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Interactive Map: Where Americans Are Moving

forbes.com

31–40 of 44 posts

Re: Interactive Map: Where Americans Are Moving

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm from Michgan as well, and have a lot of family in the greater Detroit area. The sense of despair that most people in the area feel is just awful. After the auto plants started to close up, people just started packing up in hopes of finding work elsewhere. Some moved in-state, but most make the flight south and west (warmer weather, more jobs). I was recently in Dearborn for a wedding, and the number of empty & fo…

Yeah, it's pretty wild. And Dearborn is one of the "better" areas. Some parts of the city look like scenes from a Mad Max film. Everything is either foreclosed, empty, or burned. You know, someone with a little money in their pocket come buy up half of the Detroit area; however, what would they do with it?

[deleted]

Re: Interactive Map: Where Americans Are Moving

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm from Michgan as well, and have a lot of family in the greater Detroit area. The sense of despair that most people in the area feel is just awful. After the auto plants started to close up, people just started packing up in hopes of finding work elsewhere. Some moved in-state, but most make the flight south and west (warmer weather, more jobs). I was recently in Dearborn for a wedding, and the number of empty & fo…

Yeah, it's pretty wild. And Dearborn is one of the "better" areas. Some parts of the city look like scenes from a Mad Max film. Everything is either foreclosed, empty, or burned. You know, someone with a little money in their pocket come buy up half of the Detroit area; however, what would they do with it?

Agreed. Even downtown can be a bit scary sometimes, and that's considered the "good" area of Detroit. The problem with buying up all that space is that almost everything on the properties would have to bulldozed. They could probably turn most of detroit into farm land, but that would mean moving an entire cities worth of old concrete and building materials elsewhere.

Re: Interactive Map: Where Americans Are Moving

#33
post #23

Very interesting data but not a great interactive graphic. Instead of color to indicate direction maybe they could have used curved lines and arching over the strait line could be in and under could be out. They don't even try to graph per capita income -- which naturally lends itself to red/black. Are poor people moving in or out? Are high wage earners? or everyone? It is not possible to tell unless you start clicki…

I'm thinking there is more to it than what you've outlined. If the 188 people are, on balance, younger, one would expect a lower per capita income. Which would make the trade a horrible one. Consider, 188 young hungry twenty to thirty five year old men and women, for 151 forty to fifty year old men and women. I think if I'm Atlanta, I'm comfortable with that trade. I think the Southern cities are doing a good job att…

"For instance, I would wager that the blacks and whites moving in to the Detroit area are of a higher economic quality than the blacks and whites moving out of the Detroit area."

I couldn't get to the map (I'm just getting loading dots forever), but: As I sometimes have to tell people who don't live around here, while Detroit is every bit the sucking cesspool you've heard of, the greater Detroit metropolitan area is actually full of relatively upscale and nice places to live. It even has many businesses that aren't related to the automobile industry, though not enough. Detroit proper is physically huge, preventing this area from being called the greate Southfield/Novi metropolitan area. My guess is that virtually nobody is moving into Detroit itself, but that there are still some things in the same county and certainly in the surrounding counties that might see some people moving in. Net loss, of course, but there's always some people moving somewhere.

Re: Interactive Map: Where Americans Are Moving

#34

Atlanta is like a cannon, drawing in people from the eastern half of the US and spewing them out to the West Coast. (With a notable exception in southern CA.) Seems like everyone is moving to Austin and no one is leaving.

Atlanta in theory: Warm weather, lots of opportunity, Big City living without the high price.

Atlanta in reality: Terrible weather, terrible traffic, terrible public transportation, mostly dull jobs and local commerce, incompetent public officials, not actually a Big City (more accurately, a sprawling collection of strip malls with some tall banks and hotels scattered about), devoid of interesting art, culture, history (Civil Rights movement excepted), architecture

Re: Interactive Map: Where Americans Are Moving

#35
If you click on the more rural western Oklahoma counties, all the movement is just between adjacent rural counties. As someone who worked hard to break out of a small town, I find that a bit depressing - no one is "escaping" and no fresh ideas are entering.

Re: Interactive Map: Where Americans Are Moving

#36
post #4

- Orange County, CA is pretty interesting. There is a lot of migration inwards from the East Coast/Upper Midwest (e.g. PA, MI), but lots of migration outwards throughout the country. [ http://www.forbes.com/2010/06/04/migration-moving-wealthy-in... ] - Oakland County [ http://www.forbes.com/2010/06/04/migration-moving-wealthy-in... ] (Ann Arbor, U of M, Slashdot) and Wayne County (Detroit) [link: http://www.forbes.co…

> Multnomah County, OR is a bunch of solid black lines from throughout the country. Everyone wants to be in Portland, but the Oregon unemployment numbers are comparable to Michigan, IIRC.

Both of our recent hires moved here first, and found a job afterwards. Portland is seen as hip and comparatively inexpensive, so if you're going to be unemployed, might as well do it here.

Re: Interactive Map: Where Americans Are Moving

#37
post #18

Interesting, but, agreed, not the greatest map. Deschutes County, OR (Bend, basically): Californication. Boulder, County, CO: a lot of people are going there, but those who leave appear headed for the pacific northwest. Maricopa, County, AZ (Phoenix): wow... that's a lot of people.

Very interesting, I have lived in Boulder for years and can attest that it is a wonderful area (not just Boulder the entire Denver/Boulder/Colorado Springs front range is beautiful) that is noticeably growing. It is also palpable, just anecdotally, that people who talk about moving almost entirely talk about northern California, Portland, and Seattle. If not the northwest, then Austin. Very cool to see these anecdotes confirmed by statistics.

Re: Interactive Map: Where Americans Are Moving

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha, yeah, it seems surprising at first, but Detroit has a HUGE Mexican and Hispanic population. Also (and due to) we have Mexican Town -- check your English at the door! Whatever you're in the mood for (flautas, tostadas, chorizo), you can find it there. Note: I've been in Japan for 3 years now, and it's nigh impossible to find decent Mexican/Tex-Mex :-( ...

When I was living in Washington State, I was told that there were entire towns of Spanish speakers which were not listed on maps. Social Workers and local/county government people knew where they were, but a mainstream citizen could spend their entire life unaware of their existence. (I heard about them because I did some volunteer work with the county.)

Not surprising. I guess it happens everywhere. Out here, you visit some obscure town, and as you get off the train, you realize everyone is speaking Korean or Mandarin. I guess it's a combination of family moving near family, and friends moving near friends (sometimes coupled with political ties -- e.g. the Hmong population in Minnesota). All of a sudden, you have an ethnically homogenous city in a foreign (to them, historically) country.

Re: Interactive Map: Where Americans Are Moving

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was living in Washington State, I was told that there were entire towns of Spanish speakers which were not listed on maps. Social Workers and local/county government people knew where they were, but a mainstream citizen could spend their entire life unaware of their existence. (I heard about them because I did some volunteer work with the county.)

Not surprising. I guess it happens everywhere. Out here, you visit some obscure town, and as you get off the train, you realize everyone is speaking Korean or Mandarin. I guess it's a combination of family moving near family, and friends moving near friends (sometimes coupled with political ties -- e.g. the Hmong population in Minnesota). All of a sudden, you have an ethnically homogenous city in a foreign (to them,…

I suspect the Hispanic towns in Washington are also driven by cost of living. As I understand it, they are located out in the middle of nowhere. But my knowledge dates from 1992, so this may no longer be true.

Re: Interactive Map: Where Americans Are Moving

#40
post #36
post #4

- Orange County, CA is pretty interesting. There is a lot of migration inwards from the East Coast/Upper Midwest (e.g. PA, MI), but lots of migration outwards throughout the country. [ http://www.forbes.com/2010/06/04/migration-moving-wealthy-in... ] - Oakland County [ http://www.forbes.com/2010/06/04/migration-moving-wealthy-in... ] (Ann Arbor, U of M, Slashdot) and Wayne County (Detroit) [link: http://www.forbes.co…

> Multnomah County, OR is a bunch of solid black lines from throughout the country. Everyone wants to be in Portland, but the Oregon unemployment numbers are comparable to Michigan, IIRC. Both of our recent hires moved here first, and found a job afterwards. Portland is seen as hip and comparatively inexpensive, so if you're going to be unemployed, might as well do it here.

What company? Contemplating making the same move myself early next year ;)
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