An earlier article listed the best cities for retirees and sundry old folks to flock to, but young people want to self-segregate, too. Thankfully, the Wall Street Journal, widely read by American youths, presents The Next Hot Youth-Magnet Cities.

The criteria that WSJ use for young people figuring out where to live is the ease with which they can get a good job and find a spouse. The paper cautions that their list has no real scientific criteria behind it. They just asked six people what they thought, and got pretty predictable answers. As you’d expect, it’s mostly coastal cities, with Chicago, Denver, Raleigh, and Dallas also included.

DC is rated number 1 (tied with Seattle), which gives us some personal sense of pride, but otherwise doesn’t make much sense. Although the new Administration might make DC newly attractive to young people because of politics or some sense of altruism that was awakened by Obama, it’s also still really expensive, full of Type-A douchebags, and is very poorly run. The traffic is a disaster, and the public transit system kills people. Also, it’s not exactly a great job market, because everyone is calling in favors and sending off elite resumes trying to land one of the handful of new positions in the Administration or Congress. (On the other hand, if you’re independently wealthy, DC has a surplus of unpaid internships.) We do have free museums, a highly walkable city, and the seat of Western power, though.

We can’t really put down any of these cities (besides Dallas. Seriously?), but we are highly suspect of a list of good cities for young people that doesn’t include New Orleans, which is cheap compared to other cities, has amazing restaurants and bars, is very drivable, and is the most unique city in the country. Who dat.

The Next Hot Youth-Magnet Cities [WSJ]
(Photo: frankieleon)

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