Forbes: Austin is #1 on the "Next Big Boom Towns" list (Houston: employment, schools)

[twange]

Born, raised and until 4 years ago spent my whole life in or around Cleveland, Ohio. Detroit is a first cousin so I get what that article is saying...I hate to sound like a cynic but I've been reading these kinds of stories for years. Cleveland went through the same thing in the 90s. It's part of the reason why it took me so long to leave - I kept thinking the city was just on the cusp of an upturn. Ironically, Bizdom U (mentioned in the article) is owned by the same guy who owns the Cleveland Cavaliers, who is also pushing for local casinos. He says the same things about Cleveland on the local radio stations...

I still have friends telling me about new neighborhoods, movements, trends etc...But it's just not enough to have the young and hip under-40 crowd move into newly renovated apartments/condos. That part of the country needs to redefine what it DOES. For more than a century, the Great Lakes cities manufactured and shipped goods to everywhere in the world. You name it, it was probably made in some factory there. Most of that stuff is made offshore now. Period. Eventually, these cities will either remake themselves in a new image or go away.

I do like the idea of creating a hotbed for green startups. That makes sense to me in a region that has been polluted and decaying for a generation. I would like to see those cities (Cleveland, Detroit, Toledo, Buffalo, Pittsburgh etc...) rip out the abandoned urban decay, plant groves of fast-growing trees for harvest (poplar) and create green nurseries that could at least improve the air quality and create some nice natural habitat. It would take a conscience effort to deliberately shrink the urban footprint of those cities - in essence reboot and begin to regrow the city organically from the inside out.

But ultimately, without real community infrastructure (affordable housing, good schools, quality public transportation, libraries, grocery stores, local businesses) those idealistic 20-somethings will flee to the suburbs as soon as they want to start families. They will leave behind a city core that is marginally better than before they got there. But it will be better. It will take a LONG time though to recapture the vibrancy from the peak years when everyone was working and able to live "The American Dream".

And someone mentioned the bleak weather. Don't kid yourselves: I know it's easy to say that you would welcome that kind of weather while in the middle of one of Austin's oppressive summers, but that's a different game up there. Northerners may be p*ssies when it comes to insects, spicy food and thunderstorms but the cold and lack of sunlight in the Great Lakes can get one to start slapping their own face come about March. No fooling around about that. There's a reason for the grim countenance...

[Howest2008]

Originally Posted by jobert

How could they resist? Look at all the homes you can buy for less than $1,000.

Detroit MI Homes for Sale & Detroit Real Estate - Zillow

Detroit is my type of town I wouldn't want to live there , but boy
oh boy I could own me 10 to 20 "real estate properties".....LOL

[spelrod]

I'm sure most of those prices are just starting bids for auctions. Also, from the few that have interior pictures it looks like they should just be knocked down.

[eepstein]

I can honestly say that rating Austin is the next boomtown, is no more rediculous than rating Detroit as a boomtown. It all has to do with city planning and government. I know that Detroit has been in serious economic trouble for several decades...however, with the right leaders and planning, it could become something way more attractive to young people than it is now. Austin, on the other hand, really cannot expand much further. It has among the most corrupt, arrogant, and braindead leaders in planners I have ever seen in a city.

Austin city leaders continue to bury their heads in the sand and do ZERO planning for any kind of future growth. This will continue the trend of very high housing costs (among the highest of any city not on the coasts), increased crime, congestion (the city remains number one in congestion of medium size cities), and pollution. The overall sprawl of metro austin continues like crazy (but we don't wanna be like Houston or Dallas ).

Originally Posted by centralaustinite

I swear, did anyone see the NYT article this weekend about all the college-educated young people moving to DETROIT!

That is where the future boom will be, in a place where smart young people are able to met, network, and create (and stretch a dollar). Over the next 20+ years the Sunbelt will fade and the places that conventional wisdom says are "done" will boom.

[austin-steve]

Originally Posted by centralaustinite

I swear, did anyone see the NYT article this weekend about all the college-educated young people moving to DETROIT!

That is where the future boom will be, in a place where smart young people are able to met, network, and create (and stretch a dollar). Over the next 20+ years the Sunbelt will fade and the places that conventional wisdom says are "done" will boom.

I don't know about the rust belt becoming a destination. I'm seeing a lot of incoming young couples with good income leaving the Northeast and upper Midwest. Winter weather seems to be a common reason given. Another word I hear a lot is "dreary", with regard to the overall experience. Others have young kids or are about to, and they want to raise them in good public schools. But the other side of the coin is really just the draw of Austin.

I do think many see Austin as the "promise land", and have expectations that are a bit high. After all, once you get outside the core, it's Anywhere USA to a large degree, with regard to what you see when driving around.

Detroit though? Detroit has chronic structural problems in governance, infrastructure and its economy. It's going to take much more than a few college kids moving there to live cheap to save that city. It needs economic growth. There are some foundations trying to help guide a master plan but the same old city politics and pride are derailing those efforts. I'd no more bet on Detroit than I would buy stock in RIM (Blackberry). Both are withering on the vine and heading nowhere but further downward.

Steve

[rickc007]

I spent the first 12 years of my life in the burbs of Detroit
TOTAL God's Country, Beautiful
Green Grass, plenty of lakes, Great People
Great place to live and raise a family

Yes, Detroit is a TOTAL pit, always was
But it would not surprise me to see that area rebound

Only knock is the Winter
Great place to live though

[twange]

Originally Posted by rickc007

I spent the first 12 years of my life in the burbs of Detroit
TOTAL God's Country, Beautiful
Green Grass, plenty of lakes, Great People
Great place to live and raise a family

Yes, Detroit is a TOTAL pit, always was
But it would not surprise me to see that area rebound

Only knock is the Winter
Great place to live though

Ditto for Cleveland. The areas around the core are beautiful. The west suburbs give way to flat, scenic farmland, the south and eastern suburbs have rolling woodlands with lots of rivers and lakes. And of course to the north is Lake Erie. I've been to Detroit plenty of times. Like I said before, they are first cousins. My dad worked at a regional Ford plant for over 40 years, my father-in-law for U.S. Steel for over 40 years. Those were great jobs back in those days: they provided folks with good work ethics a solid, middle working-class lifestyle and brought people from all over looking for work.

It's hard to say if Detroit or Cleveland will ever have that kind of influx of jobs ever again. There's a lot of work that needs to be done up in those rust-belt cities. A couple of generations at least. It took a long time for those cities to decline to where they are right now - about 50 years. It will take at least that long to revitalize them in the true sense. They might just become smaller cities permanently - and that might be just fine. The thing they DO have going for them is fresh water, which might become a dwindling natural resource in the future.

The first time I visited Austin, I was shocked that the downtown gave way directly to beautiful, well-kept neighborhoods. No factory remains and rotting inner-ring neighborhoods for 5-10 miles in every direction. Austin is a 21st century city. Yes, it's roots go back much further but it will hit its peak (population -wise) this century. Not that population is the sole indication of success but that is the attraction to many people: it's a place going up not down.

[twenty1]

Originally Posted by eepstein

I can honestly say that rating Austin is the next boomtown, is no more rediculous than rating Detroit as a boomtown. It all has to do with city planning and government. I know that Detroit has been in serious economic trouble for several decades...however, with the right leaders and planning, it could become something way more attractive to young people than it is now. Austin, on the other hand, really cannot expand much further. It has among the most corrupt, arrogant, and braindead leaders in planners I have ever seen in a city.

Austin city leaders continue to bury their heads in the sand and do ZERO planning for any kind of future growth. This will continue the trend of very high housing costs (among the highest of any city not on the coasts), increased crime, congestion (the city remains number one in congestion of medium size cities), and pollution. The overall sprawl of metro austin continues like crazy (but we don't wanna be like Houston or Dallas ).

I agree with this, the way Austin is growing with highways on top of highways and stand still traffic I'm like wtf?...Spaghetti Junction? the shi# looks messy....I can't breathe.

[AustinSpartan]

Originally Posted by rickc007

I spent the first 12 years of my life in the burbs of Detroit
TOTAL God's Country, Beautiful
Green Grass, plenty of lakes, Great People
Great place to live and raise a family

Yes, Detroit is a TOTAL pit, always was
But it would not surprise me to see that area rebound

Only knock is the Winter
Great place to live though

Spent 30 years of my life there. Wouldn't mind being independently wealthy and having a summer home on the lake in Traverse City.

Detroit is not a complete pit. There are many cultural attractions that dwarf what Austin has to offer. It's more of a place to visit and less of a place to live.

[slim2none]

Originally Posted by eepstein

And which is the only college town on this list?

Not sure why it matters, but you must mean Raleigh.

Enrollment / Population

Austin(UT): 51,195 / 790,390 = 0.065
Raleigh(NCSU): 34,376 / 403,892 = 0.085