<i>You&#x27;re not going to win with the talented people in the Midwest if you just try to make it feel like Silicon Valley Jr. -- you have to be different, with a whole different ethos that&#x27;s a bit more about the style of life here.</i><p>This is true in public policy, too. I live in St. Louis, where we&#x27;re constantly chasing the tails of bigger cities and their neat, new bike-share-startup-trolley-incubator-green-space whatevers. And it&#x27;ll never work. For St. Louis to ever have <i>any</i> hope of being cool, it needs to focus on the things that make St. Louis cool and give up on trying to be Chicago.