Young and Restless in Tacoma

Cities that attract college educated 25 to 34 year olds will succeed in the next decade.  Is Tacoma on the right track?  A report from late last year by CEOs for Cities made its way into the Weekly Report for the City Council this week that details the importance of this group.  What does it say?  From the executive summary:

It is difficult to overstate the impact that the college-educated 25 to 34 year olds we call the Young and Restless will have on a city’s future prosperity.  They are well educated, adaptable, mobile and relatively inexpensive, comprising an important part of the so-called creative class.  With rising demand for their skills with competition for them now on a global scale, cities must be magnets for these highly-coveted workers or the will fail, because in the knowledge economy, it is the creativity and talent inherent in a city’s workforce that will shape its economic opportunities.

If you’ve followed Exit133 for a bit, one of the recurring themes you’ve noticed in the comments is that it’s relatively difficult to be a young professional here.  There aren’t any communities of young professionals.  It’s very difficult to be single in Tacoma.  The relatively dense residential areas that the report calls out as being a necessity for young people, aren’t affordable enough for most young professionals.  To me the fundamental issue is the recurring Community discussion.  Without a significant change in our direction, it seems as though Tacoma will be passing this demographic entirely.  So where do we want to go?

Link to the Weekly Report (pdf – see page 11 for the executive summary)

Link to CEOs for Cities (full report)

Thank you, Erik