Startup Districts

A blog about the symbiotic relation between creative industries and cities... and the perils of urban revitalization. By Mayra Madriz

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Investment in high speed fiber internet into what is known locally as the Kansas City Startup Village is drawing early stage startups into the community.  

Image via: Fast Company 

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Co-working spaces and small business incubators such play an essential role in the innovation ecology by providing a physical and social infrastructure that nurtures entrepreneurship. Central Working in London has served as a platform for US based startups to start their expansion in the UK. 

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The challenge of closing the digital divide poses an interesting question for cities everywhere simultaneously vying to become tech hubs: Can you really build one in a city with a yawning digital divide? Conversely, how do you leverage high-tech companies and entrepreneurs – once you have them in town, that is – to spread the advantages of technology more widely?

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The mere existence of a creative agglomeration is not enough for the benefits from clustering to emerge. The other crucial ingredient is connectivity between firms within a cluster, with collaborators, business partners, and sources of innovation elsewhere… and finally, with firms in other sectors that can act as clients, and as a source of new and unexpected ideas and knowledge. These three layers of connectivity are underpinned by a dense web of informal interactions and networking.

Creative Clusters and Innovation Report (2010)

UK National Endowment for Science, Technology, and the Arts  (NESTA)

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This article examines the community benefit agreements and of Twitter, Zendesk and other tech companies relocating on San Francisco's mid-market district. It addresses how tech companies can integrate with urban communities and what sort of change they inevitably will bring to longstanding neighborhoods. 

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Detroit, a city whose downtown is better known for its recent economic decline, is drawing a number of college-educated people under age 35.

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New York City emerges as the second center for tech innovation in the country. 

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Is the time is right for New York City to compete with Silicon Valley as a center for tech innovation?

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Affordable rents, a vibrant restaurant scene and a central location fueled the development of a technology cluster in East London. 

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 Carly Cloge argues that a tight-knit community must exist to set the stage for a healthy startup ecosystem. 

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On his book Startup Communities Brad Feld unveils the ingredients that made Boulder a successful entrepreneurial city. 

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The City of Mountain View embraces Google's vision for retrofitting its Mountain View campus as a dense, walkable and connected urban place. 

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A creative agency moves to Detroit and exemplifying the hopes for a strong comeback of the ailing motor city.

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The Greater Milwaukee Committee is working to advance the creation of a design technology cluster as part as their economic revitalization strategy. 

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Richard Florida's piece in the Wall Street Journal articulates why tech companies are opting for an urban future.

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A single anchor tenant can drive the development of a creative cluster. In las Vegas, Tony Hsieh from Zappos is investing in creating a pedestrian oriented mixed use community in downtown Las Vegas, the location of his new company HQ.  

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An industrial manufacturing district transformed into world class destination for visual and performance art.