The Mid-Sized City Migration

Since 2000, more than 5.5 million Americans have left the country’s three largest cities for smaller cities, according to Mick Cornett, former mayor of Oklahoma City.

In a City Lab report, Cornett, whose fourth term as mayor ended earlier this year, writes that mid-sized cities, from Boise to Madison, are growing in a way that they historically have not, pulling people away from larger metros. He points to mobile tech jobs, affordable housing, and newly walkable community centers as major reasons for the switch in migration patterns.

For a long time, one of the best-known things about Oklahoma was its perpetual loss of so many of its hard-working people and families to the verdant vineyards, vibrant economy, and the promise of a better life in California. This is the story John Steinbeck told in his classic novel The Grapes of Wrath. But in the years since the Great Recession, thousands more people moved from California to Oklahoma City than vice versa. The trend continues year after year, and the new residents are more than welcome. With apologies to Steinbeck, I call it the Wrath of Grapes.

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