Quote:
Originally Posted by ardecila
I'm just the teensiest bit sad to see SC Johnson opening a spot in Chicago. The company stayed in Racine and continued to invest in that city handsomely for decades, even through the deindustrialization in the last 40 years. Truly, the small Midwestern city is dead. Even the "success stories" are getting less successful every year.
I love Chicago and big cities in general, but I'm seriously wondering if the city can remain healthy long-term when it is surrounded by such a struggling region. You don't even need to leave the city to realize that we are still very much in the Rust Belt.
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i don't know how familar a lot of you chicago guys are with central illinois, but for whatever reason my office tends to handle outstate illinois projects far more than our loop/rolling hills offices..they seem somewhat oblivious to the rest of the state. however, nearly every sizable city that i have worked in over the years could be variously described as partially bombed out or completely bombed out...from east st. louis to coal city, kewanee to decatur. some of the larger ones are on the precipice, like peoria. the surrounding states towns are just not as in bad shape, it seems, for whatever reason. and of course illinois outside of chicago gets almost no tourist dollars from major midwestern metro areas. almost zilch, excepting a sprinkle to say galena, grafton, springfield.
i speculate that many of these towns between st. louis and chicago/iowa/nw indiana took on more FAR more manufacturing, due to great rail connections, coal supply, etc than other midwestern areas and the result is HUNDREDS of small rustbelt towns/small cities. outstate illinois is in really bad shape, other than a few islands like bloomington-normal. the illinois part of our metro really skews the numbers down here, locally, due to the heavy rust-belt influence.
i'm not as familiar with outstate wisco/michigan/indiana...though the northern half of indiana seems like an extension of illinois. i don't know how you fix this...i don't think you can. these towns have to just die back, i guess. it's all just too atomized and scattered.