100 Days and 50 States
As we head towards the midterm elections, I am attempting to give some context to the history and culture of all 50 states for my friends around the world who frequently send me questions. Let's go.
We are nearly 100 days out from American’s midterm elections (visit Vote Save America to read up on your district or volunteer). For the occasion, and to address the many (many) question I receive from friends and colleagues around the world on everything from American politics to travel to culture to history, I thought it might be an interesting (or crazy) exercise to revisit all 50 states in my Travel Oracles series on my blog and podcast, and the odd video or guest expert. And while I have solo roadtripped around nearly the entire country - to explore, experience and understand it better - but I have not been everywhere, and could benefit from some brushing up too in some areas I am curious about (*Having worked with travel and hospitality brands, I was always surprised how little many people at the top explored or knew other markets they were expanding into, so I am happy to share what I learn with others). Given the deep divisional in America, and sea of disinformation, I thought this might be a good time to celebrate the stories of those who shaped these places that made them unique (for the good reasons, though I will be pointing out some of the necessary gritty as well). And who knows, maybe I will do a series on my other country of Canada later as well, if I survive this challenge. See you out there.
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Moving American Style
On another note, and perhaps to kick things off, I find myself explaining a lot why Americans moves a lot over the course of their lifetime for school, jobs, changes and more. There I a lot of space to chose from, so below is my original blog post from 2019, though some things have changed given the pandemic and economic changes in the nation. I suggest reading both on the movement trends over the pandemic by Pew Research, and also Scott Galloway’s excellent recent newsletter issue ‘Migrant’, which states people are not moving as much as before. Now onto the post…
On Moving Around: I’ve recently had some friends in Canada and the UK look at me incredulously when I mention the multiple cities I have lived in, in the USA. And while I certainly have American friends who live in the same place they were born and raised, we are — in fact — a nation of nomads. Not in the aimlessly drifting sense, but more to the fact that we have so many choices, from job markets to city scene, that it is very common to move around. In fact, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the average person in the United States moves residences more than 11 times in his or her lifetime (though this statistic largely pertains to home moves, not necessarily cities). Between college and jobs, I have lived in Vancouver, New York City, Los Angeles, (and currently London), and I have enjoyed short term stays for projects in San Francisco, Denver, Toronto, Shanghai and Paris, so I guess I am well on my way.
I know that many friends of mine have worked in larger monster markets like NYC and LA (or both, which is a very common back & forth story like my own, as their job markets mirror each other), but either started in them to cut their chops before moving on for lifestyle reasons OR worked their way up to get there. This, of course, is a privileged experience and I can only speak to my own background and that of my executive-type colleagues, but traditionally mobility has also had a lot to do with economic situations — opportunities or lack thereof.
According to an article in The Atlantic (Why Do Americans Move So Much More Than Europeans? How the national mythos and U.S. labor laws influence geographic mobility): “Decades of data, including a more recent Gallup study, characterizes the United States as one of the most geographically mobile countries in the world. “About one in four U.S. adults (24 percent) reported moving within the country in the past five years,” the report noted. With the comparable exceptions of Finland (23 percent) and Norway (22 percent), Americans also move considerably more than their European peers.”
The Cities, They Are A-Changing: This brings me to where people are moving. And for those not as familiar with America, some of this may surprise you. As I have written about before, I have thoroughly explored the country and taken time to see for myself what is happening in other markets. As NYC, SF and LA have priced people out and become increasingly crowded, cities like Denver, Austin, Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis and Nashville are growing substantially and enjoying a robust job market. According to the US News & World Report, many of these cities are on their “10 best places to live in the U.S.”. Young college and career bound people tend to move more, and millennials are almost twice as likely to move counties as the average American, which has given rise to many of the places mentioned too. Big metro areas like San Francisco and Washington, DC, are still millennial hotspots, but so too are more up-and-coming cities like Raleigh, North Carolina, and Louisville, Kentucky, both of which are more popular than DC and New York (that’s according to a report by MagnifyMoney, which ranked the biggest boomtowns in America for millennials). Business Insider recently recapped this with multiple stats gathered from the US Census, determining these to be the 25 biggest millennial boomtowns that have seen higher wages, a decrease in unemployment, and a growing millennial population: Salt Lake City UT, Nashville TN, Memphis TN, NY NY, Houston TX, Dallas TX, Austin TX, Detroit MI, Indianapolis IN, Kansas City MS, Washington DC, Columbus OH, Boston MS, Minneapolis MN, Louisville KT, Atlanta GA, Charlotte NC, New Orleans LA, Oklahoma OK, Seattle WA, Portland OR, Raleigh NC, San Jose CA, San Francisco CA, Denver CO. So, where to next?