Aaron M. Renn

All Things Aaron

State of Chicago: New Century Strengths

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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

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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...]

State of Chicago: The Decline and Rise

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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...]

Minneapolis-St. Paul – White, Liberal, Cold

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Note: This post originally ran on December 12, 2010. As we are experiencing an early winter storm here in the Midwest, one that is particularly slamming the Twin Cities - the Metrodome roof just collapsed - perhaps it is time for a brief look at the Twin Cities. Minneapolis-St. Paul has always been a bit of an outlier in the Midwest. Its economy was originally based around grains and such, not the auto and metals axes that supported the rest of the Midwest. So it had a very different trajectory than most other regional cities. The … [Read more...]

The OECD Reviews Chicago

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"Although still high in absolute terms, GDP and labor productivity growth rates are sluggish - both by US and international standards. The Chicago Tri-State metro-region's contribution to national growth has slowed over the past decade and the region does not stand out as a top knowledge hub. Despite a dynamic and numerically large labor force, the region has experienced virtually no growth in the size of its prime working-age population and displays limited ability to attract and retain talent when compared to its US peers. More worrisome are … [Read more...]

Detroit: A Biography

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[ You may remember Pete Saunders from his piece on the reasons behind Detroit's behind. I've long found Pete's insights provocative. I'm glad to report he is now blogging himself on his own blog called "The Corner Side Yard." Today he graciously shares another Detroit piece for us here, this time a review of Scott Martelle's new book, "Detroit: A Biography" - Aaron. ] When I first got my review copy of Detroit: A Biography by Scott Martelle, I did the unthinkable: I started by reading the epilogue. I wanted to know right from the start where … [Read more...]

Nashville Rolls On

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I have a friend in Nashville and try to get there about once a year for a visit. He knows my insatiable desire for urban exploration, so tries to take me around to new places each time, which is awesome. A couple of my previous trips were documented in the posts "Impressions of Nashville" (from 2007) and "Nashville: Next Boomtown of the New South" (from 2008). As with previous visits, I want to highlight a few observations I had. The first is, "What Great Recession?" Yes, Nashville surely suffered from this, and there's a notable absence of … [Read more...]

Hoosiers to Pay 80% of Local Tolls for Ohio River Bridges Project

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Update 4/6: The organization behind the polls has put up a web site with raw data and more findings from their scientific survey. Update 4/6: Later reports with more specific data from this poll show that the actual ratio is 74% of the local traffic is Hoosiers, not 80% - still a stunning ratio. The pollster estimates a slightly lower ratio of toll revenue to Indiana - 70%, though it's not clear how they did this math. And finally it looks like Southern Indiana officials are waking up to the fact that they are going to get pimped on this … [Read more...]

Buffalo, You Are Not Alone

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It hurts. When a bigtime Harvard economist writes off your city as a loss, and says America should turn its back on you, it hurts. But Ed Glaeser's dart tossing is but the smallest taste of what it's like to live in place like Buffalo. To choose to live in the Rust Belt is to commit to enduring a continuous stream of bad press and mockery. I write mostly about the Midwest, but whether we think Midwest or Rust Belt or something else altogether, the story is the same. From Detroit to Cleveland, Buffalo to Birmingham, there are cities across … [Read more...]

Civic Iconography Done Right – Chicago’s City Flag

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I've written on a number of occasions on why cities should look to strengthen their visual identity and distinctive character using civic icons or images that can provide a powerful graphical or design representation of the city. For example, I wrote about I wrote about how London's use of its civic icons - it's red buses, black cabs, bobby uniforms, phone booths, and tube logo - had assumed an almost totemistic stature there. In the United States, I'd have to rate Chicago far and away #1 in the use of official civic symbols (maybe the best … [Read more...]