Forbes, Reinventing America, December 9, 2013
Joel Kotkin
A young bicycle commuter in Portland, Oregon. People are most likely
to move to the core cities in their early 20s, but this migration peters
out as people enter the end of that often tumultuous decade.
(RyanJLane/Getty Images)
Urban theorists such as Peter Katz have maintained that millennials (the generation born after 1983) show little interest in “returning to the cul-de-sacs of their teenage years.” Manhattanite Leigh Gallagher, author of the dismally predictable book The Death of Suburbs, asserts with certitude that “millennials hate the suburbs” and prefer more eco-friendly, singleton-dominated urban environments.
"But a close look at migration data reveals that the reality is much more complex. The millennial “flight” from suburbia has not only been vastly overexaggerated, it fails to deal with what may best be seen as differences in preferences correlated with life stages."
"We can tell this because we can follow the first group of millennials who are now entering their 30s, and it turns out that they are beginning, like preceding generations, to move to the suburbs."
http://www.forbes.com/sites/joelkotkin/2013/12/09/the-geography-of-aging-why-millenials-are-headed-to-the-suburbs/
See the accompanying article that shows just where people are moving to.
Where Working Americans Are Moving
http://www.forbes.com/sites/joelkotkin/2013/12/19/where-working-age-americans-are-moving/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/joelkotkin/2013/12/09/the-geography-of-aging-why-millenials-are-headed-to-the-suburbs/
See the accompanying article that shows just where people are moving to.
Where Working Americans Are Moving
http://www.forbes.com/sites/joelkotkin/2013/12/19/where-working-age-americans-are-moving/
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File this under: DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU HEAR. Of course people will want to raise their kids in the suburbs. The vast majority of Americans now live in suburbs, and more people move to suburbia than urban areas despite claims to the contrary.
BUT - that is not what you hear from the Central Planners and sustainability folks. Ever denser, more connectivity, bike, walk, pathways everywhere - even through private property - nature in the neighborhoods, government control over every tree... Not exactly the American Dream. Listen to what the PEOPLE want, not the Central Planners.
People are taking longer to grow up but when they do they want freedom, privacy and a place of their own.
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