The Future of Cities

[panda]

I'll bite.

Sultan, 🐷🐷, Rico. Pakuni, Hards, et al are all bigger experts on, well, everything.  Especially when compared to industry experts,  analysts, and other smart people.

https://twitter.com/nocontexthumans/status/1672632840004026371?s=46&t=el-XnIMOEDcxAw3lmg3L5A

[Uncle Rico]

I'll bite.

Sultan, 🐷🐷, Rico. Pakuni, Hards, et al are all bigger experts on, well, everything.  Especially when compared to industry experts,  analysts, and other smart people.

I didn't listen to the experts when it came to covid.  I listened to scoop

[The Sultan]

I'll bite.

Sultan, 🐷🐷, Rico. Pakuni, Hards, et al are all bigger experts on, well, everything.  Especially when compared to industry experts,  analysts, and other smart people.

Someone doesn't understand shifting goalposts.

[ZiggysFryBoy]

https://twitter.com/nocontexthumans/status/1672632840004026371?s=46&t=el-XnIMOEDcxAw3lmg3L5A

🤣🤣🤣

[Heisenberg]

Milwaukee is t growing to 1 million. That's just nonsense. Regardless I was talking about Marquette's enrollment.

Again with the scoop tactic of over ANALyzing precise wording.

He's saying the most important metric for a city is its population.

If it's growing, it's healthy
If it is not growing, it's not healthy.

The city of Milwaukee stopped growing in 1960, Chicago in 1950.

Now, thanks to the shut down/restart, this trend is accelerating. And now the entire metro area of Milwaukee and Chicago are have stopped growing.

Below is just made up words to say the opposite, because that is what happens here.

No serious person in a city thinks this, and would ever think this.

LOL...exactly.  Being smaller isn't worse. It's a strategic decision.

[Uncle Rico]

Again with the scoop tactic of over ANALyzing precise wording.

He's saying the most important metric for a city is its population.

If it's growing, it's healthy
If it is not growing, it's not healthy.

The city of Milwaukee stopped growing in 1960, Chicago in 1950.

Now, thanks to the shut down/restart, this trend is accelerating. And now the entire metro area of Milwaukee and Chicago are have stopped growing.

Below is just made up words to say the opposite, because that is what happens here.

No serious person in a city thinks this, and would ever think this.

He wasn't talking about Milwaukee.  He was talking about Marquette.

[Heisenberg]

++ JPMorgan management requires workers to show up at the office or face harsh consequences. To the small percentage of employees who have grumbled, management's response has basically been: "OK, there's the door."

JP Morgan (along with Goldman Sachs) have been the two biggest outliers in forcing everyone back into the office.

So, how's or been going?

Like clockwork every year the demand everyone return, and every year this then happens.

We await the completion of the 2023 cycle.

JPMorgan loosens return to office rules for some workers after pushback: report
https://nypost.com/2022/04/27/jpmorgan-loosens-return-to-office-rules-after-pushback/

JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon is among those pushing workers to get back to the office – though he acknowledged in his annual shareholder letter last month that "working from home will become more permanent in American business."

In the letter, Dimon predicted that some 50% of the bank's overall workforce would likely need to work on site full-time in the future, while 40% would adopt a hybrid model and about 10% would be allowed work remotely full time.

During a Wall Street Journal event the previous summer, Dimon said the bank was "getting blowback about coming back internally, but that's life."

Business Insider reported last week that JPMorgan has a "general expectation" that hybrid workers across the bank will work at least three days per week in the office, according to leaked internal documents.

Demanding return-to-office plans are a source of friction on Wall Street – especially among junior employees.

As The Post reported earlier last month, some junior staffers at Goldman Sachs have grumbled that they are being "bullied" into working on site five days a week.

"In GS, the top management says it's employees' choice but internally they track which team has most in office attendance," one Goldman employee wrote on the corporate message board Blind.

[Heisenberg]

He wasn't talking about Milwaukee.  He was talking about Marquette.

Still applies

Show me a major university that is shrinking enrollment and closing schools (because that is what happens when you shrink) that is becoming more desirable?

And why is this happening?  40% of MU incoming classes are from metro Chicago, 30% from metro Milwaukee.

The pool is shrinking.

The area's population growth and the school's size are the same thing.

[Uncle Rico]

Still applies

Show me a major university that is shrinking enrollment and closing schools (because that is what happens when you shrink) that is becoming more desirable?

And why is this happening?  40% of MU incoming classes are from metro Chicago, 30% from metro Milwaukee.

The pool is shrinking.

The area's population growth and the school's size are the same thing.

And Marquette's leadership as you've already posted has recognized the future will be different and are adapting. 

Cities are adapting and planning for the future.

The idea Marquette or cities may look different in the future or will change how they thrive in the future is a daily battle and has been for their entire existences.

You're wasting a lot of energy pretending what's said on scoop somehow equals what leaders at these places understand and are/will do.

[The Sultan]

Still applies

Show me a major university that is shrinking enrollment and closing schools (because that is what happens when you shrink) that is becoming more desirable?

And why is this happening?  40% of MU incoming classes are from metro Chicago, 30% from metro Milwaukee.

The pool is shrinking.

The area's population growth and the school's size are the same thing.

Not only have you engaged in extreme goalpost shifting throughout these topic, you are also conflating multiple issues.

And again, it's nonsense to suggest that a University's health is solely tied to the quantity of its enrollment. Colleges and universities strategically decide to get smaller.  Focusing on high net tuition programs (engineering, business, nursing) is a must lower cost option than trying to increase the geographic footprint of the university.

[MU82]

JP Morgan (along with Goldman Sachs) have been the two biggest outliers in forcing everyone back into the office.

So, how's or been going?

Like clockwork every year the demand everyone return, and every year this then happens.

We await the completion of the 2023 cycle.

JPMorgan loosens return to office rules for some workers after pushback: report
https://nypost.com/2022/04/27/jpmorgan-loosens-return-to-office-rules-after-pushback/

JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon is among those pushing workers to get back to the office – though he acknowledged in his annual shareholder letter last month that "working from home will become more permanent in American business."

In the letter, Dimon predicted that some 50% of the bank's overall workforce would likely need to work on site full-time in the future, while 40% would adopt a hybrid model and about 10% would be allowed work remotely full time.

During a Wall Street Journal event the previous summer, Dimon said the bank was "getting blowback about coming back internally, but that's life."

Business Insider reported last week that JPMorgan has a "general expectation" that hybrid workers across the bank will work at least three days per week in the office, according to leaked internal documents.

Demanding return-to-office plans are a source of friction on Wall Street – especially among junior employees.

As The Post reported earlier last month, some junior staffers at Goldman Sachs have grumbled that they are being "bullied" into working on site five days a week.

"In GS, the top management says it's employees' choice but internally they track which team has most in office attendance," one Goldman employee wrote on the corporate message board Blind.

I wrote about JPMorgan because that's who dgies mentioned. And most of JPMorgan's work force is back in the office most of the time.

I'm not claiming that's a nationwide trend, or something GS or anyone else will follow. Because, unlike you, I don't smugly (your own word to describe yourself) constantly claim that I know what the future holds.

dgies mentioned JPMorgan's people as authorities on this subject, and I merely pointed out that the majority of its employees are required to work in office and that the company has doubled-down on its commitment to big cities.

It seems odd that people as intelligent and wired-in as JPMorgan's management team would decide to spend beau coup bucks on huge, new office buildings in NYC and DC if they felt the commercial future of those cities was doomed. But who knows? Maybe Dimon & Co. are fools, too.

[jesmu84]

Again with the scoop tactic of over ANALyzing precise wording.

He's saying the most important metric for a city is its population.

If it's growing, it's healthy
If it is not growing, it's not healthy.

The city of Milwaukee stopped growing in 1960, Chicago in 1950.

Now, thanks to the shut down/restart, this trend is accelerating. And now the entire metro area of Milwaukee and Chicago are have stopped growing.

Below is just made up words to say the opposite, because that is what happens here.

No serious person in a city thinks this, and would ever think this.

Didn't you post a source earlier that said Chicago IS growing, just not as fast as others?

Edit:

June 2022
MacArthur Foundation/UIC data report analyzing Chicago Metro population trends
https://uofi.app.box.com/s/rgf5h8oc8bnjq9ua2463oolvdj23qyun/file/970584591836

Excerpts from its conclusion

If individuals vote with their feet, Chicago is losing. As we noted at the beginning of this report, Chicago is the slowest growing major city in the U.S. Thousands of Chicago residents have left the city to seek better opportunities elsewhere. In this report, we've documented these trends, starting from the period of massive population growth in 1920 to its dramatic decline a century later.

[dgies9156]

There is a huge difference between one company back in the office and whole downtowns coming back. Jamie Dimon (bless his heart, I agree with him), wants everyone back.

The rest of the world will fight this, especially out west where housing constrained people fled California for more habitable, house friendly and tax-friendly (read, cost of living friendly) areas. The fact that California lost a Congressional seat after almost doubling its delegation for the past 50 years, should be a warning. California's population loss isn't in the Central Valley, it's in LA and San Francisco MSAs.

And it's going to continue as long as California leads the nation in goofiness. As beautiful as that state is, the coastal part of the state is almost uninhabitable unless you are a 1 percenter, like Brother Rico, who lives in his gated community!

[Uncle Rico]

There is a huge difference between one company back in the office and whole downtowns coming back. Jamie Dimon (bless his heart, I agree with him), wants everyone back.

The rest of the world will fight this, especially out west where housing constrained people fled California for more habitable, house friendly and tax-friendly (read, cost of living friendly) areas. The fact that California lost a Congressional seat after almost doubling its delegation for the past 50 years, should be a warning. California's population loss isn't in the Central Valley, it's in LA and San Francisco MSAs.

And it's going to continue as long as California leads the nation in goofiness. As beautiful as that state is, the coastal part of the state is almost uninhabitable unless you are a 1 percenter, like Brother Rico, who lives in his gated community!

The best part of being a 1% is not paying taxes, brother!

[MU82]

There is a huge difference between one company back in the office and whole downtowns coming back. Jamie Dimon (bless his heart, I agree with him), wants everyone back.

The rest of the world will fight this, especially out west where housing constrained people fled California for more habitable, house friendly and tax-friendly (read, cost of living friendly) areas. The fact that California lost a Congressional seat after almost doubling its delegation for the past 50 years, should be a warning. California's population loss isn't in the Central Valley, it's in LA and San Francisco MSAs.

And it's going to continue as long as California leads the nation in goofiness. As beautiful as that state is, the coastal part of the state is almost uninhabitable unless you are a 1 percenter, like Brother Rico, who lives in his gated community!

You're the one who brought up JPMorgan, my friend. And it's their "army of accountants, developers and financial analysts who know real estate, infrastructure and urban investment" who have worked together to commit  well over a billion bucks of their company's money on buildings for employees to work in NYC and DC.

As for Cali, I'm sure they'd rather keep gaining congressional seats in perpetuity vs. losing one of them. Now they only have one more than Florida, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Arkansas combined! And now there's a small handful of nations with a GDP larger than California's.

I agree with you that much of California has a housing and cost-of-living crisis for all but the 1%. I also agree with Rico!

[tower912]

And now there's a small handful of nations with a GDP larger than California's.

No.  There is not.

[Heisenberg]

Business Insider published the most depressing piece I have read on this subject.


June 22, 2023
Middle America's 'doom loop'
Work from home is crushing Midwestern downtowns

https://www.businessinsider.com/midwest-america-cities-downtown-crisis-office-apocalypse-urban-doom-loop-2023-6

But Midwestern cities are also facing a crisis of their own — struggling to attract workers, residents, and visitors to their downtowns. And while many coastal metros experienced a "golden age" in the decade before the pandemic, cities in America's heartland have been struggling since well before COVID came around.

In order to pull out of their tailspin, economists and urban planners say many Midwestern cities need to get serious about improving amenities and boosting quality of life in their downtowns. Instead of being places where people are forced to go to work, leaders need to make their center cities into a destination that people actually want to visit.

"What I really think it comes down to in these places is that there's nothing special about any of the downtowns in any of these cities that would be attractive to new residents," Michael Hicks, a professor of economics and business research at Ball State University in Indiana, told Insider. "The cities just don't have the fundamental amenities that would attract people."

Hollowed out

A good way to gauge just how much trouble Midwestern cities are in is to take a look at how many people their downtowns are actually attracting. Standing in the middle of the city square and counting people can be a bit tough though, so researchers at the University of Toronto have been analyzing anonymized cellphone data for the past few years to track the number of people physically present in central business districts each day. The granular, individual-level data provides a fuller picture of downtown vitality — both before and after the pandemic — than other measures such as office vacancy rates and mass-transit ridership. The conclusion the study draws for the heartland is bleak. Five of the bottom 10 cities in the tracker's most recent data, which measured the period from December 2022 to March 2023, were in the Midwest: St. Louis, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Cleveland, and Kansas City, Missouri. Nine of the 13 Midwestern cities tracked in the study were in the bottom half of the rankings.

Other indicators of central business district health — from office workers to vacant real-estate space — are similarly stark for many of these cities. Jacob Frey, the mayor of Minneapolis, recently said he expects his city's downtown workforce will max out at about 75% of its pre-pandemic numbers, and a recent study showed that 21.2 million square feet of office space in the city is sitting vacant. In April, Salesforce announced it would give up one-quarter of its office space in the Indianapolis Salesforce Tower, Indiana's tallest building. The Midwest as a whole has also struggled to attract new residents and hold onto its existing residents in recent years. Between April 2020 and July 2022, the region saw a net decline of more than 400,000 residents. And things could get even worse for downtowns if they fall into the so-called "urban doom loop." Commercial property taxes make up a large chunk of many city budgets, so as office vacancies rise, the decreased revenue could force leaders to curtail municipal services or make cuts to key programs. Declining services and quality of life in turn pushes residents out, leading to a self-reinforcing exodus. Without serious changes, these midsize cities in the middle of the country could be quietly sliding into oblivion.

[Uncle Rico]

Business Insider published the most depressing piece I have read on this subject.


June 22, 2023
Middle America's 'doom loop'
Work from home is crushing Midwestern downtowns

https://www.businessinsider.com/midwest-america-cities-downtown-crisis-office-apocalypse-urban-doom-loop-2023-6

But Midwestern cities are also facing a crisis of their own — struggling to attract workers, residents, and visitors to their downtowns. And while many coastal metros experienced a "golden age" in the decade before the pandemic, cities in America's heartland have been struggling since well before COVID came around.

In order to pull out of their tailspin, economists and urban planners say many Midwestern cities need to get serious about improving amenities and boosting quality of life in their downtowns. Instead of being places where people are forced to go to work, leaders need to make their center cities into a destination that people actually want to visit.

"What I really think it comes down to in these places is that there's nothing special about any of the downtowns in any of these cities that would be attractive to new residents," Michael Hicks, a professor of economics and business research at Ball State University in Indiana, told Insider. "The cities just don't have the fundamental amenities that would attract people."

Hollowed out

A good way to gauge just how much trouble Midwestern cities are in is to take a look at how many people their downtowns are actually attracting. Standing in the middle of the city square and counting people can be a bit tough though, so researchers at the University of Toronto have been analyzing anonymized cellphone data for the past few years to track the number of people physically present in central business districts each day. The granular, individual-level data provides a fuller picture of downtown vitality — both before and after the pandemic — than other measures such as office vacancy rates and mass-transit ridership. The conclusion the study draws for the heartland is bleak. Five of the bottom 10 cities in the tracker's most recent data, which measured the period from December 2022 to March 2023, were in the Midwest: St. Louis, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Cleveland, and Kansas City, Missouri. Nine of the 13 Midwestern cities tracked in the study were in the bottom half of the rankings.

Other indicators of central business district health — from office workers to vacant real-estate space — are similarly stark for many of these cities. Jacob Frey, the mayor of Minneapolis, recently said he expects his city's downtown workforce will max out at about 75% of its pre-pandemic numbers, and a recent study showed that 21.2 million square feet of office space in the city is sitting vacant. In April, Salesforce announced it would give up one-quarter of its office space in the Indianapolis Salesforce Tower, Indiana's tallest building. The Midwest as a whole has also struggled to attract new residents and hold onto its existing residents in recent years. Between April 2020 and July 2022, the region saw a net decline of more than 400,000 residents. And things could get even worse for downtowns if they fall into the so-called "urban doom loop." Commercial property taxes make up a large chunk of many city budgets, so as office vacancies rise, the decreased revenue could force leaders to curtail municipal services or make cuts to key programs. Declining services and quality of life in turn pushes residents out, leading to a self-reinforcing exodus. Without serious changes, these midsize cities in the middle of the country could be quietly sliding into oblivion.

Good thing Marquette understands this and is addressing it.

[warriorchick]

Good thing Marquette understands this and is addressing it.

The good news is that Milwaukee is ranked 16th best out of 63 cities on the recovery Downtown - and basically tied for 3rd among Midwest cities.

http://downtownrecovery.com/dashboards/recovery_ranking.html

There are several new residential highrises going up in Downtown, the Third Ward and the immediate surrounding area.   It certainly seems to be bucking the trend.

[Uncle Rico]

The good news is that Milwaukee is ranked 16th best out of 63 cities on the recovery Downtown - and basically tied for 3rd among Midwest cities.

http://downtownrecovery.com/dashboards/recovery_ranking.html

There are several new residential highrises going up in Downtown, the Third Ward and the immediate surrounding area.   It certainly seems to be bucking the trend.

Milwaukee is a great city.  Like any big city, it has a lot of problems.  Poverty, crime, segregation, traffic/reckless driving but the potential to do something better remains.

The 7-94 debate will be worth watching. 

[MU82]

The good news is that Milwaukee is ranked 16th best out of 63 cities on the recovery Downtown - and basically tied for 3rd among Midwest cities.

http://downtownrecovery.com/dashboards/recovery_ranking.html

There are several new residential highrises going up in Downtown, the Third Ward and the immediate surrounding area.   It certainly seems to be bucking the trend.

Nope.

Doomed. It has been decreed.

[4everwarriors]

No debate, minds already maid up. Dog and pony show two follow, hey?

[rocket surgeon]

better start allowing school choice(s)...not tellin people what to do with their minds; their minds, their choice eyn'a?

[jesmu84]

better start allowing school choice(s)...not tellin people what to do with their minds; their minds, their choice eyn'a?

School choice is a joke and horrible for society

[rocket surgeon]

School choice is a joke and horrible for society

is one person's opinion and you are entitled to it

milw public schools are beyond reproach along with many others.  the proficiency levels of reading, science, and math are not a joke because it's not funny

  this all plays a role in the futures of our cities and it ain't pretty