Shifting Back to the City

"But could we be on the cusp of an historic 'back to the city' shift? The case is building."

"Check such cities as Atlanta and Washington, he suggests - they're beginning to resemble historic Vienna or Paris, the centuries-old pattern in which the people of means chose to live near the vital city centers, while the poor were left to live in the less expensive outskirts."

"Atlanta, for example, is seeing so many better-off whites move in that its decades-old status as a predominantly black and low-income city may soon be reversed. Conversely, suburban Clayton and DeKalb Counties are already registering black majorities while simultaneously serving as immigrant gateways."

"There's a big cautionary note here - We're not about to witness abandonment of the suburbs, or rapid movement back to all our city cores. 'But we are living,' Ehrenhalt notes, 'at a moment at which the massive outward migration of the affluent that characterized the second half of the 20th century is coming to an end.'"