Blue State Exodus: Why the middle-class are fleeing for the hills

Forbes ^ | 11/3/2009 | Joel Kotkin

[SeekAndFind]

For the past decade a large coterie of pundits, prognosticators and their media camp followers have insisted that growth in America would be concentrated in places hip and cool, largely the bluish regions of the country.

Since the onset of the recession, which has hit many once-thriving Sun Belt hot spots, this chorus has grown bolder. The Wall Street Journal, for example, recently identified the "Next Youth-Magnet Cities" as drawn from the old "hip and cool" collection of yore: Seattle, Portland, Washington, New York and Austin, Texas.

It's not just the young who will flock to the blue meccas, but money and business as well, according to narrative. The future, the Atlantic assured its readers, did not belong to the rubes in the suburbs or Sun Belt, but to high-density, high-end places like New York, San Francisco and Boston.

This narrative, which has not changed much over the past decade, is misleading and largely misstated. Net migration, both before and after the Great Recession, according to analysis by the Praxis Strategy Group, has continued to be strongest to predominately red states of the South and Intermountain West.

This seems true even for those seeking high-end jobs. Between 2006 and 2008, the metropolitan areas that enjoyed the fastest percentage shift toward educated professional workers and industries included nominally "unhip" places like Indianapolis, Charlotte, N.C., Memphis, Tenn., Salt Lake City, Jacksonville, Fla., Tampa, Fla., and Kansas City, Mo.

The overall migration numbers are even more revealing. As was the case for much of the past decade, the biggest gainers continue to include cities such as San Antonio, Dallas and Houston. Rather than being oases for migrants, some oft-cited magnets such as New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Chicago have all suffered considerable loss of population to other regions over the past year.

[katykelly]

... and colorado.

[two23]

"For the past decade a large coterie of pundits, prognosticators and their media camp followers have insisted that growth in America would be concentrated in places hip and cool, largely the bluish regions of the country."

Not sure about that; seems like they are pouring into Georgia, SC and TN by the tens of thousands.

[SW6906]

Living in the countryside outside of Seattle,I can tell you that people are definitely not “flocking to the urban oasis that is Seattle. Quite the opposite. Seattle is steadily getting worse and worse and I would bet it’s population is actually declining.

[popdonnelly]

Liberal/left politics ruin everything they touch.

[two23]

"The terrible irony is that many liberals will leave their leftist hell holes for red states, bringing their catastrophic voting habits with them."

It's getting bad here, bad enough that we're talking about leaving. We moved here to get away from Blue State Syndrome. I guess, our handout lines are shorter than those in NY, NJ and South FL.

If they are coming here, even for menial jobs, there aren't any, so now what?

[Straight Vermonter]

I’m not crazy about the politics in Burlington )or VT in general) but you are wrong about the restaurants they are as good as any I have enjoyed in Montreal and Boston. In fact many of the chefs are those who fled the larger cities for a quieter life.

BTW, the bathroom key thing is because of all the gay sex going on in there. Pigs.

[andy58-in-nh]

The primary reasons young people head to the cities are culture and cash. By "culture" in this context, I don't mean the museums and the theater, although there are those attractions, but nightlife and music and a significantly higher chance of "hooking up" than that which obtains further afield.

In addition, whatever employment one does find in the cities commands a much higher salary than elsewhere; it is not unusual for an administrative assistant in Manhattan to earn upwards of $60K a year. Of course, the salary premium comes with a price: your studio apartment might cost $1500 a month, and that's in a marginal neighborhood. And the taxes, naturally are out of sight.

[FrankR]

"The problem is that this leaves the “hip” blue locations even more solidly blue, but the migrants to formerly thriving red locations tend to bring their failed liberal democrat policies with them as if to say “Wow, just thing how much more better you conservative locations would have been than the liberal locations if you had run the government with liberal policies.” "

This has always been the problem...liberals are attracted to "red areas" like roaches to bread crumbs, as are criminals...but then, I repeat myself.

But the "mean", "eelfish" conservatives always step back and allow them to not only move in and mooch, but to change all the rules to suit the interlopers.

It's happened all over the south as northern transplants migrate here and "insist" that we do it like they did it in big, wonderul cities like Detroit and Chicago.

Whatever happened to "when in Rome, do as the Romans do"? Can we not just say "NO" to the invaders who want to make our states and cities a "little piece of home". They don't realize that the policies they espouse for us, are the same ones that led to the demise of their own cities and forced them to move here.

The "incrementalism" is going at warp speed.

[dogcaller]

We see the ‘fleeing’ liberals diluting the conservative vote here in Virginia...saw it in Colorado when we lived there between 2000 and 2003. I place part of the blame on the brain-dead Republican party...if the GOP sees this happening in a formerly right-tilting area they should initiate an aggressive ad campaign. Some will not listen but others, having just packed up and moved with all the dislocation that involves, might be salvageable. For pete’s sake, at least try.

[ottbmare]

When I read the headline I imagined, silly me, that the article was going to be about suburbanites becoming fearful about the economic climate and moving to the real hills (and forests and valleys and mountains) to lead a more rural life. Sort of like what I’m trying to contrive.

[annieokie]

""""The terrible irony is that many liberals will leave their leftist hell holes for red states, bringing their catastrophic voting habits with them."""""........

Do you sometimes wonder if their moving is for the purpose of changing the politics of the Red States??? Some I am sure move to escape the high Taxes, but I may be paranoid in thinking the liberals simply move to spoil our elections.

There are a lot of MOBILE liberal voters, (welfare) who see moving as an adventure and they really don't care where they live as long as it is FREE. These can be shooed out of a Blue state to a Red state just for that purpose.

[wmfights]

Who the hell goes to Boston or Chicago looking for work these days?

In Chicago, we are drawing from WI., MI., IN., & IA. When I ask tenants why they've moved here they usually tell me that it's because there is no opportunity where they came from.

The big question is as the population moves south and northwest will they take their liberal Rat voting pattern with them. If so there's not much point in going there and those of us in the Rat dominated areas are better off trying to change them. If not relocation is the best option.

[Kakaze]

I met a wonderful woman, moved to Roswell, NM. We built a 75 by 35' greenhouse........Now I have people asking me to go back to corporate flying for several oil companies..

It is crazy I don't need a Nanny / bluestate, I just need to be left on my own.

There is a concept, Americans making their own way.

[Hattie]

The jerks move to conservative states and then vote liberal. That’s my gripe.

[Tribune7]

I was just there for a couple of hours around lunchtime so I'll happily defer to your knowledge with regard to the culinary environment.

[VRWCmember]

I would favor a four-year waiting period before immigrants moving from leftist blue states to conservative red states can register to vote. Let them assimilate a bit before they try to bring their failed policies to my state.

[Buckeye McFrog]

sounds familiar....political leaders in Pittsburgh keep claiming that the things which prevent us from attracting the “creative class” (and hence crimping our economic growth) are, in no particular order:

- lack of overpriced loft housing in the downtown area
- lack of public funding for avant-garde theater companies
- not gay-friendly enough
- not charging a congestion tax to drive into downtown
- lack of a green sustainable bike path connecting the Airport with the University neighborhoods
- bus and light rail service are not free
- not enough street mimes
- not enough drag queens
- no law requiring Primanti Brothers to post detailed nutritional data on their menu
- not enough really hip cutting-edge clubs to attract West Coast and European acts sure to offend the large local Catholic community
- still coal mining going on within a 50 mile radius

[wmfights]

Whatever happened to "when in Rome, do as the Romans do"? Can we not just say "NO" to the invaders who want to make our states and cities a "little piece of home".

Do you think it might have something to do with conservatives being polite?

I live in liberal Chicago. The libs are not polite. They are rude and have no qualms about offending anyone who disagrees with their PC religion. I can always tell which tenants are from rural environments and which grew up in the affluent liberal suburbs. The tenants from conservative areas are almost always more polite.

[VRWCmember]

Whatever happened to "when in Rome, do as the Romans do"?

Forget about "when in Rome"; how about "Don't piss in the well that you and others have to drink out of!"

[wmfights]

Forget about "when in Rome"; how about "Don't piss in the well that you and others have to drink out of!"

I don't think you understand the lib mindset. They don't care about anyone else. It's all about them. I argued with a lot of 0 supporters before the election and when I talked about taxes the answer I almost always got was "I don't care, I'm getting a tax cut, the rich are going to pay".

IOW, they infest conservative areas and don't care what you think. If something benefits them and they don't have to pay for it they support it. They don't care if you lose your freedom, govt gets out of control and jobs are lost as long as they have what they want.