Rethink: Chicago.

Posted by on November 16, 2006

The Wall Street Journal recounts the history of a warehouse on the Chicago River just outside of the loop to illustrate how Chicago has "avoided the decline that has ravaged so many other Midwestern cities." How? Rethinking and reinventing. The warehouse, once the center of Montgomery Ward's catalog business, now houses a trading firm, a print outsourcing company, Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co.'s marketing department, Japonais restaurant, an upscale gym, and a condo annex. Just as this building has adapted to the times, so, too, has the city: "As other Midwestern cities have struggled with waning manufacturing employment, Chicago has survived by repeatedly reinventing itself. Once a monument to retail, banking, meat-packing and manufacturing, it now boasts a strong presence in accounting, computer-systems design, legal services and consulting, among others....Based on an economic measure called industrial diversity, Chicago has developed an economy that more closely reflects the broad national economy than almost any other city in the country." All of this has paid off: "With its lakefront parks, an extensive public-transit system and a thriving arts and culture community, Chicago attracts young professionals from around the country for jobs with relatively high incomes. Chicago's population grew by 4% between 1990 and 2000 while some other big Midwestern cities dropped by more than 5%."