The Puzzle of ‘Cool Cities’ and Migration

Travel Blog  •  Eva Holland  •  12.01.09 | 3:16 PM ET

New Geography’s Aaron M. Renn explores a paradox of the 2000s: Why do America’s “cool cities”—“the ones that are supposedly doing the best, the ones with the hottest downtowns, the biggest buzz, leading-edge new companies, smart shops, swank restaurants and hip hotels - the ones that are supposed to be magnets for talent”—experience a higher rate of domestic outmigration than the cities with less cache? In other words, why are people moving to Dallas instead of San Francisco? It’s a slightly dense, interesting read. (Via The Morning News)

Tags: Geography for Fun and Profit, North America, United States, News and Briefs

Eva Holland is co-editor of World Hum. She is a former associate editor at Up Here and Up Here Business magazines, and a contributor to Vela. She's based in Canada's Yukon territory.


2 Comments for The Puzzle of ‘Cool Cities’ and Migration

pam 12.02.09 | 12:29 AM ET

I’m gonna read the link, I promise. But first…

Cool cites become cool because artists and writers and counterculture types move there and make it that way, they don’t spring out of the ground cool. Then, people who have real jobs and actual income move to the cool cities because they love the cool, but they don’t want to live in drafty warehouses, nor do they have to, they can afford “real” housing. The city gentrifies and doh, artists and writers can’t afford to live there anymore so they migrate to places that are less cool Cool is the thin edge of the wedge for gentrification. I migrated out of my cool neighborhood a few years back when I couldn’t afford it anymore. It kinda broke my heart. Now, I sit around waiting for my new hood to become cool.

Except in Portland, it seems. There, all bets are off.

daniel 12.02.09 | 1:44 AM ET

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say jobs. That and while many people may perceive one city or another is cool and another is not, the long-term demographic shift is towards the Sun Belt [yay, air conditioning!], not towards what are perceived as “cool cities”, wherever those may be [NY? LA? Chicago? Portland? Seattle? DC?]. Also, I read an article recently that stated that Americans are moving around less now than ever before in our history. What impact the economic crisis has on all this, I’m not entirely sure. Those Sun Belt areas that people flocked to have been the hardest hit and are the leaders in foreclosures.

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