'In the Heights' soars amid some big cities' lows

Just as exhilarating as being back in a movie theater was what was being projected: "In the Heights," a cinematic rendition of the theatrical hit from 2008 that made Lin Manuel Miranda a cultural force well before "Hamilton" hit Broadway (and soon, the world) in 2015.

Actually, there's a lot of the "Hamilton" vibe in "In the Heights" (which was co-created by Quiara Alegría Hudes). Or, more chronologically accurately, there's a lot of "In the Heights" vibe in "Hamilton," despite the difference in eras and characters, with America's Founding Fathers in "Hamilton" and an extended Latin American family and friends finding their way in "In the Heights."

But if the characters in the exuberant musical are different, their character is fundamentally the same. All are hard workers (hustlers, even), strivers and dreamers (and some actual "Dreamers," or undocumented migrants, in "In the Heights"). Both cohorts are mostly immigrants. European in "Hamilton" — with the notable exception of Alexander Hamilton himself, who hailed from the Caribbean — just like most of the "In the Heights" characters, a charismatic crew of Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans and others. Above all, everyone displays an unapologetic, if unspoken, patriotism, believing in the iconic, embryonic America idealized by Hamilton's contemporaries or the work-in-progress America that is the gritty reality vividly lived by the "Heights" characters.

The setting, albeit centuries apart, is similar too: New York City, often downtown, in "Hamilton," and up in the Washington Heights neighborhood that gives the newly released film its name. But once again, the themes are the same, summed (and sung) by Miranda's Hamilton: "On the bow of a ship, heading for a new land/In New York, you can be a new man," an idea and ideal that seems identical in the ethos of the men — and as prominently, women — in "In the Heights."

But as New York City stars on stage and screen, cities themselves seem to have lost luster among an increasing number of Americans. In fact, the very kind of urbanity that so compels in "In the Heights" repels, at least temporarily, more and more New Yorkers. And Angelinos, Chicagoans and other denizens of 10 big cities across the country, according to a Brookings Institution analysis released this week headlined "America's largest cities saw the sharpest population losses during the pandemic, new census data shows."

Large cities, wrote William H. Frey, a senior fellow at the Brookings' Metropolitan Policy Program, "showed exceptionally slow or negative growth during the pandemic year." Among the top 10, "eight registered lower growth in 2019-20 than in 2019-19; six displayed their lowest growth in the last decade; and five lost population."

While some midsize cities stayed steady or showed gains (most notably Seattle, Tampa, Tucson, Fort Worth and Austin, Texas), a suburban surge accelerated. "The most recent year's city growth declines have further impetus to the suburban growth advantage that took root midway in the 2010s decade," Frey wrote, noting that "at the time, much attention was given to the 'return to the city' movement for young adults and seniors, along with the attraction of immigrants to urban centers. However, this advantage was short lived, with much of it attributable to the impact of the 2007-09 Great Recession and depressed housing market, which 'stranded' many young adult millennials to urban centers. As the 2010s wore on and the job and housing markets picked up, city-to-suburban shifts reemerged."

The shift could kick into a higher gear, given the tight labor and housing markets that are an indication of the post-pandemic, pent-up demand economy of today. Add to that lower birthrates, the work-from-home technological transformations as well as spiraling crime rates (including, tragically, in Minneapolis and St. Paul), and big cities' prospects seem precarious.

"The high-density lifestyle of central cities suddenly became much less attractive to a large number of people," said Edward Goetz, the director of the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs at the University of Minnesota. "That was in part due to the pandemic, in part due to the spike in crime that was also induced by the pandemic."

Add to that what Goetz calls "the technological awakening," which he said was "the one element of this experience that we've been going through that could produce more long-term changes."

And yet, Goetz added, just like crime spikes that can (and until recently, did) ebb, and the already receding (though still lethal) coronavirus crisis, there's also a distinct chance that the work-from-home impact will ultimately affect businesses more than business districts.

"We have identified certain advantages to electronic work environments that we didn't understand before," Goetz said. "And I think that's really going to change work. But I don't know that it's really going to change cities too much."

In an interview, Frey also was more sanguine about cities than the data he crunched might suggest. "I don't think," Frey said, "that it's the 'everybody's sort of stopping and leaving cities and that's it,' that's the story of the pandemic, and that's going to happen in the future. I think some of it is just an extended aspect of what's been going on."

Or not going on, in the case of the core characteristic of Miranda's characters: immigration, which slowed or stopped during the Trump administration and is still stalled in the more-welcoming Biden era, often for pandemic reasons.

"People don't always focus on immigration as a big part of the reason cities grew so well" in relatively recent years, Frey said. Indeed, said Goetz, "immigration is an incredibly important factor in determining how our metropolitan areas look and it will continue to be so."

Where there is immigration, there is diversity. And where there's diversity, there are young people – partly because their generational cohorts are already so diverse, and partly because young people often seek out diversity. "Generation Z is likely to be more open-minded about cities, as many young generations have always been," Frey said.

Including the generations depicted in "Hamilton" and "In the Heights," two movie adaptations that remind why America – at times aspirationally called a "shining city upon a hill" – shines brightest when its cities are vital.

John Rash is a Star Tribune editorial writer and columnist. The Rash Report can be heard at 8:10 a.m. Fridays on WCCO Radio, 830-AM. On Twitter: @rashreport.