Diatribes by Joah

Friday Jam: Big Tymers

Who Inspires Me: Cory Booker

I've previously pointed out a couple of people who inspire me as friends. Cory Booker, unfortunately, is not a friend of mine just yet. But he's damn inspiring.

About Cory Booker:

Born in Washington, D.C. Raised in New Jersey. A high school All-American in football and graduated from Stanford (BA in political science, MA in sociology) before becoming a Rhodes Scholar recipient (Oxford graduate) and earning his Law degree from Yale in 1997.

After finishing school, he won an upset victory over a four-time incumbent for a seat on the Newark Municipal Council. Booker immediately established a reputation as being an unusual brand of politician by going on hunger strikes and sleeping in some of the most drug-infested and crime-inflicted parts of the city to draw attention to otherwise overlooked parts of Newark.

An Oscar-nominated documentary, Street Fight, was made of his unsuccessful run for Mayor in 2002 when he was defeated by incumbent Sharpe James...often being told he was "not Black enough" to represent Newark. As is often the case with educated, hardworking people who won't give up...Booker vowed to run for Mayor again, winning with 72 percent of the vote in 2006 and bringing an entirely new set of City Councilmembers into power with him. Booker was seen as such a hard-line crime opponent that the Bloods gang leaders were plotting to assassinate him even before he took office.

Upon approving one of the largest tax increases in the city of Newark's history, Booker expanded the size of the goverment by some 200 employees then promised not to raise taxes on his way to cutting government employee roles back to 50 below the levels he came into office with. Booker's budgeting processes have been lauded for transparency after decades of neglect and mismanagement before him. Booker also brought in a new police chief and was known to patrol the city streets into the late night. March 2010 was the first murder-free month in Newark in 44 years and Newark Police nabbed 11 of the top 12 most wanted felons.

I could go on and on, but you should read the articles, blogs and Wikipedia entries about him yourself. There's a reason why, in 2009, President Obama offered him the job of leading the White House's newly-created Office of Urban Affairs; which Booker turned down to continue serving Newark. He has over a million Twitter followers and he's not afraid to interact with us, nearly 10 times more than New York City's Mike Bloomberg. Booker was one of only two U.S. mayors to finish in the top 10 in the coveted World Mayor prize voting.

Many of you may know of him from his "feud" with Conan O'Brien or his friendship with Facebook founder/CEO Mark Zuckerberg, which netted $100 million for Newark public schools, but you should know him because - as The New York Times wrote in this 2006 article after his first election to Mayor in 2006 - he's "On a Path That Could Have No Limits."

There's plenty of inspiration in a man like Cory Booker. I hope to make his acquaintance and thank him one day. Not for being the mayor of a city that I don't live in. No, I'd like to thank him for being the type of boundless, innovative leader that is so desperately needed in both the Black community and in American cities.

Like It or Not: Austin is Growing

I've spent time each month discussing my viewpoints on public transit in Austin, specifically supporting light rail as the most logical route for Austin to meet the current and future demands on its public transportation infrastructure. Last month, I backed up for a minute to talk about one of the major political hurdles for something as progressive as light rail to happen in Austin: our faulty political engagement system.

This month, I'm keeping along those same lines and writing about another major hurdle: people who live in the past.

Now this topic isn't as government-minded as my last nor is it as easy to spell out and enumerate into a few bullet points as my earlier diatribe about the need for light rail in Austin. However, I would argue this topic is equally important to the future of Austin, particularly with regard to transit, because it's something that we all hear about whenever any innovative-sounding solution is put to vote.

"Oh, they're trying to make Austin like L.A., New York or somewhere..."

"I remember when it used to be..."

"We need to stop letting people in..."

"I wish all these people would stop moving here..."

Well, I have something important to say to the people who say things like the above: Austin's future had better be a lot bigger and different than your memory of Austin's past because the city is going to die if it isn't.

Let's start with the population. A century ago, somewhere in 1910 or 1911, Austin's population crossed 30,000. Half a century ago, somewhere between 1961 and '62, Austin's population had multipled over and over on its way to the 200,000 resident mark. In 1970 we hit 250,000; by the early 80s we were over 300,000; in the early '90s we crossed half a million; a decade ago the population was around 670,000 and now we're likely somewhere above 800,000. This is just in the city limits.

Okay, so here we have some rampant growth. People are moving here for school. People are moving here after college. People are moving here to start families. People are moving here to retire. Up and down the pendulum, Austin is growing. Now, if you want Austin to go back to the days of the '70s or '80s or even '90s, you're in for a very rude awakening. Why? Because a) our population growth isn't stopping and b) if it does slow tremendously, and ultimately stop, we'll be hard pressed to find benefits in such diminished growth in several key elements of the city which I will address momentarily.

Austin is going to hit a million residents pretty soon. If you doubt that, then you'd better do what I did a couple of weeks ago and have coffee with our city demographer Ryan Robinson. One of the reasons why light rail is even being considered is because the next 100,000 to 200,000 people who will move to Austin are likely the type of people who either a) want a city with better public transit after living in a city without one worth mentioning (perhaps people from Dallas or Houston) or have lived in a city with a good system (say, D.C. or Portland) AND/OR b) want to take advantage of public transportation to commute to work and take part in social offerings in the rapidly-developing urban core of Austin.

The key to Austin's future is making sure these thousands of new residents are the type of people who share the same concept of quality of lifestyle with us. Or, if they don't, they're willing to improve upon what currently exist by adding something new. My friends Terry, the executive producer of Austin City Limits, Niraj, the owner of Apothecary Cafe & Wine Bar, Kent, member of the awesome indie band Letting Up, and Deva, a reproductive health researcher and activist, aren't from Austin but they've decided that this is a place for them to contribute and thrive. We need more people like them to move here.

In terms of transit, if you are the type of person to yearn for the days when you could drive up and down Lamar Boulevard with no traffic in sight or get from 183 to Downtown in 10 minutes at 8:30 a.m., you'd probably want to move to a city with slower population growth because Austin isn't it. And if you've already set your roots here, and still want to complain from your bungalow in South Austin (78704 resident myself), then I suggest you think back to why you didn't pay more attention to population trends. At no time in Austin's last century has population not ballooned decade-to-decade, so the fact that you're even surprised means you don't know simple mathematics. Seriously, if someone told me to decide whether or not Austin would ever have 2 million city residents I wouldn't wonder if that would ever happen at all (like say, if Dr. Dre's Detox will actually ever come out). I would just wonder if I'd live to my 70th birthday.

But the population growth is only part of the equation. Population without social offerings and quality of lifestyle is an economy-dependent population. Take a look at some of the major Midwest and Rust Belt cities to see what happens when the economic conditions swing out of your favor and your social/cultural offerings and quality of lifestyle aren't up to par.

Why is it that Austin seems to make every 10 best list published about American cities? And how does the city end up in the top three just about every time?

It's all about connecting social offerings with a desirable quality of lifestyle. Social offerings are both permanent - bars, convention centers, hotels, restaurants, shops - and temporary: special events and cultural gatherings. Live in Austin for a year and you'll know exactly where these restaurants are and what these events are like.

By quality of lifestyle I'm not talking about the simple and oft-used term "quality of life". People in places like Indianapolis, Indiana, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Kansas City, Missouri, actually have a pretty good quality of life. Housing is affordable. High quality research universities and liberal arts colleges aren't too far away. Locally-owned restaurants and shops have been able to stay in business for years, building a high sense of community with their patrons.

Quality of lifestyle is all about demographics. Certain people have certain goals for the way they live their lives. Austin - unlike most cities in America - has a fairly balanced approach to what it offers. True, its Black population and others are not the primary audiences of all of the social offerings available, but by and large Austin gets it right from the age standpoint. Teenage kids and college students have a place like Barton Springs in the summer; 20-somethings people have a steady stream of new bars to check out (the East Sixth Street bar scene is no more than a few years old and Rainey Street is even younger); 30s and 40-somethings have a growing jobs market with companies like Bazaarvoice and nonprofits like LIVESTRONG that are cultural beacons for their respective industries. People in their 50s and 60s don't have to spend an arm and a leg planning their retirements here like their counterparts on the West and East Coasts nor do they have to look forward to their retirements as much because employers are more welcoming to your outside activities (during your 20s and 30s primarily; maybe you're in a band or a mountain climber) as places like Atlanta and Chicago. And did I mention there's no state income tax in Texas?

Couple these social offerings with a highly valued quality of lifestyle and you have a city that gets buzz for all the right reasons, with businesses, parents, professionals, students, and visitors alike. This is specifically why Austin has had a fairly strong buffer to the national economy significantly impacting other cities in America these last three years.

Austin City Limits, Apothecary, the bars on Rainey Street, Sweet Leaf Tea and Deep Eddy Vodka, Bazaarvoice, Sanctuary Printshop, Livestrong, Mulberry...these are all establishments that have brought something significant to the city of Austin and they just so happen to involve friends of mine. My very small network is just a microcosm of the power of what Austin has going for it. A community of people - both natives and newcomers - who want to contribute to a constantly-improving set of social offerings and improve the quality of lifestyle in a city already known for being great at both!

This is also why it's imperative that we connect the dots between what Austin does well socially - music, food, local, outdoors, fun, youth, etc. - and what Austin's population will need it to do well in the future, not only socially but also systemically. Public transit - light rail in particular - is going to be a big part in this equation.

We could stop growing of course. We could try to slow it down. Encourage fewer business owners, fewer students, fewer young families, fewer visitors. We could let more of our good local restaurants go out of business, see UT raise tuition even more, have our schools decline further, and say good-bye to emerging festivals like Fun, Fun, Fun Fest and Pachanga. You can't have one without the other. This is a marriage.

Our growth is directly tied to our future. You can't go to sleep arguing about what's happening to Austin every single night of the week and continue to think you're going to wake up in a perfect marriage with a city in 5 or 10 years. We're growing. We're expanding. We're moving faster. Grow with us. Expand your horizons. And try to keep up. Otherwise you should do like those people who don't have anything good to say.

I know I come off as brash sometimes, but it's only because after just two-and-a-half years living here (aside from my time at UT in the early 2000s) I realize it's so damn simple.

If we stop growing, we start dying. We can try to slow it down, but then we're just in a coma...not yet ready to pull the chord on a city that used to be the Top 10 everything...

Are we really willing to give all this up because we don't want light rail lines a couple of blocks away from our businesses and neighborhoods?

Dark Knight Rises Trailer!!

Highlights from Miami

Twice in a month's time, I took Jetblue's nonstop flight from Austin to Fort Lauderdale. Why? Because of this awesome new eyewear brand Tortoise & Blonde. Well, that was the main reason. T&B held a private showing of their frames to Miami bloggers and others in town for Swim Week at The Shore Club. Last month's trip, however, paled in comparison to this past weekend because my travel homie Niraj took the trip too. Here are the weekend's highlights:

5. The Tortoise & Blonde event, duh! Did I mention they had live African sea tortoises!

Look at the little guy coolin' out in the shade.

4. Tourists going local

Niraj and I checked out a cool Uchiko-like resturant called Gigi that we both appreciated. Pretty much anything with pork belly or short ribs is going to please us. Was a very strong local follow-up to the previous night's meal at Nobu. The same can be said of our visit to this house-party like club called Villa 221 that we checked out late Saturday night after spending the previous night at South Beach establishments like Mokai.

3. That angel named Sade

It was nice walking into the "home of the Miami Heat" without having to see an NBA Championship banner hanging from the American Airlines Arena as John Legend closed his set with "Green Light", but the real highlight was seeing Sade...one of those special artists I've wanted to see for years. I've now seen both Jay-Z and Kanye perform in my home city, Rihanna sing up-close-and-personal (literally, 10 feet away), hung out with Pharrell and Will.i.am in their studio buses, seen Paul McCartney perform "Blackbird", Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger perform at the Grammys, watched Devo play "Whip It", saw Roni Size do the entire "New Forms" album and Public Enemy do "It Takes a Nation of Millions..." since I turned 21...I'm almost prepared to die and go to Heaven and I'm not even 30!

Yeah, that angel-like creature is Sade.

2. The beach and poolside views

First, from the hotel room at The Shore Club.

Then, by the pool

And some the views I'm talking about can't be captured in photos like this.

1. It's not often that I travel to a place like Miami solo (like I did a month ago) then go the following month with a good friend, but it's exactly what happened here. Niraj and I have now tackled Chicago (Halloween), L.A. (Grammys), New York (Memorial Day), and Miami in the last year. After coming out of a lengthy relationship late last year, one of my New Year's resolutions was to travel with good friends more. You learn a lot about someone (and yourself) by spending time with people in less familiar environments. I've certainly learned a lot by sticking to this resolution in 2011.

At one point, after driving 110-120+ in the rented Ford Mustang on I-95, I was pulled over by a Miami police officer. The officer immediately ordered me out of the car and asked me why I was driving so fast. When I told him it was because I had to use the restroom, he then asked who else was in the car. In that moment, I was thrilled that it was Niraj. He let us be on our merry way and I think it's because he, too, likes the occasional late night cruise with a homie. Hell, that's probably part of the reason why he became a police officer.

Friday Jam: Wreckx-n-Effect

I'm headed to Miami for Swim Week so it's only right that today's jam be something extra...eye grabbing. If you find this offensive, please don't watch it. Don't say I didn't warn you.

 

Read this NOW: New York Times' Thomas Friedman writes...

Op-Ed Columnist

The Start-Up of You

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Published: July 12, 2011

The rise in the unemployment rate last month to 9.2 percent has Democrats and Republicans reliably falling back on their respective cure-alls. It is evidence for liberals that we need more stimulus and for conservatives that we need more tax cuts to increase demand. I am sure there is truth in both, but I do not believe they are the whole story. I think something else, something new — something that will require our kids not so much to find their next job as to invent their next job — is also influencing today’s job market more than people realize.

Josh Haner/The New York Times

Thomas L. Friedman

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Look at the news these days from the most dynamic sector of the U.S. economy — Silicon Valley. Facebook is now valued near $100 billion, Twitter at $8 billion, Groupon at $30 billion, Zynga at $20 billion and LinkedIn at $8 billion. These are the fastest-growing Internet/social networking companies in the world, and here’s what’s scary: You could easily fit all their employees together into the 20,000 seats in Madison Square Garden, and still have room for grandma. They just don’t employ a lot of people, relative to their valuations, and while they’re all hiring today, they are largely looking for talented engineers.

Indeed, what is most striking when you talk to employers today is how many of them have used the pressure of the recession to become even more productive by deploying more automation technologies, software, outsourcing, robotics — anything they can use to make better products with reduced head count and health care and pension liabilities. That is not going to change. And while many of them are hiring, they are increasingly picky. They are all looking for the same kind of people — people who not only have the critical thinking skills to do the value-adding jobs that technology can’t, but also people who can invent, adapt and reinvent their jobs every day, in a market that changes faster than ever.

Today’s college grads need to be aware that the rising trend in Silicon Valley is to evaluate employees every quarter, not annually. Because the merger of globalization and the I.T. revolution means new products are being phased in and out so fast that companies cannot afford to wait until the end of the year to figure out whether a team leader is doing a good job.

Whatever you may be thinking when you apply for a job today, you can be sure the employer is asking this: Can this person add value every hour, every day — more than a worker in India, a robot or a computer? Can he or she help my company adapt by not only doing the job today but also reinventing the job for tomorrow? And can he or she adapt with all the change, so my company can adapt and export more into the fastest-growing global markets? In today’s hyperconnected world, more and more companies cannot and will not hire people who don’t fulfill those criteria.

But you would never know that from listening to the debate in Washington, where some Democrats still tend to talk about job creation as if it’s the 1960s and some Republicans as if it’s the 1980s. But this is not your parents’ job market.

This is precisely why LinkedIn’s founder, Reid Garrett Hoffman, one of the premier starter-uppers in Silicon Valley — besides co-founding LinkedIn, he is on the board of Zynga, was an early investor in Facebook and sits on the board of Mozilla — has a book coming out after New Year called “The Start-Up of You,” co-authored with Ben Casnocha. Its subtitle could easily be: “Hey, recent graduates! Hey, 35-year-old midcareer professional! Here’s how you build your career today.”

Hoffman argues that professionals need an entirely new mind-set and skill set to compete. “The old paradigm of climb up a stable career ladder is dead and gone,” he said to me. “No career is a sure thing anymore. The uncertain, rapidly changing conditions in which entrepreneurs start companies is what it’s now like for all of us fashioning a career. Therefore you should approach career strategy the same way an entrepreneur approaches starting a business.”

To begin with, Hoffman says, that means ditching a grand life plan. Entrepreneurs don’t write a 100-page business plan and execute it one time; they’re always experimenting and adapting based on what they learn.

It also means using your network to pull in information and intelligence about where the growth opportunities are — and then investing in yourself to build skills that will allow you to take advantage of those opportunities. Hoffman adds: “You can’t just say, ‘I have a college degree, I have a right to a job, now someone else should figure out how to hire and train me.’ ” You have to know which industries are working and what is happening inside them and then “find a way to add value in a way no one else can. For entrepreneurs it’s differentiate or die — that now goes for all of us.”

Finally, you have to strengthen the muscles of resilience. “You may have seen the news that [the] online radio service Pandora went public the other week,” Hoffman said. “What’s lesser known is that in the early days [the founder] pitched his idea more than 300 times to V.C.’s with no luck.”

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