Seattle And Phoenix: A Tale Of Growth In Two Cities

Seattle and Phoenix were the two fastest-growing big cities last year, but they couldn’t be more different, says Jon Talton, a columnist for the Seattle Times. Seattle was the nation’s fastest-growing city in percentage terms last year with a 3.1 percent gain, crossing the 700,000 population mark for the first time. However, the Census Bureau report also showed that Phoenix added the most people numerically among big cities to reach a population of 1,615,017. Talton says this makes Phoenix the fifth most-populous city in the United States, behind Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston and New York. Phoenix has land, but it’s not particularly affordable for most people, and it “faces a dire future from climate change,” he says.

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