People are flocking to cities worldwide at a faster pace then ever.
I found this research today on America’s top 100 Metropolitan areas. It made me reflect on how 15-20 years ago as the internet was first exploding many pundits said that the advent of the networked economy, coupled with Starbucks expanding to distant suburbs would make the Metropolitan experience less relevant. Couple this trend with things like HD TV for sports (they said who will go into town for the games), and the emergence of the suburban downtown renaissance and many figured the urban metro experience was going to be all but dead.
Fast forward to 2014 and in looking at this data, a few things pop out. Firstly, “winner takes all” much like most things in life rules the day. New York, L.A. and SF have bounced back as some of the strongest regions over the past three years. This trend, similar to internet traffic, or prime real estate, seems all encompassing when I look at the direction of both human and financial capital. As opposed to what Businessweek once predicted, people in America (and in fact the world) are becoming less fragmented, and are searching for hands-on congruency within both social and professional networks. This means living and working in Metropolitan areas. In Atlanta, for many professionals, this means condos. Specifically highrise, luxury condos.
As I alluded to the other day, the US economy has by no means been rising at a strong economic pace since 2006. Thus for these numbers to be accurate for these top 100 metropolitan areas, there surely must be negative growth in the rural areas of this country. in any case, Atlanta is ranked 10th in this report, and and judging from the numbers I briefly looked through it likely ranks around the 60-75% for growth and strength of economy. It is a nice file to take note of and perhaps file away.
