Community Members Talk About Lack Of Young Professionals In Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill is the home to one of the best universities in the country, but despite a large number of young people, the town is struggling to attract young professionals.

Seven and a half percent of Chapel Hill’s population is between 25 and 34 years old.

UNC graduate student Travis Crayton talked about an article he wrote about the town’s aging population.

“What we’re seeing is an attraction of Chapel Hill as more of perhaps a retirement community,” he said. “I think this is an interesting statistic to single out because it does challenge our traditional notions of what Chapel Hill is and who Chapel Hill is.”

The cities of Durham and Raleigh have twice the percentage of young professions as Chapel Hill does.

“It’s expensive to live here,” said councilwoman Jessica Anderson. “When you’re getting out of college that’s the toughest time to afford, I think 10 years later it’s much easier for fogeys like me to afford something in Chapel Hill.”

Crayton said he also thought a lack of job opportunities for recent graduates forces many to move away, but it wasn’t all doom and gloom.

He noted that Chapel Hill is a walkable community with a lot of things that could attract young professionals.

“Some decisions were made that really poise our community to be a place that can attract the kinds of people who are working in these innovative sectors and can create an economic vibrancy we don’t have,” Crayton said.

Tom Jensen from Public Policy Polling agreed, saying in recent years the town has improved, but he wasn’t sure if that would continue.

“I think what you see at 140 West is a heck of a lot better than the surface parking lot that used to be there,” he said. “What you’re seeing at East 54 is a heck of a lot better than the Best Western that used to be there and I think that some of these new developments coming on line are going to have some of these positive impacts.”

But Crayton said the town needs to be careful when having these conversations.

“Because we don’t have any young professionals living here those voices can’t even be a part of the conversation,” he said. “So how do we think about people who might want to live here who might be choosing to live in Durham or who might move out of state or elsewhere.”

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Community Members Talk About Lack Of Young Professionals In Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill is the home to one of the best universities in the country, but despite a large number of young people, the town is struggling to attract young professionals. Seven and a half percent of Chapel Hill’s population is between 25 and 34 years old. UNC graduate student Travis Crayton talked about an article […]

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