Thursday, July 23, 2009

Brain Drain Report

I've got enough fodder in the blog queue for another addition of the "Brain Drain Report". Long Island is obsessed with brain drain. Curious how certain regions and states consistently pop up on my news radar. I don't think anyone living on Long Island understands the problem:

John Cameron, chairman of the Long Island Regional Planning Council, said meetings such as this one are necessary if the region is going to stem the exodus of younger Islanders.

“I tip my cap to Tom, I really do, because it’s such an important issue and we should hear directly from the young people,” Cameron said. “If affordability isn’t at the top of their issues, it will certainly be in their top three.”

Cameron added that “if we can’t keep young people here, it will be devastating to the local economy. Who is going to buy the homes put up for sale by the baby boomers? Who is going to spend disposable income at restaurants? Quite frankly, if we don’t solve this, it doesn’t bode well for the region.”
Speaking of captive housing markets ...

The Ohio real estate lobby got its budget provision. I can't believe that any rational person would think that first-time home buyer assistance will do anything to stem the brain drain. But cooler heads did prevail with no money appropriated to the program. My guess is that this brain dead policy helped to counter-balance the budget cuts to higher education.


Boston-based research and marketing firm Collegia was hired in 2007 to launch the project, based on the firm's work in other cities, including Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Todd Hoffman, president of Collegia, said student survey responses in Columbus were generally similar to those in other cities. ...

... While other initiatives have focused on bringing back young professionals who have moved from Ohio, Hoffman said, there are clear "efficiencies" in targeting current students in the region.

"Among young people who have moved away, one in eight say they're considering moving back," Hoffman said. "Among current students, one in three aren't planning to stay, but the rest either are planning to or are considering it. It's a bigger pool, and it's much easier to get to them."
I'll have to add Todd Hoffman to my list of brain drain hucksters.

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