Thursday, September 05, 2013

New York City’s Next Williamsburg: Fishtown

The Talent Economy between NYC and Philadelphia at Pacific Standard magazine.

Theme: Talent churn and economic development.

Subject Article: "Leaving Town: Metro New York hemorrhaged $49 billion during the 2000s as residents sought opportunity elsewhere."

Other Links: 1. "City as Suburb."
2. "Boston Is Dying."
3. "INTERVIEW: Keeping the Focus on People, Not Places, With Jim Russell."
4. "New York as a Gigantic Refinery of the Nation’s Human Capital."
5. "Lena Dunham Wants Brooklyn to Be More Like Chattanooga."
6. "Why New Yorkers Are Moving to Philly and What It Means for Our City."
7. "Gentrification Is Not About Race and Class, but Fear of Outsiders."
8. "How Many Gentrification Critics Are Actually Gentrifiers Themselves?"
9. "Globalization and World Cities Research Network."

Postscript: A link that didn't make the final cut, "Middle Class Flees New York. Who Needs ‘Em?"

As much as I would like to confirm my conviction that New York’s Blue State governance philosophy is an economic-development train wreck, I’m not sure there’s a huge problem here. New York is not losing its most productive citizens. Hint No. 1: $49 billion in lost income sounds like a lot of money but when it’s spread over two million people, it amounts to an average income of only $24,500 per person — just a tad more than the region’s 1999 per capita income of $22,000. Hint No. 2: The two top destinations are Miami and Orlando, both retirement destinations.

In other words, NYC is not losing its creative class — its wealth creators — who continue to place a premium on the ability to interact with others like themselves. It appears that the city is leaching away its middle class, particularly its retirees.

Emphasis added. Mining the American Community Survey data for 2000-2010, the NYC metro region gained over 900,000 college graduates. LA is number 2 in the rankings with +559,904. The critique of New York's economic development is a train wreck.

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