3 Forces of Change for Cities to Harness

Our collegue Kim Walesh, Chief Strategist for the City of San Jose, highlighted three key forces of change that the city should aim to harness in a presentation to the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce recently.

The three forces, summarized in this recap in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, are:

• “The battle for talent will escalate, with young professionals age 20 to 24 being the key to prosperity. They're highly educated, mobile and at the entrepreneurial stage of life. Where they live is a higher priority than what they do for a living, unlike baby boomers, who accepted the ‘I've been moved’ way of life. Immigrants are essential for work force growth; more than half the founders of Silicon Valley tech companies are foreign-born. Only 33 percent of households have children now; that number will drop to 27 percent by 2030.

• “To compete globally, cities must have educated workers. By 2025, two of every five jobs will require a college degree. California is unprepared, and there's a 40 percent gap in earnings between college graduates and non-graduates. Right-brain thinking, the creativity developed by the arts, will be necessary to succeed.
  If the work force is lower-skilled, our economy will be less productive and our incomes will be lower.

• “Cities can provide environmental solutions by planning for walkability instead of cars. Homes in neighborhoods with above-average walkability, like San Francisco and Sacramento, command a $30,000 premium. The average household today drives 21,000 miles a year. Redesigning cities like Portland for more walking and less driving is saving families $2 billion a year that can go into the local economy.”

As Kim eloquently phrased it: "People are looking to cities as places of opportunity and interaction.”

More information on the substantial economic gains that can result from increasing a city’s talent is shown in the Talent Dividend – a $124 billion gain from raising college attainment rates by one percentage point.  And CEOs for Cities latest study, Walking the Walk, details the greater real estate values associated with walkability.

  

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