A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience
Job sprawl stalls in metropolitan areas.
As policymakers and regional leaders work to grow jobs and connect residents to economic opportunity following the Great Recession, where jobs locate matters. The location of employment within a metro area intersects with a range of policy issues—from transportation to workforce development to regional innovation—that affect a region’s long-term health, prosperity, and social inclusion.
15 metropolitan areas have accounted for 41% of all U.S. electric vehicle registrations through the first 10 months of 2012.
The mix of new hybrid and electric vehicles varies as much among the different regions of the United States as does the mix of makes and models, if not more so. The 15 Designated Market Areas (DMAs) with the highest percentage of hybrid powertrains together account for almost 30% of all hybrid registrations nationally, yet these same 15 markets include just 12.5% of all new vehicle registrations. Nine of these 15 hybrid-rich areas have a hybrid penetration greater than 6%, while the national penetration is 2.97%. In San Francisco, the market area with the highest hybrid mix, almost one of every 10 new vehicles sold is a hybrid.
Brownsville, Texas
When it comes to affordability you can’t mess with Texas. Major metropolitan areas in the Texas reign supreme on Kiplinger’s annual ranking of the least expensive places to live in the U.S. All of the picks are cities located either in Texas or the heartland of middle America.
Continue reading… “10 cheapest places to live in the U.S.”
The divide between states gaining and losing their younger populations.
When the Beatles song “When I’m Sixty-Four” was released in 1967, many baby boomers adhered to the mantra, “Don’t trust anyone over 30.” Now the boomers are fully ensconced in advanced middle age, and the oldest of them are beginning to cross into full-fl edged senior-hood, as the first boomer turned age 65 last January. Some 80 million strong and more than one quarter of the U.S. population, baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1965) are a still a force to be reckoned with, even as they have all crossed the age-45 marker. Along with their elders, the large and growing older American population presents significant future challenges for federal government programs such as Social Security and Medicare. State and local social services and infrastructure needs will also change in communities across the nation as the population ages.
Continue reading… “2010 census trends: Uneven aging and ‘younging’ in the U.S.”
