The Move Away From Big Cities

Cynthia H. Cho reports:

Standing at the intersection of Innovate Avenue and Imagine Avenue, author Joel Kotkin told area political, civic and business leaders Thursday that they needed to make Hampton Roads "a place of aspiration" to draw residents and businesses.

The street signs were fake. They were placed on stage at the Radisson Hotel Hampton for the annual meeting of the Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance.

But the message was real. Kotkin, who has been published in major newspapers and magazines, challenged the 300 or so attending to make Hampton Roads a region "where people will come or stay because they believe their life will be better."

Kotkin is an Irvine Fellow at the New America Foundation and author of "The City: A Global History." He began his talk by saying Hampton Roads was on its way to "becoming something dynamic."

He pointed to two main reasons. First, he said, the area's port is "challenging the supremacy of the port of New York" and that "all great regions have been great port regions." Ports bring in other businesses and services, he said, and contribute significantly to economic growth.

Second, Kotkin said, the cost of living in Hampton Roads isn't as high as it is in many other U.S. cities. That, he said, would make this region attractive to the middle class, young families and first-time entrepreneurs. Cities such as New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. — where the cost of living is very high — have little job or population growth because people just can't afford to live there, Kotkin said. "Companies are moving to midsize cities because they can't afford to hire" in big, expensive cities, he said.

The laws of microeconomics.