News & Events

June 7, 2007

Conan steps aside this month to let Communications Manager Sharon Carney opine on mobile talent, place and the downside of being a millennial. . .

Millennial Magnets

A few days ago I came to the startling realization that I am not as individualistic as I once thought.  My fascination with place, my insistence on a home within walking/biking distance of work and play, my less-than-lukewarm desire to get married in the near future  – things I’d previously summed up as a unique worldview evolved from personal growth and maturation – actually turned out to be a set of general characteristics shaped by a suburban childhood and shared by 78 million other Americans within ten years of my age. As it turns out, I’m simply a millennial.

What’s a millennial?  According to experts studying talent-based workforces, millennials are the generation born between 1977 and 1996.  Raised mostly in the suburbs by baby boomer parents, these kids like walkable, urban neighborhoods with a vibrant social fabric.  Many of them are single, pushing off marriage until around age 26 if female, renting rather than buying, and have a creative and entreprenuerial spirit.  They value authenticity and prefer urban (rather than suburban) construction and historic architecture.  Millennials are incredibly mobile and likely to let place and quality of life rather than employment determine where they live.  Most importantly, they are the key to Michigan’s (and any other state’s for that matter) economic turnaround and future viability because companies tend to locate where they settle down.  I guess it’s not so bad to be lumped into this group, even if I am reduced to a societal trend.

What spurred my reality check was a presentation by Carol Coletta, president of CEOs for Cities, and Lou Glazer, president and co-founder of Michigan Future, Inc., about how critical it is for metro Detroit to attract this young, highly mobile talent.  Nothing new there, right?  With a recent Free Press poll showing more than half of students surveyed planning to leave the state, it’s hardly a secret that our region is losing the talent battle.  What’s really interesting is why.  Despite the common narrative that young graduates are leaving the state for jobs, research from CEOs for Cities, Michigan Future and other organizations like New Jersey-based Zimmerman/Volk Associates, Inc. shows that more vibrant cities are drawing millennials away from Michigan.  And even more interesting – the companies are following them.

Increasingly, America’s young and mobile talent is seeking urban, mixed-use, walkable communities that support the social lifestyles they desire.  In order to attract them – and the companies that want to hire them – to southeast Michigan, we need to create these types of places.  Did you hear that?  The experts say we need to invest in our urban communities to reenergize Michigan's economy.

With their traditional downtowns and neighborhoods, walkable design, and cultural offerings, southeast Michigan’s mature, inner-ring suburbs are potential magnets for millennials – and consequently have a significant role to play in the region’s economic recovery.  As leaders of these communities, Suburbs Alliance mayors and managers have an opportunity – an obligation, rather – to drive this transition.

So how do we do it?  I am a millennial, but I can’t promise a prescription for success here and now.  But I will guess that it will take some creativity, coordinated planning, and regional dialogue that includes both inner-ring suburbs and the city of Detroit.  I can also convey some of the factors driving the location decisions of many millennials.  According to CEOs for Cities (not just my own preferences), this group seeks cities that

• Are clean and attractive;
• Support the lifestyle they desire (meaning places that include entertainment, social and cultural venues);
• Are innovative;
• Encourage walking and multiple modes of transit;
• Are safe; and
• Offer the types of housing they desire at prices they can afford.

By incorporating these features (and others) into our metropolitan fabric and developing a creative strategy for communicating this sense of place, I strongly believe that metro Detroit could make significant headway in the battle for mobile talent. Undoubtedly, it’s going to take a region-wide effort to attract the people that will drive southeast Michigan’s economic upturn.  But we have a strong starting point.  And we have the desire.  We just have to make it happen.