Why Generation Y Is Causing The Great Migration Of The 21st Century • Hacker News Board

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

#131

Post by philwelch » Mon, Apr 16, 2012, 6:13 AM UTC

twelvechairs wrote: post #56

This trend (moving back into city centres) has been around for a long time, and is well documented. The USA is slower than most of Europe on this (although they generally did not desert the city centre quite so much). Its worth also noting that a lot of this is down to government and planning laws, which in the 1950s (generally when they were introduced on a wide scale) hugely subsidised suburban development and road…

In the US, the migration to the suburbs was also motivated by racism. Europe, at the time, didn't have the same conflicts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_flight

Another part of the governmental subsidy problem is that governments by design tend to redistribute wealth out of cities and into rural and suburban areas. It even happens at multiple scales; Seattle pays taxes to the Washington State government which are then redistributed to outlying towns, but Washington pays taxes to the US federal government which are then redistributed to Wyoming and Alaska. Until governments are redesigned along the principle that human beings, and not parcels of land, are the true stakeholders, this will be a systemic problem.

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

#132

Post by re_todd » Mon, Apr 16, 2012, 6:16 AM UTC

waterlesscloud wrote: post #87

Lewisham wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You sound like you're describing the LA area (with the exception of the city center gentrifying). It seems that what has happened is that, for the majority of American cities, they grew as an either/or option: you're either in the city, or you're in the suburbs, and the car enabled that in cities where it could. The cities which were geographically constrained, such as NYC or SF, were unable to sprawl outwards, and h…

LA is its own weird beast where geology plays a role. There's a stripe running east west through the center, following the hills and the area immediately south of the hills, from Santa Monica to Griffith Park. That stripe is notably higher priced, with prices within the stripe generally increasing towards the ocean. Then there's a ring around that stripe where prices decrease for a while, and then move up again to be…

LA is hard to figure out. I was around Long Beach a few weeks ago, and it looked like a pretty nice street, but about 5-6 blocks over was another main street that looked like a real ghetto. Also, I was in Pasadena a few months ago, on Lake Avenue south of the 210 it seemed pretty fancy, but as soon as you go over the freeway, still on Lake Avenue, North, you feel like you may not live very long.

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

#133

Post by sbierwagen » Mon, Apr 16, 2012, 7:44 AM UTC

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #51

nostromo wrote: post #20

I'm noticing this play out on the ground in Seattle. There's a big box Target opening up right downtown. It used to be that if you wanted anything from Target, WalMart, BestBuy, etc., you had to go on an adventure to the suburbs. I've noticed other retailers are making moves to smaller stores located in city centers (like BestBuy recently announced http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2012/04/best-buy-releas... ). Al…

Northgate isn't out in the suburbs, it's quite well inside of Seattle's city limits. And Amazon is actually doubling down on their presence in South Lake Union. > I know a number of young people who would stay away from Microsoft because of the dreaded commute to Redmond. I did it for four years and will never do it again, Connector or not.

  Northgate isn't out in the suburbs, it's quite well inside 
  of Seattle's city limits.

?

I live at 9th and Madison, and I don't own a car. Northgate is way the hell far away from downtown: probably 20 minutes by bus.

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

#134

Post by rory096 » Mon, Apr 16, 2012, 8:28 AM UTC

waterlesscloud wrote: post #121

rory096 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>And, of course, there's no guarantee that any savings in operation would be passed on to the consumer (see electronic publishing). In this case it's likely that they would be. Book publishing is a rather unique case in that it's a million natural monopolies; if you want to read The Hunger Games, you're not going to be satisfied with a close substitute. Taxi services are fairly commoditized- excluding medallions, pre…

There's no reason to assume the number of driverless cars won't be artificially restricted by regulation in the same way that taxi medallions are now.

Maybe so, but I'm struggling to imagine a scenario where that comes true. As we generally think of them now, they're for the suburban commuter to replace their current car. As such, they can't be limited much, lest only a tiny elite be able to purchase them- probably not tenable politically. Furthermore, politicians don't seem farsighted enough to even set quotas if they wanted to; any limits set would likely be at something resembling estimated real-world demand, and since we're talking about a shift that would radically reduce the total number of cars in service, politicians would likely overestimate the need.

Plus, driverless cars can't form taxi associations with reasonably large voter blocs.

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

#135

Post by waterlesscloud » Mon, Apr 16, 2012, 10:13 AM UTC

rory096 wrote: post #134

waterlesscloud wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no reason to assume the number of driverless cars won't be artificially restricted by regulation in the same way that taxi medallions are now.

Maybe so, but I'm struggling to imagine a scenario where that comes true. As we generally think of them now, they're for the suburban commuter to replace their current car. As such, they can't be limited much, lest only a tiny elite be able to purchase them- probably not tenable politically. Furthermore, politicians don't seem farsighted enough to even set quotas if they wanted to; any limits set would likely be at s…

Yeah, I don't mean driverless cars as personal property would be limited. Rather driverless cars as a service will likely be regulated much like taxis are now. Corporations owning the cars and transporting people for money, that will be regulated and restricted.

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

#136

Post by BobertK » Mon, Apr 16, 2012, 2:13 PM UTC

orangecat wrote: post #107

BobertK wrote: post #49

Not to mention: Most older Americans are broke. An apt in the city (think re-populated smaller, older cities, and large towns) is cheaper to heat and cool, convenient; so then a car and it's attendant expense is unnecessary. If I am old and divorced i'd rather have neighbors across the hall than a house to maintain, even if I can afford it.

Most older Americans are broke. Source? By the last numbers I've seen, net wealth increases directly with age.

This is before the housing crisis -it is much worse now

What you see above and below is where the US stood in 2007. Again because this data is as close to 100% accurate as you can get.

Avg Net Worth Bottom 25%: $4,600 Avg Net Worth Next 25 – 50%: $21,700 Avg Net Worth Next 50 – 75%: $78,900 Avg Net Worth Next 75 – 90%: $242,800 Avg Net Worth Top 10%: $1,606,600

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

#137

Post by mkr-hn » Mon, Apr 16, 2012, 3:39 PM UTC

sliverstorm wrote: post #80

nitrogen wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But most of a car's energy is spent accelerating, with the rest spent fighting wind resistance. Improved traffic flow helps with both -- no stop and go means no energy wasted to braking, and automated car trains will allow cars to take turns drafting off one another for a significant reduction in drag. Notice that cars have markedly different highway vs. city mileage ratings. The old BMW I used to drive would get bet…

On a freeway drive, I assure you, energy spent maintaining speed is the primary investment by great lengths. This is an over-generalization. Yes, city mileage is generally lower than highway, and yes, it is because of stop-and-go. But markedly different? My old car got 32 freeway, 29 city. My current car gets 27 freeway, 25 city. Cars with a large difference, like your BMW, suffer either from poor aerodynamics or eng…

The Prius benefits from regenerative braking in city driving.

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

#138

Post by zampano » Mon, Apr 16, 2012, 6:12 PM UTC

saryant wrote: post #73

hieronymusN wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

A lot of that includes suburbs of Houston though. Fort Bend County largely consists of Katy and Sugar Land, two major suburbs. Harris is mostly Houston though much of it doesn't really qualify as urban. A lot of the oil companies are starting to move out of downtown. Exxon as always been up in The Woodlands, ConocoPhilips is out at Highway 6 and I-10. Shell is moving a lot of people out to their west Houston facility…

I lived in the Houston area between 2002 and 2005 and don't recall the food scene being the most interesting and/or innovative in the state, let alone in the nation especially considering the strong competition in DFW or Austin. Have things really changed that much? Is it now worth making a trip out to H-town for some delicious food?

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

#139

Post by gte910h » Mon, Apr 16, 2012, 6:13 PM UTC

ak217 wrote: post #81

gte910h wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Atlanta Public schools are pretty horrible What do you mean? APS mostly gets issues with disparity of performance (aka, the children of the rich people far outperform the children of everyone else). Sure, there are bad ones. But don't live there: http://www.atlantapublicschools.us/site/default.aspx?PageTyp... This explains why you may think the schools are bad: http://midtown.patch.com/articles/grady-high-school-one…

Top Atlanta public schools' average SAT scores ( http://www.city-data.com/forum/atlanta/1382712-top-10-metro-... , http://www.ajc.com/news/top-25-georgia-high-123297.html ) top out below the level where top public schools for major California metropolitan areas start ( http://projects.latimes.com/schools/sat-scores/ranking/page/... ).

You're saying "Atlanta" and meaning the "Metro Atlanta Area". He's saying "Atlanta" and meaning 'The City Limits of Atlanta where you can live in an walkable urban setting and not worry about driving everywhere'.

Mean scores aren't as high for the APS schools: http://www.atlanta.k12.ga.us/domain/104