Portland rated #4 for "Next Hot Youth-Magnet Cities" (Dallas: employment, college)

[The Cactus Leaguer]

The Wall Street Journal just put up the article (to be published tomorrow)... they polled six expert economists from government and academia (people like Richard Florida). They looked at lifestyle, economic and other issues, with a focus on what cities would fare best in the future at attracting mobile, educated workers in their 20's. Here were their rankings:

#1 (tie) Washington DC
#1 (tie) Seattle
#3 New York
#4 Portland
#5 Austin
#6 San Jose
#7 Denver
#8 Raleigh-Durham
#9 Dallas
#10 (tie) Chicago
#10 (tie) Boston

Here is a brief snippet of what they said about Portland (I won't post the whole article because I can't tell if they posted this on the public portion of their website):

Topline: Lifestyle rules for immigrants to this symbol of "West Coast hipness," as one panelist calls it.
An urban-growth boundary contains suburban sprawl in Portland, making nearby mountains and forests accessible and enabling many residents to bike to work. The city has expanded mass transit and built a reputation as an alternative-energy and green-building center. Portland's quirky culture holds strong appeal for young musicians and artists.
Downside: Employment hasn't kept up with population growth, pushing joblessness above 11%.

[Xplorer]

Personally, I wouldn't live in a single one of those places. But to each his own.

[LeftCoastee]

Originally Posted by The Cactus Leaguer

focus on what cities would fare best in the future at attracting mobile, educated workers in their 20's.

The article is about attracting mobile, educated workers, but then they state that: "Portland's quirky culture holds strong appeal for young musicians and artists."

I don't see how they make the connection between the two. I definitely see the appeal here for musicians and artists, but I wouldn't say its a hotbed for attracting a workforce quite yet.

Originally Posted by Xplorer

Personally, I wouldn't live in a single one of those places. But to each his own.

Thank you. I can now sleep at night.

[philwithbeard]

For 20 something year olds, yep I can see what they are ranking.

Saw a similar ranking a few years ago for that age group, it had L.A. and Orlando, FL on the list. Not this time around. And Denver beat out Boulder, that's surprising to me.

Phil

[sayulita]

Originally Posted by Xplorer

Personally, I wouldn't live in a single one of those places. But to each his own.

Gee, I can find something attractive about every one of these cities. I'm not planning to move, mind you, but if the powers that be suddenly said "We need to send you to (PICK ONE) city for a couple years", I could get excited about any of them!

[subsound]

Of course on the bottom it also states:

"Portland has done better at promoting its quality of life than fostering job growth. "As nice as it may be to live in Portland," says Economy.com's Dr. Cochrane, "you can only sleep on someone's couch for so long. At some point you have to get a job.""

[Tiger Beer]

That must be a very old list - how could SAN JOSE get on the list? There is nothing there to attract anyone. Maybe 10 years ago during the dot.com era though.

[mikey1979]

Originally Posted by subsound

Of course on the bottom it also states:

"Portland has done better at promoting its quality of life than fostering job growth. "As nice as it may be to live in Portland," says Economy.com's Dr. Cochrane, "you can only sleep on someone's couch for so long. At some point you have to get a job.""

oh so true

I've lived in every region of this country exept the north east and I can say without a doubt that people in the metro areas of this state **** me off something more than any other part of the country.
The entire state of oregon always has a poor economy because the state is run by idiots and people as a colective whole in this part of the country are ................SLACKERS IMO

[jm31828]

Originally Posted by mikey1979

oh so true

I've lived in every region of this country exept the north east and I can say without a doubt that people in the metro areas of this state **** me off something more than any other part of the country.
The entire state of oregon always has a poor economy because the state is run by idiots and people as a colective whole in this part of the country are ................SLACKERS IMO

Does that mean there is a shortage of somewhat skilled, very hard working people in Portland or the rest of Oregon? I had seen a post here a few months ago from someone who must have been a manager or in an HR department saying that it's hard to find people who are actually motivated, hard working, and skilled- even though there is such high unemployment in the Portlant area right now. I just found that hard to believe!

[mikey1979]

Originally Posted by jm31828

Does that mean there is a shortage of somewhat skilled, very hard working people in Portland or the rest of Oregon? I had seen a post here a few months ago from someone who must have been a manager or in an HR department saying that it's hard to find people who are actually motivated, hard working, and skilled- even though there is such high unemployment in the Portlant area right now. I just found that hard to believe!

there's an unbelievable amount of highly intelligent educated people in the northwest,especially in Portland and many of them are hard working and become very successful people but unfortunately a large percentage of them work in restaurants, coffee shops, used record stores or countless other slacker jobs that should be filled by teenagers instead of using there educations. You will often hear them complaining about there massive college debt that there slacker job can't cover unless they have a bunch of roommates. A lot of these people aren't twenty somethings either but are in there late thirties. It's beyond me that people flock to places like Portland or Seattle from all over the country for this lifestyle.