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"Great story, but thought-provoking troublemakers have to be careful. We haven’t replicated the Cook County numbers. We did check Cuyahoga County. Suffice to say, we aren’t so ebullient."
I am not surprised. Midsized midwestern cities offer a great value to big city urbanites.
You downsize transportation and amenities, you can increase your quality of life on a big margin.
I love many things about Chicago. If you don't have family in the area it's not a settle down type of place. Move here and experience the big city and keep it moving is the attitude of many.
Cuyahoga County vs Cook County is what that article is, not Chicago vs Cleveland or Chicagoland vs the Cleveland area.
Chicago is a massive brain drain of people in their 20's from all over the Midwest. I can think of 3 of my friends from this area, and well over a dozen from surrounding states. We all moved here in our early 20's, and now are in our mid 30's with no one going anywhere. Many will drain away to the suburbs, but still stay in the region.
I suppose that's where the big spin in. The areas drawing people in the Chicago region are the city itself, mostly the north side and near south/west sides (which is Cook County), but then the other half are the collar counties with 4,000,000 people. People drain away from Cook County specifically, but Cook County lost 150,000 people during the 2000's while the collar counties gained 500,000. That's where people with the degrees are going if not to the specific parts of the city. Most of those making over $100,000 a year aren't going to be in their 20's fresh out of college - those coming to the city in droves. The people earning more than $100,000 will probably be a big older, and are going to be living in the collar counties with families in greater numbers than in the city.
They're going to the nicer newer suburbs. Cook County isn't a hot spot for large amounts of wealth and especially young people/new families within the metro area except for key areas of the city itself that are the biggest draw in the Midwest for young talent, but the areas are only around 1,000,000 - out of a county of 5,000,000.
Last edited by Chicago60614; 03-18-2014 at 09:06 AM..
The fact is that while many cities were losing jobs and downsizing during the recession, Cleveland was actually building and developing. Downtown is now undergoing a development boom, and things are looking like they're on the path to snowballing. There are many new, successful companies in Cleveland, and many existing ones that are emerged stronger in the last few years (Progressive Insurance, Key Corp, Eaton, Safeguard Properties). Our economy is transitioning more than it has in the past, and we're seeing the results of that.
The fact is that while many cities were losing jobs and downsizing during the recession, Cleveland was actually building and developing. Downtown is now undergoing a development boom, and things are looking like they're on the path to snowballing. There are many new, successful companies in Cleveland, and many existing ones that are emerged stronger in the last few years (Progressive Insurance, Key Corp, Eaton, Safeguard Properties). Our economy is transitioning more than it has in the past, and we're seeing the results of that.
Which is great for Cleveland, but that's not exactly what this thread was about; rather, it seemed to be one of bragging rights claiming braindrain of Chicago (specifically Cook county) and braingain of Cleveland (specifically Cuyahoga county) (and I'm not even sure why this was the comparison chosen in the first place). But then the second article said the numbers couldn't even be recapitulated, and there's at least one separate source that claims entirely different stats.
This thread seems somewhat misguided.
Last edited by Maintainschaos; 03-18-2014 at 09:18 AM..
I saw those numbers too. Kinda amazing that from 2000 to 2010 the population of the city declined by around 185,000, yet the population of those with college degrees increased by 187,000. That's a HUGE swing.
The overall 10,000 decline from 2007 to 2011 for the county as a whole is one thing, although I'm willing to bet it's centered mostly in suburban Cook County than the city itself.
Cook County as a whole saw a 230,073 increase in people with college degrees from 2000-2012; with 81% of that increase within the city. Talk about gentrification.
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