Despite Hype, Suburbs Crushing Urban Growth?
Posted by Jonathan J. Miller -Wednesday, March 2, 2011, 8:30 AM
2 Comments
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According to the 2010 Census, the hype (and promise) of new urbanism and the dying suburbs aren’t exactly accurate. Here are the results of an analysis by newgeography (hat tip to The Atlantic)
In each of the eight metropolitan areas, the suburbs grew at a rate substantially greater than that of the core municipality. The core municipalities had an average growth from 2000 to 2010 of 3.2 percent. Suburban growth was 21.7 percent, nearly 7 times as great. Overall, the number of people added to the suburbs was 14 times that added to the core municipalities.
The analysis also found that the core areas that had older housing stock saw more modest development growth and population loss.
A lot of the hype is the fantasy of urban planners. My city, Chicago, lost 200,000 residents in the last ten years, even as the region gained 200,000 people. That means the equivalent of St. Louis was added to our suburbs.
Daniel Burnham, the honorary founder of Chicago, told posterity to “make no little plans.” But politicians and planners in Chicago forget that things like law and order, high quality public education, and a tax environment conducive to starting and growing a business are themselves big plans.
People do not leave cities in search of greater density and better mass transit in suburbs. They leave for more safety, better schools, and a more sensible tax environment. As long as cities like mine focus on green roofs and bike lanes, and not safety and education, then we will continue to see people stream out of the urban core.
Interesting. Basically you are saying core values drive future growth rather than quality of life issues. Deal with the big stones first, then the remainder. However I would think that the two approaches are not mutually exclusive. ie – sensible tax environment goes hand in hand with schools and acceptable public safety – aka less bullets flying.