Posted on 06/19/2008 2:35:55 PM PDT by blam
Americans migrate back to the cities
By Tom Leonard in New York
Last Updated: 2:23AM BST 19/06/2008
Americans are choosing to abandon the suburban sprawl in favour of a more comfortable, cheaper and greener life in the city centre.
Americans flocked to the suburbs after the WWII. Soaring energy prices and the sub-prime crisis are driving them back to the cities
The mass migration of America's middle classes from urban areas to the suburbs amounted to a demographic revolution in the years after the Second World War.
But the so-called "driveable suburb" is becoming increasingly unfeasible as soaring fuel costs make a long commute too expensive for many.
Higher energy prices are also having a disproportionate impact on bigger homes, such as those found in the suburbs, as they inevitably cost much more to heat in winter and cool in America's often fiercely hot summers.
The sub-prime mortgage crisis has accelerated this flight to the cities – experts have christened it New Urbanism – as property prices have particularly collapsed in more remote areas.
According to a poll for Reuters, about 10 per cent of Americans said they were considering moving closer to work while roughly the same percentage said they were thinking about getting a job closer to home.
John Zogby, a political pollster, said the findings added up to a "broad cultural change" which translated into millions of people considering a major transformation in their lives.
He said: "Low energy costs and the availability of autos helped fuel suburbanisation."
But as people concluded that high energy prices were here to stay, "this is now one of those big changes in our lives that requires nothing short of dramatic lifestyle changes," he said.
Even before the latest economic downturn, demand for urban living had been rekindled among two generations – the so-called "baby boomers" in their fifties and "millenials", the latter born between the late 1970s and mid-1990s.
Both are already drifting away from the suburbs, the baby boomers because they want smaller homes and more accessible amenities, and the millenials to rebel against their cul-de-sac upbringing.
Transportation is now the second biggest household expense in the US after housing. Much of the new demand for city homes is in neighbourhoods close to light railway stations, hastening the move away from a car culture.
Some towns around cities have responded to this exodus by rejecting suburban status and working hard to reinvent their own centres.
Americans are not just reconsidering their living arrangements because of the latest economic downturn.
Nearly 39 per cent of those surveyed in the Reuters/Zogby poll said they were considering changing holiday plans, while 31 per cent plan fewer restaurant visits.
Philly, especially downtown (”Center City”) has been in the midst of a residential building boom for at least the past 5 years. SEPTA public transportation ridership is at its highest levels since the 1970’s.
High fuel costs will definitely change the way Americans think about living in urban areas.
In Southern California they built up the Inland Empire, Riverside and San Bernardino all the way out into the deserts. Now, few can afford to live their, due to the expensive commutes into Orange County and LA as so expensive. Not to mention the traffic.
People living in those areas are being beat like a drum over these fuel prices, and now all prices.
Those suburbs on the coastal plain, surrounding OC and LA, are much better off.
Add and a wife!
People living in those areas are being beat like a drum over these fuel prices, and now all prices.
Those suburbs on the coastal plain, surrounding OC and LA, are much better off.
I really feel for those that bought way inland in the past 15 years or so. Most of those that did it, just wanted an affordable home. If these fuel prices continue, they'll be left twisting in the wind.
“Yes, it’s happening. And for those who choose to stay in the suburbs, the ghetto is coming out to join you”
That’s exactly what’s happened in the suburbs south of Boston.
Now, everything necessary for survival is within a two mile radius....bank, stores, restaurant, post office, Kmart, super market and there's absolutely nothing downtown for the average suburbian.
Sort of reminds me of DT Saint Paul in Minnesota. The DT area’s become a money pit for the better part of 2 decades save for the hockey arena.
My brother in law and his family are moving from Minneapolis to Beaver Dam, WI. His wife is a “Hospital Cost Cutter” and she’s been hired at the hospital in BD.
They are VERY happy to get out of there, and though they’re much more liberal than I am, Beaver Dam is going to seem like Mayberry, RFD to them, LOL!
Perhaps jobs will come to them. Why is it necessary for information workers to physically commute long distances to central cities?
Philly kills a wet behind the ears college grad on a regular basis.
Out south of Seattle, between Tacoma and Mt. Rainier, a new "housing development" has been completed and looks to be full. A couple of years ago, a sign next to the highway in front of the forested land said "3000 New Homes Coming Here". And they are, all ticky-tacky with about 10 ft. of "yard" between the houses.
And there are numerous other similar smaller (50-500 houses) developments going up all over what were rural areas, within a 5 or 10 mile radius of that one, spreading out further and further from the cities. I sure don't see any mass movement of population into the cities.
Tacoma spent years doing everything it could to drive people and businesses away- and was quite successful at it. Now they are spending billions to try to lure businesses and residential back into the city. Bah! Who would want to live there? Even the good areas are becoming cesspools.
No matter how many extension university campuses, museums, theaters or whatnot they put there to attract people, they still don't understand that socialism/big government hasn't, doesn't and won't ever work. Even the socialists don't want to live under socialist rule.
They try to escape by leaving the city, but then "voting" to bring all the regulation, laws, and big government with them and inflict it upon those of us out in what used to be rural areas, who can do and have been doing just nicely without it.
“This is a part of 2 Americas
Single / Urban / no kids / liberal / etc. America
Married / Suburban / kids / conservative America”
exactly...the very folks who should have been having more children have murdered them by the millions and instead embraced messianic ideologies like political correctness as their religion
they will be the death of our culture
FWIW...I smell large construction/real-estate investment trust money trying to jump-start the payoff on some inner city yuppie-condo projects going south with the criminal mortgage problems.....IMHO
This reminds me of something I learned in my Physical Geography course in college not too long ago. The course text spoke of how in Western society young adults were moving to the city but pursuing careers instead of having children. This may explain the drop in children enrolled in public schools.
Or it could also be that these affluent people moving to the city are enrolling their children in private schools. Either way it is an interesting trend to study.
In which case the article is perfectly believable.
City of Baltmore is getting lotsa folks in harbor area and around Federal Hill, Fells Point, Canton but downside is dreadful schools and the hood close by. So the dwellers are young singles and marrieds with no kids or little kids and older people who are retiring. I would love to live downtown but the crime scares me plus the drifters hanging around. Plus taxes, corrupt govt, and so on. I have a place in the outer part of the city which I love.
Upper East Side
My cat originally from E. 74th St.
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