Cities of Aspiration??

An interesting article about where the next 100 million Americans will live in 2050. I am not sure there is anything new but in the article, they predict that about 14% of the population increase will gravitate to urban centers. The rest will be in suburbs close to the city core (33%), rural communities (35%) and suburbs farther away from the city core (18%). Not a significant transformation except the communities will be different – sustainable areas meeting social, economic, and environmental goals.

In my opinion, this will be achieved by horizontal and vertical mixed use projects generating localized jobs and economic base. The interesting aspect of this article http://bitly/aM7Hix  is the list of “cities of aspiration”. The author, Joel Kotkin, identifies:

Phoenix
Houston
Dallas
Atlanta
Charlotte

New upward mobile cities once were associated with NYC and LA. The above five listed cities are expected to have significant population growth and a cultural change in the process. These cities are spread out and Charlotte seems to be the one city that could sustain a significant population increase. What do you do with this from now until 2050? Fill out the census questionnaire so the experts can be validated or buy land? Comparison information and picture from City.Data.com

CHARLOTTE:
Population in July 2008: 687,456. Population change since 2000: +27.1%
Males: 336,818 (49.0%)
Females: 350,638 (51.0%)
Median resident age: 32.7 years
North Carolina median age: 35.3 years

DALLAS:
Population in July 2008: 1,279,910. Population change since 2000: +7.7%
Males: 645,017 (50.4%)
Females: 634,893 (49.6%)
Median resident age: 30.5 years
Texas median age: 32.3 years

CHARLOTTE, NC