Much of Minnesota's transportation, housing, land use and taxation policy is geared toward promoting the tenets of "smart growth." The idea is that loads of empty-nest baby boomers and the "creative" class is chomping to move to the central cities and abandon the sterile, soul-less suburbs for the vibrant urban experience. So in the past ten years we have built stadia, museums, condo towers, transit systems, and other infrastructure to accomodate the coming crowds, who....never came.
The U.S. Census just released the county-and city-level data for Minnesota from the 2010 Census and the results are revealing, if not surprising. Minneapolis stayed flat while St. Paul actually lost population. Ramsey County, including St. Paul, fell in population. Hennepin County, including Minneapolis, grew modestly.
What grew fastest were the the "donut" counties of the outer suburbs and exurbs surrounding the core cities. Also showing better than average growth were the county including Rochester (think Mayo Clinic) and the county adjacent to the boomtown of Fargo, North Dakota. People have voted with their feet. It's time for the policies to catch up.
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