Sep 03

Tiny Homes are Illegal in Ontario

By Bruce Firestone | Tiny Homes

But Shouldn’t Be Here’s how Ontario and many other jurisdictions make sure their citizens are in debt til they die– By way of the many restrictions in place, governments are actually a major contributor to the ongoing affordable housing crises!  It is illegal to live full time in an RV (or tiny house)  UNLESS  you […]

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Mar 18

Melody Place

By Bruce Firestone | Architecture , Business Models , Design , Entrepreneurship , Ideas , Sports & Entertainment

+++ The future is now… For more information, please contact Michael Swatton 819-328-3094 (michaelswatton@gmail.com) or Chris O’Connell 617-767-5073 (chrisoc1281@gmail.com) +++ Image sources: Y2kcrazyjoker4, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=145249106 John Phelan – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20866409 Cirque du Soleil image, Sebastian Orellana CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49892627

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Mar 19

White Angel of Merida Mexico

By Bruce Firestone | Business Coaching , Business Models , Entrepreneurship , Finance , PB4L , Sales & Marketing

This silent angel in downtown Merida (aka Centro) offers you one slip of paper to guide your future. For 20 pesos, mine read (in Spanish), “Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn.” #Excellent message. This young woman dresses up every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday in her angel costume, which she designed and fabbed herself. She […]

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May 01

Path to creating affordable housing is out there but only possible if cities and towns make it so

By Bruce Firestone | Architecture , Business Models , Design , Entrepreneurship , Family , Finance , Green for Real , Investing , Real Estate , Real Estate Investment Coaching , Tiny Homes

Are you familiar with the BBC series From Lark Rise to Candleford? It’s about life in two neighboring places in the late 19th century—one a poor rural village called Lark Rise where life is a struggle, and tother being a more prosperous town called Candleford. They are 8-miles apart with a muddy track the only […]

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Feb 05

The Value of Sticking together

By Bruce Firestone | Business Coaching , Entrepreneurship , Family , Firestone Institute , Ideas , Life Coaching , Real Estate Investment Coaching

Most people know about the prisoner’s dilemma even if it’s just intuitively rather than explicitly— Two people are accused of a joint crime. Police detectives put both suspects in individual interrogation rooms. They offer each of them a deal—if you’re first to talk, you’ll get jail time of just two years. If the other party […]

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Oct 26

Murals are a powerful tool to revive urban areas

By Bruce Firestone | Architecture , Business Coaching , Design , Entrepreneurship , Finance , Green for Real , Investing , Life Coaching , PB4L , Real Estate , Real Estate Investment Coaching , Urban Economics

Theming downtown Belleville Murals are a powerful catalyst in terms of reviving and improving urban areas. For example, Jane Golden started a program in Philadelphia to bring graffiti artists “in from the cold.” The Mural Arts Program (www.muralarts.org) in Philly employs over 300 artists each year and teaches more than 1,000 young people the art […]

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Oct 25

The tinier the house, the more creative you need to be

By Bruce Firestone | Architecture , Business Models , Design , Entrepreneurship , Family , Finance , Green for Real , Ideas , PB4L , Real Estate , Real Estate Investment Coaching , Tiny Homes , Urban Economics

The smaller the house you build, the more creative you need to be. One of my daughters is moving into her own home that is just 192 sq ft. She’ll live right next door to a small workshop (about 350 sq ft) where she will design and produce high fashion custom clothing for glamorous women […]

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Jul 08

It would be daffy for my daughter to sell her home

By Bruce Firestone | Family , Finance , Investing , Real Estate , Real Estate Investment Coaching , Urban Economics

We helped one of my daughters (I have five children) buy a home four years ago for $345,000. We added a basement apartment for $80k so her total cost is about $425,000. We had it appraised last month—after insane pandemic-induced appreciation, it’s now worth $760,000 according to a local appraiser. First thing she said to […]

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May 08

Making Retail Spaces Pandemic/Internet/Big Box Store Resistant

By Bruce Firestone | Architecture , Business Coaching , Business Models , Design , Entrepreneurship , Ideas , Investing , Real Estate , Real Estate Investment Coaching , Sales & Marketing , Urban Economics

At the beginning of this pandemic, folks asked me what I thought would happen to real estate values. I believed office and shopping mall valuations would fall out of bed while industrial and residential would hold their own. The latter because people always need a place to live; the former because I thought nations (including […]

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Mar 06

What will our economy look like after the global pandemic subsides?

By Bruce Firestone | Architecture , Business Models , Firestone Institute , Green for Real , Ideas , Investing , Life Coaching , PB4L , Real Estate , Urban Economics

I am optimistic that the global economy will recover but it will be vastly different. Overall, it may not only be a more localized economy but a more productive one too as weaker players get weeded out and some industries fade while others surge. It’s also likely that the surpluses produced by revamped economies will […]

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