Data suggesting a dramatic shift toward the urban core are accruing in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. Suburbs have responded by creating walkable downtowns, but are struggling with declining school enrollment and other consequences.
Minneapolis-St Paul is amidst its own narrative of urbanization, as young families and are moving into the urban core, reports David Peterson. “Between 2011 and 2012, the number of households in Minneapolis and St. Paul with school-aged children is estimated to have shot up by nearly 7,000,” according to research analyst Jane Tigan of St. Paul’s Wilder Research, an arm of the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation.
New construction also suggests that the area's urban core is out-performing its periphery: “New year-end data from the Builders Association of the Twin Cities suggest that for the second straight year, residential construction in Minneapolis towered over that of any Twin Cities suburb — something that hasn’t happened in decades.”
Seniors, however, are staying put in the suburbs, at least so far: “In the suburbs…the number [of households] with seniors rose by nearly 15,000, as those with children flatlined — part of a massive demographic role reversal.”
Read the full story: In Twin Cities metro, more young people are moving to the urban core, while suburbs age
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