Shrinking as Success

This article from Tuesday's DDN - "What can cities like Dayton do to stop shrinking?" - is interesting.

The basic idea, quoted from Dan Kildee of Flint, MI, is that success for cities needs to be redefined to when they are "built for the population that the economy can actually support and sustain."

It's the same basic premise that we came up with at the 10 Living Cities conference a few months ago. [1] It's still true. Perhaps we'll have to do more DIY and less buy-buy-buy - both in our private lives and for our civic and cultural entertainment.

But it means some things will get smaller, and that's okay.

For example, when a pizza chain gets larger than its customer base, it may have to close some franchises or risk folding entirely. There is nothing wrong with that. When things get better or grow more sustainably, perhaps it will expand again.

That analogy also gives us another hint to what will let us succeed - and it's not by blindly copying another city's model.

It doesn't do a business or a city any good to try to mimic another - then it's nothing more than the lesser, poorer knockoff. What you do instead is specialize.

Again, each pizza chain has a distinct product, even though they're all pizza. Marco's is not Rocky's is not Dominoes is not Papa John's is not Pizza Hut is not Uno's is not Yum Yum. And thank goodness for that.

[1] There were perhaps fewer degrees in the audience there, but the same ideas. Which should tell you something about looking for good ideas from all sectors of your community.