Michigan needs vibrant, in-demand central cities

Conventional wisdom has it that big cities are dead. This time the cause of their supposed demise is the pandemic. It is widely believed that since you can now work from home, combined with a predicted long-lasting fear of crowded places, that big cities are toast.

There is one problem with this theory. When asked where they want to live after college, post-pandemic college students say big cities. The renaissance of America’s big cities the last two decades was driven in large part by young professionals. Looks like the post-pandemic generation of young professionals have the same preference for big city living.

The 2022 Axios-Generation Lab Next Cities Index asked, “Considering all factors that matter to you, where would you most like to live after college?” Who did they survey?

“There’s a fixed slice of the graduating population that plans to live where they grew up. Then, there’s the ‘roving’ bloc, which looks for fresh ground after getting degreed. Along with Axios, Generation Lab interviewed 1,072 of those ‘rovers’ (from a representative sample of 2,109 students nationwide from two-year and four-year schools).”

What did they find? The top 15 places in order where rovers want to live after college:

  • Seattle
  • New York
  • Los Angeles
  • Denver
  • Boston
  • Chicago
  • Washington, D.C.
  • Phoenix
  • Colorado Springs
  • Austin
  • Portland
  • San Francisco
  • Minneapolis
  • Dallas
  • Atlanta 

The absence of any Michigan community on this list should be setting off alarm bells among the state’s political and business leaders. Why? Because this is an economy where talent attracts capital. Creating a place where people want to live and work is what matters most to retaining, attracting and creating high-wage jobs. Those regions without the quality of place that mobile talent is looking for will be at a substantial disadvantage.

Creating a place where people want to live and work becomes even more important as Michigan goes through at least a decade and a half where the number of older workers leaving the labor market will exceed younger workers entering the labor market.

The Axios-Generation Lab Next Cities Index makes clear that to grow and attract high-wage employers Michigan needs vibrant central cities that are as in demand as Chicago and Minneapolis, the leaders in the Great Lakes. Even better would be competitive with national talent magnets like Seattle and New York City.

To be competitive with those talent magnets, Michigan’s political and business leaders need to understand that quality of place attracts talent. That a primary economic development priority for the state is big cities that have the high-density, high-amenity, transit-rich neighborhoods that young, post-pandemic professionals are still flocking to.

The in-demand cities in the Axios-Generation Lab poll have spent decades investing in non-roads transportation; housing; mixed use/high density development; parks and outdoor recreation; and arts and cultural projects. Interestingly, rail transit — except for Colorado Springs — seems to be the most prominent and, almost certainly, the most important common trait these cities share.

Those major public investments were made possible because business and political leadership in those regions and cities understood that retaining and attracting young talent was an economic priority. And that to be a talent magnet required a vibrant central city.

By and large, Michigan, its regions and cities have been missing in action for decades in making these kinds of quality-of-place public investments. In large part, that’s because Michigan’s business and political leadership has not made retaining and attracting young talent or vibrant central cities economic priorities.

The availability of billions of dollars in one-time federal funding and a large state budget surplus gives the state, regions and cities a chance to pivot toward an economic development strategy where talent attracts capital and to make the kind of public investments in our cities that are required to be competitive with in-demand cities and regions across the country.

At the think tank I lead, Michigan Future Inc., we have proposed dedicating $500 million in state American Rescue Plan funds to promote strategic investments designed to make Michigan’s regions magnets for talent and economic growth. This Regional Talent Concentration Initiative would provide matching grants to encourage neighboring counties, cities and towns to partner to create a shared vision for their future, mapping out the programs, initiatives and projects that are critical for them to retain talent today and attract the workforce of tomorrow. The initiative is designed to attract at least $1.5 billion of local public, private and philanthropic funding that will propel investment in regional quality of place, quality of life and quality of opportunity.

Whether it is our Regional Talent Concentration Initiative or some other alternative, what is important is that the state makes retaining and attracting young talent a top priority.

Lou Glazer is president of Michigan Future Inc.