Columbia area growth

[Spartan]

With the death of suburban sprawl, maybe never.

[CorgiMatt]

Nationally published articles that I've read on the subject indicates it was a long trend and that people now are more interested in quality of life than they are in home ownership itself, and that they are increasing opting to either stay put in more urban areas or to move to more urban areas.

[Doug L]

when do you think orangeburg and sumter counties will be added to columbia's msa?

[Captain Worley]

Nationally published articles that I've read on the subject indicates it was a long trend and that people now are more interested in quality of life than they are in home ownership itself, and that they are increasing opting to either stay put in more urban areas or to move to more urban areas.

[krazeeboi]

^Agreed.

[CorgiMatt]

Last week USA Today had an article titled "Fewer are leaving urban centers," or something to that effect if not verbatim. It was an interesting read. No more McMansions that most who bought them couldn't afford. The city is no longer something to "flee."

[krazeeboi]

^That article was referring mainly to the big cities of the North and Midwest. Those folks, due to the state of the housing market, cannot sell their houses in order to move to the Sunbelt. In other words, as of right now, they're stuck.

[CorgiMatt]

Other articles have talked about McMansions being out and smaller houses being in, on smaller lots. Also, people are finding that the smaller houses in established areas are built better. And the younger generation wants to be in the city or close in, and I can't see them wanting to repeat the suburban lifestyles they have finally left and that their parents want to leave. Also, remember that southerners' trends follow national trends by a few years. Richard Florida writes that the current economic crisis makes it incumbent on cities to make sure inner-city housing becomes more affordable.

[Spartan]

I can see that for retirees downsizing the house and ditching the yard maintenance, but that's about the only demographic I think you'll see maing that kind of switch in any kind of numbers.

Suburbia is still the desire of a large part of the population.

[waccamatt]

I grew up in suburbia and I just really can't see the appeal, but to each their own.

[krazeeboi]

There is an increasing number of young people and young families who want a more urban lifestyle. Its not just old people.

[Spartan]

I think Columbia, Greenville, and Charleston all have a respectable influx of college grads and young professionals.

[Captain Worley]

Suburbs probably still have the better schools...cheaper too for equivalent square footage.

[krazeeboi]

I think Columbia, Greenville, and Charleston all have a respectable influx of college grads and young professionals.

[CorgiMatt]

Respectable, yes, but they don't really contribute to increased urbanization downtown--mainly due to the lack of higher-paying, white collar jobs. As David Rusk noted in his address "Stronger Cities for a Stronger South Carolina" to the MASC, curbing sprawl by offsetting it through re-gentrifying core neighborhoods with young singles and

[krazeeboi]

But that attitude assumes they never will, despite their determination to do so. As and they do, and more young professionals hook up and breed and realize a few years down the road that they have procreated a new ready-made population of little people for the inner-city schools, I can't see them then scattering back into suburbia with their little ones instead of staying close to their USC-, ICAR- and MUSC-linked jobs.

[CorgiMatt]

Dreher, A.C. Flora... And I'm going to a meeting next month where a speaker is going to be talking about how Columbia can have a new academic magnet school downtown. While scores of young professionals may not pour into cities the size of SC's biggest, on a smaller scale young people here are most definitely choosing to live in the city, and COR (Columbia Opportunity Resource) is still active and sends emails monthly on their events and opportunities. It is an organization founded a couple of years ago whose purpose is to make the area's new college graduates aware that the word that they have to move out of Columbia and South Carolina to find well-paying jobs isn't true. While the economy is down the job market here is also down, but that's almost everywhere right now.

[Captain Worley]

The school issue is paramount and cannot be minimized. If the option is between walking two blocks for a gallon of milk and one's child attending an average or below-average school or driving a mile or two for milk and one's child being afforded better educational opportunities in a better performing school, you'd better believe the school issue will win out.

[BrasilnSC]

You'd be surprised what you can get for 150k in downtown Columbia. It might not not be a huge house or have a massive yard (some may need some TLC), but there are plenty of homes going for that much or less in several in-town neighborhoods. Of course I'm not talking about affluant areas like Shandon or Heathwood, but Rosewood, Eau Claire, Old Shandon, Waverly, Olympia, etc....

[krazeeboi]

Dreher, A.C. Flora... And I'm going to a meeting next month where a speaker is going to be talking about how Columbia can have a new academic magnet school downtown. While scores of young professionals may not pour into cities the size of SC's biggest, on a smaller scale young people here are most definitely choosing to live in the city, and COR (Columbia Opportunity Resource) is still active and sends emails monthly on their events and opportunities. It is an organization founded a couple of years ago whose purpose is to make the area's new college graduates aware that the word that they have to move out of Columbia and South Carolina to find well-paying jobs isn't true. While the economy is down the job market here is also down, but that's almost everywhere right now.

[CorgiMatt]

I agree, but by percentages the young professionals moving to those larger metros aren't choosing to live in the downtown areas any more than the scant (sarcasm) number of young professionals who are staying in Columbia are choosing to do. Just a couple of weeks ago (Don't ask me what publication.) Charlotte was listed as tied with Cincinnati or some city like that as the 16th emptiest city in America. I'm not trying to make Columbia or any SC city out to be a big boom town of a city that's drawing scores of young professionals. I'm just saying that out of the 728,063 people living in the Columbia MSA as of 7/2008, a larger percentage of them are living in and moving into the city. There are some on here that think cities are a bad place to be compared to suburbs, and after all, this is not suburban planet dot org.

[CorgiMatt]

But things like this should help Columbia's numbers. It's from today's edition of The Columbia Star newspaper.

Awards and decorations The University of South Carolina/City of Columbia Fuel Cell Collaborative, which is readily recognized by the initials everyone knows, USCCFCC, received the 2009 Innovator Award from the Southern Growth Policies Board. The board, a public policy think tank based in the Research Triangle Park of North Carolina, named USCCFCC a 2009 Innovator for promoting an outstanding initiative that encourages economic opportunities and quality of life relating to bio- products, alternative energy, and energy efficiency.

[waccamatt]

Not only that, for 300K you can walk to work and have a condo, or you could drive ten minutes to work and have a 1500 square foot house for half the cost of the condo.

Walking to work ain't worth 150K to a lot of people.

[krazeeboi]

I agree, but by percentages the young professionals moving to those larger metros aren't choosing to live in the downtown areas any more than the scant (sarcasm) number of young professionals who are staying in Columbia are choosing to do.

[CorgiMatt]

I'm not going to argue anymore, other than to say that I never said more people prefer living in the city than in the suburbs. I said more people are moving into cities than had been, and that fewer people are leaving. You restated my point with the Atlanta comparison. 15% of a larger number is a larger number than 15% of a smaller number, but a trend (hopefully more than a trend into the future) is a trend, and nationwide more people are moving into cities than are leaving and that is a fact, Columbia included. One big question to be answered is whether greedy developers have learned a lesson on price points for in-town houses and condos. Time will tell.