so much for the claim that nobody wants to live in cities
One of the arguments for the pro-sprawl "everyone wants to live in the suburbs" theory is that even if some cities have been gaining population, the population gains don't reveal anything because the gains are due to immigration rather than to native-born whites (the theory being that the former group can't afford to live in the suburbs, while the latter group can). But get aload of this story from today's Washington Post:

"The white populations of the District, Arlington and Alexandria have grown this decade even as the region's outer counties have grown more diverse, according to new census estimates to be released today that underscore how the area's soaring housing prices and job sprawl are reshaping its racial and ethnic dynamics.

The city and those close-in Virginia suburbs had higher percentages of non-Hispanic white residents in 2004 than in 2000, a reversal of past trends, the estimates say. Minority groups grew more slowly than in the past, or declined."

"New census estimates say that the white share of the population has risen since 2000 in the District, Alexandria and Arlington and that the region's outer counties are becoming increasingly racially and ethnically diverse.

In the District, Arlington and Alexandria, whites became a larger share of the population -- by a rate that ranked in the top 10 among the nation's jurisdictions, according to Brookings Institution demographer William H. Frey. Whites account for 30 percent of the D.C. population, up from 28 percent in 2000, and their numbers rose 3 percentage points in both Arlington, to 64 percent, and Alexandria, to 58 percent."

And this is in a city that in many ways is still a mess: low-prestige public schools and a murder rate of about 35 per 100,000 (more than FIVE TIMES that of NYC, roughly twice that of Chicago). Imagine what would happen if the District worked.

Caveat: The statistics upon which the Post's story is based are from Census Department estimates, which (as noted very briefly in my 8-3 post) are not entitled to enormous weight.