Nine Shift

Wisconsin Recall Update: Win or Lose, We Win

Come Tuesday, win or lose, the recall forces and progressives will have won a major battle against the Tea Party.

Lots of optimism on the ground this weekend.

The polls and feeling is the public is 50-50.  But being outspent 25 to 1, and still having the support of around 50% of the people is a huge victory for the 99%. 

Irony: The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, state's largest newspaper, endorsed Walker. Then they have been running a fact-sheet on Walker and calling-out his lies, distortions and untruths.

Also, the Walker plan to sell all the state land to private hands and then charging hunters tons of money to hunt is gaining publicity. 

And then, the John Doe FBI investigation into Walker continues.  All good signs for victory over the long haul.

Favorite local bar of Nine Shift. 

 

Generation Y Driving Less

Another interview today on our research showing that young people are driving less.

This time from a youthful reporter with a new magazine called Twenty What with the fun slogan "Define your decade."

Another Housing Prediction: Revival of Smaller Cities

Another Nine Shift prediction you will see soon: the revival of smaller cities - - provided they are on a passenger train line.

You can already see the beginnings of it in small cities like Galesburg, Illinois.  In Galesburg, the train station is right downtown, surrounded by an increasingly vital business community with shops and stores and my favorite - - cobble streets. 

I visited Galesburg this spring, arriving by train from Chicago on Illinois' 4th busiest train route. It is ripe for more downtown apartments, young Gen Yers raising families, and professionals and teleworkers living there for the small town atmosphere- - and going to Chicago whenever they need. We predict Galesburg, and other smaller cities located on passenger rail routes, will double or triple in population in the next 30 years.

Wisconsin a Battle, Not the War

Outsiders are expecting too much from the Wisconsin recall elections June 5.

This is a battle, not the war.  And we may lose the recall election. Wisconsin is like the Russian front in WWII.  We are absorbing all the casualties, fighting the Tea Party and making the rest of the nation safe for the 21st Century.  

We are far better off with the recall effort than if Wisconsin folks had just accepted the right wing extremism of Governor Scott Walker.   But let's wage this fight long term.  Don't keep score by the inning, but by the game.  Don't focus on the battle, but on the war. 

Tom Barrett at Western Wisconsin Rally This Morning

Expecting only 10 people, Tom Barrett got a cafe-full of 100 supporters for his early morning pep talk today.  NineShift's Julie Coates takes time out from canvassing and phone calls to wish him well.

Now try "Collaborative Consumption"

Here's a related business concept to excess capacity, called collaborative consumption.

A young man in our community asked Julie and TAP, our local progressive organization, about working with young people on creating a rental store.  People would loan or donate items for which they have at the house but do not use regularly, like a turkey pot, or a hole digger.

Whenever you need something, you rent it instead of buying it.  Gen Y is reducing tangible goods, reducing wasteful consumption, lowering environmental pollution.  This is a great exciting new idea. Go for it kids!

Geek Squad Founder Foretells "Excess Capacity"

We heard Geek Squad founder Robert Stephens talk about the Internet beyond web 2.0 recently. He was amazing.

One of the central business and economic concepts moving forward, he says, is "excess capacity."  Maximizing the use of things. 

You've heard of renting a car, and now sharing a car for just a few hours.  Now here's the next level:  rent your own car when you are not using it.  97% of the time cars are not used, says Stephens.  At Get Around, you can rent a car, but you can also rent your own car.

Want to rent your apartment while you are gone? Try airbnb.com

Want someone to do a task, or do you want to be available for hire to do a task?  Try TaskRabbit.

It's not kooky, not just a fad, or even a trend. It's about reducing tangible goods. And it is changing retail, manufacturing and how tangible goods will be (long lasting, durable, not throwaway) for the rest of the century. 

WiFi Boosts Train Ridership 3-5%

^{Not that we need to boost train ridership, which is at a record. But it does show how everything in the 21st Century is coming together, and that a big reason why Gen Y is riding trains is because, unlike driving a car, you can work and ride the train at the same time.}

"In an April 13 letter to Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), Amtrak Vice President Joe McHugh said that when Wi-Fi service has been introduced elsewhere, Amtrak has documented a 3 to 5 percent ridership increase from that feature alone," as reported in Badger Rails, the newsletter of the Wisconsin Association of Railroad Passengers.

Young People Driving Less

We broke the story two years ago that young people are driving less.

First Advertising Age interviewed us, then Kiplinger, and then the story ran all over the place: Yahoo, The Atlantic, Forbes, Chicago Tribune, on and on.

This spring there has been a spate of publicity coverage on the same story, only without naming or quoting or referencing us at NineShift.  I am not bitter.  Corect that - - I am bitter.

All the stories seem to reference the same database we discovered. None of them seem to have new info, or other researchers on the topic.  So am thinking this is a replay of our story.

So this week it was nice to have a journalism student at Northwestern University call and interview me, noting that "your name popped up in several stories" on the issue.  Thank you Mary.

New Non-Political Progressive Organization Created

Here in River Falls, Wisc., my brilliant co-author Julie Coates has started a new grassroots organization, progressive but not partisan politically.

It is called The Awareness Project, or TAP, and they have a huge office and meeting rooms downtown where people gather for poetry readings, potlucks, organizing rallies, holding community group meetings and more.  Check out their web site. Below, poster party for the rally for women's rights.