The Word is Out: Chicago Attracts the Young and Educated March 24, 2007
Posted by Steve in : The City, Chicago, Breaking News , trackback
The Chicago Trib ran an article this month looking at the changing demographics of Chicago and the surge of post-college 20Somethings who are flocking to this great city of Chicago. People are finally beginning to see what an awesome place Chicago is to live and be missional!
The article starts off, “ As thousands of Chicagoans leave the city each year, a countervailing force is moving in: twentysomethings, whose growing presence in and near the city’s center is attracting companies to start or expand operations downtown. Kenneth Johnson, a demographer and sociology professor at Loyola University Chicago who has studied the trend, estimates Chicago’s twentysomething population at 450,000, surpassed only by New York and Los Angeles, which also are experiencing influxes of new college grads. The young newcomers, Johnson said, hail from the suburbs as well as cities such as Philadelphia, Detroit and Cleveland.
“Companies are finding that the key asset is no longer the highway interchange, coal vein or port,” said Richard Florida, a professor of urban policy at George Mason University. “Now, it’s this educated, skilled, innovative talent. Companies are moving to be near the kind of people that Chicago is attracting in droves.”
Not long ago, companies routinely were abandoning cities to be near suburban transportation hubs, office parks and natural resources. Once a business came to town, its hiring acted as a magnet for more workers to move in, drawing younger people from the core cities. Now, companies are chasing the skills and creativity of youthful workers who increasingly are gravitating toward cities replete with clubs, restaurants, museums and natural draws such as Lake Michigan, said Florida.
“The city that gets them after college is a big winner because people are likely to stay in the same metropolitan region over time,” said Florida. He said people make three big moves in their life: after college, when they have children and when the kids are grown.
Florida calls Chicago “one of four or five great U.S. talent magnets.”
Continuing to draw younger people to the city is a key to the area’s vitality. Johnson estimates that the city lost 53,000 residents since the 2000 census. That was only partly offset by the influx of the twentysomething group, the only age group to show growth. As of July 2005, Chicago’s population stood at 2.84 million, he said.
“Chicago is a hidden gem,” declared Caliah Manson, 34, an account manager at Google who relocated to Chicago two years ago from San Diego, her hometown. Her commute in California used to consume three hours a day. “It’s affordable,” she said. “I live downtown and walk to everything I want: Michigan Avenue shopping, parks, museums. Most important, it has more sophisticated professional opportunities.” “Chicago is a true urban environment, with mass transit, a good theater community and lakefront, but it’s not overwhelming,” said Mike McKane, 33, a Wisconsin native who originally settled in Washington, D.C.. “I can’t get over how clean it is, and it’s refreshing to run into people who are so nice.”
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