I’ve previously noted the optimism of blogger Bill McBride (aka, Calculated Risk) about the medium- and long-term prospects for the U.S. economy. McBride is no sunny ideologue — some even thought him a cynic back in 2005 when he started…
Business professor Russ Wigh has been writing columns every other week for the Exchange in the Savannah Morning News for over two years. His final column came out last week: Same song, second verse for Savannah’s economic development I’ve enjoyed…
Black turnout in 1996 was only 53.0 percent. It jumped 3.8 points in 2000, 3.2 points in 2004, 4.7 points in 2008, and another 1.5 points in 2012. So the rate was increasing pretty dramatically even before Obama appeared on the ballot in 2008.
“One reason for the shift back to urban areas may be improvements in quality-of-life factors, such as safety, that traditionally drove residents to the suburbs. In the past decade, cities have become considerably more livable. Crime rates have fallen in some urban centers; downtown areas that once were dotted with closed businesses now feature new cultural amenities such as museums and baseball stadiums.”
The U.S. Census Bureau today released a set of estimates showing that 50.4 percent of our nation’s population younger than age 1 were minorities as of July 1, 2011. This is up from 49.5 percent from the 2010 Census taken April 1, 2010.
From the NYT’s One’s a Crowd by Eric Klinenberg, author of Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone: The decision to live alone is common in diverse cultures whenever it is economically feasible. Although Americans pride…
Back in November, I wrote about the interesting trend in Savannah toward greater diversity in almost every neighborhood over the last couple of decades. Predominantly black neighborhoods saw more white residents in 2010 than in 1990, and predominantly white neighborhoods…
The black middle class has grown dramatically in America over the last couple of decades. Non-discrimination laws and political clout in cities meant that blacks were hired in large numbers for solid government jobs at the state and local level.…
Recently, I wrote: Are struggling downtown areas shortchanged by local elections? That post deals specifically with Savannah’s urban core, but there’s a broader issue: cities have been consistently underrepresented at both the state and federal level. The problem is especially…
I write pretty often about mobility in America, including this very recent post about migration into and out of Savannah and Chatham County. Richard Florida has a pithy and interesting post today at The Atlantic Cities: The Geography of Stuck.…
In today’s City Talk column — Where are migrants coming from? Where are they going? — I discuss some of the out- and in-migration trends along the Georgia coast according to this fascinating interactive map published by Forbes. As I…
I can’t even begin to say how many frustrated downtown residents, commercial property owners, and business owners I know right now in Savannah. In my City Talk column today, I close with some lengthy (for a newspaper column like mine)…
I’ve written in recent weeks about how changing demographics in the city of Savannah and throughout the region might impact this Tuesday’s vote. But the importance of the trends extends into many other areas too. I think Savannah’s diversity is…
A few days ago, I posted a link to an AJC article about Georgians postponing major decisions because of the shaky economy. Well it’s hard to imagine a decision that’s more major than having children — and look at the…
