The March of the Millennial Generation to the Cities is Real (Pittsburgh: apartment, renting)

[North Beach Person]

What proportion of the entire generation are college graduates?
What proportion of those graduates are moving to cities?
What proportion of those migrants are married or starting families?

When you get those numbers you can declare a stampede or what ever the terminology was.

The reality is that when these new residents start having families, or get tired of the hassles (mainly financial and school based) of living in any city, or even a close-in urbanized suburb, many will again vote with their feet and move. That has been going on for a couple of decades in the DC area on both sides of the Potomac.

As far as SteelCityRising adopting and raising a child in Troy Hill that area has always been leavened with families. I went to college at Clarion 40 years ago and can recall at least a dozen kids who were from there. Admittedly most Pittsburgh area students then were from the South Hills, though.

[ferraris]

Originally Posted by HeavenWood

City limits.

So this is pretty meaningless then. Just another quirk of Pittsburgh's small geographic footprint.

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by ferraris

So this is pretty meaningless then. Just another quirk of Pittsburgh's small geographic footprint.

I wouldn't necessarily say that. The city is the city and features quite a few neighborhoods that don't have equivalents in the suburbs.

[gg]

It is obvious young people are gravitating to the city of Pittsburgh. You would have to be living under a rock not to see it. Why?

1. Time! I don't think they want to sit in traffic and waste time.
2. Action/safety. They want to be able to go out at night and enjoy themselves and not have to drive after having a beer or so, due to the possibility of a career ending DUI.
3. Debt from college. Many have MASSIVE loans and they want to try and pay it off. Why live way out and have all those extra expenses if you can bus, walk or bike to work or have a 5 minute commute. They can't afford to park downtown anyway.
4. I think this generation would be bored silly in the burbs. Drunk driving is something they consider more than in the past generation. No worries about that if you are walking.

I just don't think these young folks are going to gravitate to the burbs like the generation before them. When they have kids, maybe some, but I think this will be the long term trend and the working folks will take over the cities. The writing is on the walls and this is just the beginning.

[ferraris]

Originally Posted by HeavenWood

I wouldn't necessarily say that. The city is the city and features quite a few neighborhoods that don't have equivalents in the suburbs.

Yes, but when you're comparing to Cleveland and Detroit it's not an apples to apples comparison. You'd have to toss in nearby suburbs like Wilkinsburg and McKees Rocks into the mix, which would lower our ratio of college grads. In Cleveland and Detroit these sorts of areas are inside the city limits and water down their ratio.

[PreservationPioneer]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

It is obvious young people are gravitating to the city of Pittsburgh. You would have to be living under a rock not to see it. Why?

1. Time! I don't think they want to sit in traffic and waste time.
2. Action/safety. They want to be able to go out at night and enjoy themselves and not have to drive after having a beer or so, due to the possibility of a career ending DUI.
3. Debt from college. Many have MASSIVE loans and they want to try and pay it off. Why live way out and have all those extra expenses if you can bus, walk or bike to work or have a 5 minute commute. They can't afford to park downtown anyway.
4. I think this generation would be bored silly in the burbs. Drunk driving is something they consider more than in the past generation. No worries about that if you are walking.

I just don't think these young folks are going to gravitate to the burbs like the generation before them. When they have kids, maybe some, but I think this will be the long term trend and the working folks will take over the cities. The writing is on the walls and this is just the beginning.

I agree. Also there seems to be a trend that young people are less likely to drive cars, and more likely to take public transit, which would seem to put them in large cities where transit options are available.

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Childfree young people definitely want to live in the city, but that doesn't seem like anything new to me. When they have kids though, that changes.

[PreservationPioneer]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Lancaster and Bethlehem are seeing it on a small scale, so it's not as if every smaller city in Pennsylvania is still in decline.

No, but it does seem like most of the smaller cities are in decline, and I hope that changes.

[UKyank]

Sounds like more of a study of the changing cultural attitudes of waiting to have children until later in life then anything else.

Everyone I know that lives in the city have being childless in common & have either moved here or just stayed here following college graduation.
Those that have moved out did so when they had children & those that plan to equally have plans on moving at that time.

Translating these cultural shifts into hot headlines could be:
20-35 year olds fleeing to the city!
35-45 year olds fleeing the city!
60+ year olds fleeting to the city!

[ny789987]

Originally Posted by PreservationPioneer

I agree. Also there seems to be a trend that young people are less likely to drive cars.

That is because blue collar young people can't get a car loan because the politicians shipped all their jobs overseas, and the white collar young people can't get a car loan because they are sitting under 1 trillion dollars of student loan debt.

People don't choose to live carless in the inner city next to Section 8 types as a lifestyle choice, no matter how much the "hipster types" try to make it hip. Being poor is not hip, it's sad. It starts becoming really sad once you start approaching 40.