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GETTING INFO ABOUT: python

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New article found for topic: python
URL: https://www.oreilly.com/programming/free/python-for-scientists.csp
TITLE: Python for Scientists
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Get the free ebook 
More and more, scientists are seeing tech seep into their work. From data collection to team management, various tools exist to make your lives easier. But, where to start? Python is growing in popularity in scientific circles, due to its simple syntax and seemingly endless libraries. This free ebook gets you started on the path to a more streamlined process. With a collection of chapters from our top scientific books, you'll learn about the various options that await you as you strengthen your computational thinking.This free ebook includes chapters from:Python for Data AnalysisEffective Computation in PhysicsBioinformatics Data SkillsPython Data Science Handbook


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New article found for topic: python
URL: https://www.oreilly.com/programming/free/python-data-for-developers.csp
TITLE: Python Data for Developers
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Get the free ebook 
Data is everywhere, and not just for data scientists. Developers are increasingly seeing it enter their realm, requiring new skills and problem solving. Python has emerged as a giant in the field, combining an easy-to-learn language with strong libraries and a vibrant community. If you have a programming background (in Python or otherwise), this free ebook will provide a snapshot of the landscape for you to start exploring more deeply.


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New article found for topic: python
URL: /article/idUSKBN1ZG16F
TITLE: 'It was going for my throat': Florida python hunters wrestle invasive snakes
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OCHOPEE, Fla. (Reuters) - Thomas Aycock’s life flashed before his eyes one night in the Everglades as a 13-foot Burmese python squeezed his arm and a leg in its coils.  Aycock, who was trying to bag the snake by himself, still recalls feeling its tail across his back. “I knew what it was doing, it was going for my throat,” said the 54-year-old Florida Army National Guard major who was able to wrestle free during that incident in the summer of 2018. “I said to myself, ‘It can’t go down like this.’” That scare has not stopped him from returning again and again to the sprawling wetland, devoting almost every spare moment to searching the thick brush and sawgrass for more snakes, as he was doing during this interview.   The state encourages hunters to capture or kill the giant, invasive south Asian snakes that are decimating local wildlife.  Dozens of hunters are prowling the Everglades during Florida’s 10-day Python Bowl, which ends Monday.  Armed with long metal hooks that resemble fireplace pokers and bags, many hunters catch the snakes and take them in live.  Those who take the most longest and heaviest pythons each will win $2,000 in cash.  Other prizes include off-road vehicles. Aycock and his fellow hunters are spending days and nights slowly creeping across the webs of levees that span the Everglades by foot, bicycle and souped-up SUV looking for the glint of an eye or the shine of brown and black scales. First found in the Everglades around the year 2000, the snakes were introduced by pet owners and possibly a snake research facility that was destroyed when Hurricane Andrew struck the region in 1992.  Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission staff bag an invasive Burmese python in the Everglades Wildlife Management Area, Florida June 23, 2019. FWC/Alicia Wellman/Handout via REUTERSThe behemoths, some of which measure more than 18 feet (5.5 m) long and weigh more than 100 pounds (45 kg), have wreaked havoc on the fragile ecosystem. A 2012 study in Everglades National Park by the United States Geological Survey found 99% fewer raccoons, 98% fewer opossums and 87% fewer bobcats. Massive snakes have even been found trying to eat alligators.  “I saw an opossum last night out on the levee and it was the first small animal I’ve seen in probably five or six months,” Aycock said. Agencies including the South Florida Water Management District and the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission have all launched python removal programs in recent years, offering hunters hourly wages and bonuses depending on the size and weight.  According to a 2019 report, contracted python hunters brought in about 1,900 snakes since the program launched in March 2017. The success has been hard fought.  Despite their size and numbers, which some estimate in the hundreds of thousands, Aycock said it can take eight hours on average to find a snake. HUNDREDS CAUGHT From the start of the program to mid-2018, the most current data available, hunters working for both agencies spent 14,000 hours in the field yielding 1,186 snakes.  Some larger females have been found holding up to 100 eggs.  “We’re targeting removal in bird rookeries, in sensitive ecological areas, so regardless of the snakes’ population we know every one removed makes a difference,” said Kristen Sommers, the state’s wildlife impact management section leader. Yet on Wednesday night, finding even one proved impossible for Aycock.  Slideshow (10 Images)The cooler weather meant the cold-blooded serpents stayed hidden and out of sight. “Every python removed out of this ecosystem serves a purpose in restoring this ecosystem,” Aycock said. “We have a good time out here, but it’s also a mission we take seriously and are willing to work at.” Editing by Scott Malone and David GregorioOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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New article found for topic: python
URL: /article/idUSFWN2CU0ZV
TITLE: BRIEF-FDA Says Applied Medical Recalls Python Embolectomy, Bard Embolectomy, And Otw Latis Cleaning Catheters
BODY:
May 12 (Reuters) - U.S. FDA: * FDA SAYS APPLIED MEDICAL RECALLS PYTHON EMBOLECTOMY, BARD EMBOLECTOMY, AND OTW LATIS CLEANING CATHETERS DUE TO RISK OF SEPARATION DURING USE * FDA- IDENTIFIED APPLIED MEDICAL’S PYTHON EMBOLECTOMY, BARD EMBOLECTOMY, AND OTW LATIS CLEANING CATHETERS RECALL AS CLASS I RECALL * FDA- GOT 3 MEDICAL DEVICE REPORTS, NO REPORTS OF DEATH/ INJURY RELATED TO PYTHON EMBOLECTOMY, BARD EMBOLECTOMY, OTW LATIS CLEANING CATHETERS RECALL Source text: (bit.ly/2SYq8NU)Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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New article found for topic: python
URL: /article/idUSKBN1ZL1QG
TITLE: Monty Python star Terry Jones dies aged 77
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LONDON (Reuters) - Terry Jones, one of the British Monty Python comedy team and director of religious satire “Life of Brian”, has died at the age of 77 after a long battle with dementia, his family said on Wednesday. Born in Wales in 1942, Jones was also an author, historian and poet. He had been diagnosed in 2015 with a rare form of dementia, FTD. Jones was one of the creators of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, the British TV show that rewrote the rules of comedy with surreal sketches, characters and catchphrases, in 1969. He co-directed the team’s first film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” with fellow Python Terry Gilliam, and directed the subsequent Life of Brian and “The Meaning of Life.” Python Michael Palin, who met Jones at Oxford University, said he was “kind, generous, supportive and passionate about living life to the full”. “He was far more than one of the funniest writer-performers of his generation, he was the complete Renaissance comedian - writer, director, presenter, historian, brilliant children’s author, and the warmest, most wonderful company you could wish to have.” Jones’ family said his work with Monty Python, books, films, television programmes, poems and other work “will live on forever, a fitting legacy to a true polymath”. Jones wrote comedy sketches with Palin in the 1960s for shows including “The Frost Report” and “Do Not Adjust Your Set” before the pair teamed up with Cambridge graduates Eric Idle, John Cleese, Graham Chapman - who died in 1989 - and U.S. film-maker Terry Gilliam to create Monty Python. One of Jones’ best-known roles was that of Brian’s mother in Life of Brian released in 1979, who screeches at worshippers from an open window: “He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy”. Another was the hugely obese Mr Creosote who explodes in a restaurant at the end of an enormous meal after eating a “wafer-thin mint”. Slideshow (6 Images)Cleese said: “It feels strange that a man of so many talents and such endless enthusiasm, should have faded so gently away ..,” adding, in a reference to Chapman “Two down, four to go.” As well as his comedy work, Jones wrote about medieval and ancient history, including a critique of Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Knight’s Tale”.  He made an emotional public appearance in 2016 when, just weeks after revealing his diagnosis with dementia, he received a Bafta Cymru award for his outstanding contribution to film and television, which was presented by Palin. Additional reporting by Elizabeth Howcroft and Kate Holton; editing by Stephen AddisonOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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New article found for topic: python
URL: /article/idUSL8N29R45I
TITLE: Monty Python star Terry Jones dies aged 77
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LONDON (Reuters) - Terry Jones, one of the British Monty Python comedy team and director of religious satire “Life of Brian”, has died at the age of 77 after a long battle with dementia, his family said on Wednesday. Born in Wales in 1942, Jones was also an author, historian and poet. He had been diagnosed in 2015 with a rare form of dementia, FTD. Jones was one of the creators of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, the British TV show that rewrote the rules of comedy with surreal sketches, characters and catchphrases, in 1969. He co-directed the team’s first film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” with fellow Python Terry Gilliam, and directed the subsequent Life of Brian and “The Meaning of Life.” Python Michael Palin, who met Jones at Oxford University, said he was “kind, generous, supportive and passionate about living life to the full”. “He was far more than one of the funniest writer-performers of his generation, he was the complete Renaissance comedian - writer, director, presenter, historian, brilliant children’s author, and the warmest, most wonderful company you could wish to have.” Jones’ family said his work with Monty Python, books, films, television programmes, poems and other work “will live on forever, a fitting legacy to a true polymath”. Jones wrote comedy sketches with Palin in the 1960s for shows including “The Frost Report” and “Do Not Adjust Your Set” before the pair teamed up with Cambridge graduates Eric Idle, John Cleese, Graham Chapman - who died in 1989 - and U.S. film-maker Terry Gilliam to create Monty Python. One of Jones’ best-known roles was that of Brian’s mother in Life of Brian released in 1979, who screeches at worshippers from an open window: “He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy”. Another was the hugely obese Mr Creosote who explodes in a restaurant at the end of an enormous meal after eating a “wafer-thin mint”. Slideshow (6 Images)Cleese said: “It feels strange that a man of so many talents and such endless enthusiasm, should have faded so gently away ..,” adding, in a reference to Chapman “Two down, four to go.” As well as his comedy work, Jones wrote about medieval and ancient history, including a critique of Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Knight’s Tale”.  He made an emotional public appearance in 2016 when, just weeks after revealing his diagnosis with dementia, he received a Bafta Cymru award for his outstanding contribution to film and television, which was presented by Palin. Additional reporting by Elizabeth Howcroft and Kate Holton; editing by Stephen AddisonOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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New article found for topic: python
URL: /article/idUSS8N27T00I
TITLE: Monty Python actor Terry Jones dies aged 77 - PA Media
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LONDON, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Terry Jones, one of the British Monty Python comedy team, has died at the age of 77, PA Media said on Wednesday. Born in Wales, Jones was also a film director and historian. He had long suffered from a rare form of dementia, FTD. Reporting by Elizabeth Howcroft and Paul Sandle; editing by
Stephen AddisonOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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New article found for topic: python
URL: /article/idUSKBN1YR1AP
TITLE: Brussels puppet theater adds Monty Python humor to nativity tale
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BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A Brussels puppet theater as old as Belgium itself is staging its Christmas nativity show this year with a dash of Monty Python humor added to the traditional story of Jesus’s birth. Puppeteers rehearse Christmas nativity show at the Royal Toone Theatre in central Brussels, Belgium December 19, 2019.   REUTERS/Francois Lenoir“It’s like a parody, a little bit like Monty Python’s Life of Brian. We don’t mean to be disrespectful, but...it’s not the Bible, really,” said Nicolas Geal, director of the Royal Theater Toone in the Belgian capital. “I don’t know whether I will go to heaven or hell for playing this,” he added with a smile.  Life of Brian, a 1979 film written by Britain’s Monty Python comedy group, is the satirical tale of a Jewish man born on the same day and next door to Jesus, and later mistaken for the Messiah. It drew protests over alleged blasphemy at the time. Playing off the film, the puppet theater’s nativity tale features silly foreign accents, particularly from the Three Wise Men, lots of jokes and slang often with a local flavor.  The theater was formed in 1830, the year Belgium was founded. Geal, who dubs himself Toone VIII, succeeded his father, who moved the theater to its current site in an alleyway near Brussels’ regal Grand Place in the 1960s.  Now boasting 1,400 puppets including some dating to the 19th century, the theater has put on shows ranging from Carmen to Cyrano de Bergerac, Dracula and Hamlet, geared more to an adult than child audience.  Geal said the European tradition of puppet shows dates back to the Middle Ages when the church forbade people to perform nativity scenes themselves, prompting performers to use puppets.  Toone’s marionettes, with a rod attached to the head, are like those used in Sicily where this form of puppet theater is thought to have originated, but given a Belgian twist. “What’s typical of Belgium is the fact I believe that we don’t take ourselves too seriously. Then we have this kind of surrealism,” Geal said. Brussels once had as many as 50 puppet theaters, Geal said, but almost all folded as other forms of entertainment became popular, particularly television, with only the Toone surviving. Additional reporting by Bart Biesemans and Jorrit Donner-Wittkopf; Writing by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Mark HeinrichOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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New article found for topic: python
URL: /article/idUSL5N26Q0CH
TITLE: Monty Python fans, handkerchiefs on heads, gather to mark anniversary
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Monty Python fans dressed as the Gumbys gather in an attempt to set the world record for the largest gathering of people dressed as Gumbys as a part of the 50th anniversary of Monty Python's Flying Circus at the Roundhouse in London, Britain October 5, 2019. REUTERS/Simon Dawson   LONDON (Reuters) - Monty Python fans, sporting knotted handkerchiefs on their heads, rolled up trousers and Wellington boots, gathered in London on Saturday for a suitably silly celebration of the 50th anniversary of the comedy troupe. The costumes matched those of the Gumbys who were characters in the “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” series that first aired on BBC television on Oct. 5, 1969.  The Gumbys were noted for their ape-like posture, habit of speaking loudly and slowly, and the catchphrase “my brain hurts”. Dozens of Gumbys strutted outside the Roundhouse music venue before events to celebrate the work of Terry Gilliam, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and the late Graham Chapman.  Organizers were hoping to set a Guinness World Record for the Largest Gathering of People Dressed as Gumbys. Editing by William Schomberg, Editing by William MacleanOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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New article found for topic: python
URL: /article/idUSKBN1WJ1IF
TITLE: Pine no more! Monty Python celebrates 50 years of silliness
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FILE PHOTO: People attend the Silly Walk Parade, emulating a sketch from British comedy group Monty Python's television series to mark April Fool's day in Budapest, Hungary, April 1, 2019. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo -/File PhotoLONDON (Reuters) - In what is billed as an “extremely silly” event, hordes of Monty Python fans will gather in full Gumby attire in London on Saturday to celebrate the British comedy troupe’s 50th anniversary. Kitted out in rubber boots, sleeveless sweaters, rolled-up trousers and with knotted handkerchiefs on their heads, they will attempt to set a Guinness World Record for the Largest Gathering of People Dressed as Gumbys. “It’s all so excitingly pointless,” said Python Terry Gilliam, who will host the event. The Gumbys - also noted for their ape-like posture, habit of speaking loudly and slowly, and the catchphrase “my brain hurts” - were recurring characters in the “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” series that first aired on BBC television on Oct. 5, 1969.  The anniversary is shaping up to be a feast of dead parrots, silly walks and singing lumberjacks served up by Gilliam, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and the late Graham Chapman. A number of events, special screenings and shows are under way, including the release of a restored version of the Monty Python TV series. Biblical spoof “Life of Brian” and their three other feature films are also being shown. The celebrations also showcase the members’ post-Python work such as Cleese’s “Fawlty Towers”. “Python has survived because we live in an increasingly Pythonesque world,” the troupe said in a press release. “Extreme silliness seems more relevant now than it ever was.”  Writing by Angus MacSwan; editing by John StonestreetOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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New article found for topic: python
URL: /article/idUSL5N26P2SI
TITLE: Pine no more! Monty Python celebrates 50 years of silliness
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FILE PHOTO: People attend the Silly Walk Parade, emulating a sketch from British comedy group Monty Python's television series to mark April Fool's day in Budapest, Hungary, April 1, 2019. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo -/File PhotoLONDON (Reuters) - In what is billed as an “extremely silly” event, hordes of Monty Python fans will gather in full Gumby attire in London on Saturday to celebrate the British comedy troupe’s 50th anniversary. Kitted out in rubber boots, sleeveless sweaters, rolled-up trousers and with knotted handkerchiefs on their heads, they will attempt to set a Guinness World Record for the Largest Gathering of People Dressed as Gumbys. “It’s all so excitingly pointless,” said Python Terry Gilliam, who will host the event. The Gumbys - also noted for their ape-like posture, habit of speaking loudly and slowly, and the catchphrase “my brain hurts” - were recurring characters in the “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” series that first aired on BBC television on Oct. 5, 1969.  The anniversary is shaping up to be a feast of dead parrots, silly walks and singing lumberjacks served up by Gilliam, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and the late Graham Chapman. A number of events, special screenings and shows are under way, including the release of a restored version of the Monty Python TV series. Biblical spoof “Life of Brian” and their three other feature films are also being shown. The celebrations also showcase the members’ post-Python work such as Cleese’s “Fawlty Towers”. “Python has survived because we live in an increasingly Pythonesque world,” the troupe said in a press release. “Extreme silliness seems more relevant now than it ever was.”  Writing by Angus MacSwan; editing by John StonestreetOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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New article found for topic: python
URL: /article/idUSKCN11S04G
TITLE: Python in India demonstrates huge appetite
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A 20 feet rock python was caught on camera in Junagadh district of India’s western Gujarat state with a swollen stomach after it consumed an antelope on Tuesday (September 20). Residents informed authorities at Girnar Wildlife Sanctuary after they spotted the reptile lying in discomfort in a field. In view of the massive swelling of the python’s stomach, the forest authorities suspect that it gobbled up a full-grown ‘nilgai’ or blue bull. The python - unable to move now - was rescued by the forest personnel and has been put under observation. “We will keep it (python) under observation. We will release it back in the wild once it digests the antelope and the swelling subsides,” said Assistant Conservator of Forest, S.D. Tilala. A blue bull is far larger than an ideal prey for pythons and digesting the mammal could prove to be a great struggle for the reptile. When unable to digest an unusually large prey, pythons are known to regurgitate them.Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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New article found for topic: python
URL: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2015/12/21/the-hutchins-center-explains-budgeting-for-aging-america/
TITLE: The Hutchins Center Explains: Budgeting for aging America
The Hutchins Center Explains: Budgeting for aging America
BODY:



For decades, we have been hearing that the baby-boom generation was like a pig moving through a python–bigger than the generations before and after. 
That’s true. But that’s also a very misleading metaphor for understanding the demographic forces that are driving up federal spending: They aren’t temporary. The generation born between 1946 and 1964 is the beginning of a demographic transition that will persist for decades after the baby boomers die, the consequence of lengthening lifespans and declining fertility. Putting the federal budget on a sustainable course requires long-lasting fixes, not short-lived tweaks.  
First, a few demographic facts.
As the chart below illustrates, there was a surge in births in the U.S. at the end of World War II, a subsequent decline, and then an uptick as baby boomers began having children.




Although the population has been rising, the number of births in the U.S. the past few years has been below the peak baby-boom levels, possibly because many couples chose not to have children during bad economic times. More significant, fertility rates–roughly the number of babies born per woman during her lifetime–have fallen well below pre-baby-boom levels.




Meanwhile, Americans are living longer. In 1950, a man who made it to age 65 could expect to live until 78 and a woman until 81. Social Security’s actuaries project that a man who lived to age 65 in 2010 will reach 84 and a woman age 86.




Put all this together, and it’s clear that a growing fraction of the U.S. population will be 65 or older.   
The combination of longer life spans and lower fertility rates means the ratio of elderly (over 65) to working-age population (ages 20 to 64) is rising. As the chart below illustrates, the ratio will rise steadily as more baby boomers reach retirement age–and then it levels off.  






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Simply put, this doesn’t look like a pig in a python.  
So what do these demographic facts portend for the federal budget?  In simple dollars and cents, the federal government spends more on the old than the young. More older Americans means more federal spending on Social Security and Medicare, the health insurance program for the elderly. On top of that, health care spending per person is likely to continue to grow faster than the overall economy.
The net result: 85 percent of the increase in federal spending that the Congressional Budget Office projects for the next 10 years, based on current policies, will go toward Social Security, Medicare and other major federal health programs, and interest on the national debt.
 






David Wessel
Director - The Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy Senior Fellow - Economic Studies

 Twitter
davidmwessel








Louise Sheiner
The Robert S. Kerr Senior Fellow - Economic Studies Policy Director - The Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy




Restraining future deficits and the size of the federal debt mean restraining spending on these programs or raising taxes–and probably both. One-time savings or minor tweaks won’t suffice. Nor will limiting the belt-tightening to annually appropriated spending.
The fundamental fiscal problem is not coping with the retirement of the baby boomers and then going back to budgets that resemble those of the past. The fundamental fiscal problem is that retirement of the baby boomers marks a major demographic transition for the nation, one that will require long-lived changes to benefit programs and taxes.

Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on 
The Wall Street Journal’s Washington Wire
 on December 18, 2015.


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New article found for topic: python
URL: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/techtank/2017/11/16/leveraging-the-disruptive-power-of-artificial-intelligence-for-fairer-opportunities/
TITLE: Leveraging the disruptive power of artificial intelligence for fairer opportunities
Leveraging the disruptive power of artificial intelligence for fairer opportunities
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According to President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), approximately 3.1 million jobs will be rendered obsolete or permanently altered as a consequence of artificial intelligence technologies. Artificial intelligence (AI) will, for the foreseeable future, have a significant disruptive impact on jobs. That said, this disruption can create new opportunities if policymakers choose to harness them—including some with the potential to help address long-standing social inequities. Investing in quality training programs that deliver premium skills, such as computational analysis and cognitive thinking, provides a real opportunity to leverage AI’s disruptive power.







Makada Henry-Nickie
Fellow - Governance Studies

 Twitter
mhnickie





AI’s disruption presents a clear challenge: competition to traditional skilled workers arising from the cross-relevance of data scientists and code engineers, who can adapt quickly to new contexts. Data analytics has become an indispensable feature of successful companies across all industries. This reality dictates that companies invest heavily in data analytics to remain competitive and profitable. Consequently, unlikely industries such as retail, banking, finance, and even agricultural firms are aggressively competing for talent with specific computational data science and programming skills. A recent IBM report expertly quantifies the scope and breadth of employers’ hiring demands, noting that “[d]emand for data-driven decision makers, such as data-enabled marketing managers, will comprise one-third of the data savvy professional job market, with a projected increase of 110,000 positions by 2020.” Herein lies a window of opportunity: the rapidly growing technical skills gap.
Investing in high-quality education and training programs is one way that policymakers proactively attempt to address the workforce challenges presented by artificial intelligence. It is essential that we make affirmative, inclusive choices to ensure that marginalized communities participate equitably in these opportunities.
Policymakers should prioritize understanding the demographics of those most likely to lose jobs in the short-run. As opposed to obsessively assembling case studies, we need to proactively identify policy entrepreneurs who can conceive of training policies that equip workers with technical skills of “long-game” relevance. As IBM points out, “[d]ata democratization impacts every career path, so academia must strive to make data literacy an option, if not a requirement, for every student in any field of study.”
Machines are an equal opportunity displacer, blind to color and socioeconomic status.
Machines are an equal opportunity displacer, blind to color and socioeconomic status. Effective policy responses require collaborative data collection and coordination among key stakeholders—policymakers, employers, and educational institutions—to  identify at-risk worker groups and to inform workforce development strategies. Machine substitution is purely an efficiency game in which workers overwhelmingly lose. Nevertheless, we can blunt these effects by identifying critical leverage points.
Investing in innovative education and training is an excellent place to start. Bill Gates’ recent $1.7 billion investment in U.S. public schools is a sign of the way forward, which offers two compelling messages for policymakers. First, innovate and experiment until we identify the right policies. Second, prioritize high-needs schools in poor neighborhoods; they deserve distinct attention to close their opportunity gaps and prepare them to be competitive in the future workforce.
Policymakers can choose to harness AI’s disruptive power to address workforce challenges and redesign fair access to opportunity simultaneously. We should train our collective energies on identifying practical policies that update our current agrarian-based education model, which unfairly disadvantages children from economically segregated neighborhoods. Evidence from a Harvard and New York University research study suggests attending a high-quality high school increases a student’s chances of attending a four-year college; which by extension improves their future income earning potential.
Let me ask a bold question: how much do we lose if we experiment with substituting an entry-level data science class for machine shop or a vocational carpentry program in urban high schools and community colleges? A 2010 pilot partnership between the University of California, Los Angeles and the National Science Foundation is an encouraging sign; the pilot focuses on redesigning computer science curricula in urban high schools to include newer mobile technologies and computational analysis.

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Data science is an applied computational technology best suited to inquisitive minds, making it appropriate for young students. Google’s TensorFlow is an open source machine-learning platform; its free price tag makes the platform an accessible and scalable training resource for schools with constrained budgets. Introducing a data science program into urban schools would be a major paradigm shift for these students. An applied data science program teaching gateway coding skills such as Python, R, SQL, and computational analysis would boost employment possibilities and create meaningful pathways to economic mobility.
I am suggesting that we leverage AI’s transformative power to disrupt diminishing possibilities for marginalized groups, like young men of color, who often do not feature in innovative-themed discussions outside of the social justice arena. Open Source groups such as Code.org and StudentRND exemplify the kinds of transformational approaches that democratize access and opportunity.
Producing a diverse pipeline of tech-savvy workers for Google and Amazon, even if only at the entry level, is a more attainable dream for most cities than competing in a stacked race for Amazon’s HQ2. Broadening adoption of artificial intelligence technologies poses significant workforce challenges, but it also offers the chance to blunt these effects and create opportunities for marginalized groups if we act preemptively.
Google is a donor to the Brookings Institution. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions posted in this piece are solely those of the authors and not influenced by any donation.


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New article found for topic: python
URL: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2014/08/06/the-silicon-valley-wage-premium/
TITLE: The Silicon Valley Wage Premium
The Silicon Valley Wage Premium
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Software application developers earn large salaries in the United States, $96,260 a year on average. But in metropolitan San Jose they earn $131,270, the highest in the country. There are many partial explanations for this—local cost of living, differences in education levels, experience, and industry—but none of them quite account for it. It turns out that developers living in San Jose have acquired the specific skills most valued by employers.
 
As the map below shows, there is a huge amount of variation in earnings for software application developers across regional labor markets. In large metropolitan areas like New York, they earn $105,000, but in Louisville, they earn just $72,000.
 

Average Salary of Software Application Developers by Metropolitan Area, 2013

 


 
Similar patterns could be shown for other occupations, of course; for even within the same job title, people vary by education and experience, and regions vary by company and industry mix, productivity and export orientation, which all affect salaries and regional housing prices.
 
The surprising thing, when it comes to software developers and other skilled occupations too, is that none of these factors can fully account for the San Jose premium. Software developers in San Jose are typically slightly less experienced, and while their levels of education are higher—including their likelihood of having majored in engineering or computer science—the difference is not enough to explain their elevated earnings. Likewise, the cost of living in San Jose is remarkably high, but comparable to other major cities. 
 


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So what distinguishes San Jose software developers? 
 
To figure this out, I analyzed a database of 29 million job vacancies advertised online during 2013 as compiled by the analytics firm Burning Glass. Of these, roughly 1.4 million were for software application developers, making it the most in-demand occupation. In total, 3 million ads also contained salary information, which I could use to estimate the average value of each distinct skill advertised. 
 






Jonathan Rothwell
Nonresident Senior Fellow - Metropolitan Policy Program

 Twitter
jtrothwell





 
In San Jose, the skills advertised for software developers are particularly valuable. The average vacancy requires higher value skills in San Jose than almost any other metropolitan area, even using national rather than local salary values.  
 
For example, 8.4 percent of ads for software developers in San Jose requested Java, a widely used programming language, associated with an average salary of $98,000 across all U.S. ads mentioning both it and a salary requirement. Yet, for the United States as a whole, just 5.7 percent of software developer ads required Java. In New York City, the share was 6.7, and it was 4.7 in Louisville.
 
Other high-value programming languages and skills were disproportionately advertised in San Jose, such as Linux, C++, Python and the term “software engineering.”  These skills were much less commonly required for jobs in Louisville and even New York. Only 0.2 percent of software jobs required Python in Louisville and 1.7 in New York City, compared to 2.8 percent in San Jose. It is valued at $100,345.
 
These and other skills contribute to the high premium enjoyed by Silicon Valley computer workers, but they could be profitably learned by a much larger swath of people, as online educators like Treehouse, Udacity, and Code Fellows aim to demonstrate.


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New article found for topic: python
URL: https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/inside-the-pentagons-secret-afghan-spy-machine/
TITLE: Inside the Pentagon’s Secret Afghan Spy Machine
Inside the Pentagon’s Secret Afghan Spy Machine
BODY:

The Pentagon’s top researchers have rushed a classified and controversial intelligence program into Afghanistan. Known as “Nexus 7,” and previously undisclosed as a war-zone surveillance effort, it ties together everything from spy radars to fruit prices in order to glean clues about Afghan instability.


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New article found for topic: python
URL: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/techtank/2016/03/01/idea-to-retire-old-methods-of-policy-education/
TITLE: Idea to Retire: Old methods of policy education
Idea to Retire: Old methods of policy education
BODY:

Public policy and public affairs schools aim to train competent creators and implementers of government policy. While drawing on the principles that gird our economic and political systems to provide a well-rounded education, like law schools and business schools, policy schools provide professional training. They are quite distinct from graduate programs in political science or economics which aim to train the next generation of academics. As professional training programs, they add value by imparting both the skills which are relevant to current employers, and skills which we know will be relevant as organizations and societies evolve. 
The relevance of the skills that policy programs impart to address problems of today and tomorrow bears further discussion. We are living through an era in which societies are increasingly interconnected. The wide-scale adoption of devices such as the smartphone is having a profound impact on our culture, communities, and economy. The use of social and digital media and associated means of communication enabled by mobile devices is changing the tone, content, and geographic scope of our conversations, modifying how information is generated and consumed, and changing the very nature of citizen engagement. 
Information technology-based platforms provisioned by private providers such as Facebook, Google, Uber, and Lyft maintain information about millions of citizens and enable services such as transportation that were mediated in the past solely by the public sector. Surveillance for purposes of public safety via large-scale deployment of sensors also raises fundamental questions about information privacy. From technology-enabled global delivery of work to displacement and replacement of categories of work, some studies estimate that up to 47 percent of U.S. employment might be at risk of computerization with an attendant rise in income inequality. These technology-induced changes will affect every policy domain. How should policy programs best prepare students to address societal challenges in this world that is being transformed by technology? We believe the answer lies in educating students to be “men and women of intelligent action.” 
A model of policy education
We begin with a skills-based model of policy education. These four essential skills address the general problems policy practitioners frequently face:

Design skills to craft policy ideas 
Analytical skills to make smart ex ante decisions 
Interpersonal experience to manage policy implementation  
Evaluative skills to assess outcomes ex post and correct course if necessary

These skills make up the policy analysis toolkit required to be data driven practitioner of “intelligent action” in any policy domain. This toolkit needs to be supplemented by an understanding of how technology is transforming societal challenges, enabling new solutions, or disrupting existing regulatory regimes. This understanding is essential to policy formulation and implementation. 
Pillar 1: Design skills
As with engineering, where design precedes analysis, this first pillar seeks to educate students in thinking creatively about problems in order to devise and develop policy ideas. Using ideas derived from design, divergent and convergent thinking principles are employed to generate, explore, and arrive at a candidate set of solutions. Using Uber as an example, an approach to identify and explore the key policy issues such as convenience, costs, driver working hours, and insurance would involve interviewing and observing both incumbent taxi drivers and Uber drivers. This in turn would lead to a set of alternatives that deserve further and careful consideration.  Using these skills, candidate designs and choices that are generated can be evaluated using the policy analytic toolkit. 
Pillar 2: Analytical skills
At Carnegie Mellon, we are often cited in media and interrogated by peers on our approach to analytical and technology skills education. Curiosity about which skills are the “right” skills to teach policy practitioners are common, but we believe this is the wrong approach. We instead begin from the premise that policy or management decisions should be grounded in evidence.  We then determine the skills required to assemble the types of evidence that will likely be available to policy makers in the future.  In increasingly instrumented environments where citizens and infrastructure produce continuous streams of data, making sense of it all will require a somewhat different set of skills. We believe that a grounding in micro-economics, operations research, statistics, and program evaluation (aka causal inference) to be an essential core to policy programs. 
New coursework will teach students to work with multi-variable data and machine learning with an emphasis on prediction. This material ought to be part of the required coursework in statistics given the importance of prediction in many policy implementation settings. Along the same lines, the ability to work with unstructured data (especially text) and data visualization will become increasingly relevant to all students, not just those students who want to specialize in data analytics. Finally, knowledge of data manipulation and analysis languages such as Python and R for analytic work will be important because data often has to be massaged and cleansed prior to analysis. An important task for programs will be to determine the competencies expected of graduates. 
Pillar 3: Interpersonal experiences
The third pillar of the skills-based model is interpersonal experience, where the practiced habits of good communication and steady negotiation developed with a sound understanding of organizations, their design and their behaviors. We label these purposely as experiences rather than skills because we believe they are best practiced either in the real-world or in simulated real-world settings. It is also in this pillar where practitioners learn the knowledge necessary to become credible experts in their domain. We believe that in addition to core coursework in the area, a supplementary curriculum which provides students with opportunities to gain these experiences is an essential component of our educational model.
Pillar 4: Evaluative skills


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The ability to carefully diagnose the effectiveness of policy or management interventions is the fourth pillar of our model. It is insufficient to create and execute policy without measurement, and this is where both careful thought to the fundamental issues of measurement and evaluation become important. The ability to make objective judgments on the benefits, liabilities, and unintended consequences of prior policies is the goal of this set of skills. Here, sound statistical and econometric training with an understanding of the principles of causal inference is essential. In addition, program evaluation skills such as cost-benefit and financial analysis help practitioners round out their evaluation skills by considering both non-monetary and economic impacts.
What should be retired?
A skills-based approach might replace certain aspects of existing policy training.  This depends on a number of factors specific to each institution, but three generally applicable observations are clear. First, real-world experiences are a powerful way to encode domain learning as well as project management skills. Through project-based work, students can learn about institutional contexts in specific policy domains and political processes such as budgeting. Second, team-based projects allow students to learn and apply principles of management and organizational behavior. At Carnegie Mellon, we refer to these as “systems synthesis” projects, since they require students to adopt a systemic point of view and to synthesize a number of skills in their policy analysis toolkit. Third, interpersonal skills training can be practiced through activities such as weekend negotiation exercises, hackathons, and speaker series. These activities can be highly intentional and fashioned to reinforce skills rather than as a recess from the “real work” of classroom training. Since students complete graduate programs in such a short time, counseling them to focus on outcomes from day one will allow them to choose a reinforcing set of coursework and real-world experiences. 
In summary, we argue for a model of policy education that views practitioners as future problem solvers. Good policy education must consider the ways in which problems will present themselves, and the ways in which answers will obscure themselves. Rigorous training grounded in the analysis of available evidence and buoyed by real-world interpersonal experiences is a sound approach to relevant, durable policy training.
 




R



Ramayya Krishnan
Ramayya Krishnan is the dean of H. John Heinz III College of Information Systems and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University where he is the W.W. Cooper and Ruth F. Cooper Professor of Management Science and Information Systems.





J



Jon Nehlsen
Jon Nehlsen is senior director of external relations at H. John Heinz III College of Information Systems and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University.





Read other essays in the Ideas to Retire blog series here.


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New article found for topic: python
URL: https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/skills-success-and-why-your-choice-of-college-matters/
TITLE: Skills, success, and why your choice of college matters
Skills, success, and why your choice of college matters
BODY:



Amidst growing frustration with the cost of higher education, complaints also abound about its quality. One critique, launched in the book Academically Adrift by two sociologists, finds little evidence that college students score better on measures of critical thinking, writing, and reasoning after attending college. This is something of a paradox, since strong evidence shows that attending college tends to raise earnings power, even for students who start with mediocre preparation. 
Our recent study uses a different approach to assess the value of a college education. We find that the particular skills listed by a college’s alumni on their resumes predict how well graduates from those schools perform in terms of earning a living, meeting debt obligations, and working for high-paying or innovative companies. Since jobs requiring more valuable skills typically require at least some college education, this finding suggests many students are gaining valuable skills from college. But the variation in alumni skills across schools is wide, even after considering the aptitude of the students in terms of their pre-admission test scores. This variation implies that what one studies and where have big effects on economic outcomes.




Skills versus degrees

It is widely known that education raises individual earnings, but education—measured in years of study or level of degree—is a very rough measure of learning. Thus, it is not surprising that studies consistently find that skills are an important predictor of economic outcomes. People with higher test scores—another measure of learning—earn higher wages, even with the same level of education. Likewise, graduates with technical degrees earn more, as do workers in occupations requiring more STEM skills. At the international scale, performance on standardized exams has a much stronger statistical relationship with economic outcomes than do years of education, according to a new OECD study.




How we valued skills by college

Using data from the company Burning Glass, we calculated the average salary listed for distinct skills based on 3 million job vacancy ads. To match these skills to colleges, we used data from LinkedIn’s college profile pages, which show the 25 most common skills (e.g., customer service, Microsoft Excel, Python) listed by alumni from each college. For the average college, we observed 1,150 profiles per skill. (A great advantage of using LinkedIn data is the large sample size.) We obtained data for 2,164 colleges representing profiles for 2.5 million U.S. residents who attended college. By comparison, Academically Adrift surveyed 2,300 college graduates.




Alumni with more valuable skills earn higher salaries

Measured at mid-career (meaning at least 10 years of working), salaries tend to be much higher for alumni who list high-value skills on their resumes. Earnings go up by an average of $2,600 for every decile of skill. Our more detailed empirical work shows that skills predict higher earnings even after controlling for math test scores on the ACT and SAT, as well as other student characteristics like family income.
Cal Tech graduates list the highest-value skills (e.g., Matlab, Python, C++, algorithms, and machine learning) and typically earn $126,000 at mid-career. Other four-year schools with high-value skills and high salaries include Harvey Mudd, MIT, the Polytechnic Institute of New York University, and the Air Force Academy. 
Earnings data from two-year colleges are not as widely available, and the correlation with alumni skills is weaker, but alumni from those schools also seem to benefit from higher skills training. Top schools include the Pittsburg Institute of Aeronautics, Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology (Tulsa, Okla.), Coleman University (San Diego), Hondros College (Columbus, Ohio), and SUNY College of Technology at Alfred.






Alumni with more valuable skills have higher loan repayment rates



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As an alternative to mid-career earnings, we also analyzed how skills predict the ability to make student loan payments immediately after graduation. Here too, more valuable skills translate into labor market success. For example, not a single Harvey Mudd attendee between 2009 and 2011 defaulted on his or her federal loans within three years of leaving. Repayment rates average 95 percent for four-year colleges in the top 10 percent for alumni skills but 87 percent for those in the bottom 10 percent. For two-year colleges, repayment rates are uniformly lower, but colleges offering higher-value skills still have significantly higher repayment rates than those that do not.






Alumni with more valuable skills are more likely to work for top organizations

Another outcome measure is whether alumni work for a desirable company or organization. LinkedIn lists the 25 enterprises that employ the most alumni from each school. To quantify the value of working for a given entity, employers were coded for desirability with data from a 2014 survey of 46,000 U.S. college students in 329 universities, developed by Universum, a corporate marketing intelligence company. A total of 212 employers, including government agencies, made it onto a top 100 list for at least one group of student majors. The most desirable employers across majors were Google, Disney, Apple, Microsoft, the FBI, Nike, NASA, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Peace Corps, and Facebook. 
For the top 10 percent of four-year colleges on alumni skills, half of LinkedIn alumni profiles indicate employment at one of the 212 top-rated companies, compared to just one in four for schools in the bottom 10 percent. For two-year schools, nearly two in five alumni (37 percent) of top-tier schools by skill worked for a top company, versus one in five alumni (21 percent) of bottom-tier schools.
For placement at Google specifically, Harvey Mudd has the highest rate—2 percent of all alumni—followed by Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Caltech, and MIT. Almost all of the colleges with the highest placement rates at Google are in the top 20 percent of alumni skills, including liberal arts colleges like Swarthmore, Pomona, Claremont, McKenna, and Williams.
 






Jonathan Rothwell
Nonresident Senior Fellow - Metropolitan Policy Program

 Twitter
jtrothwell











Alumni with more valuable skills are more likely to work for innovative organizations

Workers who contribute to the creation and development of new, valuable products can lift the living standards of people around the world. Companies that patent are more likely to be creating these sorts of advanced industry products, and 843 entities, including universities and government agencies, own at least 40 patents granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2014. 
Four-colleges that graduate alumni in the top 10 percent by skill are twice as likely to have graduates working at a top patenting organization than are colleges in the bottom 10 percent (3.3 versus 1.6 percent). Likewise, graduates from two-year colleges are about twice as likely to be working for a patenting entity if their school is in the top 10 percent compared to the bottom (1.9 versus 0.9 percent).
Schools with high placement rates at patenting entities include those listed above, as well as less the U.S. Naval Academy, Lawrence Technological University, the Stevens Institute of Technology, Santa Clara University, Brazosport College, Mount Mercy University, University of Texas-Dallas, the Missouri University of Science and Technology, and San Jose State University.






How to judge colleges

Earnings and other economic outcomes should not be equated with social value, and there are plenty of jobs and professions—child care, teaching, social work—that pay modestly but are nevertheless highly valuable to society. Colleges that specialize in this training or instill even moderately valuable skills in the least academically prepared students may be socially important institutions even if their alumni frequently are less affluent.
Nonetheless, earnings clearly matter privately and socially, as does work that supports innovation and highly productive advanced industries. Many colleges offer programs of study in fields that appear to have almost no market value—nor even any social value since the knowledge acquired is never put to use, at least through paid employment. In this sense, how well colleges instill highly valuable skills and prepare students to contribute productively to the economy should be an important consideration when evaluating schools. Colleges that do this for the students least likely to otherwise succeed are offering an even more beneficial service, as we have discussed in our value-added college research.


Correction: A previous version of this post showed graphs which reversed the label on 2- and 4-year colleges. The graphs have been corrected.


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New article found for topic: python
URL: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/modeling-with-data-tools-and-techniques-for-scientific-computing/
TITLE: Modeling with Data: Tools and Techniques for Scientific Computing
Modeling with Data: Tools and Techniques for Scientific Computing
BODY:


PREFACE



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New article found for topic: python
URL: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/forum-debating-bushs-wars/
TITLE: Forum: Debating Bush’s Wars
Forum: Debating Bush’s Wars
BODY:


In the 

Winter 2007–08 issue 
of Survival, Philip Gordon argued that America’s strategy against terror is failing ‘because the Bush administration chose to wage the wrong war’. Survival invited former Bush speechwriter and Deputy Assistant to the President Peter Wehner and Kishore Mahbubani, Dean and Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, to reflect on Gordon’s arguments. Their 
comments are available in the above PDF and Philip Gordon’s response is below.


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New article found for topic: python
URL: https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/think-bigger-on-north-korea/
TITLE: Think Bigger on North Korea
Think Bigger on North Korea
BODY:

While the world is fixated on Iraq and the Middle East, North Korea continues to pose at least as great a threat to Western security interests. Six-party talks with the North Koreans in Beijing have just showed that the Bush administration hasn’t yet found a way out of the nuclear crisis. Although negotiations appear likely to resume in a couple of months, their prospects for success seem poor.


The basic dilemma is easy to understand. North Korea will not surrender its nuclear capabilities, which are among its only valuable national assets, unless offered a very good deal for giving them up. President Bush refuses to offer such a deal because he sees the North Korean demand as blackmail. He insists that before any talks about better diplomatic relations or economic interaction occur, North Korea first relinquish—with verification—a nuclear program it had pledged nine years ago to abandon completely. At most, Bush may, as an interim gesture, offer to sign a multilateral accord in which all six parties (the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia) pledge not to attack each other.

Meanwhile, in fits and starts North Korea continues its gradual progress toward a larger nuclear capability. Given the regime’s desperate economic straits, its erratic and eccentric and isolated regime and its threats last April that it might even export nuclear materials if circumstances got bad enough, this is extremely bad news.

To the extent the Bush administration has a plan for addressing this crisis, it is a strategy of pressure. It insisted on the six-party negotiating format because that allows the other five parties all to insist that North Korea de-nuclearize. That kind of setting also deprives North Korea of its bluster and brinkmanship tactics.



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For example, when the delegation from Pyongyang used the recent Beijing meeting to accuse the Bush administration of harboring aggressive designs on North Korea, Russia countered that it was confident the United States had no such intention. The Bush administration also has established a creative concept known as the proliferation security initiative, by which countries such as the United States, Japan, Australia, France and Germany make use of existing national laws to inspect North Korean ships in their waters—complicating North Korea’s efforts to smuggle illicit weapons, drugs and counterfeit currency.

And the military card is still on the table in principle as well.

But the Bush administration’s strategy is unlikely to work. Faced with gradual economic strangulation, North Korea’s stubborn and spiteful regime would probably again let its people starve—and perhaps consider selling dangerous weapons to terrorists—before crying uncle. Moreover, China, South Korea and Japan are far from ready to apply such a “python strategy.” China publicly criticized the United States for having an inflexible stance in last month’s talks.

 






Michael E. O’Hanlon
Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy Director of Research - Foreign Policy The Sydney Stein, Jr. Chair

 Twitter
MichaelEOHanlon





Japan and South Korea both insisted on presenting a more conciliatory package of incentives to North Korea in Beijing than Washington was prepared to countenance. And none of our three key regional partners has any interest whatever in a military option at this point.

Faced with this dilemma, we need to think bigger. We must offer much more to North Korea but demand far more in return. The goal should be to push North Korea, which has shown increasing interest in economic reform, to seriously attempt such reform—building on the precedents offered by China and Vietnam in the past two decades. If North Korea is willing and takes steps, such as cutting its conventional military forces, that are needed to give such a plan any hope of success, we can be generous in return. This would not be giving in to blackmail; it would be a form of assisted suicide for the Stalinist ways of the North Korean regime. Even if Kim Jong Il and his cronies survived the transition, their rule would be radically transformed.

This plan would require the help of all six parties that are now part of the negotiating process. Chinese economists and technicians would teach the North Koreans how to carry out market reforms. Russia would reassure Kim Jong Il and his military commanders that intrusive arms control verification can be done without opening up the country to attack. Japan and South Korea would provide aid and investment; South Korea would also have to make at least modest cuts in its conventional forces in return for much deeper cuts in the oversized North Korean military.

Beyond the nuclear and conventional military issues, North Korea would also agree to verifiable elimination of its chemical weapons and ballistic missiles. It would cease counterfeiting and drug trafficking. It would have to let all Japanese kidnapping victims leave and begin a human rights dialogue with the outside world. It would continue to abstain from terrorism and provocative actions against its neighbors.

The United States would, for its part, ease trade sanctions immediately and ultimately lift them. It would, together with its regional partners and international financial institutions, provide at least $2 billion a year in aid to North Korea. The aid would not be in the form of cash (or new nuclear reactors), and would not be provided in one big dose but would be disbursed incrementally—while we watched to make sure North Korea was also holding up its end of the grand bargain.

Diplomatic ties and security assurances leading to a full peace treaty would also be appropriate.

Of course, this approach might well fail. North Korean leaders may, for example, believe they need nuclear weapons to deter the Bush administration from another preemptive action against another charter member of the axis of evil. But it would be a major mistake to act on that assumption before testing it. And if we try and fail, coercive policies may then become possible, as our regional partners will have a much harder time claiming that diplomacy has not yet been seriously attempted.


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New article found for topic: python
URL: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-new-urban-demographics-race-space-boomer-aging/
TITLE: The New Urban Demographics: Race Space & Boomer Aging
The New Urban Demographics: Race Space & Boomer Aging
BODY:

America’s urban landscape is changing. The familiar distinctions between central cities and suburbs and between the growing Sunbelt and the more stagnant Frostbelt parts of the country are being complicated by new demographic trends, two in particular. The first trend is the sharp rise in immigration to the United States. Each year about one million people, predominantly Latin American and Asian in origin, arrive in the United States, most settling in urban areas. The second trend involves the baby-boomers. This large cohort of 76 million people?often termed “the pig in the python”?is now aging toward the tail of that python. Most boomers will not move but “age in place”?in the suburbs rather than in the city. Both these trends will have important effects on urban America.

Beyond the “White-Black, City-Suburb” Typology 
For much of the postwar period, discussions of race and space in urban America revolved around black migration to central cities and “white flight” to the suburbs. The new immigration that is infusing many urban areas with new residents from a variety of backgrounds suggests the need for a new way of thinking about the demographic profiles of cities and suburbs.

The impact of immigration is apparent from a glance at the central counties (those that contain a metropolitan area’s central-city population) showing greatest population gains during 1990?99. The two largest gainers, Maricopa County, home of Phoenix, and Clark County, home of Las Vegas, achieved most of their gains from domestic migration?migrants from other parts of the United States. Yet each of the next five central counties with the greatest population gains?those of the Los Angeles, Houston, San Diego, Miami, and Dallas metropolitan areas?registered a net loss of domestic migrants. Their gains came entirely from international migration and natural increase. Were it not for immigration, the population of these areas, and of several other large central counties, would register far smaller growth or outright declines. Indeed, areas that do not attract nearly as many immigrants?the central counties of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Cleveland, and Buffalo, among others?lost population over the 1990s.

Because conventional city-suburb, black-white demographic profiles do not take adequate account of this new immigration, I offer a new typology of the nation’s large metropolitan areas, those with populations greater than 1 million (see table 1).



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The typology begins with a Multiethnic High Immigration category of 12 metropolitan areas with high immigration and a significant Asian or Hispanic presence. The largest of these areas are New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco. Four other categories cover areas that have a primarily black minority presence and those that are mostly white; and within each, those growing at a relatively high pace and those growing only modestly. These four categories are: White-Black Fast-Growing (for example, Atlanta), White-Black Slow-Growing (Detroit), Mostly White Fast-Growing (Las Vegas), and Mostly White Slow-Growing (Pittsburgh).

In metropolitan areas where white-black racial dynamics have been a historically important demographic dimension, the slow-growing areas tend to be in the Rustbelt (New Orleans being an exception), and the fast-growing areas are located in the Southeast, which has now begun to attract back significant numbers of African Americans. Mostly White Fast-Growing areas are located primarily in the West and Midwest (Orlando, Nashville, and West Palm Beach excepted). Mostly White Slow-Growing areas are located in the Northeast and Midwest (Louisville excepted).
 






William H. Frey
Senior Fellow - Metropolitan Policy Program





Table 2 gives the composite racial profiles for cities and suburbs in each of these five categories. Multiethnic High Immigration areas clearly have the greatest diversity both in their cities and in their suburbs although the suburbs remain majority white. Among the White-Black categories, the slow-growing areas show a lesser tendency toward black suburbanization.

What these statistics show is that the conventional view of cities as being in decline and as having predominantly black populations fails to take into account recent changes in the urban scene. Today some of the nation’s fastest-growing cities are gaining population from domestic migration and are mostly white. And several large multiethnic metropolitan areas house “majority minorities” in their cities and may soon do so in their suburbs as well.

The old “city-suburb” typology also fails to recognize heterogeneous growth patterns within the suburbs. Many inner and even middle suburbs are experiencing demographic dynamics similar to those of the cities. This is especially the case in some of the largest “melting pot” metropolitan areas. A look at the immigration and domestic migration dynamics for counties within the greater Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York CMSAs (Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Areas) shows that it is not just the inner counties whose gains are attributable solely to international migration. Of the 29 counties in the greater New York CMSA, fully 20 registered negative domestic migration during 1990?99 and achieved their only migration growth from immigration from abroad. The same goes for 4 of the 5 counties in the Los Angeles CMSA and for 7 of the 10 counties of the San Francisco CMSA.

The heterogeneity of suburbs was already apparent in 1990. Figure 1 compares the Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Detroit metropolitan areas. The racially diverse suburbs of Los Angeles, with their infusion of immigrants and new ethnic minorities, contrast with the suburbs of Atlanta, which show moderate racial heterogeneity, and those of slower-growing Detroit, where historical racial antagonisms keep the divide between city and suburbs fairly sharp.

Suburban growth patterns continue to favor the outer suburbs. Of the 30 counties that made the fastest gains via net domestic migration during 1990?99, most that are in metropolitan areas lie in the outer suburban reaches of fast-growing metropolitan areas such as Denver, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Dallas, and Houston. Even in the fast-growing, less dense portions of the country, an outer suburban residence remains popular.
Aging Boomers, Cities, and Suburbs
Since the baby-boom generation began entering grade school in the 1950s, it has been followed closely by marketers, policymakers, and political consultants. But the boomers’ sharp disengagement from the residential aspects of city life seems to have escaped the notice of urban watchers.

The aging of the nation’s first suburban generation will increase substantially the number of households in their 50s and early 60s over the next 10 years. Early boomers?born between 1945 and 1955?will be making the transition from empty-nesters to preretirees. Many will retire from regular jobs. Some will leave their suburban homes. But most will “age in place” or perhaps make a local move.

The late boomers?those born between 1955 and 1964?will still be in their prime career and prime earnings ages. Some will be looking to upgrade their housing, again in the same local area. They will have fewer children living at home than did earlier generations at the same age?and therefore more freedom in their location decisions.

Some observers have expressed the hope that these huge boomer generations might be a source for central-city revival. But the hope seems unrealistic, given the current location of this “suburban generation.” With the exception of Hispanics, baby-boomers, now in the 35-54 age groups, are less likely to reside in the city than either today’s elderly or adults now in their 20s and early 30s.

In fact, elderly growth patterns during the 1990s show that the “graying of the suburbs” is well under way. Of the 30 counties with fastest-gaining elderly populations over the 1990s, most are either in nonmetropolitan areas or in middle or outer suburban counties of fast-growing metropolitan areas. Much of this simply reflects the aging-in-place of elderly who have moved to these fast-growing metropolitan areas during their lifetimes.

The projected gains in elderly over the next 25 years will occur in the Mostly White Fast-Growing and White-Black Fast-Growing areas discussed earlier. While some of this growth will be attributable to retirement migration to high amenity areas of the Mountain West and South, most will result from the aging-in-place of boomers who relocated there during their working lives or at least before retirement.

This suggests somewhat different patterns of growth for the new immigrant minorities than for largely white or white and black baby-boomers. Much of the boomer growth and, hence, the projected elderly gains will be in the suburbs of major metropolitan areas and in regions of the country that are not capturing new immigrant minorities. Within metropolitan areas the better-off and healthy “yuppie elderly” will tend to locate on the periphery, and the more disadvantaged segments of the older population will reside closer in.

Central cities and inner suburbs in metropolitan regions that have suffered economic and demographic declines in recent decades will continue to house disproportionate numbers of the nation’s disadvantaged elderly?older elderly people, widows and widowers, female-headed households, those with incomes below or near the poverty level and relatively high levels of disability. As they continue to age in place, they will pose special challenges for local institutions that are often the most financially strapped.

But although the aging of the baby-boomers will have different effects for cities and suburbs, dealing with the social services, health care, and transportation needs of a faster-growing senior population will prove a challenge to cities and suburbs alike.
New Forces at Work
The advent of new immigrants and the aging of the baby-boomers will surely complicate both urban and suburban race-ethnic and aging demographic dynamics.

The demographics of Los Angeles provide just one example of how the two countervailing trends could operate. As a result of the successive outmigration of whites, juxtaposed with the continued waves of immigration of new ethnic minorities, Los Angeles County’s elderly population is still majority white, its working-aged population is only about one-third white, and its child population is predominantly Hispanic and other racial and ethnic groups. Reflecting their age, the growing racial and ethnic groups in Los Angeles will be concerned with issues of affordable housing, good schools, and neighborhoods conducive to the raising of children. And, reflecting their age, whites are likely to be more concerned with health and social support services for an aging dependent population. Whether the same kind of “racial generation gap” will occur in other melting pot metropolitan areas remains to be seen.

Whatever else the new urban population profiles show, the old models of dealing with cities and suburbs will need to be revised to adapt to new demographic forces in America today.




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URL: https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/appointments-apocalypse/
TITLE: Appointments Apocalypse
Appointments Apocalypse
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