Family Friendly

The just-passed Thanksgiving holiday enjoyed unseasonably warm weather; because of that, it felt like my entire neighborhood was taking their breaks from football and turkey by going outside. There were neighborhood versions of football, bike-riders, walkers and joggers, and a ton of kids in the various play areas. The Mister and I are big on family; there is a joke - only a joke, mind you; we have our idiosyncracies just like any other family - that we are the All American Family Without A Dog. We stay in touch and enjoy spending time together and try to support each other through the difficult times. And it appears that we live amongst many many families that feel the same.

A Chapman University professor wrote an editorial in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) today that reinforces my anecdotal experience. The title of his opinion piece is "The Rise of Family Friendly Cities" and it begins this way:

For much of the past decade, business recruiters, cities and urban developers have focused on the "young and restless," the "creative class," and the so-called "yuspie" -- the young urban single professional. Cities, they've said, should capture this so-called "dream demographic" if they wish to inhabit the top tiers of the economic food chain and enjoy the fastest and most sustained growth.

This focus -- epitomized by Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm's risible "Cool Cities" initiative -- is less successful than advertised. Cincinnati, Baltimore, Cleveland, Newark, Detroit and Memphis have danced to the tune of the hip and the cool, yet largely remain wallflowers in terms of economic and demographic growth. Instead, an analysis of migration data by my colleagues at the Praxis Strategy Group shows that the strongest job growth has consistently taken place in those regions -- such as Houston, Dallas, Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham -- with the largest net in-migration of young, educated families ranging from their mid-20s to mid-40s.

I would add Gilbert to that list, and Morrison Ranch too, if my neighbors are any indication. We are surrounded, not only by children, but by doctors and nurses and firefighters and police officers and engineers and entrepreneurs and corporate managers and asset managers; there are single folks, young marrieds, old marrieds, empty-nesters, and retirees. Our racial diversity mirrors Gilbert's demographics; and we lack economic diversity, for obvious reasons. The author talks about the economics as well:

Married people with children tend to be both successful and motivated, precisely the people who make economies go. They are twice as likely to be in the top 20% of income earners, according to the Census, and their incomes have been rising considerably faster than the national average.

Indeed, if you talk with recruiters and developers in the nation's fastest growing regions, you find that the critical ability to lure skilled workers, long term, lies not with bright lights and nightclubs, but with ample economic opportunities, affordable housing and family friendly communities not too distant from work.

There's no need to beat this drum to Morrison Ranch residents; you know what I'm talking about. It's just nice to read folks that agree with us.

There is a basic truth about the geography of young, educated people. They may first migrate to cities like New York, Los Angeles, Boston or San Francisco. But they tend to flee when they enter their child-rearing years. Family-friendly metropolitan regions have seen the biggest net gains of professionals, largely because they not only attract workers, but they also retain them through their 30s and 40s.

Yup. Welcome to Morrison Ranch.