Downtown Rebirth: Documenting the Live-Work Dynamic in 21st Century U.S. Cities

From the Center City District (CCD)

Downtowns across the US are thriving. Cities are diversifying their economies and land use, restoring and enlivening public spaces. During the last three decades, city centers have been adding arts, culture, dining, education, medical and research institutions, along with hospitality, leisure, and sports venues.

Places once shunned as empty and unsafe at night are being redeveloped at higher density and are thriving after dark.

Why Are Cities Growing Again?

Why are the nation's urban centers growing again? The reasons are complex and not easily explained, often resulting in circular arguments such as "Millennials apparently drive less because they prefer walkable places and they prefer walkable places because they drive less," says Robert Steuteville, editor and publisher of Better! Cities and Towns.

Steuteville unravels the mystery of why cities are growing in one of the most insightful pieces on the topic to date, Why Are Young Adults Returning to the City?. He thinks four factors are behind the growing preference for urban life.

1. Millennials "looked around their home towns and saw something missing," says Steuteville. Take a drive and you soon see what he means. In the decades since the baby-boom generation populated small town and suburban America, those areas have lost their soul.

More from Cheryl Russell's Demo Memo blog.

Center for an Urban Future

Center for an Urban Future is a New York City-based think tank that fuses journalistic reporting techniques with traditional policy analysis to produce in-depth reports and workable policy solutions on the critical issues facing our cities.

Labor Force: Urban to Rural

Workforce Skills across the Urban-Rural Hierarchy
Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Report No0. 552
Jaison R. Abel, Todd M. Gabe, Kevin Stolarick
February 2012

Abstract
This paper examines differences in the skill content of work throughout the United
States, ranging from densely populated city centers to isolated and sparsely populated rural areas. To do so, we classify detailed geographic areas into categories along the entire urban-rural hierarchy. An occupation-based cluster analysis is then used to measure the types of skills available in the regional workforce, which allows for a broader measure of human capital than is captured by conventional measures. We fi nd that the occupation clusters most prevalent in urban areas—scientists, engineers, and executives—are characterized by high levels of social and resource-management skills, as well as the ability to generate ideas and solve complex problems. By contrast, the occupation clusters that are most prevalent in rural areas—machinists, makers, and laborers—are among the lowest in terms of required skills. These differences in the skill content of work shed light on the
pattern of earnings observed across the urban-rural hierarchy.

Key words: human capital, skills, occupations, urban-rural, earnings

This paper presents preliminary findings and is being distributed to economists
and other interested readers solely to stimulate discussion and elicit comments.
The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and are not necessarily
reflective of views at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York or the Federal
Reserve System. Any errors or omissions are the responsibility of the authors.

New York State Urbanized Area Maps: Area and Density

The Program on Applied Demographics (PAD) brings skills in demographics, economics, statistics, data gathering and data analysis together to provide a variety of organizations with data, information and advice. PAD works closely with the New York State Department of Economic Development, the U.S. Census Bureau and other organizations to assist them in their activities.

Check out this series of maps delineating population concentrations in the urban areas across the state.

Publication of Final Criteria for Delineating Urban Areas for the 2010 Census

The Census Bureau published final criteria for delineating urban areas for the 2010 Census in the August 24, 2011 Federal Register. In addition to the final criteria, the notice contains a summary of comments received in response to the Census Bureau’s proposed urban area criteria and the Census Bureau’s responses to those comments. Background information about the Census Bureau’s urban-rural classification also is included.

Note that these areas form the foundation for delineating the metropolitan and micropolitan areas by OMB that are to come.

The final criteria are available from the Census Bureau’s website at

Cities Beyond the Horizon

An article about what urban is.

"The CIA Factbook...puts the United States’ urbanization rate at 82%, or about 255 million people, but what does that really mean? According the U.S. Department of Transportation...tells us that “[a]n urbanized area is comprised of one or more places and the adjacent densely settled surrounding area together include at least 50,000 people.” A nebulous definition, at best."

Proposed Urban Area Criteria for the 2010 Census

The Census Bureau announces publication of the "Proposed Urban Area Criteria for the 2010 Census" in the Federal Register of August 24, 2010 (Volume 75, Number 163), available HERE or HERE (PDF). The Census Bureau is seeking public comment on these proposed criteria. Comments, suggestions, or recommendations regarding the criteria should be submitted in writing, no later than November 22, 2010, to Timothy Trainor, Chief, Geography Division, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, DC 20233-7400.

The Census Bureau’s urban-rural classification is fundamentally a delineation of geographical areas, identifying individual urbanized areas of 50,000 or more people and urban clusters of at least 2,500 and less than 50,000 people; “rural” encompasses all population and territory not included in urban areas. The Census Bureau’s urban areas represent densely developed territory, and encompass residential, commercial, and other non-residential urban land uses. Additional information about the Census Bureau’s urban-rural classification, including proposed urban area criteria for the 2010 Census, as well as summaries of the proposed changes is available on the Census Bureau’s website.

Changes proposed for the 2010 Census include:

• Use of census tracts as analysis units in the initial phase of delineation
• Potential return to a maximum jump distance of 1.5 miles (the distance was increased to 2.5 miles in the Census 2000 criteria).
• Use of land use/land cover data to identify territory containing non-residential urban land uses or land cover that restricts urban development, such as marshland and wetlands.
• Lowering the minimum number of enplanements (departing passengers) from 10,000 to 2,500 to qualify airports for inclusion in urban areas.
• Elimination of the central place concept.
• Requirement that, in addition to at least 2,500 total population, an area must contain at least 1,500 persons residing outside institutional group quarters to qualify as urban.
• Splitting urban agglomerations of 1,000,000 or more population based on metropolitan statistical area boundaries, or, in New England, along metropolitan New England city and town area boundaries.

For further information about the Census Bureau urban-rural classification, or the proposed criteria for the 2010 Census, please contact Vincent Osier, Chief, Geographic Standards and Criteria Branch, Geography Division, U.S. Census Bureau, via e-mail at vincent.osier@census.gov or telephone at 301-763-9039.