Aaron M. Renn

All Things Aaron

Chicago’s $600 Million in Protein Bars

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Crain's Chicago reports that a local protein bar company called RxBar is being acquired by Kellogg's for $600 million. RxBar was started by some friends in their early 30s with $10,000 in funds. They initially built it out of their parent's suburban kitchen, then into a commercial space in the city. They now have $120 million in revenue, employ 75, are hiring 40 more, and the owners (and any later investors they may have) are about to become spectacularly rich: Four years ago, Peter Rahal was making protein bars in his parents' Glen Ellyn … [Read more...]

Best “Made In Indiana” Logo Ever

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I picked up a bottle of Terra Botanical Gin from Bloomington, Indiana's Cardinal Spirits and noticed this interesting logo on it. Many cites and states are attempting to create pride of place by various "Made in X" logos to indicate the location of origin. Coming up with a great logo is pretty tough, no matter where you are from. Most of the ones I've seen are fairly workaday. Indiana of course has done the same. There are a variety of "Made in Indiana" logos you can browse online at Google. This one is by far the best I've seen. I … [Read more...]

Industrial Past, Industrial Future

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The Wall Street Journal had an interesting article about how Chicago's downtown office boom is being fueled by old line industries like food and consumer goods. Like many other major U.S. cities, Chicago is enjoying a boom as big employers opt for downtowns over suburban office parks that are being shunned by young workers. More than $20 billion worth of residential, office, cultural and retail projects are in development or on the drawing board, according to the city Planning and Development Department. But Chicago’s growth engine is … [Read more...]

Are Cities Too Conservative?

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Political conservatism is all but extinct in cities, but the conservative impulse is alive and well. That is, a desire to prevent change in the name of preserving something that people find of value is still a powerful motivating force. Historic preservation is an example of the conservative impulse. NIMBYism is an example of the conservative impulse. Anti-gentrification advocacy is an example of the conservative impulse. In fact, it strikes me that cities are more conservative now than they were in the past. Previous generations … [Read more...]

How Does Housing Stock Affect Urban Revitalization?

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The second of Pete Saunders' nine reasons why Detroit failed is "poor housing stock," particularly its overweighting towards small, early postwar cottages. Here's a sample: Here's what Pete had to say: Detroit may be well-known for its so-called ruins, but much of the city is relentlessly covered with small, Cape Cod-style, 3-bedroom and one-bath single family homes on slabs that are not in keeping with contemporary standards for size and quality.....The truth, however, is that Detroit may have one of the greatest concentrations of … [Read more...]

Providence Shows the Limits of Metropolitan Governance

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Regionalism and metropolitan government are urban planning orthodoxy. The idea is that we need to have region-wide planning to meet the actual regional needs, which transcend boundaries. And also to have an equitable financing structure. So entities like Portland's Metro (a directly elected layer of regional government on the Oregon side of that metro area) and the Twin Cities' Metropolitan Council and region-wide tax sharing system are lauded. Because these regions have been fairly successful and seem to function well, their regional … [Read more...]

The Landscape of Global Urbanization

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I gave a lecture recently in New York on urbanization and global cities. I'm sharing a couple of segments of that as podcasts. The first is a short introduction to global urbanization. I talk about the radical rural-urban shift in human living patterns, the increase in city size (especially the growth of megacities), and the challenges arising from urban growth in the developing world. This podcast is a good basic introduction to the topic that will be very helpful for anyone to get an understanding of the basics. Some of the stats on … [Read more...]

The Great Non-Profit Die Off

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Marc Lapides wrote an op-ed in Crain's Chicago Business calling for an 1871 accelerator for creating new non-profits. Most cities could actually use the opposite. What they need is an infrastructure for euthanizing non-profits that are past their expiration date. When I look around older cities, I frequently see that they've got a veritable armada of non-profits. Rarely do I see these making a huge difference in the trajectory of the city. The usual complaint about too many non-profits is that they aren't coordinated, and so often … [Read more...]

How Do We Measure Thriving Cities?

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Josh Yates at the University of Virginia is the director of a project there called "Thriving Cities." One if the interesting things they did is put together an analysis of city indicators that people use to measure their success. They linked it to popularity, level of academic support, and other items. It's a cool project they call the Indicator Explorer. Here's a screen shot: I sat down with Josh recently and chatted with him about the project for the podcast. If the audio player doesn't display for you, click over to listen on … [Read more...]

Brief Notes on Boston Transit

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I was in Boston at the end of last week for a conference and rode around on Boston transit for a bit. I'd ridden their commuter rail many times, but not much in the city besides the Silver Line bus service to the airport. I noticed that the Red and Orange Line subways both appeared to be very well patronized at rush hour, with some pretty crowded trains. A couple of stops left people unable to get on and having to wait for the next train. Even off-peak had pretty good loads. The frequencies seemed to be decent too. Curious, I went to … [Read more...]