The End of Cool?

As part of an ongoing challenge to incorporate more non- fiction in to my personal reading routine I stumbled across a book called The Last Bohemia, Scenes from the Life of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Essentially a tale of urban gentrification, it provides a front row seat to the transformation of this once industrial and dangerous neighbourhood that attracted addicts, struggling artists and financial hardship to – wait for it – “a playground for the game of ironized status-seeking and lifestyle one-upmanship”. Wow, this place is definitely on my list of ‘must visits’. Read the full blog post

Is Economic Development Too Trendy?

We spend a lot of time in our line of work reading reports, publications and articles that detail the trends and opportunities for provincial, national and international economic growth and trying to connect these findings with what is possible and realistic in a community at any given time.

What concerns me the most about the discussion that emerges is the degree to which some economic development professionals across Canada and the United States have tried to formularize economic development, as if this line of work could ever be seen as a one size fits all or trendy. Read the full blog post