Pub. 3 2018 Issue 3

6 www.ctaahq.org A ccord ing to a repor t about urbanization that was written by CBRE Global Investors, the fastest-growing places in the U.S. today are its big cities. In fact, 80 percent of the people in the U.S. now live in one, and those that already had a population of more than five million people saw a 24 percent increase in population between 2000 and 2010.The numbers don’t include all cities, though. Some places actually saw a decline instead of an increase. • The f ive fastest growing cities between 2000 and 2010 were (in order) Chicago (48,288), New York (37,422), Philadelphia (20,769), San Francisco (19,712), and Washington, D.C. (19,502). • The cities that saw their populations shrink instead of grow were New Orleans (-35,313); Baltimore (-10,194); Dayton and Toledo, both in Ohio (-10,165 and -10,118, respectively); and Saginaw, Michigan (-9,674). Why are already-huge cities such a draw? To understand the trend, it helps to look at demographics. The 80-million millennials born between 1982 and 2001 are replacing the roughly 80-million remaining members of the baby-boom generation, and both often look to urban centers as a great place to live. Baby boomers are downsizing; they want a smaller place, and they appreciate being close to the cultural life of a downtown area. Millennials are still in the category of being young professionals, and their interests run to communities where they can walk, there are good options for public transportation, and there are good parks and schools. The American Planning Association had a poll taken by Harris so they could better understand what both generations are looking for. The poll involved 1,040 people, half of whom where millennials and the other half of whom were baby boomers, and results showed that both groups have many of the same items on their wish list: good public transportation, communities that are walkable, access to the latest technology, and housing where they can grow old, if they want to, without having to move. Only seven percent of those who took the Harris survey wanted to live in communities where if you don’t drive, you can’t go much of anywhere. The shift from one generation to the next is going to continue for a while. Seventy- five percent of the people working in 2030 are expected to be millennials. Their desire to be close to schools and By Susan Morgan, The newsLINK Group Urban Migration