Paul Sizemore » Louisville

An Industrial Core to Next Frontier City

Paul Sizemore — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:36:18 +0000

In May 2010, Brookings Institute released their new report, the State of Metropolitan America, and it induced a new classification of US cities. The new study deemphasizes location, and heightens the importance of current levels on key categories.

Those categories are:

• population growth rates

• racial and ethnic diversity

• rate of obtaining college degrees

By measuring those key factors, along with other research into the city, they have classified the cities.

I have lived in Louisville for many years, and am currently moving to DC. There is a stark difference between the cities, and it’s underscored by the Brookings study.

Washington DC: The only city east of the Mississippi that is a ‘Next Frontier’ city. Labeled as such because of the hight education attainment, high diversity, and new economic channels.

Louisville: Labeled as an ‘Industrial Core’ city, due to it’s low population growth, low diversity, low educational attainment, and key economics.

Source: http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2010/0511_metro_typology_berube.aspx

Increasing Innovation by Increasing the Pace

Paul Sizemore — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:08:08 +0000

I’ve lived in Louisville off and on for decades, and there has always been a sense of pride over the pace of life in Louisville. Louisville is a slower city, and allows the cultivation of the aspects of life not allowed to flourish in other cities. I’ve explained it as low-gravity city. You can go there and have extraordinary skills and talents, but the longer you stay, the more atrophied those skills become.

Many of us Louisville residents have heard the famous Louisville quote from Mark Twain:

“When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Kentucky, because everything there happens 20 years after it happens anywhere else.” – Mark Twain

Louisville is a great place to perfect the perfect bourbon cherry lemonade recipe, spend time with family, sit on your porch during a hot sumer day, or or anything else that benefits from a slower pace of life.

As a result of the slower pace, less stress, there are stronger connections. Robert V. Levine did some research, and determined that a city’s pace of life was directly proportional to the ‘helpfulness’ of that city. So, he devised a series of experiments where he measured how many residents would help during routine accidents (like dropping papers while on the street). The complete study can be found at http://www.geser.net/gesleh/hs07hel/Levine.pdf

Out of 36 cities, he determined that Louisville was the sixth most helpful city, behind Rochester, NY, Houston, TX, Nashville, TN, and Memphis, TN.

Taking this information, and jumping to the conclusions from Geoffry West, a theoretical physicist that turned his interests and energy to defining cities, it can be determined that Louisville is lacing in one of the key components of Innovation, that of pace.

Geoffry West has determined that there are three main components to Innovation within a city, diversity, density and pace. An overview can be found in a NYTimes article at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/magazine/19Urban_West-t.html?pagewanted=all

How can there be an increase in innovation in Louisville? They could build systems to artificially increase the pace of the city.

Shawn Coots of the team Anti-Villian before the 48HFP

Paul Sizemore — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 21:48:00 +0000

Yesterday was the kick-off for the Louisville 48 Hour Film Project, and while there, I interviewed a few of the film makers. Swan Coots of team Anti-Villian summed up the weekend, and as I interview others, and asked them the same questions, the workflow for all seem close to the same:

Kick-off, write, alcohol, write, sleep, coffee, film, alcohol, sleep, coffee, edit.

Shawn Coots of the team Anti-Villian before the 48HFP from Paul Sizemore on Vimeo.

A visit to ‘WorkShop: the creative work place’

Paul Sizemore — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 13:44:00 +0000

In an effort to find creative workspace for the remote creative knowledge worker in Louisville, KY, I stopped by to see Stephanie Ringer at the WorkShop on 1205 East Washington Street, Louisville, KY. In addition to being near Blind Pig, the space is full of creativity and energy.

It’s the best local space I’ve seen for ideation and product development. It’s full of painted white boards, markers, flip charts, post its, index cards, tape – everything you need for creative business play.

The only thing that I think it’s missing is an arsenal of nerf guns.

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Relic plays Monkey Wrench

Paul Sizemore — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 21:01:37 +0000

Relic has a standing engagement on Wednesday at the Monkey Wrench. This recording was made March 24, 2010.

3/24/10 11:27 Pm
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A night at Le Gallo Rosa

Paul Sizemore — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 20:40:00 +0000

What a night. A friend and I had arranged to meet each other at Ramsi’s on Bardstown Road, and while standing out front, I decided to move it on over to Le Gallo Rosa. What a great decision.

It was the night before they opened their expansion into the front rooms, and Joe took care of us, as he does everyone. The conversation with Angela flowed before the wine could start, and was better than the wine. Was it better than the food? Answering that question might hurt someone’s feelings, so I’ll leave that as rhetorical.

Angela hadn’t had scallops since she was a kid, nor calamari. So in true ‘Paul’ fashion, I pushed her to try them. Not many better places to try them – Scallops on a bed of figs sprinkled with prosciutto. Amazing! The portions are so huge, we decided to share a main entrée – chicken breast stuffed with a cherry cream sauce. Again, crazy good. Nothing more can be said.

The best of the night, as far as food goes, was the cannoli. She makes the shells, need I say more? Srsly? After desert, we took a quick tour of the renovations, and I can’t wait to go back.

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Henry Clay apartments in Louisville

Paul Sizemore — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:11:17 +0000

The ongoing search for a downtown loft lead me to the Henry Clay building in downtown Louisville. The Clay is nestled between the YMCA and Fourth Street Live; it’s a great location. The units have polished concrete floors, and a wonderful location. This is a historic building, built back in the 1920′s, so there aren’t many of the amenities of modern buildings like a lot of communal areas. The units have lower ceilings, and are a mix between industrial and residential. They seem to be trapped in no man’s land.

The photos are of two units, a one bedroom and a two bedroom. Notice the VOIP phone – that was a real surprise.

On my rating matrix it rated: 9 (an aggregate of Cost, Community and Interior score).

Links:

http://www.theHenryClay.com

Address:

604 South Third Street

Louisville, KY

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Fluer De Lis on Main: This is your parent’s loft living

Paul Sizemore — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:10:00 +0000

In my opinion the Fluer De Lis on Main development represents part of what is wrong with Louisville and the country. Real estate as investment over a place to live. After touring it, I feel more strongly about saying that; they are meant to lure the suburban dwellers back to the city, only Louisville hasn’t gone through a great suburban migration. People can comfortably live in their Crescent Hill or Prospect home, and commute in to the city for work, their favorite play or sports event. There’s very few affordable AND cool living spaces downtown. Also, most of the spaces are not for the young mobile professional. There are not many places for the boomerang professional to try out Louisville without buying into living here. Louisville needs more swanky downtown rentals in order to make moving here easier for the convincibles. Sorry, I digressed from the loft review, I’ll resume.

Fluer De Lis on Main has great communal spaces. It has a kitchenette, a room with a fireplace, courtyards and balcony space. The location is excellent. The entire development is best of class. It’s so expensive, it only works as an investment.

On my rating matrix it rated: 9 (an aggregate of Cost, Community and Interior score). The standard interiors are ‘baby boomer,’ and they are expensive. They are investments, not meant to be lived in. They have great meeting spaces in the development, that’s what pulls the score up over the cost and interiors.

Links:

http://www.fleurdelisonmain.com/

Address:
324 East Main Street
Louisville, KY 40202-1285

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Viewing the ZirMed Towers from the Glassworks Lofts

Paul Sizemore — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:09:00 +0000

These lofts are industrial, and the creative class needs more lofts like this, only more financially assessable. These lofts are very large, and offer a lot of space. Communal spaces in the building are rather limited, though. Residents have access to the Glassworks rooftop, and even have access to the shows free. The lofts I looked at looked over the new ZirMed Towers. In addition, there is Jazz in the basement with Jazzy Blu.

On my rating matrix it rated: 11 (an aggregate of Cost, Community and Interior score).

Links:

http://www.CityPropertiesGroup.com

Address:

815 West Market Street

Louisville, KY

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Second Story Man Live at the instore

Paul Sizemore — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 23:14:00 +0000

Carrie Neumayer‘s band, Second Story Man, played EarXTacy today for their album release. It was a real treat getting to hear them. They didn’t bring their drums to the instore, something about the economy and having to sell them to buy some presents and the drums are at Doo Wop.

Second Story Man is:
Evan Bailey (drums, keyboard & vocals)
Jeremy Irvin (guitar & vocals; and founder of Landmark Recordings)
Carrie Neumayer (guitar & vocals)
Kelly Scullin (singer/ songwriter/ bass player)

Earxtacy In Store by Second Story Man
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