The Growth Of The Cities

by Stuart Shapiro

New data from the Census shows that cities are growing faster than suburbs for the first time in 100 years. The key question is “Will it last?”

Driving the resurgence are young adults, who are delaying careers, marriage and having children amid persistently high unemployment. Burdened with college debt or toiling in temporary, lower-wage positions, they are spurning homeownership in the suburbs for shorter-term, no-strings-attached apartment living, public transit and proximity to potential jobs in larger cities.

I’m hoping it lasts, because more people in cities means less pollution, and more innovation. But when these young adults eventually find jobs and have kids will they do what their parents and grandparents did and move out to the suburbs? A lot depends on the answer.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.