Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why Generation Y Is Causing The Great Migration Of The 21st Century

placeshakers.wordpress.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 139 posts

Re: Why Generation Y Is Causing The Great Migration Of The 21st Century

#21

Post by learc83 »

scarmig wrote: post #11

I'm sympathetic to the viewpoint that it's important to watch cities as central to our future. This article, however, relies a bit much on psychological gobbledygook. Helicopter parents, Friends , the Google bus... Even the one graph they provide is more or less incomprehensible. What would be useful to see is land prices in inner urban areas, average lived population density, and comparative migration patterns for y…

I thought the section on TV shows was nonsense as well. He cherry picked a few examples that fit his model.

Off the top of my head some modern comedies that don't fit are Modern Family, Parks and Recreation, and Desperate Housewives.

There were plenty of classic shows set in the city as well. Mary Tyler Moore, The Jeffersons, The Bob Newhart Show, Three's Company, Taxi, Welcome Back Kotter.

Re: Why Generation Y Is Causing The Great Migration Of The 21st Century

#22

Post by TheFuture »

learc83 wrote: post #5

There's plenty of truth in that article, but I can't help but think that this trend is almost purely a product of demographic changes. People wait longer to get married and have children, so there way more 25-30 year olds who worry more about living within walking distance to a bar and less about a backyard and a nice school. Many of the urban Gen Y the article talks about will move back to the suburbs when they have…

EXACTLY. This notion that gen y is some sort of elightend urban dweller is ridiculous. Gen y is the most immature gen ever in American history. They treat college like a party, an excuse to extend childish behavior, and just throw the bill on some low interest student loans. No wonder they all rent, their credit is terrible. And then they don't get that 80k job handed to them, so they still work at Starbucks at 26yrs old with a BA in pyschology or poli sci, which they took because the classes were easy.

I agree, its all about having kids and growing up. Once your children become your priority, your school district becomes important, and every major urban center in the USA has a school system somewhere between bad and god-awful. Watch the movies Waiting For Superman and The Cartel if you want to see what a mess that situation is. I don't see it getting resolved in the next 5-10 years, which is when gen y will start having kids.

Re: Why Generation Y Is Causing The Great Migration Of The 21st Century

#23

Post by Locke1689 »

thejteam wrote: post #16
ryanhuff wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having lived in suburban communities all of my life, I have never lived further than 10 minutes away from a CVS type of store. Perhaps your experience is more rural than suburban?

I'm pretty familiar with the DC suburbs and between normal daytime traffic(not even considering morning or afternoon rush hour), traffic lights, and the time to get to a main road from you community(very slow speed limits) a half hour wouldn't surprise me at all and 45 minutes is very possible.

Baltimore suburb, but same experience. Probably more like 20-30 minutes, though.

Re: Why Generation Y Is Causing The Great Migration Of The 21st Century

#24

Post by batista »

learc83 wrote: post #5

There's plenty of truth in that article, but I can't help but think that this trend is almost purely a product of demographic changes. People wait longer to get married and have children, so there way more 25-30 year olds who worry more about living within walking distance to a bar and less about a backyard and a nice school. Many of the urban Gen Y the article talks about will move back to the suburbs when they have…

>Additionally the rise of the self driving car is going to completely torpedo 90% of the advantages of living in a city.

The rise of what? We've seen some experimental designs, but I don't see the "rise" coming any time soon. Plus, the price of oil is more important factor --as for them "coordinating with other vehicles to increase efficiency" (as someone writes in a comment below), well, that seems marginal, especially since we are discussing driving OUTSIDE of the city.

Re: Why Generation Y Is Causing The Great Migration Of The 21st Century

#25

Post by davidf18 »

I live in Manhattan and for me and my friends not only do we not like wasting time in cars but we like stores/restaurants, etc. open 24 hours. We have 5 Apple stores in Manhattan including one store open 24/7/365. So...have a city that is alive late into the night is also important to the lifestyle...

Re: Why Generation Y Is Causing The Great Migration Of The 21st Century

#26

Post by ryanhuff »

thejteam wrote: post #16
ryanhuff wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having lived in suburban communities all of my life, I have never lived further than 10 minutes away from a CVS type of store. Perhaps your experience is more rural than suburban?

I'm pretty familiar with the DC suburbs and between normal daytime traffic(not even considering morning or afternoon rush hour), traffic lights, and the time to get to a main road from you community(very slow speed limits) a half hour wouldn't surprise me at all and 45 minutes is very possible.

I am in southern California, and perhaps the suburbs here are more concentrated than suburbs elsewhere. I have three pharmacies, three grocery stores, and a Walmart all within 10 minutes. It does require taking a car, though.

Re: Why Generation Y Is Causing The Great Migration Of The 21st Century

#27

Post by learc83 »

batista wrote: post #24
learc83 wrote: post #5

There's plenty of truth in that article, but I can't help but think that this trend is almost purely a product of demographic changes. People wait longer to get married and have children, so there way more 25-30 year olds who worry more about living within walking distance to a bar and less about a backyard and a nice school. Many of the urban Gen Y the article talks about will move back to the suburbs when they have…

>Additionally the rise of the self driving car is going to completely torpedo 90% of the advantages of living in a city. The rise of what? We've seen some experimental designs, but I don't see the "rise" coming any time soon. Plus, the price of oil is more important factor --as for them "coordinating with other vehicles to increase efficiency" (as someone writes in a comment below), well, that seems marginal, especia…

>but I don't see the "rise" coming any time soon.

Nevada already implemented regulations to allow companies to test drive self driving cars on its roads, and all it will take for the rest of the nation to follow is for Google get California on board.

The technology is already here. It's all about regulation and politics now, and there is so much money to made that it's just a question of when not if.

If I can't buy a self-driving car in 10 years, I'm going to build my own.

Re: Why Generation Y Is Causing The Great Migration Of The 21st Century

#29

Post by MrFoof »

scarmig wrote: post #15
wtn wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chicago shrank by 6.9% from 2000-2010.

That's... very weird and surprising. NYC grew by low single digits, while SF did a bit more. I incorrectly assumed this was shared across most major cities. I'm not sure how that affects my prediction, one way or another. Edited to add: a table with actual data. The 2000s have not been kind to most cities. By comparison, the USA as a whole grew 9.7% from 2000 to 2010. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/census/2011-0…

Not all cities are created equally. I'm guessing Chicago is feeling much of what the same Pittsburgh is, each being on different edges of the rust belt.

For example, Boston is growing at a decent rate. Boston however has a tremendous education, health care, biotech/pharma, finance and high-tech industries. Boston crime is also at all-time lows. However, small cities in Massachusetts such as New Bedford, Fall River, Worcester, and Lowell are continuing to see people move out -- usually towards Boston, but also towards smaller suburbs that are continuing to grow. Actually, Boston bedroom communities aren't exactly hurting, as they're pretty decent at attracting lots of good jobs on their own (particularly the 128 corridor).

A great contrast is Philadelphia versus Pittsburgh. Although within the same state, they're still 300 miles apart and the differences in their industries and crime do much to determine how their populations are growing and falling respectively.

Re: Why Generation Y Is Causing The Great Migration Of The 21st Century

#30

Post by hieronymusN »

scarmig wrote: post #15
wtn wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chicago shrank by 6.9% from 2000-2010.

That's... very weird and surprising. NYC grew by low single digits, while SF did a bit more. I incorrectly assumed this was shared across most major cities. I'm not sure how that affects my prediction, one way or another. Edited to add: a table with actual data. The 2000s have not been kind to most cities. By comparison, the USA as a whole grew 9.7% from 2000 to 2010. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/census/2011-0…

The Houston Metro area grew 26.1% from 2000 - 2010 , http://www.houston.org/pdf/research/09AW010.pdf [PDF] so yes, not all cities grow along the same lines.
Post reply on HN