←back to thread

Half the men in Seattle are never-married singles, census data shows

(www.seattletimes.com)
118 points blondie9x | 8 comments | 13 Apr 25 14:36 UTC | HN request time: 0.643s | source | bottom
1. api ◴[13 Apr 25 15:16 UTC] No.43673389[source]▶
Seattle, meaning the city, right?

When people get married and think about settling down and maybe having kids, they usually leave high cost of living cities. They want stability, something they can own or rent long term, and usually more space, especially if kids are coming.

Sometimes they move to the suburbs, sometimes across the country.

The only people who stay tend to be rich people who can actually afford to get some space and stability in the city. Even then many of those decide to leave anyway for other reasons, again especially if they want kids.

High cost city centers are basically an extension of college dorms at this point. They are where people go to start their careers or level up, not stay.

This is like saying “study shows that most people in a shopping mall are looking to buy something” then extrapolating some larger conclusion from that.

replies(2): >>43673552 #>>43673857 #
2. ghaff ◴[13 Apr 25 15:37 UTC] No.43673552[source]▶
People, especially couples, moving out of cities as they get older has been a thing for decades. You’d think young urbanites would welcome this.
replies(1): >>43673861 #
3. trollbridge ◴[13 Apr 25 16:14 UTC] No.43673857[source]▶
Of course, this pattern of human settlement is silly. Cities used to be hospitable to families, often with multiple generations living in them. Instead of needing a daycare and lots of miles in a car, grandparents and relatives were nearby to help with young children.

On the other hand, forcing people outside of the city to afford a family means more GDP from building roads, selling tyres, replacing cars, petrol sales, oil refining…

replies(2): >>43674283 #>>43675628 #
4. trollbridge ◴[13 Apr 25 16:14 UTC] No.43673861[source]▶
It means heavy car dependence unless you expect people to change careers when they have a family. Hence the modern American cityscape, with most the population spread out amongst suburbs.
replies(1): >>43674011 #
5. ghaff ◴[13 Apr 25 16:38 UTC] No.43674011{3}[source]▶
A lot of the jobs are in the suburbs (finance being something of an exception). A lot of the tech industry is in car-reliant suburbs. I live in Massachusetts and, until west coast firms established outposts in Boston/Cambridge and pharma basically took over Kendall Square, there was basically no tech industry in Boston for a couple decades.

And, yes, outside of Manhattan and young people essentially living like they did in college for a few years, car dependency is just what most people do.

6. api ◴[13 Apr 25 17:15 UTC] No.43674283[source]▶
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_rent

Cities tend to be vulnerable to this effect, which ruins them for long term family and wealth building (which are closely related things).

Cars are only incidentally about transportation. A car is a machine that offers leverage in property markets. That’s its primary function. They do move you around but if I could get around without one I’d prefer it that way.

The only antidote to this in cities is very liberal zoning and construction policy, and that’s hard to maintain because city residents love seeing their property values rise. Cities tend to become real estate cartels of property owners.

It’s easier to get another twenty miles of roads and infrastructure built in the exurbs than to fight political trench warfare against NIMBY urbanites. If you want to blame something for car dependence and sprawl, blame zoning and city planners not cars.

replies(1): >>43722532 #
7. watwut ◴[13 Apr 25 20:31 UTC] No.43675628[source]▶
I read an article just today about how parents today expect a lot more childcare from their grandmoms then they used to be. Where grand parents in the past were expected to yell at kids here and there when those misbehaved or be their friends, they were not expected to be full caregiver the way they are now. They used to have their own things to do - whether work or fun. Grandparents as a complete replacement of a daycare where she (it is gendered) has to do all of it was not a thing. And the expectations on childcare were much smaller then today.

Grandparent to take care of a kid an afternoon a week or so was a thing. Grandparent watching a kid every day whole day, not really.

8. trollbridge ◴[17 Apr 25 21:40 UTC] No.43722532{3}[source]▶
Don’t cities usually have less restrictive zoning than exurbs (particularly parking requirements)?

The reasons I hear young families move out of cities are cost, school quality, and crime. I don’t think unrestricted zoning and construction would help much with that.

And no, I don’t blame cars - they’re a symptom of the fact cities get hollowed out to just be a zone where there are some cool bars and restaurants to go to.