Suggested reading

Tuesday, April 29, 2014:

Pete Saunders writes about the "Millennial Housing Shortage Fallacy." Money quote:

If young urbanists are serious about moving back to the city, maybe they ought to consider more of the city to live in.  For every highly desirable attractive urban neighborhood, even in the most in-demand metro areas, there are just as many languishing neighborhoods that aren't even part of the conversation.  For every Lincoln Park or Lakeview in Chicago that lacks affordable housing, there is a Garfield Park or Woodlawn with tons of it.

From a couple of weeks ago, David Uberti writes the "from the front lines story" about people sticking it out in Detroit. See what toughness and determination looks like (or reads like).

Ben Adler pushes back about millennials and others moving back to cities. My own pushback here. Here's a couple of quotes from Adler:

For all the hype about gentrification, most rich people remain in suburbia, and cities such as D.C. and New York remain poorer than any of their surrounding suburban counties. (You can look up income and population data from the last three decennial censuses on the Census Bureau’s interactive map.)

...

Still, the Times ignores one of the most important reasons: transportation. The article makes no mention of cars, gasoline, or driving. But the aversion to being car-dependent, and the cost of owning, maintaining and gassing up a car, is one of the main factors in millennials’ affection for cities such as San Francisco, Portland, Chicago, or New York. And so, when Long Beach tries to revitalize its downtown, adding parking is probably the wrong way to do it. Young people (along with retirees) are more likely than previous generations to want to live in walkable, transit-accessible environments.