Have you ever wondered how small cities grow, but still maintain the great things you love. How does Fresno, California keep its relaxed feel and housing affordability into the future? Why is York, continuously voted England ‘s most liveable city and still maintains its student and historical identities and how is Rockhampton, Australia transitioning from mining city to SMART city?

Small cities grow all the time - but how can they keep the things you love most about them; strong sense of community, dynamic business ecosystem, diverse job opportunities and good lifestyle?

Well, this podcast series is dedicated to answering this exact quest – how do you grow a great small city?

The reality is that globally 2.4 billion people live in small cities and growing. That’s almost 1 in 3 people live in cities with less than 1 million people. Yet, almost everything we hear about cities is focused on the mega cities and learning from them. And there are four and half times more people living in small cities than mega cities. So while learnings from mega cities tell us about solutions for solving city problems like; congestion, pollution or even mobility –many small cities aren’t grappling with these.

While I’m sure we all agree that big cities like; London, New York, Singapore, Paris, Beijing are great places and we can always learn from them – they don’t tell us must about how to grow a great small city.

This podcast series will use ten episodes to highlight practical ways small cities around the world are using their strengths, facing their challenges and building opportunities to grow great small cities.

Hi, I’m Leonie Pearson, your host for the series. And this is the short introductory episode.

I’m putting it up front now – I live in a small city. It’s not my first time in a small city, so there are no virginal hazes of misconception. I’ve lived in big cities like Beijing, Leeds in UK and in Australia Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne. Small city living is a choice, and one that delivers awesome benefits and some challenges.

Over the last few decades I’ve had the pleasure to research, advise and coach small cities across the world to help them deliver a growth plan that ‘works for them’. I’ve also had the pleasure to sit around numerous tables identifying ways to design policy that will ‘grow cities’.

But, the real stories on how cities grow – what works or doesn’t, comes from the people on the ground. So, while I’ll share with you some of the latest ideas on small city growth from the academic and policy side – it’s important we keep this real with stories from the ground. Every week we will be talking to the people that are involved in the every day job of growing great small cities in Australia, UK, Canada, and USA. These are Mayors, economic development officers, CEO’s and private operators, and they will share their experiences involving real action on the ground in small cities.

So each week we will tackle a different city and a new topic. We’ll be addressing issues like:

o What is it, that cities actually want to grow?

o What is the result of local leaders being kicked into action?;

o How can small cities build on their strengths?;

o Why do cities build on local people and place the most?

To help keep each episode practical, we’ll have a top tip at the end, so you can do something practical about growing your great small city.

Growing a great small city is complex – so this series is focusing on the economic development side of action. While this touches on many aspects of small city growth; housing, infrastructure, technology, jobs, people, businesses etc it doesn’t cover everything.

So, if you want to find out practical actions that can grow your small city into greatness then tune in, as we explore how to grow a great small city.

Next week, episode one, we will be tackling the tricky issue of ‘what is it small cities want to grow? is it jobs, populations, or something else? I’ll be talking to Andrew Carter head of the UK Centre for Cities. Tune in to find out more.

So to end this introduction, I’ll tie in the call to action and top tip.

This weeks top tip is to check out the website www.allcitiesgreatandsmall.com which hosts this podcast and also has a range of other good material on small city issues. It originated from Australia, so lots on that, but its growing so keep coming back for more episodes, show notes and new work on how to grow a great small city.

Thanks for listening and I’ll see you next week.