Posted on 11/24/2006 10:47:14 PM PST by seacapn
ATLANTA, Nov. 24 Some cities will do anything they can think of to keep young people from fleeing to a hipper town.
In Lansing, Mich., partiers can ease from bar to bar on the new Entertainment Express trolley, part of the states Cool Cities Initiative. In Portland, Ore., employees at an advertising firm can watch indie rock concerts at lunch and play bump, an abbreviated form of basketball, every afternoon.
And in Memphis, employers pay for recruits to be matched with hip young professionals in a sort of corporate Big Brothers program. A new biosciences research park is under construction not in the suburbs, but downtown, just blocks from the nightlife of Beale Street.
These measures reflect a hard demographic reality: Baby boomers are retiring and the number of young adults is declining. By 2012, the work force will be losing more than two workers for every one it gains.
Cities have long competed over job growth, struggling to revive their downtowns and improve their image. But the latest population trends have forced them to fight for college-educated 25- to 34-year-olds, a demographic group increasingly viewed as the key to an economic future.
Mobile but not flighty, fresh but technologically savvy, the young and restless, as demographers call them, are at their most desirable age, particularly because their chances of relocating drop precipitously when they turn 35. Cities that do not attract them now will be hurting in a decade.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I don't know how these moms can stand themselves. Going to the store and even church, mixing among people they and their criminal spawn would destroy without thinking twice.
Wow , You sound just like the democrats. We have a barrier that can only be ..bla blah I happen to believe in the person. I met a man one day, he had a wife and 2 children. It was a Sunday and it was raining. I helped them unload a friggin big old u-haul before I ever met them i was wet, and missed the afternoon nfl game. Then I went home. And I was in peace.
I agree with you. I'm very happy to live in one of the un-hippest places in the country. It truly does keep the riff-raff out.
You have a pretty nice house. I bring in my illegals to piss all over your neighborhood.Now I call the realtor. You are trying to call the cop or the spca, but they do not care. I offer one third what your house is worth. You thought that you worked all your life to get this house and retire, but guess what? I just screwed your property value thanks to George Bush. The border is open baby, I guess a few million more can't hurt. I do not pay taxes. DO You?
Uh no, having lived in a "ghetto" myself and having spent time in some of the worst ones in NYC, I just prefer to avoid them.
You sound like you've seen some $h**.
They're young and dumb. They don't want "peace and quiet", they want sex and getting drunk. Preferably, both at the same time.
Has a young person ever existed who just wanted "peace and quiet?"
Hell no. "Peace and quite" and "yutes" are mutually exclusive.
I get tired just observing young people these days. Did I ever have that much energy?
I suspect you did, but focused it on fewer, but more worthwhile, things than yutes of today.
Never trust a man who hasn't squandered at least a little bit of his youth -- they tend to grow into bitter adults.
I agree. I squandered much of mine, and I'm not bitter.
If we didn't squander it, it wouldn't be youth, as adults would know better. It's such a shame that youth is wasted on the young and wisdom on the old.
I wouldn't do it again, that youth thing. It would be like having a second salad after the entree. And besides, there's no way they're having as much fun as my generation.
I'm out, way past my bedtime...take care.
AFAICT, freaknik died some years ago. Admittedly, it was pretty out of control.
Are you still seeing it? Or do you live somewhere other than ATL, and imagine it's still happening yearly?
Couldn't help myself.
I notice that youth-hood is lasting such a long time. In their 20's and 30's some big babies still live off and sometimes with Mom and Dad and enjoy being legally adult without much adult responsibility. Happy Days, huh!
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