[Federalist] For twenty-somethings leaving a small town for the big city, the feeling of liberation and possibility can be exhilarating. Mom and dad, and their rules, are finally in the rearview mirror. But what’s up ahead is often worse‐the welcoming arms of an even stricter authority known as leftist city government.Many millennials are discovering this the hard way and making a U-turn. New Census Bureau data shows millennials are increasingly trading in urban life for the suburbs and even switching states entirely.
My home city of Philadelphia is a prime example. Here, 60,000 residents leave per year, and half of them are 18 to 34 years old. The reason? Urban centers like Philadelphia are bent on destroying the very conveniences that drew millennials to the city in the first place.
Here, the combined effect of sky-high taxes and outdated regulations add up to an all-out war on millennials. Or at least a war on the things they love the most. Brunch, for example.
In Pennsylvania, where I live, the number of available liquor licenses is restricted by our state liquor monopoly. These restrictions and the fact that licenses are sold at auction (seriously!) make selling booze way too expensive for business owners. It can cost more than $100,000 to simply obtain the license to sell a mimosa.
The restaurateurs who either can’t get a license or can’t afford one are forced to offer the would-be boozy brunchers a BYOB policy. Okay, Boomer. You’re trying to sell this as a hip "Philly Phenomenon"? We’re not falling for it.
The war on brunch doesn’t end there. The state has free rein to mark up the price of alcohol, which it does constantly: average markups are 65 percent. Of course, the war on brunch is just one example of government overreach that has millennials fleeing cities.