Tech:NYC has just launched a new podcast called Talk:NYC. The first episode is with venture capitalist and blogger Fred Wilson. (Though, it should be noted that Fred and his wife, Joanne, are also involved in the real estate development space.) In this episode, Julie Samuels and Fred Wilson talk about why he came to New York, how to manage through a downturn, where working spaces are going, and why the magic of New York is still there -- among a bunch of other things. Click here if you can't see the embedded podcast below.
It used to be the case that cities had a habit of catching fire and burning down. Toronto had the Great Fires of 1849 and 1904. Chicago had the Great Fire of 1871. And the same can be said about many other cities. In fact, you probably weren't considered a real city until you had some sort of "Great Fire." But as Derek Thompson points out in this recent Atlantic article about urban comebacks, disasters have a way of forcing positive change:
The 21st-century city is the child of catastrophe. The comforts and infrastructure we take for granted were born of age-old afflictions: fire, flood, pestilence. Our tall buildings, our subways, our subterranean conduits, our systems for bringing water in and taking it away, our building codes and public-health regulations—all were forged in the aftermath of urban disasters by civic leaders and citizen visionaries.
As Charles Dickens famously described, British cities in the early years of the Industrial Revolution were grim and pestilential. London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds—they didn’t suffer from individual epidemics so much as from overlapping, never-ending waves of disease: influenza, typhoid, typhus, tuberculosis.
It's somewhat unfortunate, but oftentimes we need something to break before any action is taken. There's a bias toward the status quo. Otherwise, it becomes a question of, "what did we do last time? Well that worked just fine. Let's do it again." But hopefully all of this makes you at least a little optimistic about the future. Because history has taught us that when faced with adversity, we don't typically turn our back on our cities. Rather we turn around and make them better.
This has been a summer of cycling, playing tennis (poorly) on Toronto's public courts, and eating and drinking on sidewalks -- sometimes with, get this, no fencing. But winter will arrive in this part of the world at some point and that will mean having to rethink our patios. I'm certain that we'll be doing everything we can to extend the season this year because we are already seeing that take place in other cities.
Last month, the City of Chicago launched, in partnership with IDEO, BMO Harris Bank, and the Illinois Restaurant Association, a competition called the Winter Dining Challenge. The goal is exactly what I just described. It's to solicit creative ideas for how Chicago can make outdoor dining feasible all throughout the winter. (Chicago and Toronto have similar winters.)
Domes, pods, and heaters are likely to feature in the submissions, which makes me wonder at what point are you basically now considered to be "inside" as opposed to "outside." Presumably fresh air needs to factor. But I should really reserve judgement until the top ideas are selected. If you'd like to submit an "idea, concept, or startup," you have until September 7, 2020 at 11:30 PM PT. Here's the link.
