Small is beautiful

• Published in: The World Ahead p. 51
• Main Author: Jackson, Rebecca
• Format: Magazine Article
• Language: English
• Published: London The Economist Intelligence Unit N.A., Incorporated 01.01.2024
• Subjects: Cities; Homeless people; Migration; Towns

"Keeping Austin weird" has been more of a slog than locals anticipated. Inundated with Silicon Valley refugees and Manhattan defectors, the Texan city once known for its cool subculture has become a tech metropolis. Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta and Tesla set up shop there, offering jobs that made it a magnet. From 2010 to 2020 metropolitan Austin's population grew by more than that of any other big city, by one-third to 2.3m. It has since burst at the seams. Housing supply has failed to keep up with rocketing demand. In September, the Austin Board of Realtors said the city is short of 152,000 affordable two-person homes. Locals are getting priced out, homeless people line the downtown streets and traffic is hellish. Cities across the Sun Belt, from Charlotte to Dallas, have seen an influx of newcomers over the past decade. Dubbed the "new great migration", it has been led by thousands of black college graduates moving south, fueling urban renewal in Georgia, North Carolina and Texas, even as cities in the north-east, Midwest and west shrink. And small southern towns are growing fastest.