FOR PEOPLE

With the rise of telecommuting, more
people want home offices. Paul Glosniak,
president of Bellevue, California-based
Bennett Homes, notes that he often
builds both his-and-her offices. With
one or two people working from home,
the size of the home, not yard space, has
become the priority. 107
SECTION THREE:DEMOGRAPHIC
AND FAMILIAL TRENDS
In the 1960s, the great urbanist Jane
Jacobs could assert that “suburbs must be
a difficult place to raise children.” 108 But
demographic changes in places like her
beloved Greenwich Village in New York
City shows how far we have traveled from
Jacobs’ ideal city. Rather than the familycentric
community of the past, the area
today now largely consists of students,
wealthy people and pensioners. In the
Village today, about 6 percent of the
population is aged 5 to 17, far below the
norms for New York City, and less than
half the 13.1 percent found across the 52
largest US metropolitan areas. 109
The Rise of the Childless City
Urban theorist Terry Nichols Clark
of the University of Chicago suggests that
the “new American metropolis” revolves
around a dramatically “thinner family,”
often without children, and those who
prefer a childless lifestyle. 110 This was
the pattern during the last decade, when
the urban core population aged 5 to 14
dropped by 600,000, almost three times
the net gain of 200,000 residents aged 20
to 29. By 2011, people in their twenties
Figure 28
Change: Predominant Commuting Modes
DRIVE ALONE, CAR POOL TRANSIT, WORK AT HOME
Change in Millions
25
20
15
10
5
0
-5
198199090
1980-1990 1990-2000
Derived Census Bureau data
constituted roughly one-quarter of
Figure 29
residents in the urban cores, but only
52 14 percent Major or Metropolitan less of those who Areas:2010
live in
16% suburbs, where the bulk of people 15.0%
go as
they enter the age of family formation. 111
14.2%
14%
13%
Perhaps the ultimate primary
12%
11.6%
example of the new childfree city is
10%
San Francisco, home now to 80,000
8%
more dogs than children. 112;113 In
6% 1970, children 5.3% made up 22 percent of
4% the population of San Francisco. Four
2%
decades later, they comprised just 13.4
percent of San Francisco's 800,000
0%
residents. Urban Core: Nearly Urban Core: half of parents of young
CBD
Inner Ring
children in the city, according to 2011
survey by Small
the Mayor’s Areas (Zip
office, Code
planned Analysis
to
Zones)
leave in the next three years. 114
Early Suburb Later Suburb Exurb OVERALL
Figure A Tale 34of Two Geographies: One
Age for Families, 20-29 Share Another of Growth for The
BY Childless FUNCTIONAL And SECTOR: Single 2000-2011
This Earlier is Suburb not just a recent development,
nor one that 14.3%
Later Suburb
is confined to cities like
52.8%
San Francisco. In virtually every region,
Inner
including
Ring
in older cities like Washington
7.9%
and New York, the largest concentrations
CBD of children are on the periphery, often
2.6% in the exurbs, while the most childfree
areas are almost always near the
dense Exurb urban core. This is most true in
22.4%
2000-2010 2010-2013
13.5%
BEST CITIES FOR PEOPLE 29
Major Metropolitan Areas: City Sector