By 2025, cities aren’t just competing for businesses-they’re fighting for people. The best office space, the fastest internet, or the lowest corporate tax rate won’t matter if no one wants to live there. The real battle for urban growth happens in neighborhoods, parks, schools, and housing markets. Cities that get this right grow. Those that don’t shrink-even if they’re rich or well-connected.
People Choose Cities, Not Just Jobs
For decades, companies moved to where labor was cheap and regulations were light. Now, it’s the other way around. Workers pick where they want to live first. Then they find jobs nearby-or work remotely from there. A 2024 study from the Urban Institute showed that 68% of remote workers moved to a new city in the past two years, and 41% said amenities like bike lanes, walkable cafes, and public parks were more important than salary.
Think about it: why does Austin, Texas, keep growing while Detroit still struggles? It’s not just tech startups. It’s the fact that a 28-year-old graphic designer can bike to a coffee shop, catch a live show on Friday night, and find a three-bedroom home for under $400,000. In contrast, a similar worker in Boston might spend $800,000 for the same space and spend two hours a day stuck in traffic.
Amenities Are the New Salary
When cities talk about attracting talent, they often focus on tax breaks or subsidies for companies. But the real magnet is what’s outside the office. Clean air. Safe streets. Good schools. Access to nature. Reliable public transit. These aren’t luxuries-they’re dealbreakers.
Minneapolis doubled its bike lane network between 2018 and 2023. Result? A 32% increase in young professionals moving in, according to city housing data. Portland’s investment in community gardens and local food co-ops helped it attract a wave of remote workers during the pandemic-even as other cities lost population.
Meanwhile, cities that ignored these things are paying the price. Atlanta spent $2 billion on a new sports stadium in 2017. But without investing in affordable housing or bus reliability, it lost 15,000 residents aged 25-34 between 2020 and 2024. People aren’t just looking for a place to work. They’re looking for a place to live well.
Taxes Matter-But Not the Way You Think
High taxes scare off businesses. But they don’t scare off talent. In fact, the opposite is often true.
San Francisco has some of the highest income taxes in the U.S. Yet it still pulls in engineers from across the country. Why? Because its public schools are strong, its libraries are open late, and its transit system connects neighborhoods in ways that make car ownership optional. People are willing to pay more in taxes if they get more in return.
Compare that to Tennessee, which lowered income taxes to zero in 2021. It expected a flood of workers. Instead, it got mostly retirees. Young professionals stayed away because the state cut funding for public transit, mental health services, and after-school programs. Lower taxes didn’t attract talent. It attracted people who didn’t need those services.
The real equation isn’t low taxes = more people. It’s good services = people who pay taxes. Cities that invest in schools, libraries, parks, and transit get a return. Not just in taxes, but in productivity, innovation, and long-term stability.
Immigration Is the Hidden Engine of Urban Growth
Most cities don’t talk about immigration when they discuss talent. But it’s the biggest driver of growth in places like Toronto, Vancouver, and even smaller cities like Columbus, Ohio, and Raleigh, North Carolina.
In 2023, 57% of new residents in Toronto were immigrants. In Minneapolis, 38% of new business owners were foreign-born. These aren’t just people filling jobs. They’re starting restaurants, opening clinics, teaching in schools, and revitalizing neighborhoods that had been left behind.
When cities make it hard for immigrants to get licenses, housing, or language support, they lose out. A 2024 report from the Brookings Institution found that cities with immigrant-friendly policies grew 2.3 times faster in population and 1.8 times faster in economic output than those that didn’t.
Look at Nashville. In 2015, it launched a program to help refugees open small businesses. Five years later, those businesses employed over 3,000 people and paid $45 million in local taxes. That’s not charity. That’s economic strategy.
What Works? What Doesn’t?
Not every city can be Portland or Austin. But every city can make smarter choices. Here’s what actually moves the needle:
- Build housing that’s actually affordable-not just luxury condos. Rent control, inclusionary zoning, and public land for affordable units work.
- Invest in transit that connects low-income neighborhoods-not just downtown to the airport.
- Make public spaces welcoming-not just safe. Parks with free Wi-Fi, community centers with childcare, libraries with job training.
- Support immigrant entrepreneurs-not just high-tech startups. A food truck owner from Somalia contributes as much as a software engineer from India.
- Don’t cut services to lower taxes-you’ll lose the people who make the city vibrant.
What doesn’t work? Tax breaks for Amazon warehouses. Free parking for office towers. Big-name stadiums. These things look good on paper. But they don’t bring in people who want to stay.
The Cities Winning Right Now
Here are three cities that got it right in 2024:
- Denver-Expanded light rail, built 12,000 affordable units since 2020, and created a city-run job-matching program for new residents. Population grew 4.7% in two years.
- Portland, Maine-A small city that focused on walkability, public art, and free community college. It gained 11,000 new residents aged 20-35 since 2021.
- Charlotte, North Carolina-Invested in bilingual services for immigrants and turned empty malls into mixed-use hubs with housing, clinics, and schools. Its foreign-born population grew by 34% in five years.
They didn’t lower taxes. They didn’t offer free laptops. They just made life better for people who already live there-and made it clear that newcomers are welcome.
What Happens If Cities Ignore This?
Some cities still think they can win by cutting services, lowering taxes, and hoping businesses will bring workers with them. That strategy is collapsing.
St. Louis lost 22% of its population since 2000. It cut school funding, closed libraries, and stopped fixing sidewalks. Now, it has more vacant homes than families who want them. Even with a 0% income tax, no one’s moving in.
Same with Cleveland. It has cheap housing. But without reliable buses, safe parks, or community centers, young people leave. The city’s population under 30 dropped by 18% in five years. No amount of tax breaks will fix that.
The truth is simple: cities don’t grow because they’re cheap. They grow because they’re alive.
What You Can Do-Even If You’re Not a Mayor
You don’t need to be in city hall to help. If you live in a city that’s losing ground:
- Vote for candidates who prioritize housing, transit, and public services-not just business incentives.
- Support local businesses run by immigrants or young entrepreneurs.
- Join a neighborhood group that pushes for parks, bike lanes, or better lighting.
- Don’t assume your city is stuck. The ones that changed did it one block, one policy, one new resident at a time.
The next great city won’t be the one with the biggest skyline. It’ll be the one where a single mom can walk to a clinic, her kid can ride a bike to school, and she doesn’t have to choose between rent and groceries.
Why do some cities grow while others shrink even with lower taxes?
Lower taxes don’t attract people who need schools, transit, and safety. Cities that grow invest in services that make daily life better. People move where they can live well-not just where they pay less. For example, Portland, Maine, grew its young population by focusing on walkability and free community college, while a state like Tennessee, which cut taxes but also services, attracted mostly retirees.
Do amenities really matter more than salary for young workers?
Yes. A 2024 Urban Institute survey found that 68% of remote workers moved cities in the past two years, and 41% said bike lanes, parks, and walkable neighborhoods were more important than salary. People now value time, safety, and quality of life over higher pay, especially when remote work lets them choose where to live.
How does immigration affect urban growth?
Immigrants are the biggest driver of population growth in most U.S. and Canadian cities. In Toronto, 57% of new residents in 2023 were immigrants. In Charlotte, foreign-born residents opened businesses that created over 3,000 jobs and paid $45 million in taxes. Cities that support immigrants with language help, housing access, and business licensing see faster growth than those that don’t.
Can a city with declining population turn things around?
Yes-but only by focusing on people, not just business. St. Louis and Cleveland tried tax cuts and big projects. They failed. Cities like Detroit are now rebuilding by turning vacant lots into urban farms, offering free childcare in public libraries, and hiring local artists to redesign public spaces. Growth comes from making life better for those already there-and welcoming newcomers.
What’s the biggest mistake cities make when trying to attract talent?
They spend money on corporate tax breaks and stadiums instead of housing, transit, and schools. A new sports arena doesn’t help a single parent get to work. But a reliable bus line that connects neighborhoods does. The real competition isn’t for companies-it’s for people. Cities that forget that lose.
The future of cities isn’t written in corporate tax codes. It’s written in the sidewalk outside your apartment, the bus you take to work, and the park where your kids play. The cities that win will be the ones that treat people-not profits-as their top priority.
