The trick is to find, nurture -- and when absent, rebuild -- strong, safe, attractive neighborhoods within the city. Most big cities have them, just not enough of them, and they are great places to live if you are fortunate enough to find one close to your work. If we could figure out how to make good neighborhoods the norm, we would have done something worth doing.
My current view is that the disaster in urban public education is the single biggest factor. Cities still attract young people. They come for a job, are attracted to the urban amenities, and prefer not to spend the lion's share of their free time in a car. But time passes, and they marry and have kids. And then, more than any other single factor, it is the lousy schools that drive young families out.
A walkable, bikeable neighborhood with job, stores, schools, and church within a mile or two radius is golden. These are places where one could easily live without a car. We abandoned that model in the 60's when LBJ and the Great Society smashed so much in their wrongheaded pursuit of a misguided master plan, and a lot of cities have been building poorly ever since. Cities across the country are now trying to rebalance. You see the same dynamic in reverse in some of the denser suburbs, which nowadays are often trying to create mini-city centers with a small town feel.
Very true! Union control of big-city schools is a large part of what ultimately forces NYers out to the ‘burbs. Of course, I don’t know where they’d fit all the incoming young talent if the old farts didn’t peel off to the suburbs to raise their spawn.