The Creative Coast’s blogspot is Savannah’s sounding board for local thinkers, innovators, wanderers and wonderers. Guest bloggers share their thoughts, opinions and creative noodling from all over the map. This week’s blog is from Kayne Lanahan, CEO and founder of Savannah Stopover Music Festival.  Read on for Kayne’s notes on what it takes to create a mushrooming music scene…..

Photo by Matthew McCully

Just last week the manager of one of Savannah’s Broughton Street retail stores professed a profound desire to get involved in this year’s Savannah Stopover Music Festival because she was willing to do anything to help improve the “crappy” music scene in this town.

I hear this sentiment expressed over and over again in Savannah, primarily from the 18-34 year old demographic. Two years ago I would have stood there shaking my head and nodding “yes, yes, I hear you, I agree” but now I find myself asking the harder questions: What constitutes a “Music Scene” in a city? What if my scene is different than your scene? What if there is a “scene” and we just don’t do a very good job of promoting it across Savannah’s many microcosms of youth?

Over the past year, I’ve taken a closer look at many of the cities across the country that have a reputation for having a vibrant and well regarded music scene, almost always goes hand in hand with a whole bunch of other “scenes”. These cities generally reflect an open and willing desire to support new ideas and burgeoning businesses in the arts, food, technology, film, design, and environmental sectors. These scenes, while separate, when well fed, cross-pollinate like bees on a warm summer day. They make this generation and the next say not only “this is a place I want to live” but “this is a place I want to stay.”

For purposes of this discussion, this notion of a music scene refers to the rise of independent, non-mainstream music that is the engine driving a beleaguered music industry. It is the ultimate “long tail”. It is music that is growing and thriving outside of the normal historical channels of distribution and is bleeding into the mainstream a little more every year.

Let’s take a look at five cities that fall into this fabulous music scene category: Austin, Portland (Oregon, not Maine!), Brooklyn, Seattle, and a newer one, Baltimore. Aside from the obvious fact that they are all much larger cities than Savannah, it’s interesting to look at what factors help define their respective success. And let’s face it; these are the types of cities that Savannah is most likely to lose its best and brightest younger generations to. (I’m looking at small to mid-size cities next!)

Here are my not so scientific top ten music market factors:

1. A community of musicians and bands that support each other, often share members, and are proud to be “from” their city. In some markets like Baltimore and Brooklyn, this has resulted in a recognizable “sound” associated with the music scene.
2. At least one highly regarded radio station that has a national reputation for excellence, often a strong college or NPR station. KEXP  in Seattle is a great example of this.
3. At least one successful and well-regarded independent record label that is focused on helping bands succeed.
4. A DIY underground scene of show promoters who offer free or inexpensive concerts promoted through underground channels.
5. Affordable places for bands to practice and record.
6. At least one small to mid-size venue that is renowned with bands and fans around the country. (When I am in Portland, I always want to take in a show at Doug Fir Lounge!)
7. At least one great music blog whose reputation and audience extends well beyond the city’s geography. Gorilla vs. Bear  is a great example of this in Austin.
8. A forward thinking municipal government that makes it easy for venues, festivals and bands to thrive…or at least doesn’t get in their way.
9. Access to capital and loans for emerging music businesses to get up and running. (Kickstarter may have just changed that model forever as on-line micro financing explodes).
10. At least one prominent music festival that supports emerging acts.

Not every great music market has every single one of these… but most do. With burgeoning markets like Baltimore whose rise is based primarily on the strength of its new bands, it will be interesting to see how the city’s music scene expands and grows. For established markets like Seattle, it was the grunge movement of the early 90’s that spawned successful record labels like Sup Pop. The radio stations, venues and festivals followed as the movement grew and spread.

But let’s get back to Savannah, which over the past few years is firing on all cylinders on several of these top ten criteria:

• There is a strong and growing community of bands in town that support each other. I would argue that the challenge is in keeping them in Savannah as their careers grow and develop.
• There is a DIY scene that is really starting to flourish with venues like “No Control” and “Safe and Sound”, popping up in the Starland district. “Safe and Sound” frequently draws 150-200 people for their house shows.
• Ryan Graveface of Graveface Records moved to Savannah from Chicago over a year ago. This very well regarded indie label should figure prominently in the city’s independent music scene in the years to come. Graveface has also recently opened a much needed vinyl record shop in the Starland District.
• Dollhouse Studios is set to open a state of the art recording studio this spring headed by New York transplants Peter and Blake Mavrogeorgis. Members of local band Passafire are also in the planning stages of a new practice and recording space on Broughton Street. Combined with existing entities like Elevated Basement, Savannah will have several options for bands to record locally.
• Our Festival scene is robust, both in Music Festivals and other festivals that incorporate music, whether it’s last weekend’s one day “No Control Festival”, “The Urban Arts Festival”,” Taste”, the prestigious “Savannah Music Festival” or our own “Stopover Music Festival”  whose Sophomore effort kicks off March 7th.

With more than 80 indie bands headed to Savannah, most of whom have never played this market, our goal with Stopover is to introduce new bands to Savannah and to give Savannah a massive dose of music scene. By adding in performances by over 20 of Savannah’s up and coming local bands, we reinforce our own growing local scene. But four days does not a scene make; it’s a shot in the arm that is designed to support all of the above factors and to get these bands to want to play here every time they are on tour. The soon to be launched “Hip Calendar”, with one stop shopping for all show listings in town, will provide a much needed place to peruse our growing options.

Yes, Savannah still has a ways to go in creating a vibrant, profitable and sustainable reputation as a great independent music city and yes, several of the items on the list are missing or could use improvement, but the movement is well under way and there are many talented people in this town working diligently towards the larger picture. If we all work together, there’s no doubt in my mind that even more good things lay ahead.

The mantra moving forward should be let’s stop complaining about the music scene; let’s help support, discover and grow the one that’s already here!

Kayne

The Creative Coast’s blogspot is Savannah’s sounding board for local thinkers, innovators, wanderers and wonderers. Guest bloggers share their thoughts, opinions and creative noodling from all over the map. This week’s blog is from Beth Vantosh,  commercial realtor extraordinaire.  Read on for Beth’s strategy for turning lemons into a whole grove of citrus trees….. 

OK, so here’s the deal…the Savannah commercial real estate market has taken quite the hard hit in recent years (and not in a good way, if you know what I mean. And I know you do). Businesses have left our amazing community due to the global economic downturn. This sucks, not only for those gone businesses, but also for those of you (being the concerned Savannahians that you are) who want to see cool, successful businesses influence our economy and lives. We want our creative community to prosper, right?! Right!

Although this downturn may seem like a Death-Eaters’ warning for small businesses (sorry to all you non-Harry Potter fans, but you get the idea), there is a glittering lining: Lower commercial real estate prices, as well as a push from the government, are giving small businesses unprecedented opportunities to shine and prosper in Savannah.

So if you have a passionate longing to open your own new small business, or if you want to expand your already successful small business, please read on and let me learn you of those opportunities. Do it!! Read on!! You won’t be disappointed. Trust.

The aforementioned glittering lining actually comes from an unlikely source (no, not from rich leprechauns…though you should look for those little guys on St. Patrick’s Day, cause you never know), but from federal government-backed SBA loans. Here’s a primer:

To begin with, “SBA” stands for “Small Business Administration,” the governmental agency that guarantees SBA loans. Even though the SBA does not actually loan money directly to small business owners, the agency does play an important role. When you apply for a SBA loan at your chosen financial institution (fancy words for “bank”), you are basically asking the SBA to provide a guarantee that you will repay your loan. Yes, you have to repay a SBA loan at some point, so don’t go thinking that this is free money. (Haaa! Free money…as if!)

Typical commercial loans are hard to obtain, yet SBA loans are a viable option. Here’s why:  Business owners that obtain a SBA loan will enjoy numerous advantages (please don’t fall asleep cause it’s gonna get technical):

• Higher Leverage – SBA loans typically have down payments that are only 10% of the entire project costs. Conventional commercial loans have down payments of 20% or more. This means that SBA loans can greatly lower your overall cash out-of-pocket. And who doesn’t like more cash in-pocket? I know that I do. Who’s with me?!
• Longer Terms – SBA loans have a 25-year amortization with fixed periods ranging from 3 -15 years. Conventional commercial loans often have amortization schedules of 15 – 20 years (booooo!), which can make cash flow tight during slow periods. And who likes a tight cash flow? I know that I don’t. Wha-what!!
• No Early Balloon Payment – Balloon payments arise because you are holding back most of the debt (e.g., just paying interest). Thus, the debt is inflated like a balloon due to compound interest on the sum. And then, “POP!” your principle sum is due earlier than you thought. Not so with a SBA loan.
• Below-Market Prepayment Penalty – Now this is some really good stuff. Of course, banks charges a fee if you pay them back the money that you borrowed earlier than the term of the loan. Yeah, I know that is crappy, but remember that banks make money off the interest you pay them on loans. Banks are sneaky! (Just kidding Sun Trust! Love you!). But really, all kidding aside, Sun Trust here in Savannah is willing, ready and able to assist if you are interested in a SBA loan. They are kind, knowledgeable and trustworthy.
• No Ongoing Debt Service Requirements – Ok, this is another good one. Traditionally, banks insist on monitoring traditional commercial borrowers’ business financials on a monthly and/or quarterly basis. Howevvvvverrrrrrr, this monthly/quarterly monitoring is not normally required on SBA loans. So, no “big brother” is watching and judging your every move. High-fives all around!

Listen, it’s a huge, brave, life-changing decision to start your own business, or to expand your existing business. But I can help you with that decision.

As an aside, and to let you know that small business’ dreams do come true, I want to let you know about a new small business that is dear to my heart. After a year of searching for the perfect commercial real estate spot, The SpareTime will be opening their doors soon. My friend and client, Clara Fishel (formerly of Metropole) and her awesome sister, Jane, are opening their new bar concept. Expect lots of dancing, cocktails, yummy food and interesting events. Located at the corner of Congress and MLK (36 MLK to be exact), you can count on it being a Savannah success story. Please stop by, and tell them that Beth sent you!

Beth

Beth is very connected and influential in the Savannah real estate market, and will do her best to help those that seek her advice (find Beth on Facebook).

Please note that this article is for information purposes only, and should not be construed as creating a contract, business relationship and/or any other legal obligation between Beth Vantosh and the reader.

The Creative Coast’s blogspot is Savannah’s sounding board for local thinkers, innovators, wanderers and wonderers. Guest bloggers share their thoughts, opinions and creative noodling from all over the map. This week’s blog is from Harry Delorme, self-confessed tinkerer and Senior Curator of Education with the Telfair Museum of Art.  Read on for Harry’s preview of an upcoming tinkerer’s paradise….

Chippewa Square, 2011 by Shinji Murakami

In an earlier post I wrote about the value of tinkering and do-it-yourself creative activity. I firmly believe that creative doing and making are rewarding and empowering experiences that cut across societal boundaries. Many now think that learning to do things ourselves may even be essential to our future survival.

The DIY movement has been catching on, and has inspired a broad spectrum of people to try everything from backyard gardening to experimenting with all kinds of technology.

Many of us consume technology in the form of gadgets and the content and connectivity they offer, without understanding what’s behind the magic. Some of the creative tools that make the magic possible are easily accessible if one has either the time to explore them, access to computers and the internet, or just someone to open the door to the possibilities.

Video games offer one pathway into a do-it-yourself, creative application of technology. I’m not talking about the sometimes mindless and manipulative fare that keeps many of us glued to our screens in a zombielike state. Some games have the power to teach us valuable lessons about the world, and can make us aware of serious matters by experiencing this content through play and engagement. Thoughtful games have been created by numerous artists/game designers, particularly in the last decade or so, as evidenced by festivals such as Games for Change.

Aside from content, the nature of games and their distribution has changed dramatically, enabling some very young people to find real success developing mobile games and apps. Important introductory tools have emerged, for example Scratch, which was developed at MIT to introduce kids to game design and to basic programming and mathematical concepts along the way. Scratch is free to access, as are some other introductory game development tools, for example Gamestar Mechanic, which makes a game of game design, and GameMaker, which is used by many independent game developers and available in a free version.

Often missing from our community and educational environments are accessible opportunities for people to learn about these tools.  With this idea in mind, games and DIY technology are key themes in Telfair Museums’ 2012 PULSE festival.

Beginning ahead of the festival proper, free workshops will be offered for youth in Scratch and GameMaker (the latter with local developers Red Panda Studios) by advance registration.

Georgia Tech Savannah students will offer mini-workshops in Scratch throughout Friday afternoon March 3 at the Jepson Center. Teachers can take part in a workshop at Armstrong to learn more about games as educational tools (plus you get to play Warcraft!).

Adults and older teens can register to design games for the iPad in an intensive weekend workshop with SCAD professor and game designer Andrew Hieronymi. This group can also learn the variety of uses spawned by Microsoft’s Kinect sensor with NYU artist and researcher Greg Borenstein, author of the new book Making Things See.

Kinect is a great example of the way that game technology can be applied to uses extending from fine art to movie special effects to health care. As part of a PULSE exhibition about video games as art medium and inspiration, Borenstein will be exhibiting a new Kinect game that can be used to help stroke patients in the rehabilitation process.

Of course not everyone is going to become a game developer or create the next Angry Birds, and although a DIY approach to game design can be liberating, the DIY spirit is also about physically making things. That’s why the Pulse festival also includes workshops in which participants can:

• Assemble a laser cut sculpture,
• Solder together an electronic noise toy, and
• the very young can make LED sculptures in a DIY Family Day on Friday, March 3.

Makers & Tinkerers Alert: we are looking for a few more creative projects to demo in the afternoon.

Creative minded folks of all ages can trick out their wheels in a bike decorating workshop and participate in first Art Bike Ride with the Savannah Bicycle Campaign on Saturday afternoon, March 4.

These programs, along with a number of technology-oriented lectures and performances are all free by the way, thanks to project funding from the City of Savannah and iTech, and with the help of many great community partners like the The Creative Coast.

I would love to see programs like this take off in our community and continue in a form that is accessible to all. Savannah has the educational and creative infrastructure to make it happen. So, game on folks!

Harry

The Creative Coast’s blogspot is Savannah’s sounding board for local thinkers, innovators, wanderers and wonderers. Guest bloggers share their thoughts, opinions and creative noodling from all over the map. This week’s blog is from Drew Wade,  a radiologist, avid bicyclist and proponent of all things which make Savannah a better place to live.  Pedal along with Drew as he lays out a roadmap to cooler, hipper, healthier community…. 

The Savanasphere has been swirling with talk of what might become of the old Backus Cadillac dealership at the corner of Victory Drive and Truman Parkway. Most of the comments are centered around the likelihood (and I believe for many reasons they are right) that Whole Foods is redeveloping the site for one of their stores. While I think many of us will find some solace in that arrival, relieving our inferiority complexes about Charleston, will a one-stop big box carrying a greater variety of organic and otherwise expensive groceries really change Savannah?

So, with that in mind, please consider suspending your disbelief to look at a slightly unfair comparison between these two things over which our MPC has domain. If you are excited by Whole Foods and the health benefits of eating better, please consider how we could make even greater gains by implementing the similarly named Complete Streets – roads that accommodate all users, and not only for public health, but also economic health, and public safety, as I’m sure you’ll be soon convinced.

Let’s start with health. Georgia has an adult obesity rate of 28.7% – greater than 1 in 4; not only that, but 1 in 10 have diabetes. To top it off, Georgia’s childhood obesity rates are among the worst in the country, an obese country at that, and kids have fewer and fewer unstructured ways to get exercise (and are arguably not helped by a recent PR campaign). Ready recreational activities in the form of safe paths right outside their door could only help. Grocery stores come and go and don’t serve everyone. A connected network of safely walkable, bikeable streets would give easy and long lasting access to physical activity that can be coupled with trips to work, the store, or a friend’s house.

Next, let’s look at wealth. Whole Wallet, as Whole Foods has been dubbed by some, is clearly looking to serve an affluent demographic, and while a new store means a few more jobs, it’s hard to argue a significant economic impact to the city or region considering that people must have been shopping somewhere else before, and locally owned operations like the Forsyth Farmer’s Market, Brighter Day, local CSAs who currently offer similar choices may suffer.

The truth is, that if we as a city, make simple and repeated small investments in safer conditions for walking and bicycling, we would affect multiple positive changes on the local economy. Consider the economic implications of what many often bring up as a needed non-motorized road improvement project, namely, a safe bike route from Savannah to Tybee. Undoubtedly, we could attract greater numbers of tourists and keep them longer as they make a day trip riding back and forth, enriching the local economy with dollars from other places.

The second thing such a path would offer is an intangible quality-of-life benefit to those who live or might consider living here – making it easier for our area to recruit and retain talented minds who might otherwise gravitate to places like Austin and Portland.

Third, and of critical importance is something that Sean Brandon recently said in this same space, providing transportation access to the least economically advantaged will boost their potential to achieve training and long term productive employment. Consider how difficult it is for someone without a car to get to and from Savannah Tech on White Bluff.

A final benefit of Complete Streets is a boost to public safety. Not only do more bicycles and pedestrians on the street make those streets safer for bicyclists and pedestrians, those streets are safer for motorists too! In addition to that obvious public safety benefit, Jane Jacobs and other advocates for urban renewal note that streets with people walking and bicycling have more eyes (and camera-equipped mobile phones) to root out illegal activity before it gets started. This notion of “eyes on the street” we instinctively know, but which some intellectually deny when faced with changes to the local traffic flow. Perhaps there is a similar effect to the old Backus lot from the increased numbers of folks visiting there in the future, but the effect is limited to the parking lot.

Outside the historic district and some older neighborhoods, our roads generally lack significant consideration for anything other than cars. Fortunately, we don’t have to choose between safer streets and Whole Foods, and we’re fortunate if the news is true that this project will be infill rather than greenfield development. What I hope will draw your attention away from the shiny new building is that the concept of Complete Streets will serve our city with benefits to public health, economic development, livability, access for those in poverty and improvements to public safety.

All we have to do now is to build them.

Wade

The Creative Coast’s blogspot is Savannah’s sounding board for local thinkers, innovators, wanderers and wonderers. Guest bloggers share their thoughts, opinions and creative noodling from all over the map. This week’s blog is from Roger Moss, co-founder and artistic director of The Savannah Children’s Choir.  Follow Roger’s notes below to hear you can make every year an exceptional year….  

ex•cep•tion•al

adj.

1. Being an exception; uncommon.

2. Well above average; extraordinary.

Three years ago the Savannah Children’s Choir was honored to have Keith Miller, a bass from the Metropolitan Opera, as our Artist in Residence. During his first session with our children, Keith made the statement that getting “100 is just the beginning.” This statement should make all arts organizations pause and reflect.

In other words, getting the notes played perfectly, with the correct inflections, tone, etc., is just the beginning. What will get audiences back and excited is when your organization is exceptional.

What is exceptional about your art? What is beyond “100’?

Why would or should audiences get excited about your art?

Have you really discovered your “voice”?

If you are an arts organization, what stands out about your work?

Let’s talk about donors. Face it; many of us are chasing the same donors. Imagine the new donors we could attract if we were extraordinary.

What if our fundraisers were extraordinary? What if we stopped borrowing from other organizations and found the extraordinary event that is an extension of our mission and our brand?

In 2012, let’s strive to be well above “100”.

Let’s be exceptional!!!!

Roger

The Creative Coast’s blogspot is Savannah’s sounding board for local thinkers, innovators, wanderers and wonderers. Guest bloggers share their thoughts, opinions and creative noodling from all over the map. This week’s blog is from Sean Brandon, director of Mobility & Parking Services for the City of Savannah. Read on to find out how Sean thinks “creative growth” advocates can bolster their positioning….

In the discussion about “creative cities” and the policies that may create them, I’ve been struck by the arguments that have often been made that it is an elitist concept that doesn’t particularly benefit anyone except a relatively few people who can afford the comforts that come with being a “creative city”. I’d like to offer a small analogy that I hope will create more discussion.

I’m sure you have, at various points, seen someone biking through a busy street that seems was never meant for a bicycle, usually a four to six lane road where the actual speed is fifteen miles above the posted speed limit. As you struggle to keep pace with your fellow drivers you look over and see a person bicycling either in the travel lane or more likely on the narrow shoulder. “What is that crazy person doing?” is a somewhat natural response for most people. As it turns out, many bicyclists are either in poverty or close to it. Poverty doesn’t give you the comfort of finding a job within walking distance, and in many cases, even a robust mass transit system can often leave gaps for people trying to get to jobs that are at non-business hours.

That leaves many with the choices of either finding a cheap car that will usually cost more later in maintenance, trying to find relatives or friends who can transport you to and from work on time and reliably, or finding a another form of transportation that can get you there (bike, scooter, etc.).

The bicycle is low cost, low maintenance, and easy to use. It makes sense that someone who can’t afford a reliable car would use a bicycle/scooter. This shouldn’t be faulted, it should be supported. Unfortunately, many of our best job centers are located in areas that are inhospitable to bicycles and pedestrians. They were created on the assumption that anyone working there should have a car. This assumption has in many cases contributed to the very poverty that we find intractable today.

I have found repeatedly that the person that takes their bicycle on an inhospitable street is trying to do the very thing that many complain those in poverty don’t do: get to and from their job. This forgotten population of bicyclists doesn’t show up at planning meetings and often don’t get involved in the struggle to make communities more bicycle friendly (they simply don’t have time). But they will often see the greatest good in a community that makes moving though it on a bicycle easier.

If I have a criticism of the culture trying to develop a creative place it is that the benefits are often not highlighted or taken advantage of. There are examples like these across the spectrum of policy discussions that I have seen on what it takes to make a creative city. The benefits go far beyond a casual few and can help large sections of our local population in everything from education to quality of life. My hope is that you can use examples like this and others in future policy discussions and debates.

Sean

The Creative Coast’s blogspot is Savannah’s sounding board for local thinkers, innovators, wanderers and wonderers. Guest bloggers share their thoughts, opinions and creative noodling from all over the map. This week’s blog is from Susan Isaacs, incoming Chairperson for The Creative Coast and Head Strategic Focus-izer with the Paragon Design Group. Read on to see what Susan and The Creative Coast Team are focusing on for 2012……

 I first came to Savannah in the fall of 1996 when the historic downtown was in many ways a scary place. Broughton Street was a hodgepodge of boarded-up windows, oddballs peddling suspect goods, and guys cat-calling as you walked past.

Then, during the course of my five years at SCAD, I watched as things changed. The scary began to disappear and I got the sense this town was resurrecting herself into something new and amazing. I was so taken by this that my plan to leave when I graduated was replaced by a strong desire to stay and become a part of the new Savannah. I was not alone in that hope; many of my college friends felt the same way.

Ultimately, I was able to stay because some friends and I started our own company. Every one of our peers, with rare exception, had no choice but to leave town in the hopes of finding a “real” job. All of these years later, I find it a remarkable exercise, to scan the business landscape and see how many creative start-ups have popped up since then. The number of bright, young professionals who have dug their heels in, working for others or starting their own ventures, is an endless source of inspiration for me. The rebirth is continuing, and we are helping to make it happen.

Of course there are challenges. I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know, but if you are a young professional (or a slightly-less-young professional) Savannah can have its drawbacks. There are some ingredients that remain underdeveloped or are missing entirely when you compare Savannah to other towns with a growing start-up, technology and creative community. We still don’t have any real venture capital resources or incubator facilities. Our city ordinances are struggling to adapt to the newer requirements of our technology-driven companies. Our public school system leaves a lot to be desired, and looking at our community as a whole presents the sobering truth that too many of our citizens are living below the poverty line.

If you are a young professional who can see past these challenges, you might still find yourself wishing there was more happening on the music and nightlife scene, and wondering if we’ll ever have a mobile food scene.

But I don’t intend for this to be a depressing post. Quite the opposite really. The great news is that you are lucky enough to be here at a critical period in defining what our city looks like in the future. And there has been some progress in all of the aforementioned areas.

With a goal of overcoming many of these challenges, The Creative Coast (TCC) is working with others to help design and build this better future for Savannah, and we are looking to you to speak up and get involved.

An essential part of TCC’s strategy is to ensure that you have the opportunity to flourish here. Whether that entails help navigating red tape at the city level, introducing you to like-minded companies and individuals, or even by being a sounding board when you start worrying that you’re operating in an echo chamber. And while we do have limitations in terms of manpower and resources, we have an entire community of people who are willing and eager to help. When you add events designed to promote knowledge-sharing and further education or to help start-ups find funding, I think we are well on our way to nurturing new and innovative endeavors.

Additionally, if you’ve been paying attention over the last year you may have noticed some very interesting events that were facilitated or supported by The Creative Coast. From discussions between business owners and city officials about food trucks, to events like the Savannah Stop-Over Festival and Vogue’s Fashion Night Out, to the recent Refresh that brought our tech community together with the City IT department to brainstorm about the technological future of the city.

Every time TCC hosts or helps to facilitate one of these events (more than 40 in 2011), I am inspired by all of you who show up and make them a success. The energy and enthusiasm you pour into these events is exactly what we need to accelerate the rate of reinvention of our city. That fact that the number of attendees continues to broaden and grow tells me that our “tribe” is multiplying, and that might be the most exciting part.

The holy grail of branding is tribal identity. It’s that magical scenario where people so strongly identify with a brand’s values that they intentionally associate themselves with that brand, often recruiting new believers. Think Apple or Mini Cooper. The result is a tribe of enthusiastic people who support that brand over the long term.

The Creative Coast has been very fortunate to connect with so many of you who believe in a new and bright future for Savannah. This passion for a reinvented city is what our brand is about.

Those challenges I mentioned earlier can only be met by people like you. People from every industry, stage and walk of life, who are dissatisfied with the ways things are but aren’t waiting for someone else to address them.

This is The Creative Coast tribe. A tribe of blue-sky thinkers and doers. A tribe that continues to grow because you have been inviting your friends and colleagues to get involved.

So to our tribe, to all of you with wild and amazing ideas for yourselves and Savannah, to all of you who give your time and talent to support The Creative Coast, I want to say a big THANK YOU!

We are really looking forward to working with you in 2012!

Cheers!

Susan

The Creative Coast’s blogspot is Savannah’s sounding board for local thinkers, innovators, wanderers and wonderers. Guest bloggers share their thoughts, opinions and creative noodling from all over the map. This week’s blog is from yours truly, Jake Hodesh, chief goat herder for The Creative Coast.   Read on to see what I’ve been reading on…… 

I recently finished Walter Isaacson’s book on Steve Jobs.  For those of you who have slept through the last three-and-a-half decades, Steve Jobs co-founded one of the world’s most impressive corporations, Apple.

Apple is the amazing company that birthed the Macintosh computer, iPod, iPad, iPhone, iTunes and a host of other devices, programs, and accessories that have become the heartbeat of hip.

Walter Isaacson, no slouch himself, is a biographer, and the president and CEO of the Aspen Institute. He has explored the lives and written about several prominent individuals, including Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein.

Jobs became Isaacson’s most recent foil, and their relationship spawned a nearly 600-page tome that held my attention on countless flights and poolside afternoons during my winter holiday.

Isaacson conducted more than 40 interviews with Jobs over the course of two years. He was given unparalleled access into Steve Jobs’ world, interviewing more than 100 of Jobs’ friends, family members, cohorts, coworkers, enemies, and business partners.

The book was released a few weeks after Jobs death, and has been vigorously consumed and talked about for the past few months. After reading the book cover to cover, I can’t shake from my mind a few noteworthy points about Jobs life:

• Jobs was obsessive and dedicated to work above all else.
• Products, specifically their design, became his life blood.
• Jobs was highly critical of his co-workers and his employees. His criticism was vocalized daily and he was brutally honest, to a fault.
• Jobs co-founded Apple, was ousted, and returned to the company several years later to resurrect the company from near complete failure.
• He was manic about healthy eating.
• He cried a lot.
• He owned a Gulfstream.
• He was adopted.
• He graduated high school but never finished college.
• He died as one of the largest individual shareholders of Disney.
• He nearly singled handedly changed the way that we consume music, digital media, books, movies, television, internet, and something as simple as talking on the phone.
• He is credited with co-launching Pixar, and helping to jump-start the computer-aided animation industry as we know it today. A Bugs Life? Jobs. Toy Story? Jobs. Monsters Inc.? Jobs. Finding Nemo? Jobs.
• He was so fanatical about the appearance of products for which he was responsible that he was rarely able to pick furniture for his homes, and he often lived in large, beautiful homes that sat starkly empty, void of furnishings.

Jobs was a once in a lifetime tycoon, deserving of a 600-page biography. He was a man that deserves a place among our most hallowed…Edison, Franklin, Rockefeller, Roosevelt, Carnegie…. you get it.

What can we learn from a man who did so much to transform the way we compute? 

1. Believe in yourself because no one else will. If you care enough about something, fight for it.
2. The details (design) are where the magic happens.
3. Being honest with (critical of) our friends, family, and co-workers might be hurtful, but in the end it is always beneficial.
4. Don’t be afraid to cry.
5. Health trumps all.

Reading this life story at the end of 2011 was quasi-therapeutic for me. I will take the most intense aspects of this man’s life and learn from them. I will take Jobs’ most interesting traits and try to infuse those into my daily life.

My New Year’s resolution for 2012 is to further embrace one of Jobs’ many mantras:

“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”

Jake

The Creative Coast’s blogspot is Savannah’s sounding board for local thinkers, innovators, wanderers and wonderers. Guest bloggers share their thoughts, opinions and creative noodling from all over the map. This week’s blog is from Patrick Shay, a fanatical (but low profile) community supporter, consumate activitivist, esteemed architect and seasoned County Commissioner.  Read on for Patrick’s pondering of Savannah at the crossroads….

Since its inception, Savannah has been a dynamic dance between these two ingredients of a city’s success. Founded as a refuge for unemployed workers, and as a place where merit and hard work were to replace birthright and privilege, Georgia’s first city began as a bold experiment. Her form was also unique, with an amount of public land that exceeded that of private property, organized around public squares and community gardens. The best urban land was reserved for civic purposes, so that people would always understand that civility was more important than private wealth.

Over the years, the competition for resources with other American cities changed Savannah, and she became devoted to the commerce of cotton, sea trade, slavery, forestry, kaolin, and other mercantile commodities. Her form changed and evolved into a bustling seaport and railroad hub, with shanty towns for the workers, and mansions for the barons of industry. Most of what we now think of as our historical city survives from this era, and it is a legacy of commercial success.

After the great civil war, Savannah again had to evolve into a city that kept up with the times, and become a center of manufacturing and labor. The term “factory” was invented here, and the production of industrial products and consumer goods dominated the form of what was built. At the turn of the century, Savannah had a streetcar network that let workers come from near and far, and spawned the development of places like Gordonston, Tybee Island and Isle of Hope. No one called it transit oriented development back then, but that was what it was. Savannah also developed a cultural identity, and Mary Telfair left her family home to become the first purpose built art museum in the United States, and one of the first in the world.

When the automobile burst on the American scene, Savannah was ill prepared for what followed. Our city center was soon abandoned for the suburbs and their shopping malls, but the form of our geography, with its salt marshes and tide water rivers, kept us from becoming a classic sprawl city. Service businesses for the port and local manufacturing flourished, and workers commuted to their office buildings on the new interstate highway that literally destroyed the once beautiful train station. Savannah’s culture allowed for a peaceful desegregation, but left many of her people in chronic unemployment and poverty. Because we were not as wealthy as most southern cities, we chose not to tear down our old buildings, but to preserve them instead, and the American historic preservation movement started here in the process. Our historic form and content were saved.

Now people come from all over the world to see our amazing city, and marvel in its harmony with nature, and unique historic charms. Savannah College of Art and Design was born, and took its form in many of the preserved buildings. More importantly, SCAD gave Savannah its newest cultural identity–a creative community. The thriving tourism industry has created the infrastructure for visitors, and SCAD attracted the talent to give them reasons to come back.

Today we still have our port and logistics industries, but the banks, insurance and shipping companies that served them are mostly gone. We have some high tech industry and innovation, like Gulfstream that makes world class jets, and several large military bases. We have the region’s premier hospitals and health care facilities. Sadly, we are also a place for people to be kept behind bars, with over 3,000 incarcerated on any given day (something General Oglethorpe would shudder to comprehend). About a third of our people live in poverty.

We must now decide if we want to be a successful city in the future, because we are getting left behind in many ways. We must build new infrastructure for the industries, and workers, that we want to thrive in the future. A new convention center expansion and world class hotel, so that we can continue to compete as a destination for national and international conferences, bringing the best and brightest in the world to see our experiment continue. We must protect our health industry, and help it evolve into a model based upon “wellness” rather than just “feeling better”. We need to connect affordable housing, jobs, education and community back together again, by reviving the streetcar network that served us before we let the automobile rule our form. But mostly we need to embrace creativity–in art, music, industry and commerce–in all its many forms, because Savannah can only compete if its content is as rich as its form.

The choice is now. If we invest in our community, and her form and content, the future will be bright. On the other hand, if we succumb to the many voices that say “the best things about Savannah have already happened”, and sit on our assets, we will become a place that is famous for its poverty, and a jail. That choice is ours. What do you want us to become?

Patrick Shay

The Creative Coast’s blogspot is Savannah’s sounding board for local thinkers, innovators, wanderers and wonderers. Guest bloggers share their thoughts, opinions and creative noodling from all over the map. This week’s blog is from Radford (Rad) Harrell,  CEO of TalentSoup, a business writer, community activist and all round good guy.  Read on for the real dirt on Savannah….

Noted on a tucked away page of every American city’s history are details and stories about the farmers that fed the growing population springing up around them.

Savannah’s rich and well-documented history is no different, with chronicled examples of not just the agricultural trade that fed our city’s revenue growth but also the local farmers that fed the people, shop keepers, laborers and tradesmen that made that industry work. Local farming had been an integral part of every city and town’s daily life from day one. But that has changed over the last 60 years or so for a number of reasons. Now, almost all of the food at your local supermarket is non-local and a great deal of it is even non-U.S.A. food!

Anyone who’s bought tomatoes in December has taken advantage of this year-round “bounty” of non-local foods. As this rare produce became typical, people began noticing that these “imported” fruits and vegetables look amazing but their flavor often falls short of their imagined deliciousness. We’ve begun to realize that year-round access to some foods may not deliver on the flavor our eyes promise us.

Today, we see a resurgence of Americans paying closer attention to what they are eating and where that food is coming from. This awakening has many labels: Slow Food, Sustainable Food, Organic, Buy Local, etc. but regardless of its name, it’s about consumers asking tough questions that our industrial food suppliers can’t answer, or choose not to, because the real answers might scare off customers.

American consumers are recognizing that the window dressing of beautiful produce available year-round has greater costs than good flavor. Cheap, available fruits and vegetables are not really cheap when we ask hard questions that uncover the hidden costs of the industrial farming and distribution system that got those products to our store shelves.

And with this new knowledge and understanding, consumers are voting with their dollars and looking around their towns and cities and asking, “Where are our local farmers? What’s growing in our local dirt? How can I buy from them?”.

Answering those questions is getting easier for Savannahians thanks to local farmers who are stepping up to not just answer the hard questions about food quality, safety and their methods of farming, they invite their customers to come out for a visit!

This transparency is a refreshing change from the marketing speak we often hear from industrial agriculture via their advertising agencies and Washington lobbyists. Getting to know and trust the people that make your food has benefits that go well beyond just the amazing flavor that comes from locally grown produce and animals. Your food dollars can go to work building local businesses (a farm requires numerous supporting businesses to keep running), reducing pollution (avoiding poisons in groundwater, petroleum fertilizers and the diesel burned on shipping your food thousands of miles) and perhaps most important, your food dollars can invest in your health.

The ancient Greek philosopher Hippocrates, the “founder” of modern medicine, has been proven right with his famed statement “Let food be thine medicine and medicine be thine food”.

Any search engine can deliver a growing list of studies exploring the links between our country’s factory foods and the obesity / disease issues we face should you want to learn more. But know there is growing evidence that natural farming practices are not only good for the land, community and business, but they are especially good for your body! These new farmers use old, established practices like heritage agriculture (using seeds not bred in a lab for business advantages), pastured animals (feeding them the food they are intended to eat while respecting their “animal-ness” and need for space), and farming methods that avoid chemicals and petroleum fertilizers to increase the yield of the crop.

Our family has become more and more aware of what we eat and where it comes from over the last few years and it’s changed our shopping habits quite a bit. Since moving to Savannah two years ago, we were thrilled to discover a growing community of farmers, food craftsmen and consumers who were also paying attention.

We purchase amazing, high quality products from craft food makers that care about their products. For example: Hunter Cattle  in Statesboro, Perc Coffee in Starland District, and Green Truck Pub  on Habersham Street who sources locally for their menu.

But we had not committed to the next step, which was finding local farms and meeting the farmers. We wanted to find a farmer working some Low Country dirt.

There are several ways one can buy local produce, meat, dairy and poultry, but my wife and I wanted to really get to know the farmers and their farms. We wanted to partner with the people feeding our growing family and educate our boys to know where food actually comes from. Turns out, what we thought was a novel idea has been around for a very long time. It’s called Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA. The idea being that we’d invest our food dollars in a growing season and farmer, ahead of time (before a seed hits the dirt), sharing the risk and the rewards (hello fresh tomatoes and okra!) of what the farmer can produce.

We discovered a new farm offering a CSA in Hampton, SC (just over an hour from Savannah) that will be delivering their products to Savannah (initially dropping off in Ardsley Park and Isle of Hope) on a weekly basis starting next year. After meeting the farmers, learning their philosophy of food and farming, and visiting the farm, we signed up. Andy and Melissa Williams founded www.urbannafarm.com to feed families in the Low Country and they are dedicated to using natural methods to produce high quality, nutritious foods. Count us as believers. Our simple step, investing some of our grocery budget in plants that are not yet growing, is combined with the small buying decisions we’ve made along the way to change how we as a family eat.

Voting with our food dollars is more than just not paying for world-traveling tomatoes with no flavor and questionable nutritional value: it’s about investing those dollars to buy healthy foods with tons of flavor, grown by people that care, right here in our community.

For our family, the decision is an effort to get closer to the community of people that feed us, being part of their longevity as a business, all while supporting their passion for their craft. Put another way, we just want to get closer to our Low Country Dirt.

So the next time you drive by a local produce stand or see a farmer’s market, stop in for some real food and meet the people that grew it. It’s hard to miss their passion for their craft, and I promise, a locally grown tomato will never let you down!

Rad