Young People Fighting the Urge To Live Urban

USA Today reports:

Most jobs now are more than 3 miles away from city centers, in suburbs and exurbs. When more people work where they live, bedroom communities take on the feel of 24-hour cities. "If your job is in the outer beltway of Houston, living downtown becomes less appealing," Kotkin says.

In the far suburbs of Washington, D.C., near Dulles International Airport, high-tech companies such as America Online, Oracle and others have created thousands of jobs for young professionals.

"You now have options in suburbia that never existed before," Kotkin says. "If you're nomadic in the tech world, you're really moving from one suburb to another."

Condos, apartments and town houses are going up around town centers on the far edges of suburbs around Washington; in Naperville, Ill., west of Chicago; and in Long Beach, the California port city south of Los Angeles. Bars, restaurants, coffeehouses and movie theaters ? the ubiquitous mainstays of bohemians and techies alike ? are sprouting in suburbia. Some of the funkiest vintage stores and boutiques are in old suburban strip malls where rents are still cheap.

Urban Blue America is quite a difficult place if you aren't super-rich or living off a trust fund.Trendy,the future? It's priced itself out.