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Originally Posted by TheNovaScotian
Bit of a generalization don't you think? Boomtown is a subjective term playing on percentages. When your economy is so big, a blip there is larger than a boom in a smaller city. People are still pouring into those bigger cities, they just can't hit a growth rate of 14% because they would burst at the seams. NYC, LA and Chicago drive the national economies not just local state demand like the Austin or Nashville and have greater importance when people are looking for a place to live and work in.
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Not really. I guess what you are saying is that the big cities have larger growth in absolute numbers while the smaller cities have a higher percentage but smaller increases in population. This has not been the case in the United States during the past decade.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...tistical_areas
The Austin MSA gained 500,000 while the New York MSA gained about 200,000.
I would also guess that NYC's role as a "gateway city" for immigration is somewhat reduced compared to what it was in decades past, but I have not seen numbers for that.
We are not quite to this level in Canada but demographics have been shifting in that direction. I would guess that real estate costs are a big part of that.
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I know a broad range of new Canadians and they eat at the same expensive restaurants I do. I've heard multiple times from multiple people that they wished there was more to do here. They expect transit options and venues to be available to them like stadiums, arenas and performing stages, so I can't say I agree with your statement, we just think that way because it makes it easier to say no to making investments in those areas.
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I am not arguing that immigrants to Canada have less discerning tastes or anything like that. Nor am I saying that there is no need for smaller cities to aspire to have a better food scene or more amenities. I am just pointing out that the 1% stuff in the big cities, while often celebrated or discussed, is by definition not what most average people are looking for. For most people, things like median job prospects and housing costs are more important than high-end amenities. Hence I do not expect the high-end stuff to drive demographic growth in urban Canada. I think it might be nice for Halifax to get a big stadium (which BTW I would not put in that 1% or "high end" category) but I am skeptical that it will have a big impact on population growth.
Halifax also has an advantage as far as access to nature and small town type daytrips compared to big metro areas where you either live way out in the suburban fringe or you are downtown and it takes 1-2 hours to get out of town, or some trade-off along that spectrum. There's nothing equivalent to living in the SGR area and driving out to wilderness in 15-20 mins, or for that matter buying a decent Peninsula house on a middle class salary.