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ChartsBin, data visualization
ChartsBin meets a growing collection of experiments, performed with free software, playing with the creation of interactive charts and thematic maps based on statistical tables. For example, here are some samples.
Historical Population of World, 1 AD to Future
Worldwide Driving Orientation by Country
Average Age at first sex by Country
The diversity of small business in downtown #STL is threatened by the return of the large chain. Next big-box stores?
I have witnessed the rebirth of the downtown Saint Louis business district, with great excitement. In economic development trends, I have seen in my city and in other cities, the departure of retail and restaurant businesses with the departure of population. This is due to the fact that chains, franchises and “company” stores adhere to strict age and socioeconomic demographic guidelines. They must have a certain population density and the “right” population. This tends to create a cookie cutter population and cookie cutter business district. What I have noticed recently, in Saint Louis, is that with the movement of population back to the city, the pioneer retail and eatery establishments tends to favor the mom and pop. This, I think, is good thing and something to celebrate.
The problem is that as population continues to increase in the CBD, larger chains and big-box stores start to eye the market with envy. As the big boxes and chains move in (paying their minimum wages), they supplant the pioneer mom and pops (who generally pay living wages). As the cookie cutter business district begins to expand and take-over, the population becomes cookie cutter along with the bland offerings of the chains and big boxes. These larger corporate stores often are the beneficiaries of large, politically motivated, civic subsidies. With these subsidies, they are able to operate cheaper (plus pay lower wages) thereby driving out the pioneer competition. A point in case, in Saint Louis, would be the return of Schnuck's to the CBD.
Schnuck’s, branding themselves as The Culinaria, was a welcome addition to downtown—as a grocer. However, instead of operating a grocery store, Schnuck’s (the beneficiary of public money) opened a “food court” with a grocery store attached. First they were in direct competition with the only other grocer downtown, City Grocers. Then they became the competition of every independent eatery downtown with the expansive food court. I admit, at first I thought this was great. Buy my groceries and have lunch or dinner. Then I started noticing that several of my favorite independent, downtown eateries were closing. I made a point to talk with some of the business owners who were still open and discovered that Schnuck’s essentially copied their menu and menus of other eateries and made them available in their tax-subsidized food court. Now, my tax dollars were helping to drive my favorite restaurants out of business, to be replaced by a food court. Those independent owners with whom I spoke, did not receive any tax payer subsidy, and yet they had come into a new market and risked their own capital to create something unique of me and our downtown residents and visitors. Diversity is now being threatened.
I have long said that our public servants need to wake up and smell the independently brewed coffee of reality. If we keep trying to persuade large chains and big boxes to our downtown via public subsidy, we will destroy the vibrancy of what has been built with sweat and private capital. It is proven, that if we experience another population shift, those same, tax subsidized big boxes, will move off to another city or ‘burb and leave large empty shells on city blocks and holes in our city’s business services fabric. What’s next? Barnes and Noble downtown to compete with Left Bank Books using tax payer funds? Olive Garden to compete with Gitto’s? And using my tax dollars to do so? Not on my watch!
I believe we need to support our independent, home-grown businesses which offer much greater economic empowerment to their employees and tend to stay around when others leave due to demographic shifts.
My commitment: I will use the Culinaria as a grocery store, but not as a restaurant. Will you join me in persuading Schnuck’s and our public servants to support independent businesses? I am committed to watching every TIF or other form of public financing to make sure that independent business owners have equal access to public support.
Goliath—stay in the ‘burbs.
Tell me what you think.
Is the Future of Detroit in Farming? Interesting Proposal to Shrink the City
via newgeography.com
This is a fascinating look at what the future might hold for Detroit, as well as some very interesting "then vs. now" photographs supporting the author's belief that Detroit must, and can, shrink and free up green space for alternative uses. The idea of an "urban core" combined with "urban villages" filled in with green space between holds merit, but mostly because it's driven by necessity and not idealism.
Moms More Influenced Offline, While Kids Are Online
Two new studies point to a growing divide in how moms and kids communicate and are influenced...
First up, Nielsen/Pete Blackshaw's Pocket Guide to Social Media and Kids:"In the hands of children and tweens, today’s cell phones are primarily used as text messaging devices, cameras, gaming consoles, video viewers, MP3 players, and incidentally, as mobile phones via the speaker capability so their friends can chime in on the call."
And, via AdAge, parents are relying more on offline conversations to make decisions:
"A study due out next week from the Parenting Group found that while moms are avid web and social-media users, they still turn to family and friends first, whether by phone, e-mail or in-person, when making decisions about product purchases."
More in the images below.
YouTube Insights for Audience: Discover what videos different audiences and demographics like to watch
Amazing source of information to get a deeper understanding of what triggers your audience interest. Below is a sample output showing me videos that 25-34 year old males in Australia like to watch including search terms used and how well they index by category. Nice!
Try the audience insights tool here
http://video-analytics.google.com/yap/iba
Or check out the other beta options
http://www.youtube.com/testtube
LINK: As Facebook Ages, Gen Y Turns to Twitter
ReadWriteWeb (@RWW) has a good article out today analyzing the recent Pew Internet findings and the growing popularity of Twitter among young college students (18-24-year-old, and even some of the 25-34-year-old demographic), as well as the increase in the median age for Facebook users from 26 to 33 over the past year. @RWW speculates that the increase of older users on Facebook is pushing college students to Twitter. MySpace is now the only top social networking site with a younger median age demographic than Twitter.
Young People Tweeting More and More - eMarketer
via emarketer.com
Status update services catch on with Gen Y
More evidence of Twitter uptake among young people comes from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. According to a September 2009 survey, 33% of online adults ages 18 to 29 use a status update service, a significant difference from the research firm’s previous poll on the subject.
This meant young adults were more likely to tweet than users ages 30 to 49, who had previously been considered the core group for Twitter.
