Read on Twitter
1. A little thread on the location of young talented, ambitious people.
2. Lots of talk on the end of cities. Seems everyday I see another story on the impending collapse or NYC & San Francisco. So what I decided to do ...
3. Is to poll the 18 @rotmanschool MBA students in my on-line class on The City and Business.
4. I had them use the PlaceFinder tool I developed for my book Who's Your City? And write up a detailed memo on their cities/ locations of choice when the graduate @rotmanschool & embark on their careers.
5. These @rotmanschool MBAs come from all over the world, there are Canadians, Americans, students from Latin America, Europe, China, other parts of Asia, etc.
6. We asked them to come up with a shortlist of say 3-5 cities, interrogate & evaluate them and pick a preferred or desired location. We also asked them what kind of neighborhood (urban, suburban etc), and the type of unit (house vs condo/apt) they wanted to live.
7. Here are the results ... (and they do not suggest any end of cities ...)
8. All short listed cities are BIG cities:
1st Place: Toronto: 15 of 18 students, 80%
2nd Place: NY: 10 students, 55%
3rd Place: LA, San Fran, Vancouver, 5 each, 28%
4th Place: Tokyo, Singapore, Seattle, Denver, London
3 each, 17%.
1st Place: Toronto: 15 of 18 students, 80%
2nd Place: NY: 10 students, 55%
3rd Place: LA, San Fran, Vancouver, 5 each, 28%
4th Place: Tokyo, Singapore, Seattle, Denver, London
3 each, 17%.
9.Those are all pretty big superstar cities or tech hubs.
10. Next we asked about their Number 1 preferred or desired location:
1st Place: Toronto, 14.5 students, 80% (there was 1 tie)
2nd Place: NY & Bangkok: 2 students
3rd Place: Shanghai was the tie (with Toronto)
1st Place: Toronto, 14.5 students, 80% (there was 1 tie)
2nd Place: NY & Bangkok: 2 students
3rd Place: Shanghai was the tie (with Toronto)
11. Then we asked about the kind of neighborhood they wanted to live in. Again VERY URBAN.
Downtown Urban Core of Big Metro: 61%
Walkable Suburb: 28%
Outside Big Metro: 11%
Traditional Suburb: 0
Rural Area: 0
Downtown Urban Core of Big Metro: 61%
Walkable Suburb: 28%
Outside Big Metro: 11%
Traditional Suburb: 0
Rural Area: 0
12. Last we asked about housing type.
This was a perfect split:
48% single family house or townhouse
48% condo or apartment
This was a perfect split:
48% single family house or townhouse
48% condo or apartment
13. Look this is a far from a definitive survey. And there probably is some "bias" given these @rotmanschool MBAs took "my class" on The City and Business. But still ...
14. The results such as they are show a pretty strong preference for urban neighborhoods in big cities. Among just the type of young talented people one expects to head to big cities.
15. The other thing that’s struck me is that virtually none of them, and virtually no one more broadly, thinks Toronto is in for collapse. There is a general sense that the city is just fine.
16. And yes, lots of Torontonians who have summer cottages decamped to them. But every single one I have heard from is coming back after Labor Day. We hear very little of people "abandoning" the city.
17. This leads me to believe that when it comes to cities and the pandemic, America is "exceptional" (to turn a phrase). My sense is, and the sense we got from class, is that US cities suffer from unique long-run problems that make them uniquely vulnerable to the crisis.
18. Toronto for example benefits from provincially-funded schools, provincially funded & accessible health care, higher levels of social cohesion & lower levels of violent crime. I could go on. But more on that another time ...
19. ***The assignment was given after session 1 of 5 sessions. And we compiled the results & we did additional polling during session 2.
20. *** Folks, the point of the exercise is to gauge the locational preferences of young talented ambitious MBAs who will work in finance, real estate, consulting, tech ...
21. Of course (& as we discussed) older demographics are "pulled" to suburbs during family formation. But even that pull force is much stronger in the US, due to issues of schools, crime, etc. Toronto, also as discussed, is far more family-friendly.
