The corporate headquarters used to be the primary measure of a city's economic clout. Saskia Sassen, while not ignoring headquarters, documented how in the age of globalization, the resurgence of the global city was driven by demand for financial and producer services, not more and bigger HQs. As she pointed out in her seminal book The Global City, "Major cities such as London, New York, and Chicago have been losing top ranked headquarters for at least three decades." Yet despite this they were coming back strong. Back in 2008, I started … [Read more...]
Search Results for: chicago clout
Thoughts on Chicago’s Tech Scene
This article is part of the State of Chicago. I wasn't planning to write a piece on Chicago tech, but I did a radio interview about it this week and since I never know how much might be used from me in a space constrained medium, I thought I'd lay out something here too. I've said before that I don't think Chicago is well positioned to become some type of dominant tech hub, but should only seek to get its "fair share" of tech. However, as the third largest city in America, Chicago's fair share on tech is still pretty darn big. If you look … [Read more...]
State of Chicago: Explaining the 1990s Versus the 2000s
In my article "The Second-Rate City?" I noted Chicago's very strong economic and demographic performance in the 1990s and contrasted it with the very poor performance in the 2000s. Then I outlined several problems with Chicago I thought helped drive the struggles. A few people asked a very fair question, saying, "All the negative factors you cite about Chicago (e.g., clout, business climate) were equally as true in the 1990s as in the 2000s, so what really made the difference?" I want to try to respond to that today. First, let's ask … [Read more...]
State of Chicago: The Decline and Rise
This article is part of the State of Chicago. I've had it in my head for over a year now to do an in-depth exploration of Chicago, a project I've called "State of Chicago." Today I want to kick that off as a series of posts that expand on the themes in my recent article "The Second-Rate City?" First, I'd like to list three reasons why I wrote that piece: 1. To bring to the attention of Chicago the very poor statistical performance of the city on basic demographic and economic measures. 2. To write a corrective to the many … [Read more...]
What Made Chicago’s Burnham Plan Successful
As part of my Burnham Plan centennial celebration, I was recently prompted to ponder what made this plan successful. (Let us put aside for future postings the question of whether it was in reality a success). I started creating a list of attributes of the plan I think contributed to its success. Interestingly, all of these are lessons for today's planners and are often overlooked. So let's consider some of them. 1. It was a private sector, business led initiative. I hear people today moan about the feckless political leadership in their … [Read more...]
Review: The New Geography of Jobs
The New Geography of Jobs by Enrico Moretti Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2012) Starting in the 1980s, the American economy bifurcated. On one side, cities with little human capital and traditional economies started experiencing diminishing returns and stiff competition from abroad. On the other hand, cities rich in human capital and economies based on knowledge-intensive sectors started seeing increasing returns and took full advantage of globalized markets. - Enrico MorettiFor unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have … [Read more...]
Globalization and the Airport
I had originally planned to position this as a day late and dollar short review of Greg Lindsay's book Aerotropolis: The Way We'll Live Next. Yet I think in a way the title misleads. The word "aerotropolis" conjures up dull visions of depressing airport development, security lines, and power points at conferences. But what Lindsay has done with this book is really something much bigger: He has told the story of globalization as seen through the lens of the airport. Because of that, the book isn't entirely convincing. Air travel and shipping … [Read more...]
Mega-Skepticism
[ This post inaugurates a three part series on "megaregions" and the applicability of this concept to the Midwest. It is a repeat of something I wrote on the subject a bit over a year ago. That should lay the ground work. Part two of the series will be a review of the book "Megaregions", edited by Catherine L. Ross. The third part will be some thinking on ways the Midwest might be able to apply megaregional thinking to its problems. As you will see, I come to this subject as a skeptic. This post originally ran on July 11, 2008] There … [Read more...]