Cities grow at suburbs' expense

"Cities grow at suburbs' expense." That's the headline, straight out of the Wall Street Journal (July 1, 2009). We didn't make it up.

In truth, the suburbs are still growing faster than cities, but the rate is slowing while the rate of city growth is growing. If the trend holds, cities will be growing faster than suburbs.

Cities grew 0.97% this past year, up from 0.90% two years ago and up big time from around 0.5% some 4-7 years ago. Suburbs grew 1.11%, but that is down big-time from 1.48% some 4-7 years ago.  So the trend (cities grow, suburbs decline) started around 2002. 

Now of course WSJ attributes this to the recession, but NineShifters know better. This just one more statistic documenting the decline of the Industrial Way of Life.