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Which is our kind of town?
Locals say there are benefits to being in between
By KEVIN ALLEN - H-P Business Writer
Published: Sunday, May 10, 2009 1:07 PM EDT
Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau Chicago's skyline is seen off Lake Michigan. Though the Twin Cities' location is in Michigan, the proximity to Chicago is shorter than Detroit. Detroit's manufacturing base still has connections here, but Chicago's influence competes.
John Madill / H-P staff This sign directs motorists to entrance ramps to Detroit and Chicago at Red Arrow Highway in Lincoln Township. April 25, 2009
Does Southwest Michigan move to the beat of Motown or croon that Chicago is its kind of town?
As globalization makes state lines less relevant and the auto industry continues to contract, Southwest Michigan's identity and economy could become increasingly tied to the Windy City, experts say.
Most people probably think that wouldn't be so bad. After all, Detroit is continually held up as the nation's most tragic example of industrial decline while Chicago is in the running to host the 2016 Olympics.
And while Detroit, 190 miles to the east on Interstate 94, plays an important role in Michigan's overall vitality and image, Benton Harbor and St. Joseph seem to have more in common with Chicago, 100 miles in the other direction on I-94.
Chicago shares a lake and an Amtrak line with the Twin Cities, and sports fans in the area are just as likely to cheer for the Bears and Cubs as Lions and Tigers.
Southwest Michigan is also a top destination for tourists from Illinois. Even Chicago Mayor Richard Daley has a summer home in Grand Beach.
But locals who work in economic development say it's not a matter of which city is more important to Southwest Michigan. The area's strength has always been that it's located on the main interstate between the Midwest's two largest metropolises.
"We don't favor one over the other," said Jamie Balkin, executive director of communications and marketing for Cornerstone Alliance, an economic development group that promotes the Twin Cities area.
"We market ourselves as being within close proximity to both," Balkin said. "That's one of our true advantages here: our proximity to several major markets, not just Chicago and Detroit but Grand Rapids too."
Autos still important
Shelley Klug, executive director of the Southwest Michigan Economic Growth Alliance, said Chicago and Detroit are important in different ways to the area's economic health.
"If you're looking at it from a real estate point of view, you'd definitely say Chicago. When you talk about promoting new businesses coming here, again you tend to talk more about Chicago," she said. "If you're asking which of those two cities has a stronger influence on our manufacturers, I'm not sure. We have a lot of auto suppliers, which of course is Detroit."
Dan Fette, Berrien County's director of community development, said the county has weathered the recession better than most parts of Michigan.
"We haven't seen the massive decline in property values, the number of foreclosures, the 10 to 15 percent rise in unemployment," he said.
Fette credits the area's Chicago connection for stimulating more economic diversity here, especially when it comes to tourism and recreation businesses. But the importance of Detroit cannot be ignored either, he said.
"As the Detroit economy goes, at least the manufacturing economy, our economy is affected by that," he said. "Having the links to the auto manufacturers on the east side of the state has been a good thing traditionally."
"Basically the whole state is tied to the auto industry more than the city (of Detroit)," said Lou Glazer, president of Michigan Future Inc., an Ann Arbor-based think tank. "Even if (the automakers) survive, the auto industry is going to be not as robust."
Study points to Chicago
An economic study published in 2004 by Holland-based Whittaker Associates listed proximity to Chicago as the top strength for developing new industry in the Twin Cities.
That came despite the report's assertion that more than a quarter of all jobs in the area are in manufacturing, and most of those are in tool-and-die shops that supply automakers.
The report said distribution and logistics are the industries with the most potential for growth around the Twin Cities. That again points to the advantage of being in between Chicago and Detroit, and the importance of both cities' economies.
Richard Longworth, a senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and author of "Caught in the Middle: America's Heartland in the Age of Globalism," said he sees the Chicago economic region as spanning four states, beginning in Milwaukee and wrapping around the southern shore of Lake Michigan to Grand Rapids.
"A lot of the argument I made in my book is the states count for less and less in our economic lives," Longworth said. "Places like St. Joseph, Holland and Grand Rapids have kind of taken their economic fortunes in their own hands and are moving ahead.
"You'll find the same thing here (in Chicago)," he said. "We don't have a lot to do with the rest of Illinois. We feel closer to you all."
Lake is common ground
Longworth said one of the most important connections between Chicago and Southwest Michigan is the body of water that lies between the two.
"We share this huge resource, Lake Michigan. What happens to Lake Michigan is really important to you and us," he said.
Longworth added that Southwest Michigan's tool-and-die tradition is an asset that should not be abandoned as the auto industry shrinks. That capacity needs to be used to branch out into other applications such as wind turbines, solar panels, electrical transmission equipment and components for high-speed rail systems.
"My thing is trying not to hold too much on to the past," he said. "Tool-and-die shops that continue to depend on the Big Three (automakers) are going to be in trouble."
Glazer said proximity to talent is the most important factor in the knowledge-based economy, and Chicago has become the top destination for Michigan's college graduates.
"Like everybody else, Michigan needs to get linked to that economy," Glazer said. "Then the key becomes not where the factories are located but where the talent is located. And Chicago is way ahead of Detroit in that respect."
kallen@TheH-P.com.
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