In the Denver airport Thursday night, traffic literally stopped as hurried passengers froze in front of TV screens to watch LeBron James’ press conference. Who would have thought that so much would turn on, as Andy Borowitz put it, “the spectacle of an incredibly wealthy man getting a new job”?

This wasn’t Apple or Google picking a new city for their headquarters. This wasn’t the Yankees or the Celtics or the Cowboys seeking out a new place to build a stadium. It was just one person – admittedly a very talented one, but still just a single individual. “Here is James,” writes the venerable New York Times sports columnist William Rhoden, “a 25-year-old African-American man with a high school diploma, commanding a global stage.”

During the run-up to the big decision, the Wall Street Journal compiled a patently hilarious “Lifestyle Location Index,” comparing New York, Miami, Chicago, L.A., and Cleveland, the finalists in the LeBron locational derby, on taxes, luxury hotels, fancy restaurants, exclusive golf courses, high-end car dealerships, and nightlife (one can only hope they were doing this tongue in cheek). The Journal quoted Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous’s Robin Leach, too: “New York gives him the high-powered world of Wall Street and super-sized apartments and Miami gives him the beach and his pals. Cleveland, that’s another story.”

Let me admit it: I was rooting for LeBron to stay in Cleveland. What a story that would be, I thought. The kid from Akron stays at home and helps restore pride to a much-battered region. And that from a lifelong Knicks fan, who as a young working-class kid sat glued to a black and white TV to watch Willis and Clyde and Earl-the-Pearl and Bradley and DeBusscherre.

For Maureen Dowd, the spectacle was way beyond tacky: “ESPN’s 28 minutes of contrived suspense over James’s narcissistic announcement that he was going, aptly, to My-Am-Me,” she quipped, “played like ‘The Bachelor,’ without the rose for the winner.” So is that what all this was about, when all is said and done – a  “shameful display of selfishness,” a young man’s “cowardly betrayal” of his humble origins, as James’ erstwhile and utterly petulant former employer Dan Gilbert put it?

Far from it. The more I think about it, the more the reaction from white, privileged America seems to me to smack of racism and classism. Does anyone criticize Bill Gates or Steve Jobs or the Google or Facebook guys when they abandon their old companies and home towns to launch new startups? Yes, the LeBron James show was self-aggrandizing and over-the-top, but when all was said and done, it wasn’t all about Lebron James either.

It is also about Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. Together these three young men are rewriting the old categories of class, race, and location. They do not see themselves as employees who are beholden to wealthy owners or to the cities they played in. Yes, they are talented athletes but they are also demonstrating that they can control, even plot, their own destinies. Dowd derisively dubbed the three a “hoops cartel.” In their 20s, they are less established moguls rigging a market and more like the young techies of Silicon Valley. The three have banded together in a stunning display of the leverage of talent over ownership.

They are not just going to a new city, they are building their own new enterprise in it – creating the nucleus of a startup of their own but within an already-existing franchise. And, just like those young techies, often require a grey-haired CEO to keep them on an even keel. With Pat Riley, they’ll be working with a seasoned pro who can help them realize their vision. Surely there are risks to their enterprise, like any startup. One of them might suffer a career-ending injury, they might not win a title fast enough… But those are the risks that entrepreneurs are willing to take.

So why Miami? Why would the “Three Kings” choose this particular location over, say, the Big Apple or L.A.? The reasons, I believe, lie deeper than its low taxes, abundant sun, and great nightlife. Experts and average people alike tend to think that companies pick places that offer the best cost profiles and that people go to the cities that give them the highest salaries and biggest bang for the buck.

But real entrepreneurs – those who want to build something new – sometimes pick “frontier locations,” places where they can mold the environment to help them reach their desired goals, like the tech pioneers of  Silicon Valley in the late 60s and 70s, or Hollywood’s early moguls. Perhaps this is what Miami had to offer “the Three Kings.” The place is diverse enough, open-minded enough, free-wheeling enough, and hungry enough that they can make their own rules. The media spotlight is less glaring than in New York. And Miami is incredibly diverse, all the way to the very top of its social order – it is home to extremely wealthy Latinos, Middle-Easterners, Russians, and African Americans who have made money their own way. Wade has been there; he has insider information, he knows the place very, very well. Not just its clubs and restaurants, but its deeper resources, the way it works.

Most people attempt to optimize their interests within the constraints imposed by their existing environment – what the great economist Joseph Schumpeter dubbed the typical “adaptive response.” But at critical junctures, certain kinds of entrepreneurs step outside the bounds of what is given and undertake to shape and actively construct an new environment of their own – what Schumpeter called the “creative response.”

Miami offered the best place where these three savvy, talented, and surpassingly entrepreneurial young men could create their own kind of space – a more open-ended space, where they could realize their ambitions and dreams. The more I think about what they have pulled off, the more amazed I am. They are true Wild West cowboys; Horatio Alger made flesh. They have shown us how very good they are at America’s most important game, one that goes beyond sports and even money-making to the very heart of the American dream: of writing your own ticket and forging your own path, of doing it – and having it – one’s own way.

It appears that families, not just the young and skilled, have been moving away from Rustbelt cities like Cleveland, according to this story in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, based on a new report from the Brookings Institution.

“White flight” described the rush of white families to the suburbs in the 1960s and 1970s. By the 1980s, observers talked of “middle-class flight” to reflect black residents who had joined the tide.  A new pattern may demand a new label. Research shows that an exodus of moms and dads of all races and income levels — family flight — is reshaping Cleveland and its region.  Cleveland lost nearly 10 percent of its people this decade and married couples with children led the stampede, a study released today reveals. An emptying city, meanwhile, drew few of the immigrant families replenishing communities elsewhere, resulting in swift decline.

The great folks at GOOD magazine interviewed me for their neighborhoods issue.  Here it is.

Sure, I’ve always been a huge fan of The Clash. Thus the title of this new paper, “Should I Stay or Should I Go, Now: The Effects of Community Satisfaction on the Decision to Stay or Move,” coauthored with my colleagues Charlotta Mellander and Kevin Stolarick. Most research has looked at why people choose to move. This paper turns that on its head and examines why people choose to stay. Interestingly enough, characteristics of the place itself appear to play the biggest role, trumping individual characteristics like income, education, age, and the like. And it’s not economic conditions – like the job market or economic opportunity – that matter most. Rather it’s the ability to forge meaningful and lasting social relationships and the quality of the place itself which have the biggest effect on the decision to stay. Here’s the abstract:

Why do some people stay in locations while others move? While most research has examined the factors which encourage people to move to new locations, we focus our research on the effects of satisfaction with individuals’ current location on the decision to stay or to move. To do so, we examine the relative effects of three kinds of factors: (1) satisfaction with community or place-based factors such as aesthetic appeal, outdoor space and recreational amenities, artistic and cultural amenities, the ability to meet people and make friends; (2) community economic conditions; and (3) individual-level demographic factors such as income, human capital, and age. Our findings indicate that place-based factors, in particular the beauty and physical appeal of the current location and the ability to meet people and make friends, explain more of the desire to stay than does community economic conditions or individual demographic characteristics.

There’s a straightforward message here for all those places that want to retain more of the talented people. In addition to doing all the useful and important things they are doing to bolster their business climate and create and protect jobs, it’s critically important they improve their overall quality of place and build a people climate where residents can forge and maintain meaningful social ties. This is not a case of either-or, but rather a case of and-both.

The full paper is here.

Now this is pretty cool.  The great graphic above is from the folks at LegoClick.

New research by the Gallup Organization finds that 700 million people – 16 percent of the world’s total population – would like to move to a different country than the one they currently call home.

The first map below shows the percentages of people in various regions of the world that desire to permanently move to another country.

The second map shows the places these movers would most like to relocate to.

Gallup also compiled a very interesting index of potential net migration which compares “the estimated number of adults who would like to move out of a country permanently subtracted from the estimated number who would like to move to it,” as a proportion of the total population. Here are the top five and bottom five countries. Interestingly, the United States did not make the top five.

The Wall Street Journal asked six experts to come up with lists of the “next youth magnet cities.” I was one of them. The top spot was a tie – D.C. and Seattle, followed by NYC, Portland (OR), Austin, San Jose, Denver, Raleigh-Durham, Dallas, Chicago, and Boston. You can see the list and read the full story here.

Below is what I sent to the Journal.

My Rankings
These are based on my own rankings of the best places for young, professional singles, aged 20-29 in Who’s Your City?, as well as other rankings and surveys and my reading of current trends. The data are from Kevin Stolarick, additional analysis by Charlotta Mellander, and research assistance by Patrick Adler, my colleagues at the Martin Prosperity Institute.

1) New York City
The country’s largest city was the top destination for recent graduates according to the career-cast survey noted below. The city’s size affords migrants an economic diversity that simply cannot exist in smaller places. It’s the place to be if you’re in finance, fashion, entertainment, publishing, or even indie music. Also unparalleled is the city’s mythic status, as a place to test one’s mettle against the best and the brightest. One of the top five on my own rankings of the best places for young, single, 20-29-year-olds.

2) Washington, D.C
The public sector is ascendant and, in the eyes of many, Barack Obama is America’s coolest boss. These factors will only bolster Washington, D.C., a city that is already a hotbed of young talent. 45.9 percent of Washington, D.C.’s workforce has a bachelor’s degree or more, and young people enjoy positions of influence on congressional staffs and at think tanks. And it is a center for media, journalism, and blogging as well as high-tech. D.C. is the top city in my own rankings of best places for young singles aged 20-29. If I was 23 or 24 again, it’s where I’d head.

3) San Francisco/ Silicon Valley
Still the world’s high-tech hot spot. One of the top five on my own rankings. Great quality of life, a large stock of smart, driven young people, and fantastic restaurants and outdoor activities.

4) Chicago
If management or industry is your thing, Chicago is the place to be. It’s the talent magnet for the midwest and beyond, drawing driven young people by the droves. It has great amenities, great nightlife, a spectacular waterfront, great restaurants, and it’s affordable.

5) Boulder/ Denver
Yes, it’s smaller than the others, but it packs a real punch. Boulder ranked No. 1 among all U.S. destinations on my own rankings of the best places for young singles 20-29. Now add in Denver and it has the size and scale to be a great place for young professionals. It has thriving, high-tech industries about the best outdoor recreation – from skiing to cycling – to be had anywhere.

6) L.A.
If you want a career in film, entertainment, fashion, or music, it’s the place to be. Sure, it’s crowded, pricey, and the traffic is horrible, but it has abundant sunshine, great temperatures, unbelievable beaches, and fantastic restaurants.

7) Boston
It’s always been a great “stay-over” town for the thousands of regional college grads. This year, it surpassed NYC as the No. 1 destination for Harvard grads. It’s the world center for management consulting with strong finance and high-tech industries. Not to mention a great place to stick around, work for awhile, and go back to grad school.

Seattle
A high-tech and lifestyle mecca in its own right with Amazon, Microsoft, and more. It’s also a center for cutting-edge retail with Starbucks, Costco, and REI. Quality of place by the boatloads.

9) Austin
What can you say about a place whose motto is “Keep Austin Weird”? It remains a high-tech player, with great quality of life that’s affordable. It’s the indie music capital of the universe with SXSW and Austin City Limits and a great array of local venues. Plus, with residents like Lance Armstrong, it’s a cyclist and outdoor enthusiast’s paradise.

10) Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill
Another great high-tech, university, smart city, which boasts a mild climate, highly educated population, great outdoor activities, and a great music scene.

Runners-Up/Honorable Mention:

• Madison, Wisconsin, and Ann Arbor, Michigan – Both great stay-over college towns that rank very high on my own rankings. College towns in general perform well in this demographic; they’ve coped reasonably well with the recession and are good places to stay or head, at least for a while
• Atlanta and Minneapolis: Regional talent magnets for the southeast and Great Lakes/Plains respectively.
• Outside the U.S.: London, Toronto, Shanghai, Sydney-Melbourne-Brisbane.

Key factors affecting location of young, college-educated singles
Even with signs that the worst of the Great Recession is over, young people are understandably worried about their economic future. This past May, the Wall Street Journal reported that some of the past decade’s “youth magnet” locations are losing their appeal as economic opportunities whither in cities like Phoenix, Seattle, Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Las Vegas, and others which led the nation in attracting young college grads from 2005 to 2007. So where are young, educated, single people heading?

A recent survey lists the best places for college grads to launch their careers. New York City topped the list – despite the financial crisis – with eight in 10 survey respondents listing it as one of their top destinations. Second-place Washington, D.C. was named by 63 percent. Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, Denver, Seattle, and San Diego round out the top 10. And, remember, this is a list of the places that are best to find a job, not to have fun, go to great restaurants or clubs, make friends, or get lots of dates.

The list is heavy on big cities, and it’s remarkably similar to a comprehensive list my research team and I developed for my book Who’s Your City? of the best places for college-educated 20- to 29-year-olds. It also put big cities such as San Francisco, Washington, Boston, Los Angeles, and New York on top. (D.C. jumped to the top of the list when we factored affordability and cost into the mix.) College towns also did well, with Madison, WI, topping the list for medium-size regions, and Boulder, CO, taking first place for small regions. Raleigh, N.C.; Ann Arbor, MI; and New Haven, CT also score well. To get at the factors that attract and keep Gen Y in certain places, my colleague Charlotta Mellander and I analyzed the results of a Gallup survey of some 28,000 Americans.

First off, young, educated people are considerably less attached to where they live and considerably more mobile than other Americans. About a quarter (26.5 percent) of them said they were extremely satisfied with the place they currently live, compared with nearly half (47.4 percent) of all Americans. Twenty-somethings are, on average, three or four times more likely to move than 40- or 50-somethings.

Jobs are clearly important. Gen Y members ranked the availability of jobs second when asked what would keep them in their current location and fourth in terms of their overall satisfaction with their community. But it’s more than just a job. Young people today are faced with dwindling corporate commitment; job tenure has grown far shorter and people switch jobs with much greater frequency. That means picking a location which not only offers a great job but a thick labor market with abundant career opportunity, as a hedge against economic uncertainty and the risk of layoff.

But the highest-ranked factor is the ability to meet people and make friends. Young, educated people intuitively understand what economic sociologists have documented: Vibrant social networks are key to landing jobs, moving forward in your career, and one’s broader personal happiness. They not only desire a thick labor market but what I have come to call a thick mating market where they can meet new people, go out on dates, and eventually find a life partner. What do you think is more important to happiness: Finding a great job or finding the right life partner?

Where older Americans see high-quality schools and safe streets as key, Gen Y understandably ranks the availability of outstanding colleges and universities higher. Many are likely to go back to graduate school and having great programs nearby is a big plus. When it comes to their overall community satisfaction, access to open space, being in an aesthetically beautiful city, and having access to vibrant nightlife are also quite important. Affordable housing, air, and water quality, and availability of religious institutions matter too but slightly less so.

My own assessment is that finding the right place to live is among the three most important decisions of your life. Moving is an expensive and time-consuming proposition; mistakes can be costly to fix or undo.

Do you feel that you live in the right city? Or is there a move in your future?

From left to right: Richard Florida; Mayor of Albany, New York, Gerald D. Jennings; Jeff Stone, president of Key Bank, NA, Capital Region New York District; City Champion Catherine M. Hedgeman; President, Center for Economic Growth, Michael Tucker

You can add professional basketballer Hedo Turkoglu to the list of people who have relocated to Toronto thanks to its cosmopolitanism. Turkoglu, one of the most sought-after free agents on the market this year, is moving to Toronto with his wife because of its large Turkish community and international flavor. Turkoglu has reportedly rebuffed the Portland Trailblazers, a team that is thought to have more upside, to join the Raptors who did not make the playoffs last year. Money quote from his agent Lon Babby:

“It’s a uniquely cosmopolitan and international community and it suits him and his family best…The comfort level was just best in Toronto.”

Where will the Turkoglu’s new home be? From the looks of it, they will have a ton of options.

A new study finds that housing prices have had a big effect on recent mobility. Here’s a snippet from Real Time Economics.

Housing affordability has played a greater role in prompting residents to leave one state for another over the past decade, according to a study released by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

This is a change from the past, when jobs were the primary economic driving factor behind state-to-state migration. The study helps explain why migration has fallen off so sharply in this recession — with the drastic fall in housing prices, many people are staying put not for work but because they are tied to a home they either cannot sell or refuse to sell at today’s prices.

The FRB study focuses on New England, which for years has seen a net outflow of residents to other states. The author, Boston Fed economist Alicia Sasser, shows that job growth (or lack thereof) and housing prices played equal roles in New England’s out-migration between 1997 and 2006. Between 2001 and 2006 about 100,000 additional people left Massachusetts either for a job or to seek lower housing prices, according to Ms. Sasser’s research. Roughly 60% of those people left for housing affordability …

Mr. Sasser’s study may give a glimmer of hope to states that have lost people, at least high-cost states like Massachusetts that have lost people to places with lower-priced housing (cities like Buffalo that have lost jobs will likely continue to lose residents.) When the economy eventually picks up, lower housing prices may bring the balance between jobs and home prices back into equilibrium, prompting more New Englanders to stay where they are or even move back.