsored by AIGA.

This is what great advertising is all about. See it here.

Thanks to the apparent influence of adman Dan Wieden, Starbucks is buying TV airtime. It's a first for the company, although current plans call for spending only a fraction of what its competitors spend.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the company "likes to think of itself as a collection… more

London Mayor Ken Livingston and Transport for London want London to be a world-class walking friendly city by 2015. During the next three years, TfL and the London boroughs will invest the equivalent of $250 million to improve conditions for pedestrians in London.

It's all part of London's 330-mile Strategic… more

Universities, hospitals, museums and other nonprofits are generally exempt from taxes, most notably property taxes. These exemptions in 23 cities, according to a survey by The Chronicle of Philanthropy, amount to $1.5 billion.

The biggest exemptions are in NYC, Boston, LA, DC, Houston and Philadelphia. But the biggest impacts are… more

At our recent national meeting, network experts Sean Safford, Tara Lemmey and Robin Chase described how networks are being used to strengthen communities and make better use of resources. Now, networks can be mapped with software from Boston Consulting Group. Read about it in Business Week.

Today's ArtsJournal, Douglas McLennan's daily compilation of arts news, includes a link to Doug's blog where points out that the very strategies that make something successful in a mass culture model may work against that success in a niche market model.

And then he takes on newspapers.

"If the average reading… more

"American cities that excel in the digital arena are being recognized by the Center for Digital Government" A new report issued from the Center for Digital Government ranks cities by, "how cities are using technology to create a seamless environment between local government and constituents."

The Top Ten… more

Tearing down the proverbial walls around universities and connecting them with their neighborhoods is a nascent movement first heralded by CEOs for Cities in its inaugural study written by Michael Porter. But while strong examples of university-community partnerships continue to appear throughout the U.S., the movement may be threatened by… more

Doug Farr, who chaired the development of LEED-ND, has written an important new book, Sustainable Urbanism, just out today from John Wiley. He pushes "new urbanism" and "green buildings" to the next level. Doug defines sustainable urbanism as walkable, transit-served urbanism integrated with high-performance buildings and high-performance infrastructure.

His… more

Yesterday, Oregon voters overwhelmingly approved a legislatively crafted measure to re-write the property rights initiative approved 3 years ago. The re-write, called measure 49, greatly scales back the compensation provisions--to allow for a few land owners to build one to three houses on land where such development would have been… more

Congratulations to Michael Nutter, who today was elected Mayor of Philadelphia by a four to one margin over his opponent.

Nutter told reporters for the Inquirer today "We have to lower crime in this city, we have to educate our children, create jobs and restore integrity to government. Those have been… more

Citizens of Dallas, Texas, will go to the polls Nov. 6 to vote on, among other things, whether a toll road will be part of the Trinity River Corridor Project, for which voters approved funding in 1998. If the measure on the ballot passes, the toll road would be removed… more

If you're looking to MinnPost.com for news about Britney Spears' latest antics, you're out of luck. So writes news editor Casey Selix of the big new experiment to provide "thoughtful journalism" to the Twin Cities. It is set to launch November 8.

According to the web site, "around… more

Writing for USA Today, Presbyterian minister Henry Brinton says the Christian faith is becoming more like Wikipedia and less like the Encyclopedia Britannica. "Instead of time-tested religious insights, people are accepting 'what others are saying.'"

As faith declines in formerly trusted authorities, such as the press, banks, education and organize… more

I've been carrying around a weeks-old David Brooks' column in which he identifies the new life phases: childhood, adolescence, odyssey, adulthood, active retirement and old age. The new additions are, of course, odyssey and active retirement.

Odyssey, Brooks writes, is the decade of wandering that frequently occurs between adolescence and… more

Check out the new crop of young entrepreneurs on Business Week's Special Report on the "Best Entrepreneurs 25 and Under." Are these young talents in your city? If so, how do you ensure they stay? If not, how do you attract them? Or better yet, how do you create… more

Zipcar and Flexcar, the nation's two largest car-sharing companies, are merging. The combined company will be called Zipcar and offer more markets and better access for customers. Customers will also benefit from more free miles and improved insurance coverage.

The merger brings car sharing closer to the goal of being,… more