Quote:
Originally Posted by Austinlee
I DO believe that when the ongoing trend of a higher death rate than birth rate plateaus and begins to recede, Pittsburgh will "overnight" become one of the youngest and most dynamic cities in the country.
It is inevitable. Our "lost generation" of baby boomers and their children due to out migration has a flip side which is that when that trend reverses we will be one of the youngest and most dynamic cities in the US and all of the youthful dynamism that that implies.
I would say that may happen in 15-20 years as the baby boomer generation goes extinct and we are left with young idealists, hopefully an increase in highly educated immigrants creating the breeding grounds for a dramatic increase in innovation, start-ups and new ideas.
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In a way it is already happening--it is just obscured in the top-line population numbers. Our growing population of young people is very well-educated--right at the top of the charts. Our immigration base is relatively low but finally growing, and it is also well-educated and entrepreneurial. And so on.
That said, I agree once this Tale of Two Cities thing we have going on (with an older, far less educated on average, population declining and offsetting the booming young population) finally unwinds, the crystallized remainder will surpass even the current buzz about Pittsburgh by a wide margin.
Edit: I think this may already have been posted, but it goes along with this Millennial report to paint a strong picture of what has been happening to change the population mix even as it is not growing on a net basis:
http://www.newamericaneconomy.org/wp...rgh-Region.pdf