On Migration to the New West: Environment, Transit, & Growth, 1985-2010 (Working Paper).

\Over the past three decades, urban areas of the Interior West and Pacific Northwest have experience what some commentators call the fourth great boom since the settlement of those regions a century ago. What fueled this boom is in many ways similar to past booms: a sudden influx of immigrants (both foreign and domestic) along with rapid job growth and spatial development to take advantage of housing prices and property values. But rather than promising endless land for suburbs and office parks, some cities have tried to contain growth, rebuild their centers and create a new urban identity based on medium- or high-density living; other cities, after seeing the consequences of unrestrained growth, have decided to reconsider their transportation and development options. These cities, in contrast to their counterparts in the Southwest and Sun Belt, could hold the key to how American urban areas can adapt and thrive in a century that will be dominated by ecological and economic concerns. Using a mixed methods approach of demographic data and media content analysis, this paper examines four cities in the American West - Seattle, Portland, Salt Lake City, and Denver - to gauge how transit, growth boundaries, and an emphasis on quality of life, outdoor recreation, and environmental health have led to sustainable population growth and economic prosperity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]