Monthly Archives: January 2016

In the 1950’s urban developer Robert Moses…

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“In the 1950’s, urban developer Robert Moses was engaged in a plan to create a roadway through Washington Square Park. Moses’ motivation for doing so was to provide a Fifth Avenue address to the buildings that were to be built in a redevelopment area, located south of Washington Square.

Jane Jacobs was among those working to oppose the plan.

She believed that this roadway was intended to be a “feeder” that would bring traffic through the park to Moses’ planned lower Manhattan, Broome Street Expressway project.

In 1958 Jane Jacobs, together with several key players such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Margaret Mead and Lewis Mumford, formed the Joint Emergency Committee to Close Washington Square Park to Traffic.

Jacobs is credited with creating the name for the Committee.

Norman Redlich, a Villager and the pro bono council to the Committee recalled that, “Among Jane Jacobs’ many brilliant organizing techniques, one of them was always put what you are trying to achieve in the name of the Committee, because most people will read no further than that. So, it was called the Joint Emergency Committee to Close Washington Square Park to Traffic.”

It was also Jane Jacobs who strategically realized the need to go directly to the force that possessed the authority to direct the traffic commissioner to place a sign in the middle of the road that would read, “the park is closed.”

Once she discovered that this power lay with the Board of Estimate, the Committee recognized that it would have to employ a highly political strategy.

Additionally, fellow activist, Edith Lyons later recalled that it was Jacobs who originally said, “Let’s ask them [Board of Estimate] for a 3 month temporary trial, and I bet you when the trial is over, it will have proved our case and it will never be opened again.”

Jacobs’ prediction was correct and after the three month trial, the park was never reopened to traffic.”

http://www.nypap.org/content/jane-jacobs

The real class conflict today is not…

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“The real class conflict today, is not the one predicted between a few billionaires and the rest of the [workers]. No, the real class conflict in developing countries is between those with cars and the rest of society….A bicycle lane is a powerful symbol of equality. It shows that a citizen on a $30 bicycle is equally important to one in a $30,000 car” – Enrique Peñalosa

http://thecityfix.com/blog/film-reveals-bogotas-urban-transformation/

The barrier to entry was capital and…

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“The barrier to entry was capital and execution. Community- or technology-focused companies wouldn’t do because it takes too much time and customer trust to make a lot of money. We tried cloning Airbnb, but it didn’t work because it’s so brand- and community-focused. Even though we had a staff of 400 staff in 15 offices within two months, it didn’t work.

Eventually we realized the best companies to clone were e-commerce businesses.”

Once we picked which idea we wanted to do, the next step was all about growth. It was growth at all costs.

There are three levers we used to successfully clone a business and make it grow faster than the original: expand geography where the service or product is located, create a larger product offering, or lower the pricing to undercut the competitor. Most of the time is was by having more products and undercutting the competitor.

After picking the levers it was time to grow. The first six months is 100% week-over-week growth. Then after $1 million in revenue it’s 20% growth every month. We built billion-dollar companies in 36 months.

We’d say to ourselves, “We’re going to dominate this market then prove that we’re growing revenue 20% month over month. Profit doesn’t matter.” We just needed to stay under a certain monthly burn rate. Then we’d sell the company and let the buyer figure out how to make it profitable.”

http://thehustle.co/rocket-internet-oliver-samwer