Back to the City
What if everyone who has moved out to the suburbs decided to move back to the city?
There are plenty of reasons to move back to the city and a lot of people are doing it. The most powerful motivator today is the price of gas. But there are other reasons to live close to centers of activity such as work, school and entertainment - for one, you spend more time doing what you want to do and less time sitting on the freeway in your car. And mowing the big lawn every weekend gets boring after a while.
Some cities are making it even more desirable to move back by becoming more pedestrian and bicycle friendly and offering urban centers with housing clustered near jobs, schools, entertainment and shopping.. Another good reason to live in the city is to reduce global warming pollution - commuting less and living in a walkable neighborhood can greatly reduce the miles you drive reduces your carbon dioxide contribution to the atmosphere.
One in three homeowners would prefer to live in walkable urban-style centers, according to a recent study, but that kind of housing is scarce right now.
Another report from Virginia Tech’s metropolitan Institute projects that increasing numbers of suburban homeowners are moving into urban centers for shorter commutes and that by 2025, 40 percent of suburban large-lot homes will be vacant. The negative consequence of this change is likely to be increase property values and rents in the city, forcing lower income people to look to the suburbs for lower cost housing where there is little or not access to public transportation.