Every community covets the Millennials, especially those with education, skills and tech savvy who do so much to stimulate entrepreneurial economic growth. USA Today has surveyed the coutry to see which “cities” (urban core jurisdictions, not metro regions) do the best job of luring Millennials. And it turns out that Virginia cities do pretty well.
Arlington tops the list (even though it’s a county and not a city), while Alexandria ranked No. 3. No surprise there. But how about this — Norfolk scored 13th out of the 288 cities surveyed and Richmond scored 18th.
As is always the case, semantic confusion surrounds the use of the word “city.” Chesapeake and Virginia rank disappointingly low on the list. But Chesapeake and Virginia Beach are not urban-core jurisdictions; under Virginia’s unique system of government, they are classified as cities even though their sociological profiles are all suburban. They are bedroom communities geared to households raising children, not urban hipsters.
Greg Toppo and Paul Overberg with USA describes a trend they describe as the “post-college town” — places where college grads head to look for a job and sink roots.
This is a new kind of city, born of deep demographic shifts and the power of technology. Where traditional college towns have long attracted young people who get an education and then leave, another kind of town is emerging: the post-college town.
“These places seem to be built for people, not for automobiles,” says University of Nevada-Las Vegas demographer Robert Lang. “And the 20-somethings love the people, not the automobile.”
The USA Today rankings are based on the ratio of the number of people 20-29 to the number of teens. Cities with high ratios suggest that a large number of Millennials have moved in. Some high rankers are to be expected — Cambridge, Mass. (No. 2.), San Francisco (No. 5) and Seattle (No. 6). But there some surprises like Tallahassee, Fla., Fargo, N.D., Springfield, Mo. — not to mention Norfolk and Richmond, which few people regard as magnets for young people.
Virginia has many, many problems, as Bacon’s Rebellion bloggers make abundantly clear. But the ability of Virginia cities to attract and retain educated young people bodes well for the future of the Old Dominion.
— JAB
