Professionals aged 25-34 are a highly sought after commodity for most cities. That’s why a number of cities are getting super creative when it comes to marketing their brand identities towards these young go-getters. From billboard campaigns to TV commercials, more and more we are seeing cities attempting to woo, or even bribe, you people to move to their central core.
According to a recent article in USA Today, “…research shows that college-educated young adults aged 25 to 34 are twice as likely to live within three miles of a city’s downtown core.” In the article, the images of two much different cities are compared – Columbus, Ohio and Austin, Texas. The distinction led Columbus to launch a billboard campaign in Chicago and Washington, D.C.
The USA Today article explores a lot more than simply wooing young people from one city to another. It also discusses youth retention, which should be looked at as low hanging fruit. I was not aware that one of Philadelphia’s biggest success stories was the implementation of a city-wide program that matched higher-ed students with internships at local companies. Apparently the initiative has been beyond successful, and sounds like something that Buffalo should be looking into right away.
You might recall that a couple of years back, Niagara Falls set up its own program that offered up to $7000 in student loan reimbursements for young people to make the move and set up shop in the youth-starved city.
In the past, BRO writers and commentators have discusses various ways of repopulating Buffalo’s East Side. There were talks and actions that ranged from incentivizing urban pioneers with $1 homes to promoting the urban farming way of life.
Is it the artists that we should be going after, or the entrepreneurs? Will the city take the reins on this, or de we leave it up to the developers? Or maybe it’s the business community that should be stepping up? Or the colleges? Will there be a concentrated effort, or will it happen organically?
As other cities dream up ways to market their urban cores, with various incentives, what should Buffalo be doing (if anything) to proactively solicit young professionals to join the renaissance that we are currently undergoing?