Remember the young people who supposedly loved cities and rejected the suburbs? It turns out they are the ones who have been fleeing the cities since the beginning of the pandemic. According to a recent analysis of census data, while the number of people in large cities declined by 0.9 percent since the pandemic began, the number of children under 5 — an indicator of young families — fell by more than 6 percent.
Americans have long preferred to raise children in the suburbs, and Gen Z turns out to be no exception. Photo by Cade Martin.
The notion that families with children prefer suburbs to inner cities will be a surprise only to urban planners who insisted that the suburbs are passé and that no one wanted to live in them anymore. Yet this narrative had become an established part of media reports about census data for the past couple of decades.
What may be a surprise is just how abrupt this change is. Perhaps some young families really were staying in cities until they were chased out by fears of COVID. More likely, the pandemic merely accelerated a movement to the suburbs that was already taking place.
The analysis, done by a think tank called the Economic Innovation Group, noted that the under-5 populations of Mid-Atlantic cities declined more than 10 percent and those of West Coast cities fell more than 8 percent.
Declines in southern cities, whose population densities are lower than Mid-Atlantic and West Coast cities, weren’t as great. However, major southern cities such as Atlanta, Dallas, and Houston are “hollowing out” of children as families move from the denser cities to their lower-density suburbs. So this movement is partly driven by housing prices but also by population densities.
These data should, but probably won’t, give pause to elected officials and planners who are still seeking to densify major cities. As I’ve noted before, the desire for density is a mania that is completely divorced from reality. High densities are not environmentally, socially, or economically better than low densities, and they certainly aren’t preferred by most people, and not just because of the pandemic. Cities that fail to understand this are wasting Billions of dollars trying to subsidize lifestyles that Americans don’t want.
Guess The urban fashionistas fave up on appeal urban living.
Core cities in America have long failed educate most of the children in their schools. For generations Americans who have the money to avoid them, have left cities.
There are many advantages to raising youth in the city.
For one they’re psychologically conditioned better to withstand the rigors of disappointment, failure and delayed gratification.
It’s makes people tougher, ascribe for better things.
De shocks kids from aspect crime. I’ve seen suburbanites who after one robbery, moved.
The rise of door bell cameras. Suburbs are becoming hyper paranoia enclaves.
yes, when one has to appease a narco-gun trafficking to get to school, one appreciates an education. When one’s younger brother is shot to death in a Drive By one learns that life is precarious. When your parents have to live in 750 sq feet because the Rent is Too Damn High rather than 3,000 sq ft house with a yard, one can see how financial pressured interfere with married life so just be Gay. Yep, living in squalor and violence sure has it advantages.
High density cities are environmentally better than low density cities. There is a reason why NYC has the lowest carbon footprint per capita in the country.
“High density cities are environmentally better than low density cities.”
High-density cities contribute to the urban heat island effect.
High-density cities are congested, which increases pollution.
High-density cities do not have sufficient green spaces to provide cooling effects, improve air quality, and support biodiversity.
High-density cities generate a large amount of waste in a small area.
High-density cities generate significant noise pollution.
The “environment” is more than “carbon footprint.” You know that…right?
Thank you for correcting the record
Yo this take is fucking stupid, gen z-ers obvi aren’t the ones having kids yet
and also it’s super common knowledge from anyone that lives in a gentrifying city that the largest opposing forces leading to the decline of children in cities is how expensive parenthood is given that:
there is disproportionately too many young adults taking up space in cities, (gen z-ers and millenials you fucking dumbass)
and not enough 2,3, & 4 bedroom apartments.