Posted on 04/15/2005 10:24:05 AM PDT by BurbankKarl
The exodus of Los Angeles County residents to surrounding counties and nearby states accelerated significantly during the past year, driving the largest population shift in the nation, according to new U.S. Census Bureau figures released Thursday. Fueled by soaring housing prices, traffic congestion, and new jobs in outlying areas, residents left L.A. at an average net rate of 9,621 per month between July 1, 2003, and last July 1, compared with an average net of 7,373 per month over the three previous years -- a 30 percent increase on average.
The figures show 115,434 more residents left the county last year than newcomers arrived. But the overall population still increased with 98,184 new immigrants arriving from foreign countries and 94,675 more births than deaths.
Experts said the trend is a continuing shrinking of the middle class in Los Angeles and a worsening of the disparity in income between new arrivals and the wealthier, long-term residents whose incomes likely will grow.
William H. Frey, a demographer and visiting fellow at The Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., said the decades-long shift of populations to the suburbs has accelerated and expanded throughout the nation, with more families moving farther away into what's been dubbed the exurbs.
"What's happened in Southern California is a mega-trend of what's happening elsewhere, with people moving farther and farther from the central urban area. In California, it's even beyond state lines."
Frey said studies show that no longer is the migration a "white flight" phenomena, but that Hispanics, in particular, and other ethnic groups are joining in increasing numbers.
Los Angeles remained the nation's largest county with a population of 9,937,739 as of July 1, up 77,357 from the previous year.
Riverside County was reporting a net gain of 66,664 residents from other U.S. counties; San Bernardino gained 32,517 and Kern got 10,731 people from other counties -- a total gain of 109,912 residents last year.
Since April 1, 2000, 403,070 L.A. County residents left; Riverside, San Bernardino and Kern gained 367,323.
The San Fernando Valley, meanwhile, bucked the county trend, gaining a net 8,700 people from both international and domestic immigration last year, said Daniel Blake, a California State University, Northridge, economics professor and director of the San Fernando Valley Economic Research Center.
He attributed the countertrend to greater job growth in the Valley -- a 1.6 percent increase last year versus 0.65 percent countywide.
County residents moved out of Southern California entirely, too, largely in search of cheaper real estate, less congested roads and employment, to counties such as Maricopa, which includes Phoenix, and Clark County, which includes Las Vegas.
"On an aggregate, Riverside is the biggest gainer in domestic migrants, and L.A. County is the biggest loser in terms of domestic migrants," Frey said.
"People are leaving L.A. to go to Riverside, Las Vegas and Phoenix, then San Bernardino. It's affordability that's causing middle-class flights. People can't afford housing in Los Angeles, but want to stay in the Southwest and will commute long distances."
Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., said the chief factor for people leaving L.A. is "housing affordability," and the largest potential economic impact is that they then take jobs in outlying areas.
"We're getting a little bit too expensive," Kyser said of the county, noting a similar trend in Orange County, where 27,590 residents left for other counties last year. "The question is, Will they take jobs in other counties, or not?"
Increasingly, for example, professional service businesses like law, accounting or governmental affairs firms are moving farther from traditional urban cores like the city of Los Angeles, where business tax and other costs are high, to smaller cities like Ontario, he said.
L.A. also is a major port of entry for many immigrants who gain an economic toehold, then move on to other cities and states, inflating the extent of the county's outmigration, demographers said.
Florida also showed marked changes in population, recording 14 of the nation's 100 fastest-growing counties.
The article doesn't say that, and even if this is large, it can't compare in pecentage terms to the settling of the West back in the 19th century.
What the article actually says is that this is the largest population shift in the country, implying that they are talking about population shifts going on right now.
Not to nitpick... The article is interesting and the comments germane....
I lived in L.A. for around 35 years, but the only times I went to Riverside (other than driving through to get to Palm Desert) was to go to the old (and long gone) Riverside Raceway to see the great Can-Am races in the early 70s. ....and my lungs burned for about two days after the fact.
Beverly Hills and West Hollywood are incorporated cities, not part of Los Angeles.
They only gave me one .223 rd....I better make it count...
Open Ahmanson Ranch
>>>They built over the entire basin, they built over the nearby surrounding valleys,
BUMP
I would not be surprised to hear the high desert (north county) communities start talk of secession from L.A. County again. It comes up every so often, but this time, there's an actual influx of commerce and people to support it. The housing costs are still rising up here. Gangs are coming up, too, though.
That is quite a collection of pictures!
About $50,000 in DFW area.
Same here in Cincinnati -- maybe less.
Edward Song Lee, front, died at the scene, and three of his friends are being interviewed by Los Angeles Police officers near the intersection of 3rd and Hobart Streets on the second night of the 1992 Los Angeles Riot. The youths had been pulled out of their vehicle after it came under fire upon approaching the intersection. The youths were responding to a plea of approaching looters call on the Radio Korea at the Kang-Suh Myon-Oak noodle shop restaurant.
You've got to be kidding. For many posters on FR, that's the *only* thing being talked about.
Maybe the LAT is trying to explain away the drop in their circulation.
California Market owner Richard Rhee returns fire at looters approaching his market in Koreatown, Los Angeles on the second day of the Los Angeles Riots.
This Korean-American volunteer showed up to help protect Korean-American owned businesses from the rioters.
Californian's, coming to ruin a county near you ...
VENICE BEACH 1970 
That is 3000 more houses than before....plus they just turned down that development on the north end of the SFV....
Thats okay, the CA taxpayers paid for Ahmanson's Ranch, part of the Gray Davis deficit.
What, you think that the rest of America is unemployed except for LA?! There are jobs all over, you just don't want to live anywhere else (and that's OK; it's a free country, after all).
And a lot of people agree with you, and are willing to compete with your wallet for where they all live.
The West Coast *is* a great place to live. Heck, it's got resort weather and vistas.
So it shouldn't surprise you that it's got resort housing prices and stratified living between the people who can afford to live large in resort areas from those who work to serve them.
Same thing happened to Cancun, too.
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