We're not Rust Belt, we're Skilled Anchor (Pittsburgh, Akron: college, educational)

[BrianTH]

There has been lots of buzz about a new Brookings report on U.S. metropolitan areas. Among other things, they advocate categorizing metro areas not by location, but by type, using three factors: population growth, racial/ethnic diversity, and college degrees. Using that methodology, Pittsburgh ends up being a "Skilled Anchor" because of its slower growth, lower diversity, and higher educational attainment. Peer cities would include places like Baltimore and Akron, but not Cleveland or Philly. Anyway, here is a map:



And a link:

A New Metropolitan Map for the United States - Up Front Blog - Brookings Institution

[Tiger Beer]

Honolulu & Miami are 'diverse giant'....that's interesting. I always thought of them as tourist customer-service type places...

Also interesting, the 'border growth' cities...basically just have a lot of people of mexican ethnicity growth...

[BrianTH]

"Diverse Giant" means highly diverse and educated, but slower growth.

[barneyg]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

There has been lots of buzz about a new Brookings report on U.S. metropolitan areas. Among other things, they advocate categorizing metro areas not by location, but by type, using three factors: population growth, racial/ethnic diversity, and college degrees. Using that methodology, Pittsburgh ends up being a "Skilled Anchor" because of its slower growth, lower diversity, and higher educational attainment. Peer cities would include places like Baltimore and Akron, but not Cleveland or Philly.

Actually, Philly's a skilled anchor as well.

This is an interesting read but the data behind the metro area groups is not entirely transparent. As I understand it, the only difference between "Industrial Core" and "Skilled Anchor" is high educational attainment (the other 2 factors you cite are common to both). Yet there's no table showing those numbers by metro (or even any average for that particular factor), and I couldn't really find evidence in their interactive maps that Pittsburgh has a higher educational attainment than, say, Cleveland.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by barneyg

Actually, Philly's a skilled anchor as well.

Oops-misread the map.

This is an interesting read but the data behind the metro area groups is not entirely transparent. As I understand it, the only difference between "Industrial Core" and "Skilled Anchor" is high educational attainment (the other 2 factors you cite are common to both). Yet there's no table showing those numbers by metro (or even any average for that particular factor), and I couldn't really find evidence in their interactive maps that Pittsburgh has a higher educational attainment than, say, Cleveland.

Yeah, that's a problem. I like the overall concept, but this doesn't seem particularly well-executed.

[grimacista]

DC is the next frontier as long as the government keeps generating jobs like there is no tomorrow - which I guess will be for forever.