The Portlandia Paradox

Joe Cortright's "second paycheck" won't pay the rent in Portland at Pacific Standard magazine.

Theme: Ironic demography.

Subject Article: "Portland: Hardly 'A Retirement Community for the Young.' Hey, New York Times: Portland happens to outshine many U.S. cities in entrepreneurship, job growth, productivity—and the elusive 'second paycheck.'"

Other Links: 1. "Will Portland Always Be a Retirement Community for the Young?"
2. "The Young and Restless in a Knowledge Economy."
3. "City Dividends: Gains from Improving Metropolitan Performance."
4. "Is Portland Really the Place Where Young People Go To Retire? Analyzing Labor Market Outcomes for Portland’s Young and College-Educated."
5. "No Innovation Without Migration: Portlandia Is Dying."
6. "Metrics FAQ with Joe Cortright."
7. "Distilling Portland in a Glass."
8. "Keep Portland Weird (Or Forget About a Real Estate Boom)."

Postscript: Rising college educational attainment rates positively correlate with rising per capita income. Economist Joe Cortright implied a causal relationship between the two in crafting the "Talent Dividend" initiative. Concerning economic development, that's the Portland Way. Use cool amenities to attract/retain a college-educated workforce. Voila, per capita income will go up. In Portland, the talent dividend is yet to materialize. In Pittsburgh, it has:

"[David Albouy, an economics professor at the University of Illinois,] told me that he has always wondered why Portland doesn’t invest more in its institutions of higher education. If you took Portland’s quality of life and citizens, he said, and added Pittsburgh’s universities, you would come out with a world-class city."

That tells me that Albouy understands the causal relationship between college educational attainment rate and per capita income, while Cortright does not.