Voting with their feet
Friday, Jun 18, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Forbes has a new interactive map that shows 2008 population movement by county. Outbound movement is in red, inbound is in black. Here’s Cook County…
Not a whole lot of black lines there.
Just to compare, here’s Dallas County, Texas…
And Wayne County, Michigan, the home of Detroit…
Go play with the map and report back. [Hat tip: Illinois Review]
* Related and a roundup…
* Illinois Debt-Default Insurance Climbs to Record High: “If the spread is the widest, it says the problem is bigger than it’s ever been before,” said Peter Hayes, who oversees $106 billion of municipal bonds for New York-based BlackRock Inc. “It’s a reaction to the inability to pass a budget. We’ve seen a greater unwillingness from Illinois and the market is reacting to that.”
* McCormick Place revitalization plan seems to be working
* Sen. Collins to probe debt broker’s pitch: State Sen. Jacqueline Collins (D-Chicago) is launching an inquiry into a new business that wants to make loans to social social service agencies owed money by the state of Illinois.
* Rising concern over state budget nixes bread bid
* Court move may keep Illinois State Police on the job
* Big Stimulus Grant For Local Electric Company
* AG Madigan Teams with Feds On Mortgage Fraud
* Illinois truck stop owners ready for gambling
* Travis Akin: Lawsuit reforms are vital for Illinois
* Illinois marks Homeownership Month
* Gun activists push for concealed carry law
* Our Opinion: Make medical marijuana legal, but be cautious
* State To Lift Restrictions On Visiting Doctors, Dentists
- Scooby - Friday, Jun 18, 10 @ 1:00 pm:
Check out the black line going from DC to Chicago. That’s back when the Obama campaign was hiring. Thankfully those people are now back in DC where they belong.
- wordslinger - Friday, Jun 18, 10 @ 1:05 pm:
Been there done that. Virtually everyone I knew in the early 80s moved to California, Texas, or Florida. A lot came back, many didn’t.
It’s a trend that started post WWII with the magic combination of interstates, air conditioning and federal water and power projects to make it all happen.
Careful what you wish for, though. If the only measure of progress or success is population increase, by all means head to Texas. They have a lot of growth coming from the north, east and south.
Fewer people to benefit from our very powerful and vast resources.
- Moving to Oklahoma - Friday, Jun 18, 10 @ 1:09 pm:
Illinois sucks. Particularly Chicago. That is what that map is telling you.
- Anon - Friday, Jun 18, 10 @ 1:15 pm:
i think this map would be even more useful if it could tell us *why* people moved…
- Cincinnatus - Friday, Jun 18, 10 @ 1:16 pm:
People are the most important resource. They provide intellectual vibrancy and are the prime revenue base for government. The main reason to support business is to have economic growth which sustains an increasing (or at least a stable) population. There are few, if any, examples of increasing quality of life without a corresponding increase in population. Where population remains stagnant, the economy stalls and falters. Several examples exist: Old Europe and Japan stand out. If this chronic out-flux of people is not arrested and reversed, we in Illinois are in deep doo-doo.
- George - Friday, Jun 18, 10 @ 1:30 pm:
I think the key to this map is to compare it to detroit (and you have to look at the density/intensity of the lines).
People are leaving Cook county for warm, sunny climates, or the Bay Area. (People are coming to Chicago from New England). These are people who are leaving because of the weather (to retire elsewhere), or because they have innovative technology (well educated) that they want to turn into a business.
This is actually a lot different from the Detroit map - which is more manufacturing job-oriented. People are leaving from Detroit to Southeast states (Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, NC, SC) where the old Detroit manufacturing jobs are moving to.
To me, I see two completely different stories here, but with the same result.
- George - Friday, Jun 18, 10 @ 1:33 pm:
To clarify, the innovation is going to the bay area. The old people are going to warm, sunny climates.
I don’t begrudge the people going to warmer climates.
The challenge is to stop the flow of our intellectual community to California. Have them create jobs here.
- Carl Nyberg - Friday, Jun 18, 10 @ 1:51 pm:
This map was posted on Prairie State Blue on Wednesday (two days before Illinois Review).
- wordslinger - Friday, Jun 18, 10 @ 1:55 pm:
Cincy, comparing Illinois to European countries and Japan is apples and bowling balls.
Illinois is just one of 50 states in a country with a very mobile society.
The whole idea since Lewis and Clark has been to fill up the continental country. You couldn’t do that until the massive intervention of the federal government in the form of interstates plus water and power projects, then that sweet invention of Mr. Carrier.
Phoenix didn’t rise out of the desert on the basis of Western grit and independence. It became viable largely because of the taxes paid to the federal government by folks in the East and Midwest.
You’re welcome.
- chuddery - Friday, Jun 18, 10 @ 2:01 pm:
I don’t have any analysis to add, but look at Seattle’s migration pattern it’s almost completely black.
I knew people have been going South, and towards the Sun Belt, but I didn’t realize Washington state was experiencing similar migration patterns (at least in 2008.)
Also, the map of Miami is pretty funny. Dark red lines radiating out towards most of the country except for the dark black lines coming from the Tri-State area.
- 47th Ward - Friday, Jun 18, 10 @ 2:17 pm:
===You couldn’t do that until the massive intervention of the federal government in the form of interstates plus water and power projects, then that sweet invention of Mr. Carrier===
Good points Wordslinger. I’d also remind Cinci that immigration plays a big part in our Country’s population growth. If this was a global migration map, all the black lines would be leading to the good ole U.S. of A.
- Cincinnatus - Friday, Jun 18, 10 @ 2:32 pm:
No doubt about immigration playing a part. Immigration is the source of new vital human capital, IF the immigrants assimilate and become productive members of society. Where assimilation does not occur (think Great Britain), the immigrants can be a negative influence on growth.
Comparing Japan and Old Europe to Illinois is not apples and oranges. Trends are easily seen if you dig a bit. Stagnant or negative population growth directly correlates to economic prosperity. I realize correlation does not mean causation, but my earlier argument spells out why I think that people are the most important resource we have in Illinois, especially if we want to dig out of the hole we are in.
There is a chicken and egg argument. Why are people leaving the state? I would argue that Illinois no longer provides the best environment for people who are making the rational decision to move. I further think that the economic conditions/state regulatory environment bring us below more friendly states. It’s a feedback loop thing too, once the spiral starts, look out.
- wordslinger - Friday, Jun 18, 10 @ 2:44 pm:
It’s still apples and oranges. Illinois is not a separate economic itun within the United States.
By the way, the snowbirds, a big part of the state’s “migration,” aren’t weighing state regulatory policy when they head for Boca or Scottsdale.
- Cincinnatus - Friday, Jun 18, 10 @ 2:50 pm:
Neither is old Europe within the Eurozone. Globalization has knocked down many barriers to the free flow of human capital and business.
On snowbirds, I couldn’t disagree more. They move in their economic best interests too. Housing prices, taxes and such are every bit as important to them (maybe more so given their fixed incomes) as with any other demographic. Illinois no longer provides them with the bang-for-the-buck they want in their retirement years, so adios.
- Ghost - Friday, Jun 18, 10 @ 3:08 pm:
Knae had a bit more black. What is interesting is you have a lot of new yorkers moving to chicago, and people in chicago moving out of State.
- Ghost - Friday, Jun 18, 10 @ 3:20 pm:
Denver has a lot of black heading its way too
- Cheswick - Friday, Jun 18, 10 @ 3:33 pm:
Some useless trivia picked up from the map: People in Hawaii go all over the place, whereas people in Alaska pretty much stay in Alaska.
- DzNuts - Friday, Jun 18, 10 @ 5:46 pm:
All those black lines coming to Dallas explains why the North Central Expressway was bumper to bumper this afternoon!
- MrJM - Friday, Jun 18, 10 @ 5:52 pm:
Moving to Oklahoma,
And I’m sure you will be missed.
– MrJM
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Jun 22, 10 @ 7:58 am:
Dallas — got a soft machine
Houston — too close to New Orleans
New York — got the ways and means….