By Gene Grant
For the Journal
In the ongoing debate over just exactly "who" constitutes this new generation of mobile young Americans, where they chose to live and for what reasons, one thing is perfectly clear: Albuquerque is in the conversation.
Now come the latest metrics that show the pull of the sun is a serious attraction for the 25 to 34 set.
The recently released U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey results for 2000 through 2006 reveal a rather startling pattern that cannot be chalked up anywhere near to coincidence, with so-called Sun Belt cities like Phoenix, San Antonio, Texas, Austin, Las Vegas, Nev., Oklahoma City, Tucson, and yes, Albuquerque, showing top tier gains.
To the tune of 10 percent or more in that short period of time.
Simply, if you are in this demographic, this entire country is your oyster, with place of birth, parents and peers be damned. These kids are considering any given city as "home" for a variety of nontraditional reasons.
This is a rather interesting change of pace, considering that the previous period tracked, 1990 to 2000, pegged the top five metros for growth in this age group as Las Vegas, Austin, Phoenix, Atlanta and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. Even though 'Vegas, Austin and Phoenix are also on that list, their rate of growth in the age group has slowed markedly.
The numbers for cities losing young people lately are shocking, with San Francisco and Pittsburgh losing 30 percent, Philadelphia 15 percent, New York City and Los Angeles 10 percent, Seattle 14 percent, and Boston 13 percent. Chicago is losing 14 percent and Indianapolis nearly 10 percent, and so on.
In fact, of the 40 largest cities in the country, only nine have shown increases in this age group. Inside that choice is the question of jobs and housing. Meaning, can I find or create work and can I afford a home? Many of these lagging cities are simply not affordable anymore.
There's a simple logic here. If you live in a struggling Rust Belt or snowy locale, a sunny clime starts to look attractive.
Younger people have flipped on its head the notion that with increased age comes the desire for more sun.
A few years ago I was one of five people from Albuquerque to fly to Pittsburgh to meet with then-darling Richard Florida, author of "The Rise of the Creative Class," which made a lot of noise on this idea of the transient youngster. Florida was quite bullish on Albuquerque, having ranked us No. 1 in his book for midsized cities for the so-called "creative class," which is made up in the main of this age group.
If you recall the hullabaloo, a lot of folks were not going there.
They didn't buy it. You might also recall that the leading idea then was making New Mexico appealing to retiring boomers instead. Solid idea, but while the debate raged the younger set have voted with their feet.
So what does that mean for us? It may be a tad early to make a firm call, beyond the ephemeral bonuses of energy and creativity, which is abundantly apparent. What we can hope for is an uptick in the professional career categories, since this group is armed with education, but it may be that the horse will be chasing the wagon in the short term.
Regardless, it's a reality in the here and now that would serve whoever is planning on running for mayor next cycle to pay some serious attention to.
Gene Grant is a writer, actor, former congressional staffer and father of two. He can be reached by e-mail to gene@genegrant.com.
AED 
...go to bookmarks
E-mail Story
Print Friendly
