USA Today looks to Detroit for city center re-population trends

Call them the young and the restless. The Census stats are in, and while Detroit’s depopulation woes have made national headlines, the city center’s re-population adds another element to the story. Since 2000, Detroit’s downtown population grew by 59 percent, as at least 2000 residents moved to the downtown area. Detroit’s growth mirrors a trend across the nation, as two-thirds of the nation’s largest cities reported population increases in the heart of the town. Those new residents, says USA Today, are by and large well-educated: young people with college degrees are 94 percent more likely than their less-educated counterparts to live in an urban area.

Excerpt:

“It tells us we’ve been on the right track,” says
David Egner, president and CEO of Detroit’s Hudson-Webber Foundation.
Three anchor institutions — Wayne State University,
Henry Ford Health System, Detroit Medical Center — recently launched
“15 by 15,” a campaign to bring 15,000 young, educated people to the
downtown area by 2015. Among the lures are cash incentives: a $25,000
forgivable loan to buy (need to stay at least five years) downtown or
$3,500 on a two-year lease.

Check the stats out here.