Sitting at my usual spot near CC’s in Middleton Library, I overheard a peculiar conversation between two female students sitting close by.
One of them said she would love to live in New York because it beats “this place.” The other then asked her why she would want to live somewhere with a mortgage she couldn’t afford or an overpriced apartment.
Conversations like this are becoming ones I hear more and more often. What is it that has our generation so ready to pack their suitcases and venture off to the land of billboards, bright lights and big prices?
Brookings Institution demographer William H. Frey said, “At this point, the prognosis does not look good for much of small-town America.”
Millennials are stuffing their cars with their clothes, Macbook and likely a latte and heading down the highway to some of the largest and most expensive cities in the U.S.
The hottest spot for these youngsters is in the D.C. suburb of Arlington, Va., according to a study by Realtytrac, a real estate information company. In the last six years, the number of millennials in Arlington has risen by 82 percent.
This might seem all hunky-dory until you consider the current state of the economy and the fact the median sales price of a home in Arlington is $557,250, and the cheapest one-bedroom apartment there will run a person about $1,200 a month according to Zillow.
At this point, it would be a wise decision for those millennial city mice to cut back on pricey CC’s brew and settle for Circle K coffee.
Robert Lang, a professor of urban growth and population dynamics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas said millennials continue a multigenerational pattern of young adults preferring more expensive urban areas over cheaper rural ones because of the lifestyle in such places makes it worth the extra cost.
The “lifestyle” my generation is craving seems to be one of imitation and pretend. It’s a facade. It’s kind of like when that one aunt shows up in pearls to Thanksgiving dinner all dolled up and sipping wine as she casually brags on herself over a serving of yams.
The American Planning Association is prompting small town planners to create city-like atmosphere by creating density, which means keeping the cramped neighborhoods and shopping centers in one part of town because that’s what millennials like.
It’d be like a bigger Northgate area in the middle of the sticks.
These “cities,” or millennial corrals, are apparently what the sleepy American towns need to do to draw in this demographic.
Let’s face it, millennials are all primarily well educated and work ready and generate a some positive things. By flocking to a single location, the population boom has economical benefits like increasing property value and home prices.
Contrary to what some of my generation may think, there are rewarding careers in smaller towns and lower costs of living. You’d imagine this would appeal to anyone drowning in student loan debt.
I suppose the best bet for a small town with a shrinking population is to throw up a few internet cafés, more traffic lights and get its current occupants to start sporting Armani suits and carrying a briefcase.
I don’t understand what about traffic and lack of elbow room draw my generation to large cities with such urgency. Perhaps it is the notion that success lives in these places.
Whatever the cause may be, I’ll stick with my wide-open spaces and banjo tunes.
Justin Stafford is a 21-year-old mass communication senior from Walker, Louisiana. You can reach him on Twitter @j_w_stafford.