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I have been very vocal on this blog about the importance “nighttime economies” for cities and for its creative industries. So I continue to be encouraged by all of the attention that this topic is getting over the last year or so.
Recently, the Creative Industries Federation released a report called: Because the Night - Why what happens after dark matters to the creative industries. It’s a look at creative industries in the UK and the role that nightlife plays in supporting them.
Here are some of their takeaways:
Creative industries in the UK have been growing faster than any other sector since 2008. CIF estimates that 1/11 people now work in this space, with the number being much higher in London: 1/6.
The value of restaurants, clubs, bars, pubs, live music venues, and theaters, is that they are places to connect, showcase talent, develop ideas, and so on. They are also critical in attracting top talent because, well, people not surprisingly like to have fun.
In the span of one decade (2005 to 2015), it is estimated that the UK lost roughly half of its nightclubs. The total went from 3,144 to 1,733. From 2007 to 2015, London lost 35% of its “grassroots music venues”, which, historically, have served to support emerging artists.
Arguably, some of this may be due to changes in consumer preference and broader shifts in terms of the way people discover/consume music. But it’s also thought to be because of rising urban rents, concerns around noise and revelry, and so on.
Still, the nighttime economy in the UK is thought to be worth £66 billion per year and to employ some 1.3 million people. It’s an integral part of our urban economies and so it’s time we acknowledged and celebrated it as such.
If you’re looking for more evidence that the way we live and work is changing, then check out a new startup called Roam. They describe themselves as an international network of communal spaces. So far, they have locations in Ubud (Bali), Miami, and Madrid. Buenos Aires and London are coming soon.
The way it works is that you start by signing a lease for either a week or a month. You get a private room and bathroom, but everything else, from the co-working spaces to the kitchens, are shared amongst the community. Like other co-working and co-living environments, the community they build is critical.
However, what really differentiates Roam is that you can sign one lease and then live all over the world, freely traveling across their properties. All of the locations are offered up at the same price and you can stay for as long as you’d like.
In my line of work, I don’t have the flexibility of living like a global nomad. But today, there are many people who can. And I also know that there are many people who would prefer to live like this. It’s liberating in so many ways.
My friend and I actually had a similar idea to this back in University and we spent some time working on it. At the time, and this was over a decade ago, we felt that there was a segment of people who increasingly wanted to live like global citizens. I still believe that to be true and, clearly, so do others.
To date, Roam has raised $3.4 million in funding.
Image: Ubud kitchen via Roam
The Guardian Cities UK is currently focusing on all things Canada for a special week-long series. The first post is up and it’s about why Toronto is “
I have been very vocal on this blog about the importance “nighttime economies” for cities and for its creative industries. So I continue to be encouraged by all of the attention that this topic is getting over the last year or so.
Recently, the Creative Industries Federation released a report called: Because the Night - Why what happens after dark matters to the creative industries. It’s a look at creative industries in the UK and the role that nightlife plays in supporting them.
Here are some of their takeaways:
Creative industries in the UK have been growing faster than any other sector since 2008. CIF estimates that 1/11 people now work in this space, with the number being much higher in London: 1/6.
The value of restaurants, clubs, bars, pubs, live music venues, and theaters, is that they are places to connect, showcase talent, develop ideas, and so on. They are also critical in attracting top talent because, well, people not surprisingly like to have fun.
In the span of one decade (2005 to 2015), it is estimated that the UK lost roughly half of its nightclubs. The total went from 3,144 to 1,733. From 2007 to 2015, London lost 35% of its “grassroots music venues”, which, historically, have served to support emerging artists.
Arguably, some of this may be due to changes in consumer preference and broader shifts in terms of the way people discover/consume music. But it’s also thought to be because of rising urban rents, concerns around noise and revelry, and so on.
Still, the nighttime economy in the UK is thought to be worth £66 billion per year and to employ some 1.3 million people. It’s an integral part of our urban economies and so it’s time we acknowledged and celebrated it as such.
If you’re looking for more evidence that the way we live and work is changing, then check out a new startup called Roam. They describe themselves as an international network of communal spaces. So far, they have locations in Ubud (Bali), Miami, and Madrid. Buenos Aires and London are coming soon.
The way it works is that you start by signing a lease for either a week or a month. You get a private room and bathroom, but everything else, from the co-working spaces to the kitchens, are shared amongst the community. Like other co-working and co-living environments, the community they build is critical.
However, what really differentiates Roam is that you can sign one lease and then live all over the world, freely traveling across their properties. All of the locations are offered up at the same price and you can stay for as long as you’d like.
In my line of work, I don’t have the flexibility of living like a global nomad. But today, there are many people who can. And I also know that there are many people who would prefer to live like this. It’s liberating in so many ways.
My friend and I actually had a similar idea to this back in University and we spent some time working on it. At the time, and this was over a decade ago, we felt that there was a segment of people who increasingly wanted to live like global citizens. I still believe that to be true and, clearly, so do others.
To date, Roam has raised $3.4 million in funding.
Image: Ubud kitchen via Roam
The Guardian Cities UK is currently focusing on all things Canada for a special week-long series. The first post is up and it’s about why Toronto is “
I don’t agree with everything in the essay – or maybe I just despise being called boring, steady, and predictable – but there are a number of great gems that I would like to reblog today. Here are the 5 that stood out for me.
1. Chicago vs. Toronto:
“What Chicago was to the 20th century, Toronto will be to the 21st. Chicago was the great city of industry; Toronto will be the great city of post-industry. Chicago is grit, top-quality butchers, glorious modernist buildings and government blight; Toronto is clean jobs and artisanal ice-creameries, identical condos, excellent public schools and free healthcare for all. Chicago is a decaying factory where Americans used to make stuff. Toronto is a new bank where the tellers can speak two dozen languages.”
2. London vs. New York vs. Toronto Bankers:
“In London and New York, the worst stereotype of a banker is somebody who enjoys cocaine, Claret and vast megalomaniac schemes. In Toronto, a banker handles teachers’ pension portfolios and spends weekends at the cottage.”
3. Montreal vs. Toronto:
“I was 19 when he said that, and I knew even then that for the rest of my life, Canada’s future would be built on money and immigrants. I wasn’t wrong. Most Canadian business headquarters had already taken the five-hour drive west. After 95, the rest followed. Montreal decided to become a French-Canadian city. Toronto decided to become a global city.”
4. The last time Toronto built a white elephant subway line:
“On any given morning on the Sheppard subway line in the north of the city, you can sit down in perfect peace and order, although you will find little evidence of good government. As the latest addition to Toronto’s fraying infrastructure, the Sheppard subway is largely untroubled by urban bustle. The stations possess the discreet majesty of abandoned cathedrals, designed for vastly more people than currently use them, like ruins that have never been inhabited. Meanwhile, in the overcrowded downtown lines, passengers are stacked up the stairs. The streetcars along a single main street, Spadina, carry more people on a daily basis than the whole of the Sheppard line, whose expenses run to roughly $10 a passenger, according to one estimate. A critic has suggested that sending cabs for everybody would be cheaper.”
5. On Mayor Tory:
“The current mayor, John Tory, is not an idiot, although he is hardly a figure of the “new Toronto”. He represents, more than any other conceivable human being, the antique white anglo-saxon protestant (Wasp) elite of Toronto, his father being one of the most important lawyers in the city’s history. The old Wasps had their virtues, it has to be said – it wasn’t all inedible cucumber sandwiches and not crying at funerals.”
I don’t agree with everything in the essay – or maybe I just despise being called boring, steady, and predictable – but there are a number of great gems that I would like to reblog today. Here are the 5 that stood out for me.
1. Chicago vs. Toronto:
“What Chicago was to the 20th century, Toronto will be to the 21st. Chicago was the great city of industry; Toronto will be the great city of post-industry. Chicago is grit, top-quality butchers, glorious modernist buildings and government blight; Toronto is clean jobs and artisanal ice-creameries, identical condos, excellent public schools and free healthcare for all. Chicago is a decaying factory where Americans used to make stuff. Toronto is a new bank where the tellers can speak two dozen languages.”
2. London vs. New York vs. Toronto Bankers:
“In London and New York, the worst stereotype of a banker is somebody who enjoys cocaine, Claret and vast megalomaniac schemes. In Toronto, a banker handles teachers’ pension portfolios and spends weekends at the cottage.”
3. Montreal vs. Toronto:
“I was 19 when he said that, and I knew even then that for the rest of my life, Canada’s future would be built on money and immigrants. I wasn’t wrong. Most Canadian business headquarters had already taken the five-hour drive west. After 95, the rest followed. Montreal decided to become a French-Canadian city. Toronto decided to become a global city.”
4. The last time Toronto built a white elephant subway line:
“On any given morning on the Sheppard subway line in the north of the city, you can sit down in perfect peace and order, although you will find little evidence of good government. As the latest addition to Toronto’s fraying infrastructure, the Sheppard subway is largely untroubled by urban bustle. The stations possess the discreet majesty of abandoned cathedrals, designed for vastly more people than currently use them, like ruins that have never been inhabited. Meanwhile, in the overcrowded downtown lines, passengers are stacked up the stairs. The streetcars along a single main street, Spadina, carry more people on a daily basis than the whole of the Sheppard line, whose expenses run to roughly $10 a passenger, according to one estimate. A critic has suggested that sending cabs for everybody would be cheaper.”
5. On Mayor Tory:
“The current mayor, John Tory, is not an idiot, although he is hardly a figure of the “new Toronto”. He represents, more than any other conceivable human being, the antique white anglo-saxon protestant (Wasp) elite of Toronto, his father being one of the most important lawyers in the city’s history. The old Wasps had their virtues, it has to be said – it wasn’t all inedible cucumber sandwiches and not crying at funerals.”
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