What does urban success look like?

Aaron Renn from The Urbanophile writes at New Geography on Chicago's population loss. For instance on Chicago losing population to Indianapolis:

One key to this lies in affordability. For years Indianapolis has been ranked as the least expensive major housing market in America. Blessed with few natural barriers and pro-private sector governments, housing supply in these cities has grown along with population. Yet at the same time the negative impacts of sprawl have been mitigated by their modest – compared say to Dallas, Phoenix or Houston – growth rates and relatively small size. This leaves them attractive, affordable, and offering a very high quality of life to people without elite professional incomes.

On why Chicago is losing population:

Indeed what we can see is that there are different forms of urban success. In an ever more diverse America, people define the good life differently. Too much urban policy is focused on one size fits all solutions that assume cities should look and function something like Chicago. But America’s cities are very diverse and require tailored policies to suit the local landscape, and the unique local geography, demography, history, culture, and values that our cities bring to the table. Great cities, like great wines, have to express their terroir.

So who are those condos being built for?

If you told someone 15 years ago you lived in the South Loop, they would have said, “Huh?” If you had told them you lived by the old Chicago Stadium, they would have thought you had lost your mind. These and other neighborhoods that were once derelict or dangerous, as well as some that were low key ethnic enclaves, have been transformed into bustling yuppie playgrounds for the new “creative class”.


But there has been a downside to this for Chicago as well. The influx of the educated elite into the city has significantly raised housing prices in large parts of the city, rendering it unaffordable to others. Supporting the amenities demanded by the city’s new residents costs money, so taxes have gone up, doubling the squeeze on the city’s traditional residents, forcing many of them out.
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Chicago is an incredible urban success story, but only for some. International immigrants and the creative class are flocking, but everyone else is leaving.

Go read the whole thing.

Article via YoChicago & Newsalert!

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Second Chicago Wal-Mart May Never Come

From Channel 2...

It looks like the city of Chicago might not get a second Wal-Mart store after all.

The Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday that the City of Chicago has rejected a request by the world's largest retailer to build another store in the South Side's Chatham neighborhood.

For the project to move forward, Wal-Mart will need to get a law changed by the City Council. Under the current zoning for the Chatham Market shopping center at 83rd Street and Stewart Avenue, the city must approve any tenant leasing more than 100,000 square feet, the Tribune said.

Wal-Mart officials say they are still hopeful they can work out a solution with the city.

The first Wal-Mart in the city limits opened in September 2006 at North and Kilpatrick avenues on the city's West Side. That followed a spectacular political battle that began when the City Council passed an ordinance that would have required "big box" stores to pay workers at least $10 an hour plus $3 in fringe benefits.

The rules would only have applied to companies with more than $1 billion in annual sales and stores of at least 90,000 square feet.

I literally hate to open up another argument where people talk about whether or not there should be a mandated living wage. Two years ago I'd argue for the benefit of bringing job to struggling city neighborhoods. I still feel that way and I definitely won't join an argument in favor of a "living wage" with the belief that empolyers should pay a wage they deem fit.

At the same time there are those who don't care for Wal-Mart for fairly valid reasons as I've seen in this vid. This is not an Illinois focused video, but there are reasons to not like Wal-Mart other than because unions don't like them or whatever other contrived reason that can be had...

Still Chatham is a good neighborhood to have a Wal-Mart. There aren't many mom-and-pop stores that might run out of business. This should be a super-center where groceries should be sold so Jewel/Osco on 87th Street and the Chatham Food Center on 79th Street might have a run for their money.

Addition: A rare comment is posted at one of my other blogs, The Sixth Ward, where this post is cross-posted and asks some good questions.

Did you know some Chatham residents take pride in the fact that our community has the most black owned businesses in Chicago? ("mom & pop stores") And, did you know Chatham Food Mart is the only black owned grocery store in Illinois? So, do you still think Chatham is a good neighborhood to have a Wal-Mart?

Well Chatham is certainly a place well known for black-owned businesses. I'm certainly aware that Chatham Food Center (I apologize for not getting the name right) is the only black-owned grocery store in the state. Now as for Chatham being good for a Wal-Mart, well I could say it's good enough for a Target so it's certainly good enough for a Wal-Mart. That being said I wish I had an answer as to whether or not a Wal-Mart might automatically harm the Chatham neighborhood and those businesses already contain within. I would like to think even with a Wal-Mart they would still survive. I'm not convinced that keeping Wal-Mart out of the neighborhood is the answer.

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Articles on the Illinois Black Legislative Caucus about job creation and economic development

They have been in the news a lot in the past few days. If you have been checking out my del.icio.us links, I've had a few articles about them. So what is up, you may ask?

Well from WBBM-AM, James Meeks co- chairman of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus talked about how blacks need to be better served in the job market.

Money is flowing in for economic development; it's just not going to the right places: That's the conclusion of a study by a Washington-based watchdog, and it's the basis for hearings by the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus.

The caucus co-chairman is State Senator James Meeks of Chicago.

"I think there has to be somebody who is a point person, and there must be a plan that is in place to attract economic development to areas where we have the highest unemployment. And I think the governor, as the head official of the state of Illinois, it is his responsibility to make sure that these individuals also are taken care of."

A spokesman for the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity says the state is working to help the unemployed, and he calls the study "flawed."

From the Sun-Times talking about basically the same thing. This time saying that the state of Illinois' economic subsidies are going to those place where they're needed the least...

"There's a disconnect between the work that the department is doing and the finances in under-served communities," said Sen. James Meeks, joint chairman of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus.

"Why is it in every year there is no improvement in the job rate in certain areas? If it's true that the state is focused on those areas, we ought to see some changes. We never do," Meeks said.

A report looking at $1.2 billion in subsidies provided by the state from 1990 to 2004 found Chicago received only about 15 percent of the subsidies, though it's home to 38 percent of the region's population.

The report, released in January by Washington D.C.-based watchdog Good Jobs First, also found relatively few subsidy deals going to Chicago communities that are predominantly African-American.

Roughly $198 million in subsidies went to the Northwest corridor around O'Hare Airport, an area that was already an attractive place for companies to relocate, the report noted. That was more than the $177 million received in all of Chicago.

DuPage County, with about 11 percent of the state's population, got 18 percent of the subsidy dollars, and Will County, with less than 5 percent of the state's population, got over 11 percent.

The report concluded, "subsidies are going to the places that need them the least, while the struggling areas of Chicago and its inner-ring suburbs are getting less than their fair share."

Meeks said caucus constituents point to jobs as their No. 1 concern. He said he will likely sponsor jobs-funding legislation with a specific dollar amount that targets the neediest areas by zip codes.

"We keep voting for, and our governor keeps coming out with, initiatives dealing with health care, KidCare, universal health insurance," Meeks said. "We're not against any of those things. But if I have a decent job, I can get my own health insurance. What our community needs is jobs.

Well jobs are important issues for sure. Now Rev. Meeks is talking and while I could say no one should have to ask Gov. Blagojevich for anything, he should take a leadership role in this. The question is will he? For right now I may not see that.

Here's one last story...

The head of the state commerce department spotlighted the state's 4.6 percent unemployment rate at a hearing here Monday, but black state lawmakers were more focused on the 20 to 33 percent rates found in some largely black Chicago neighborhoods.

The hearing was called by the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus to look for means to ensure economic development and work force development dollars are going to communities that need them the most and that they are providing pathways to good-paying jobs.

In addressing the group, Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity Director Jack Lavin noted since January 2004 the state has added more than 166,000 jobs, more than any other state in the Midwest. He also pointed to programs including the state's critical skills shortage program, which focuses on ensuring workers are trained for jobs for which there is high demand; the challenge grant program, which has provided funds to 446 businesses in the state -- 180 of them in the Chicago metropolitan area and 30 percent of which went to African-American-owned businesses.

He said federal rules dictate how federal work force investment funds are distributed statewide and noted local work force investment boards oversee how those funds are allocated, although the state plays a monitoring role.

Chicago Urban League Policy and Research Director David E. Thigpen told legislators that as unemployment rates across the state have fallen, they refuse to budge in many African-American communities, where the unemployment rate for blacks averages about 12 percent, more than double that of whites, and ranges between 18 and 33 percent in communities including Austin, Robbins, North Lawndale and Washington Park.

He noted graduation rates, which in some communities lag the state average by 30 points, "are sending a steady stream of young people out in the communities with low skills and extremely bleak employment prospects."

Some 39 percent of the eligible population of African Americans in the state have, for one reason or another, given up looking for work, he noted.

It just ran into another issue that deserves attention. Not just economic development but education. Giving those people better skills to get better jobs. This is something worth working on.

Crossposted @ It's My Mind.

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