He's Cool. How About D.C.?

Not the people themselves -- no, not you, never you -- but there are too few of you and you're too spread out. That's what Peter Gloor, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, thinks. He's co-author of "Coolhunting: Chasing Down the Next Big Thing" and author of the forthcoming "Coolfarming" (for, presumably, when you'd rather grow the next big thing instead of chasing it down). To him, a cool city is like a beehive. He has studied trends in tourist destinations, and the hottest new ticket isn't necessarily overrun, but it is often crowded and difficult to get to.

On a recent Washington vacation, he thought the city seemed too empty. "I spent a typical museum week in D.C. with my kids and you walk and walk and walk and it never feels dense," Gloor says. "In Times Square, you could walk on the heads of people." A feeling of coolness, he says, is related to the density of a crowd: "We like to be together with other people, we like to share the same goals." A cool city is simply a place where everybody wants to be.

It's the capital, and the trappings of bureaucracy just aren't cool

The buildings of official Washington make it feel too planned, too stretched out, too grandiose, too impressive. It's not organic enough, according to Gloor.

The people

"Cool really starts with people -- people who are the gatekeepers of their communities," says DeeDee Gordon, co-founder of the consumer-insight firm Look-Look and a seasoned culture- and trend-watcher. Gordon is also a Maryland native and bristled a bit at the question. "Who says D.C. isn't cool?" she demanded. She says she uses the word cool to describe something that's significant and is going to influence culture, usually in a very positive way.

She admits, however, that she has neither seen nor heard nor discussed a cultural trend that started in Washington in a long time.

But she's optimistic that this could change, especially if the town is inundated by creative young people. "A lot is going to rest on the types of people that Obama puts in those open positions in the Plum Book," Gordon says, referring to the book of upper level government jobs that the president can fill. "If you put cool people into those positions, there could be a really interesting effect."

And then there are the particular people -- four new residents, to be precise -- who are off to a brisk start as trendsetters. Lisa Haverty is a cognitive scientist who runs a branding consulting firm. She says that people's perceptions of Washington as a cultural leader will change quickly. And one good way to measure the change is . . . the Web traffic to jcrew.com. The first daughters donned coats by the clothing company for their father's inauguration, and the look generated so much buzz that the Web site crashed.

It's the capital, and bureaucracy can be cool