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Southern California was not ready for millennials

Planning experts predict future

Back in 1988, The Times asked the question: What will Southern California look like in the future?  While some projections came pretty close, others took everyone by surprise, especially the emergence of millennials. An article in the LA Times now shows new results from planning experts for 2040 after they studied what really happened in 2010.

Check out the article for a useful chart comparing 2010 projections, to 2010 actual and 2040 projections.

For a sneak peak of the chart, in the 2010 projections, it was estimated that the population of the six-county area would be 8.3 million.

the actual data, it was 18.1 million.

The article explained that one big surprise was how the millennial generation would reshape traditional ways of life in Southern California.

"Nobody, not in academia or any public agency, got this right. The millennial behavior is shocking to many," Ikhrata said. "They're not in a hurry to get their licenses. They don't like to drive as much as we do. They like to carpool, bike and walk if they can. We missed that because none of us expected the technology to move so fast."

Meanwhile, for housing, the article said that millennial behaviors will continue to affect the way officials think about housing. Right now, millennials developments  are multifamily homes and mixed-use projects that form walkable mini-communities.

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3d rendering of a row of luxury townhouses along a street

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