This article is part of The State of Chicago. I now want to transition from a look at historical and current conditions in Chicago to a defense of a couple of my more controversial diagnoses that attepted to explain the problems behind Chicago's weakness in recent years. These were my observation that Chicago lacks a "calling card" industry, and my claim that Chicago, while a global city, is weak enough in this dimension that it cannot rely on that alone to sustain it. Today I'll look at the former. In some rankings I've seen, Chicago has … [Read more...]
Archives for July 2012
A Review of Saul Kaplan’s The Business Model Innovation Factory
“Institutions are designed for stability. They are designed to protect the status quo. They are designed to resist change and are allergic even to the hint of transformation. They are not designed to reflect the will of citizens, consumers, students, patients, and entrepreneurs.” — Saul Kaplan, “The Business Model Innovation Factory”Some folks like to suggest that it is the biggest, most dense cities where the most serendipitous interactions tend to occur, the types of random encounters that lead to crazy innovative breakthroughs. I’ve found in … [Read more...]
State of Chicago: The Risks of Recovery
This article is part of the State of Chicago. In comments to previous installments, some folks have highlighted recent positive news for Chicago - job announcements, the decline in unemployment rate, some indications of a housing market uptick, and improved hotel occupancy - as evidence that perhaps I spoke too soon or was wrong about Chicago. Well, if I'm wrong, I'd happily take that. If Chicago starts back up on a 90s-like upward trajectory, that would clearly be something to celebrate. On the other hand, there are risks that come … [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: New Century Strengths
This article is part of the State of Chicago. Before I say anything else I want to give a shout out of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. I've been pounding on the idea that Chicago has been overly focused on "global" at the expense of its traditional domestic and regional role as "Capital of the Midwest," a role which, like it or not, still greatly shapes the city's economic fortunes. As recently as May, the Guardian (UK) was saying that, regarding luring the NATO summit to Chicago, "Emanuel is motivated by a desire to reposition the city from … [Read more...]
State of Chicago: The New Century Struggle
This is the second installment in my "State of Chicago" series. Last time I looked at Chicago's 70s and early 80s horrible struggles followed by rebirth and robust out-performance during the 1990s. Today we turn our attention to the first decade of the 21st century. During the 2000s, Chicago experienced a bit of a two-track performance. Parts of the urban core continued to grow robustly, fueled by the real estate bubble and perhaps the greatest urban condo building boom in America. The culinary, cultural, and other scenes in Chicago only … [Read more...]