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As U.S. 'superstar' cities thrive, weaker ones get left behind

reuters.com

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Re: As U.S. 'superstar' cities thrive, weaker ones get left behind

#11

Post by bilbo0s »

fintechpwmMEdev wrote: post #5

It would be interesting to find out how much debt these "superstar" cities have taken on and the structure of their "portfolio"s. Almost all revenue generation done by local municipalities is through property taxes so it's very important to evaluate these places by some sort of Sharpe Ratio or else you're just encouraging these places to be the next Detroit.

True, but not all of them will fail. A New York, or Boston, or San Fran for instance are in a much different position than, say, a Nashville.

But you're right, it's more than just what you see on the surface. No question about that.

Re: As U.S. 'superstar' cities thrive, weaker ones get left behind

#13

Post by jefftk »

futureastronaut wrote: post #3

That map is confusing, regions are colored grey that are clearly in the top 20 MSA, like the entire urbanized northeast. Also the article's mostly about Nashville, not its title.

> regions are colored grey that are clearly in the top 20 MSA, like the entire urbanized northeast

It's not the 20 MSAs with the most jobs, it's the 20 MSAs with the most job growth, as a percentage, since 1990.

Re: As U.S. 'superstar' cities thrive, weaker ones get left behind

#14

Post by [deleted] »

raiyu wrote: post #6

Basically a summary: 1. Focuses mostly on Nashville 1. Cities that have a young urban population with job creation that isn't tied to old industries are thriving. 2. Nashville has no State Income tax, and most cities and states that have no State Income tax are doing well as remote work takes over and tech workers relocate to take advantage. 3. Mention building a convention center for $600MM but no real numbers on wh…

[deleted]

Re: As U.S. 'superstar' cities thrive, weaker ones get left behind

#15

Post by mbell »

maximente wrote: post #10

odd title, the word 'superstar' is used once outside of the title by an MIT economist proposing federal subsidies for cities/towns with research universities. no mention of NYC, Boston, nor do they appear on the infographic. so it seems so called superstar cities aren't really defined as i would expect them to be.

> no mention of NYC, Boston, nor do they appear on the infographic.

Yea, the metric used here is rather convoluted, it's ranking cities by how much their share of total national employment increased. This is going to favor cities that experienced population growth and discount cities that are long since 'at capacity' like NY / Boston.

Re: As U.S. 'superstar' cities thrive, weaker ones get left behind

#16

Post by throwaway5752 »

Don't forget cities that have influxes of young population so have increasing tax receipts but much lower legacy costs (retirees, infrastructure maintenance, stable growth rate education costs per capita). Most of those cities will mismanage the growth and 20-40 years from now you'll be reading about Nashville and how it was gutted when the software jobs dried up. These come in cycles and cities that have some sort of reason to exist (natural ports/harbors, river confluences, trade points, etc) will continue to exist and most of the rest will not.

Re: As U.S. 'superstar' cities thrive, weaker ones get left behind

#17

Post by RosanaAnaDana »

This probably gonna get me killed but I've got to put it out there.

I was so disappointed by the food and music scene in Nashville. Literally every restaurant was some trendy clone of some vaguely hipster cracker barrel (one exception). The music I could find (with one exception) was just sad cover bands doing the same Counting Crows covers over and over again.

Redeeming restaurant: Princes hot chicken. Got that shit at a XXX and it melted my face. Wonderful.

Redeeming venue: High Watt/ Mercy lounge. I don't remember who I saw but it was great.

If you know better places to eat/ find good up-and-coming music in Nashville, please let me know. I want it to live up to what I think it could be.

Re: As U.S. 'superstar' cities thrive, weaker ones get left behind

#18

Post by selectodude »

RosanaAnaDana wrote: post #17

This probably gonna get me killed but I've got to put it out there. I was so disappointed by the food and music scene in Nashville. Literally every restaurant was some trendy clone of some vaguely hipster cracker barrel (one exception). The music I could find (with one exception) was just sad cover bands doing the same Counting Crows covers over and over again. Redeeming restaurant: Princes hot chicken. Got that shit…

Nashville is somehow an even more overrated version of Austin don't @ me.

edit: sorry, I sometimes forget that humor is unilaterally banned on HN. my mistake.

Re: As U.S. 'superstar' cities thrive, weaker ones get left behind

#19

Post by baybal2 »

I don't see anything special to US in that phenomenon. I'd even say that US is notably better than most of the world in keeping its 2nd tier cities alive economically.

Most of Asia had that problem for decades, where only 1st tier cities had market for jobs above the "better than nothing" level.

It is either USA becoming more like Asia here, after few decades lag, or it is American second tier cities actually sliding back.

Re: As U.S. 'superstar' cities thrive, weaker ones get left behind

#20

Post by pm90 »

throwaway5752 wrote: post #16

Don't forget cities that have influxes of young population so have increasing tax receipts but much lower legacy costs (retirees, infrastructure maintenance, stable growth rate education costs per capita). Most of those cities will mismanage the growth and 20-40 years from now you'll be reading about Nashville and how it was gutted when the software jobs dried up. These come in cycles and cities that have some sort o…

This is a bad take. You're assuming that incoming folks won't change the politics of funding decisions of the city. In most cases, they do change them, and change cities for the better.
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