I’m one of the few people who moved into California, apparently. Though we actually did consider moving to Dallas instead. And the hemmorhaging from southeast Michigan is amazing.
10 thoughts on “Against The Flow”
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I’m one of the few people who moved into California, apparently. Though we actually did consider moving to Dallas instead. And the hemmorhaging from southeast Michigan is amazing.
Comments are closed.
I just saw the link from Glenn. I think I see your little black line from Florida to LA. Michigan really is depressing. It looks like only a couple of people left Norfolk to take advantage of the cheap real estate in Michigan.
As for Houston, I know its only a matter of time. Because of its energy heavy industry, it takes awhile for it to be affected by an economic downturn. Eventually though, as everyone cuts back, the money in Houston will become more scarce. In the meantime, we’ll have people trying to change Houston into California or New York, thus causing chaos. Then, as the rest of the country starts improving, people will move away from heat and humidity, and local GDP will drop some more.
Would be interesting to see a time series of such plots. I suspect that Michigan would be a sea of red-line-dominated counties going back quite a ways. I got out in ’74, over a third of a century ago, and settled in L.A. There were so many of us latter-day Okies from Michigan back then, we were called “the black license plate people” after the white lettering on black background of then-current MI tags. Looking at the current numbers the only thing I find surprising is that there’s still anyone left in Michigan to leave. Now, with California on a Michigan-esque trajectory, I’m giving serious thought to lightin’ a shuck for Texas as the saying once was. I probably won’t make a final decision until after the Fall elections. I arrived in this state just after Gov. Moonbeam was elected the first time. If my fellow citizens are dim enough to put him in again, I’m outta here.
@Dick — Here in Texas they called ’em “black taggers”. I call ’em pioneers, who paved the path I would follow some twenty years later.
To drive the point home, they need to color the underlying map red/blue based on how they voted in the last few elections.
Another important piece of information is displayed when you draw the plots and then click on one of the counties at the end of a line. It shows the actual number of people who moved in each direction along with their average income. For example, I selected the county in Texas where Austin is located and looked at the county where I live. Due to the meltdown locally of high tech jobs, we had more people moving from here to there than vice versa. Not only that, but the average per capita income for the people moving away from here was $10K greater than for the people who moved here.
There’s a lot of data behind the scenes and some impressive data manipulation/display work going on with a simple, easy to understand user interface. That’s a good piece of coding there. Thanks for the link.
The graphic from Los Angeles is remarkable – almost all red.
The only people left in California are criminals, thugs and those who are honorably handcuffed by responsibilities such as house, job, family. As soon as those cuffs can be broken in some way, they’ll be gone too.
I moved from MI to NC almost twenty-five years ago -smile every time I think about that decision. Had also considered GA, TX and CA: still think I made the right call.
With the recent summers I’m thinking I may need to move up into the mountain area (o.k., in NC, 4K feet is considered to be a mountain).
Excellent posts on Churchill, thanks.
…and after 11 years, my cuffs are broken. I’m leaving in September.
I intend to be the last man standing in San Diego. Although Texas does have beaches…
I’m consulting in northwest South Carolina on an assignment that is much lower pay than usual, and most of the people in my office that have been hired in the last few years are from Michigan, although a few of us are from other depressed areas, in my case upstate NY.
Smart move on the client’s part, since most of us would rather be working at a lower rate than collecting unemployment. But as soon as something better opens up, then I’m gone, since I really don’t like the area.
It’s funny to note that these other engineers and designers aren’t blaming the Obamination, but Bush, for the problems with the economy.
We had a staff meeting earlier this week, and discussion turned to the Gulf mess. Two senior engineers with heavy petro experience flatly stated that Obama was doing the best he could, given what the Bushies had left him. Not one person expressed criticism of the Big “O”.
Remember, these are middle class, middled aged engineering pros, most of us with more than 20 years since school, and nearly all of them are Obama fans. I really wonder about the fall elections, but that is off topic in this thread.