Tag: 7 areas

DMC find inspiration in Las Vegas? You bet!

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Check out what’s happening in downtown redevelopment in Las Vegas.  Slate, a daily web magazine, featured the Las Vegas Downtown Project on Dec. 5, 2013, in an article titled “Sin No More.”

Reporter Mark Joseph Stern writes: “Tony Hsieh has a vision for Las Vegas — and it doesn’t include glitz, gambling, sex, or Celine Dion. Instead, the fabulously wealthy founder of Zappos and 39-year-old wunderkind plans to turn the proudly sinful city into the one thing it absolutely isn’t: a family-friendly startup paradise.    Welcome to Las Vegas sign on the Las Vegas Strip. 11/13/09

“In 2010, Hsieh announced a $350 million investment in the city, with $200 million for real-estate investments, $50 million for tech startups, $50 million for arts, health care, and education, and $50 million for small businesses. (The source of the investment money is hazy, but much of it may come from Hsieh’s own pockets.) The plan, dubbed the Downtown Project, is designed to foster entrepreneurship and innovation, especially in Hsieh’s own field, tech. But business is really just the first step. When Hsieh’s project is complete—by the middle of the decade, he hopes—he’ll have created a seemingly paradoxical utopia: A new Silicon Valley just blocks from the Las Vegas strip.”

Like DMC and its focus on eight core areas of community vitality, the Downtown Project encompasses better health care options, more parks, restaurants, non-gaming entertainment and other attributes to make downtown attractive to workers, their families and small businesses.

Redevelopment is taking hold. Already, 60 start-ups call Las Vegas home.  How many new start-ups will call Rochester home in three years? Any wagers on that?

What can be done to make it happen?  Share your ideas here.

Rochester: One of America’s most livable cities?

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6Z8C4133This week’s DMC blog content focused on “Livable City” – one of 7 areas of focus for DMC.

For many Rochester residents, high speed rail connecting Rochester and the Twin Cities, more street markets and performing arts venues are key components to a livable downtown. In this featured article, Freiburg, Germany has been named the world’s most livable city. The article highlights the city’s components of a livable city:

1. Development of Pedestrian Zone
2. Transportation Planning
3. Farmers’ Market
4. Festivals and Street Entertainers
5. Renewable energy, solar industry, photo-voltaics, and water quality
6. Design of a new urban neighborhood

In this article, Travel and Leisure highlights America’s greatest main streets. They all have things in common. They’re smaller communities – no major metropolitan areas. They place emphasis and value on features such as walkability, community-based businesses, architecture and vibrancy.

Clicking through both articles inspires many ideas for Rochester’s future. What are your thoughts? Share some of the ways you feel Rochester could become a more livable city in the comments section below.

Making Rochester a more livable city

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“Livable City” is one of the 7 areas of focus for the Destination Medical Center initiative, but what does it mean? In a nutshell, livable cities are vibrant, welcoming and diverse, and offer places, services and amenities that appeal to a wide range of audiences.

In this week’s installment of “Gabe on the Street,” Gabriel talks with area residents and visitors about their vision for a more livable city. You can read more from our blog authors by searching “livable city” through the search box. And be sure to join the discussion by adding to the comments below.

Creativity and collaboration will help transform Rochester

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Melissa
Melissa Schmid, Blog Author

Ever since I moved to Rochester three years ago, I have thought that this city is a livable city with great potential to evolve. Rochester has so much to offer in terms of outdoor recreational activities along our bike trails and at our parks, shopping, dining, and a wide array of arts and cultural programs. I especially enjoy the downtown atmosphere – a hub of creativity where enthusiastic minds come together every day to innovate and infuse positive energy into our city. The downtown has become a community gathering place through events and festivals, work places, the care-giving of Mayo Clinic and a bustling economy that defines the vibrant personality of our livable city.

I spend a lot of time watching people interact in Rochester and tend to notice a genuine openness and generous spirit, which in my opinion are two characteristics a city must portray in order to be an inviting livable city. As we continue to build our city, embracing our core characteristics of creativity, collaboration, openness and generosity, we will transform Rochester into a more radiant gem for its residents to proudly call “home.”

Melissa Schmid is the events director for the Rochester Downtown Alliance.

What additions to Rochester do you feel would make it a more vibrant, livable city? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Gabe on the Street: Sports & Recreation

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Each week, Gabriel Yeager, DMC Super Volunteer and high school student, will talk with member of the community, patients and visitors about one of the 7 areas of focus for Destination Medical Center. This installment talks about Sports and Recreation. Share your ideas on how to develop this area in Rochester and the region through the comments section below.