Orlando Sentinel;
“Someone who grew up living in 2,500 square feet with a driveway leading up to the front door isn’t going to downsize to 850 square feet until he’s ready for assisted living,” says Joel Kotkin, a scholar on urban development who wrote The City: A Global History. “The new urbanists convinced the idiot development community there was going to be this massive move that never happened.”
And the idiot development community convinced idiot public officials looking to revive their downtowns. And together they convinced the idiot journalists looking to promote a green lifestyle free of McMansions, commutes and St. Augustine grass.
In the real world, it seems the baby boomers are staying put or getting as far from urban centers as possible. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently released a report noting the boomer trend is country living. It actually projects a decrease in the urban population as empty nesters invade rural areas.