EQ Journal

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County of Renfrew Reborn

Here are the slides from a talk on economic renewal that I am giving for the County of Renfrew on Monday September 17, 2012 at 10 am at the Best Western Renfrew Inn and Conference Centre. The challenges facing the county are not unlike small towns elsewhere in rural Ontario and, for that matter, in [...]

Artpreneurs Aren’t Important, Right?

Wrong! Here’s a thought experiment for you to perform. Close your eyes for a moment and ask yourself: how diverse, sustainable, interesting and vibrant a place would your city be if every one of these professionals went on an Atlas Shrugged-inspired strike forever? Here’s my list of suddenly vanishing artpreneurs: graphic artists, architects, musicians, writers, [...]

Artifex

Professional Artpreneur Gala We want to take this opportunity to thank all the sponsors of Artifex in advance of this very special event that will take place on June 20th, 2012 at the National Gallery Of Canada. These organizations make it possible to celebrate the essential role that the arts play in building better, more [...]

Carp Road Corridor Business Improvement Area

We have in Ottawa a BIA (Business Improvement Area) focused on improving the Carp Road corridor. It’s an important stretch of road connecting the fast growing suburb of Stittsville and the historic Village of Carp. It is a mostly rural area but there are municipal services at both ends but not along much of the [...]

Open Letter to: Our Community and all of the City of Ottawa

From: Professor Bruce M Firestone, Executive Director, Exploriem.org Date: May 28, 2012 Re.: Support for the Arts and Artists in this Community The average Canadian artist makes just $22,000 per year. Yet where would be without art? How dull our cities would be and how empty life would be of music, film, fabulous clothes, cool [...]

Private versus Public Ownership

(Why Starfleet is Wrong) (Pre-Conditions for Economic Takeoff in Nations) Private ownership of a ‘thing’ can be viewed as private stewardship of that thing. As a former owner of a National Hockey League franchise, I never felt like I owned it and, frankly, I was always uncomfortable with the notion that hockey players under contract [...]

Can You Create Successful TV Programming from a Home Base in Ottawa?

(Portions of this article originally appeared in Ottawa Business Journal, Jan. 23, 2012: http://www.obj.ca/Opinion/Bruce-Firestone-5444.) I recently interviewed screenwriter Sharon Buckingham best known as writer/producer and creative force behind Sticks & Stones, a movie for television for the CTV network. It won both the Shaw Rocket Prize for Best Canadian Family TV program and Best Foreign [...]

Real Estate Investing Made Simple

I met with a couple in their early 40s last week and they asked me to lay out a program for them so that in addition to building their portfolio of financial assets, they could create a real estate portfolio as well. They agreed that the latter would not include a ‘flip this house/as-seen-on-TV’ approach–they [...]

Grasshoppers, Squirrels and Ants in Grassel

Occupy Grassel Movement Picking up Steam/Government Planning Action The majority of the population of Grassel is made up of Grasshoppers, Squirrels and Ants. Mensa Ants account for 1% of the population. These are the groups that populate the World of Grassel, viz: Grassel World, 100 Rows x 100 Columns 1. Grasshoppers are low wage earners [...]

Want Higher Density Communities?

Then First Build Out not Up (This is an article I wrote in 2003 concerning the policy direction of then Kanata Councillor, Peggy Feltmate who continued in a long line of municipal politicians to oppose building the City outwards in the mistaken belief that this would prevent building upwards. Her goal and mine were the [...]

Rent Curves

How Developers can Make More Money and Urban Design can Improve by Exploiting Vertical Rent Curves It has always amazed me that many developers, those veritable profit maximizers, don’t understand that neo-urbanist principles* can improve their returns while at the same time making them better city-builders and I suppose better corporate citizens. For example, most [...]

Entrepreneurship, Economic Development and Sustainability

(From a speech originally given to: Kiwanis Club of Ottawa, Friday September 12, 2003, Fairmont Chateau Laurier Hotel) Entrepreneurship is more than just a key engine for economic growth; it is the most efficient means of producing a sustainable community, not just in Canada but in developing nations as well. Countries that have city-state economies [...]