I see this sentiment often on HN, but so far I have not seen strong evidence to support it other than anecdotes. Have there been studies that show that most people would prefer to live in dense cities if employment wasn't a major deciding factor?
Observationally, people are moving to bigger cities, I think this is common enough knowledge to not require a citation.
It gives me a lot of hope to hear that there are people who do like that kind of thing, given how many folks I know who live in such situations.
Personally, I don't like it-- at least in Texas it's the worst of all worlds: everything is far enough apart that you still need to drive most places in a car (and public transportation / biking are afterthoughts) but you're still living almost on top of each other.
But if folks like it, good on them. I'm trying to figure out how to get out of it. I like being in places like manhattan where I can get on a subway and access some much amazing things, and I like to be out in the hills where have some space and quite. But that in-between space isn't good for me, and that's not taking into account the various cultural and economic issues that I find in living in "suburbia".
A decent used car is much cheaper than urban real estate in many US cities. Poor retirees often live in mobile home parks. And people who need to save money shop at Walmart, not a pricy convenience store.
Seems like a poor person living in a big city who isn't lucky enough to have a rent-controlled apartment is going to end up homeless?