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Venture for America lures smart young people to startups in cities like Philadelphia

The New York Times Tuesday, July 16, 2013

This nonprofit organization places fellows in cities that aren’t traditional startup magnets, including Philadelphia. The New York Times profiled one young man who moved to Detroit via Venture for America.

Some people might look at what Brentt Baltimore did and shake their heads in disbelief. Last year, Mr. Baltimore, a graduate of Claremont McKenna College in California who majored in economics and finance, turned down a six-figure job at a Los Angeles area hedge fund. Instead he took a $33,000-a-year position at a venture capital firm in Detroit. This, even though he has about $38,000 in student loan debt.

Mr. Baltimore, 24, is part of a small group of recent graduates who are forgoing large salaries to work for start-up businesses in Detroit, Las Vegas, Cincinnati, Cleveland, New Orleans, Baltimore and Philadelphia and Providence, R.I. He chose his job with the help of Venture for America, a nonprofit organization that selects fellows to work in cities that aren’t the usual magnets for young college graduates. By August, 108 fellows will be working at 70 companies as part of the two-year program.

Original source: The New York Times
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Philly named one of the happiest cities for young professionals

Forbes.com Tuesday, April 30, 2013

The City of Brotherly Love is also a place for happiness, at least among young professionals. Our city comes in at No. 7 on the list.

That’s according to CareerBliss.com, an online career site that just released its list of the 10 happiest cities for young professionals, based on analysis from more than 45,000 employee generated reviews between April 2012 and March 2013. Young professionals, defined by CareerBliss as employees with less than 10 years’ experience in a full-time position, were asked to evaluate ten factors that affect workplace happiness. Those include one’s relationship with the boss and co-workers, work environment, job resources, compensation, growth opportunities, company culture, company reputation, daily tasks, and control over the work one does on a daily basis.

Original source: Forbes.com
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Report details big population bump in Center City

The Daily News Tuesday, December 04, 2012

Thanks to national trends and an increasing urban vitality, Center City is experiencing a big population increase. According to a report released last Tuesday by the Center City District and Central Philadelphia Development Corp., the population of "greater Center City" rose 10.2 percent from 2000-2010.

Philadelphia now has the third-largest downtown population among American cities (behind New York and Chicago), the report notes. That trend boosted both the volume and price of residential sales and rentals, and spurred more construction and renovation, the report shows.

Original Source: The Daily News
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Seattle ponders City of Philadelphia seed fund Startup PHIL

GeekWire Monday, October 29, 2012

Seattle's GeekWire considers how the recently announced City of Philadelphia seed fund Startup PHL would play in Washington State.

The jury is out whether these types of programs should fall under government agencies. Interestingly, the topic has become a key talking point in the race for governor in Washington state. Candidate Rob McKenna has continued to hammer Jay Inslee over an idea, which he has since dropped, to pump state pension money into startups.

Original source: GeekWire

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Going global: Philly ranks 71st in the urban revolution, circa 2025

Foreign Policy magazine Monday, August 20, 2012

You've been reading in Flying Kite for some time about the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia-led World Class Greater Philadelphia initiative, which aims to establish our region as a world-class city by 2026. The folks at Foreign Policy magazine have created a list of the most dynamic cities of 2025 that represent the coming urban revolution, and Philadelphia ranks 71st behind the likes of Atlanta, San Diego and Ankara, Turkey.

Developed using McKinsey Global Institute's Cityscope database of 2,600 cities, the index represents one possible scenario of the urban world's evolution. Cities refer to integrated metropolitan areas, aggregating neighboring cities into a single urban center where appropriate. Estimates are based on underlying demographic and GDP per capita growth projections, and subject to significant uncertainty in evolution of everything from population and migration patterns to per capita GDP growth and exchange rate outlook.

Original source: Foreign Policy magazine

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Esquire declares Philly 'late-night capital'

Esquire Friday, August 10, 2012

Good brew and food for hungry fellas in the wee hours puts Philadelphia on Esquire's radar as the late-night capital of the U.S.

Once referred to as the "workshop of the world," the great factory city of Philadelphia still has a third-shift appetite: It gets hungry after midnight. And it doesn't hurt that the local love for microbrewing, dating to the late 1600s, shows up on beer lists so intricately compiled they'd be described as curated in more pretentious cities. (Yes, Brooklyn, I mean you.) Epic jukeboxes and random dartboards, roasted meat and melted cheese, super-hard-to-find beers and whiskey neat — all served up without judgment in an American stronghold for going big into the wee hours: Welcome to the dark side.

Original source: Esquire

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Philly future: Government as 'an enabler and a platform for innovation'

GreenBiz Tuesday, July 24, 2012

GreenBiz reports on Philadelphia's Chief Innovation Officer Adel Ebeid and his talk to attendees at the GreenBiz Cities 2.0 webcast last week.

The city of brotherly love has published more than 100 datasets since April, when Mayor Michael Nutter issued an executive order requiring city branches to release their once-buried information through an online portal accessible to anyone. The site includes data from nonprofits, universities and businesses, as well as municipal data from maps of enterprise zones to a searchable database of childcare providers.

Original source: GreenBiz

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Philadelphia leaders take to Toronto to share and 'steal'

Yonge Street Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Greater Philadelphia Economy League Executive Director Steve Wray talkes to Flying Kite sister publication Yonge Street about his organization's Greater Philadelphia Leadership Exchange, which visits Toronto this week.

One the focuses of the Economy League is what it means to be a world-class region and what it would take for Greater Philadelphia to attain status as a world-class region. As we select places to go, we look for regions that are world class or striving to be world class. Clearly Toronto has attained the status in the global community as a city and region on the rise, as a global financial capital and as an international city. We thought there were a lot of lessons we could bring back to Philadelphia from Toronto that would serve us well.

Original source: Yonge Street

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WSJ gushes over Philly's food, culture and design

Wall Street Journal Tuesday, May 22, 2012

The Wall Street Journal's insider's guide to Philadelphia touts "miles of green space," among other assets.

All this art wouldn't do much good if it couldn't be accompanied by an excellent meal. Fortunately, Philadelphia is awash with tasty picks, from Mark Vetri's fine-Italian Vetri to the quirky Talula's Garden, which opened just last year and has already earned national acclaim. But don't worry -- the cheesesteaks will always be dripping with juice. Some things never quite get old.

Original source: Wall Street Journal

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Addressing satellite dishes that make Philly look like 'Area 51'

Wall Street Journal Tuesday, May 01, 2012

The Wall Street Journal digs into the "epidemic" of satellite dishes overwhelming the residential landscape in many cities.

Along some streets in East Boston, satellite dishes protrude from nearly every house, with some multifamily structures decked with as many as eight. Other cities are reporting a similar outbreak. "We have blocks that look like NASA or Area 51," said William Carter, a chief staffer for the Philadelphia City Council.

Original source: Wall Street Journal

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The crime-fighting trees of Philadelphia

Stanford Social Innovation Review Tuesday, April 24, 2012

The Stanford Social Innovation Review writes about a study led by University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine epidemiologist Charles Branas that showed greened vacant lots decreased gun assaults.

"We see it happening," says Robert Grossman, director of the PHS Philadelphia Green Program. "The neighborhoods where we’ve done a lot of this work are really transformed." The vacant lots host weddings and barbecues, instead of drug dealers and prostitutes, he says.

Original source: Stanford Social Innovation Review

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The E-Lane's fleeting reality and how Philly pedestrians walk on

City of Philadelphia; Prevention Tuesday, April 03, 2012

Further proof that Mayor Michael Nutter is lining up a second career as an entertainer is the E-Lane video and weeklong April Fool's joke that shed light on the real problem of distracted pedestrians.

Meanwhile, Philly rates as the ninth most walkable city according to Prevention, which utilized Walkscore's grades to build a top-25 list.

This spring, Sister Cities Park in Center City opens, with attractions like a family-friendly café, children's discovery garden and play area, and a fountain commemorating Philadelphia's global sister cities—adding to the city's already 10,000 acre park system.

Original source: Prevention

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Philly ranks 30th on global city competitiveness list

The Economist Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Philadelphia ranked 30th overall, just behind Dallas, Dublin, Madrid and Seattle and ahead of Berlin, Atlanta, Oslo and Brussels, in The Economist Intelligence Unit's report Hot Spots: Benchmarking Global City Competitiveness. We were tied for 10th when it came to institutional effectiveness with a bunch of other American cities and 16th when it came to human capital.

Size alone does not determine a city’s growth potential. While some megacities, such as New York and Tokyo, are immensely influential, there are smaller ones, such as Hong Kong and Singapore, which have established themselves as globally competitive centres in recent years. Meanwhile, emerging market cities such as Ahmedabad and Tianjin are witnessing double-digit economic growth and have the potential to grow even faster.

Original source: The Economist
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The buck strolls on Baltimore Ave. in University City

MonkeyDish Tuesday, March 06, 2012

Baltimore Ave.'s Dollar Stroll in University City makes MonkeyDish's list of 50 great ideas among national restaurant innovations.

Each Stroll has attracted over a thousand patrons who don’t mind waiting in line to sample the familiar at shops such as Milk & Honey Market, which specializes in local cheese, produce and their own urban honey, and far-away cuisines at Desi Chaat House and Vientiane Cafe.

Original source: MonkeyDish
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Hot or Not, Philadelphia: Beautiful Streets project compares 200 of our streets

Architizer Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Architizer takes a look at Beautiful Streets, which uses pairwise surveys to compare 200 randomly selected streets in Philadelphia.

The site model may seem a bit antiquated (the dubious ethics behind its content is beyond dispute at this point), but here we are, with Beautiful Streets, which pairs two randomly selected Philadelphia streets and asks the user to decide which is more beautiful. "What makes a beautiful street, or a pleasant neighborhood?," the site asks. "Maybe that’s hard to define, but can you tell a beautiful place from somewhere that’s not so hot?" What turns out to be another outlet of fleeting distraction can actually provoke some interesting insights.

Original source: Architizer
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