Think Millennials Prefer The City? Think Again. | FiveThirtyEight

 

Here’s the usual media narrative: Millennials prefer cities to suburbs. They love renting lofts and disdain single-family homes; they ride the subway (or take an Uber) because they barely know how to drive. Where their parents wanted green lawns and cul-de-sacs, today’s young Americans want walkable neighborhoods and local bars with plenty of craft beers on draft.

The numbers tell a different story. Whether by choice or economic circumstance, young Americans are still more likely to leave the city for the suburbs than the other way around.

According to U.S. Census Bureau data released this week, 529,000 Americans ages 25 to 29 moved from cities out to the suburbs in 2014; only 426,000 moved in the other direction. Among younger millennials, those in their early 20s, the trend was even starker: 721,000 moved out of the city, compared with 554,000 who moved in.¹ Somewhat more people in both age groups currently live in the suburbs than in the city.

Indeed, for all the talk of the rebirth of American cities, the draw of the suburbs remains powerful. Across all ages, races, incomes and education groups, more Americans are still moving out of cities than in. (Urban populations are still growing, but because of births and immigration, not internal migration.)

The common narrative isn’t entirely wrong about the long-term trend lines. Millennials are moving to the suburbs at a much lower rate than past generations did at the same age. In the mid-1990s, people ages 25 to 29 were twice as likely to move from the city to the suburbs as vice versa. Today, they’re only about a quarter more likely. But even that slowdown appears to be mostly about people delaying their move to the suburbs, not forgoing it entirely. Today’s 30- to 44-year-olds are actually heading for the suburbs at a significantly faster rate than in the 1990s.

The Census Bureau’s definition of the suburbs is broad, covering anywhere that’s inside a metropolitan area but outside a principal city. So the latest data doesn’t distinguish between classic picket-fence suburbs and the kind of faux-urban, walkable suburban developments that have become more common in recent years.

But a survey released earlier this year found that most millennials still want a traditional suburban experience, complete with big single-family homes. The American Community Survey, which provides a more granular look than the data released this week, tells much the same story, said Jed Kolko, chief economist of the real estate site Trulia.

“The fastest population growth right now is in the lowest-density neighborhoods, the suburb-iest suburbs,” Kolko said.

So why has the “city-loving millennials” story gained so much traction? Kolko has a theory: As American cities have become safer and more expensive, they have become increasingly dominated by the affluent and well-educated — exactly the people who drive the media narrative.

“Your typical young, elite-media-outlet journalist probably is more likely to be living more years in the city than 20 years ago,” Kolko said.

Kolko stressed that’s a theory — he doesn’t have solid data to back it up. But for the record, I’m 34 and live in Brooklyn.

Think Millennials Prefer The City? Think Again. | FiveThirtyEight

You're living in a lab: Microsoft, Accenture, Siemens, UI Labs tinker with a new 'city that works' here - In Other News - Crain's Chicago Business

 

Chicago, the city that works, will be the test subject in an experiment to create the city that works better.

Microsoft, Accenture, Commonwealth Edison and Siemens are partnering with the city of Chicago to figure out how technology can help design and operate more efficient cities. The effort, called CityWorks, is the second major program for UI Labs, a Chicago-based research consortium between top universities and companies across the Midwest.

Launched two years ago, UI Labs is best known for its first project, a federally funded effort to develop next-generation manufacturing technology called the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute.

CityWorks will bring the Internet of Things to bear on cities, from infrastructure to energy management. The aim is to turn loose researchers from universities and companies to use Chicago as a giant laboratory to gather data and develop new technologies. Widespread Internet connectivity, smartphones and cheap sensors attached to cars, roads, buildings and people already are providing massive amounts of data.

Chicago is vying to maintain its dominance in architecture, engineering and urban planning into an increasingly digital future. Technology companies including Microsoft, IBM, Cisco Systems and Siemens have been dabbling in aspects of what's loosely described as “smart cities.” And cities such as Berlin, London, Singapore, Toronto, Tokyo and San Jose, Calif., have been praised for individual advances in areas such as transportation or climate.

“No one has claimed the mantle of digital planning,” says John Tolva, the city's former chief technology officer who now is president of Positiv¬Energy Practice, a consulting firm involved in smart building and city design. “Chicago's long history of architectural and structural innovation is based on technology. . . .If this succeeds, we'll be the place other cities and countries come to learn (from).”

articlePara - html?

CHICAGO AS TEST SUBJECT

Microsoft picked Chicago as the first of several communities where it will invest in the Internet of Things to figure out “how is tech going to live and breathe in the fabric of big metropolitan areas?” says Dan'l Lewin, Mountain View, Calif.-based vice president for technology and civic engagement.

Unlike the digital-manufacturing lab, which received $80 million in federal funding, CityWorks will be privately funded. Lewin declines to discuss the terms of Microsoft's commitment, and Caralynn Nowinski, executive director of UI Labs, declines to disclose the budget.

The project traces back to a conversation between Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft, and Mayor Rahm Emanuel during a visit to Chicago by Ballmer.

“We decided this would be a great place to put a bet on the table—a working model,” Lewin says. “Chicago presented strong leadership and an incredible infrastructure opportunity. New York is the biggest city, but it's five boroughs and the geography is spread out. Los Angeles is also spread out.”

Microsoft and the other partners will draw on deep technology and infrastructure resources—and strong ties to Chicago. The software maker has 550 employees in the city. Siemens' building technologies division is based in Buffalo Grove. Chicago long has been a hub for Accenture's consulting and technology teams. Chicago-based ComEd increasingly is using technologies such as Internet-connected meters and drones to improve and maintain its infrastructure.

They'll pair up with local universities that have research institutes focused on transportation, architecture, engineering, urban planning, energy management, computation and data analysis.

The other ingredient is a city that has emerged as a leader in using data to deliver services such as public transit, policing and pest control. It also took the lead in making data available to technologists who regularly host hackathons to develop apps to track buses, sewage overflows or car crashes involving pedestrians or cyclists.

Like the digital-manufacturing institute, CityWorks will be housed at UI Labs' headquarters on Goose Island, set to open later this spring. Specific CityWorks research programs haven't been decided, but proposals are underway and should be selected by year-end.

Because the labs draw heavily on private companies and research universities as partners, they won't generate a lot of new jobs or new facilities. “There will be some dedicated staff. It's not about building up internal capability with 1,000 scientists,” Nowinski says. “But with our partners, we'll have 1,000 scientists working on our projects.”

The long-term goal of UI Labs is to have five or six programs in various industries, such as agriculture and food safety, where the Midwest has academic expertise and corporate partners. The idea is to spark collaboration between the state's universities and companies to turn basic research into new commercial technology and companies, replicating some of the success seen in Silicon Valley and Boston. So far, that success has proved elusive for Chicago and other parts of the country.

“Is this going to be the right formula? We're about to find out,” says Robert Rosner, a physicist at the University of Chicago and former director of Argonne National Laboratory. “Everybody understands what we're doing is an experiment.”

You're living in a lab: Microsoft, Accenture, Siemens, UI Labs tinker with a new 'city that works' here - In Other News - Crain's Chicago Business

Illinois AG says GOP governor's anti-union proposals illegal

Lisa Madigan’s two decisions are available on line.  Municipalities and counties have no right to enact right-to-work zones.  See Opinion2015, 15/001 at:    http://www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/opinions/2015/15-001.pdf  Municipalities and counties have no right to opt out of prevailing wage requirements.  See Opinion 2015, 15/002 at:  http://www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/opinions/2015/15-002.pdf

By SARA BURNETT
Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) -- Illinois' Democratic attorney general on Friday delivered a blow to Gov. Bruce Rauner's efforts to weaken labor unions, saying two of the main ideas the Republican has been pitching across the state would be illegal.

Lisa Madigan issued formal opinions at the request of Democratic lawmakers who anticipated legislation would be proposed after Rauner first trumpeted his plans in his State of the State speech last month.

One proposal would allow voters to create "right-to-work zones" in Illinois counties where union membership and dues would be voluntary. The other would let local governments or school districts opt out of prevailing wage agreements, which require workers on public works projects to receive wages that reflect local compensation for similar jobs.

Rauner's office, in a statement, noted voters would decide whether his proposed legislation to protect employee rights should apply within their respective county, municipality, school district or other unit of local government. It said that would comply with the National Labor Relations Act.

Before crowds across Illinois in recent weeks, the multimillionaire businessman has argued unions have too much power and that overly generous salaries, benefits and pensions helped create Illinois' financial crisis. He says local voters should decide whether union influence should be curbed.

Rauner also says school districts could save almost $160 million per year if prevailing wage laws were changed and that establishing zones where employees have a choice on whether to join a union would help attract businesses - and much-needed jobs - to the state.

But Madigan said federal labor law only allows right-to-work to be enacted on a statewide basis, not by individual counties. She said both ideas also would violate state law.

Changing those laws or passing a right-to-work on a statewide basis would be nearly impossible in Illinois, where Democrats hold supermajorities in both chambers of the Legislature and several Republican legislators also have been allies of organized labor.

Democratic state Sen. Gary Forby, one of the legislators who requested the legal opinion, said he hoped it would put an end to Rauner's rhetoric so lawmakers can instead focus on a state budget that is billions of dollars in the red.

"This guy, all he talks about is right-to-work states," said Forby, the chairman of the Senate's labor committee. "Well, now he can stop talking about right-to-work states and go back to trying to do a budget for the state of Illinois."

Madigan's opinions are just the latest in what's been a rocky early attempt by Rauner to take on organized labor. After he issued an executive order and sued to try to eliminate fees paid to unions by workers who choose not to join, more than two dozen unions filed their own lawsuit to stop him. Madigan also ruled that action by the governor was illegal, and the Republican comptroller said she wouldn't comply with the governor's plan to hold the dues in a state escrow account.

Rauner, who has called governors in states such as Wisconsin and Michigan who have stripped rights from unions his "role models," also has proposed banning unions from making campaign contributions.

Illinois AFL-CIO President Michael Carrigan said Madigan's opinions confirmed what unions suspected from the start.

"While Gov. Rauner continues his obsessive war on unions and the middle class, he just keeps running into huge road blocks - like the law," Carrigan said.

Read the entire article by clicking on the following:  Pantagraph.com | News from Associated Press

Thirty years of above-average temperatures mean we're entering a new era of global warming.

 

On Wednesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that Earth’s global temperature for February was among the hottest ever measured. So far, 2015 is tracking above record-warm 2014—which, when combined with the newly resurgent El Niño, means we’re on pace for another hottest year in history.

In addition to the just-completed warmest winter on record globally (despite the brutal cold and record snow in the eastern U.S.), new data on Thursday from the National Snow and Ice Data Center show that this year’s peak Arctic sea ice reached its lowest ever maximum extent, thanks to “an unusual configuration of the jet stream” that greatly warmed the Pacific Ocean near Alaska.

But here’s the most upsetting news. It’s been exactly 30 years since the last time the world was briefly cooler than its 20^th-century average. Every single month since February 1985 has been hotter than the long-term average—that’s 360 consecutive months.

More than just being a round number, the 30-year streak has deeper significance. In climatology, a continuous 30-year stretch of data is traditionally what’s used to define what’s “normal” for a given location. In a very real way, we can now say that for our given location—the planet Earth—global warming is now “normal.” Forget debating—our climate has officially changed.

This 30-year streak should change the way we think and talk about this issue. We’ve entered a new era in which global warming is a defining characteristic and a fundamental driver of what it means to be an inhabitant of planet Earth. We should treat it that way. For those who care about the climate, that may mean de-emphasizing statistics and science and beginning to talk more confidently about the moral implications of continuing on our current path.

Since disasters disproportionately impact the poor, climate change is increasingly an important economic and social justice issue. The pope will visit the United States later this year as part of a broader campaign by the Vatican to directly influence the outcome of this year’s global climate negotiations in Paris—recent polling data show his message may be resonating, especially with political conservatives and nonscience types. Two-thirds of Americans now believe that world leaders are morally obligated to take steps to reduce carbon.

Scientists and journalists have debated the connection between extreme weather and global warming for years, but what’s happening now is different. Since weather impacts virtually every facet of our lives (at least in a small way), and since climate change is affecting weather at every point in the globe every day (at least in a small way), that makes it at the same time incredibly difficult to study and incredibly important. Formal attribution studies that attempt to scientifically tease out whether global warming “caused” individual events are shortsighted and miss the point. It’s time for a change in tack. The better question to ask is: How do we as a civilization collectively tackle the weather extremes we already face?

Read the entire article by clicking on the following:  Thirty years of above-average temperatures mean we're entering a new era of global warming.

Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar » Old numbers

 

This poll will probably get a lot of media play because of who sponsored it, but check out the highlighted dates on this thing…

Governor Bruce Rauner’s job approval rating stands at 36.5 percent as he begins his term in office, according to a new poll of registered Illinois voters by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

There were 31.4 percent who either strongly or somewhat disapproved and 23.1 percent who had no opinion about the newly-elected Republican chief executive.

The poll of 1,000 registered voters was taken Feb. 28 to March 10 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. […]

Rauner saw his highest job approval ratings Downstate, where 43.3 percent either approved or somewhat approved and only 26.7 percent disapproved or somewhat disapproved. In the Chicago suburbs, 34.6 percent approved and 32.2 percent disapproved of his performance.
Rauner’s lowest level of support was in Chicago, where 36.5 disapproved and 31.0 percent approved.

Partisanship is also strongly evident in Rauner’s job approvals. He enjoys the approval of 60.6 percent of Republicans, with only 10.3 percent who disapprove or somewhat disapprove. This is followed by 36.7 percent of Independents who approve and 32.7 percent who disapprove or somewhat disapprove. There are 46.1 percent of Democrats who disapprove or somewhat disapprove while only 24.2 percent approve or somewhat approve of the governor’s job performance so far.

February 28? That’s three weeks ago. And they spent 11 days on it? And then they sat on the results for ten more days?

Sheesh.

What, do they have an intern manually dialing an antique rotary phone while tabulating results on note cards or something?

Anyway, if this is accurate, the governor’s approval rating is already in Pat Quinn territory.

* And Illinoisans may not be feeling Rauner’s “turnaround” yet…

63.0 percent [said] that Illinois is going in the wrong direction and only 22.1 percent said we are going in the right direction.

* On to US Sen. Mark Kirk…

Kirk had a total of 44.5 percent who somewhat or strongly approved of the job he is doing, while 21.3 percent either somewhat or strongly disapproved of the job he is doing. These totals meant that Senator Kirk enjoys a net job approval rate of 23.2 percent.

Kirk’s highest approval ratings were in central city Chicago where 48 percent either approved or somewhat approved of the job he is doing, followed closely by 47.0 percent in the Chicago suburbs and 38.0 percent Downstate.

Most (53.1 percent) of Kirk’s fellow Republicans either approved or somewhat approved of the job he is doing with 16.4 percent who disapproved or somewhat approved. They were followed by 44.9 percent of Independents who approved or somewhat disapproved with 23.1 percent who disapproved or somewhat disapproved. Among Democrats, 40.5 percent approved or somewhat approved while 24.0 percent disapproved or somewhat disapproved of the job he is doing.

Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar » Old numbers

Fr. Pfleger leads Thompson Center protest over Rauner budget | abc7chicago.com

 

CHICAGO (WLS) --

Father Michael Pfleger was among a group of about 200 protesters Friday at the Thompson Center in the Loop staging a sit-in to protest Governor Bruce Rauner's proposed budget cuts.
There was a peaceful ending to the protest that brought dozens of people to the governor's door step after protesters ended up closing several doors on Randolph Street to the State of Illinois Building.
The Roman Catholic priest is upset with Governor Rauner's budget cuts.
"We will not allow Illinois to balance its budget on the backs of the poor and on the backs of our children," Fr. Pfleger said.
St. Sabina reports the state has cut more than $935,000 of its funding, funding for after-school programs and youth employment.
"We got noted just abruptly that our program was going to be cut overnight and we had to halt several programs," said Jocelyn Jones, Ark of St. Sabina Youth Center.
At an unrelated event Friday, the governor responded.
"I'm committed, as Father Pfleger is, I'm committed to strong social services support, a social services safety net," Rauner said. "The challenge is, we got to get the money out of the government bureaucracy. And as the governor, after two months, what I have seen inside the government of self-dealing and wasted money, it's stunning."
So as Father Pfleger sat, people were forced to go in and out other exits.
In the end, Father Pfleger asked for sleeping bags, but instead of spending the day and night, he said Rauner's chief of staff met with him and a few supporters.
"All I want is the state to support things that are working to save lives, not wipe us out," Fr. Pfleger said. "It's a good thing they finally agreed to meet with us."
Father Pfleger said this is just the start of the conversation. He plans to go back to St. Sabina, write a formal letter to the chief of staff, as well as the governor, inviting them to see the very programs that are now on the chopping block.

Fr. Pfleger leads Thompson Center protest over Rauner budget | abc7chicago.com

Ignoring climate change is expensive, not frugal - Blogs - Rockford Register Star

 

Some Republican politicians seem to think that America simply can’t afford the expense of efforts to preclude the effects of climate change caused by global warming.
U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a New York Democrat, argues that America can’t afford not to undertake those efforts.
HERE‘s her column on the matter:

The United States federal government spends more than $3 million every hour putting out fires and responding to extreme weather events. That figure will continue to grow as the prevalence of natural disasters increases because of climate change. Spending in response to these occurrences has gotten so out of control that the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office now includes climate change in its annual High Risk Report, noting that a failure to take action presents a significant financial risk to our economy.

New York City got a taste of climate change in 2013 when Hurricane Sandy swept through the region and caused $60 billion in damage in its wake. More than 8.5 million New Yorkers went without power, and 650,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. The storm closed the New York Stock Exchange for two days and shuttered our nation’s largest public transit system.

(Snip)

What is oddest about opposition to action to address climate change is the implications for another priority of the Republican party: deficit reduction. The bury-your-head-in-the-sand approach won’t make extreme weather events driven by a changing climate go away, but it will ensure that our response is uncoordinated, less proactive, and far more expensive.

Ignoring climate change is expensive, not frugal - Blogs - Rockford Register Star

Applesauce

Pat Cunningham offers an unabashedly liberal perspective on national politics. A note of caution: The language gets a little salty on some of the sites to which this blog links. So, don't say you weren't warned. By the way, this blog's name is inspired by the Will Rogers quote, \x34All politics is applesauce.\x34