Aaron M. Renn

All Things Aaron

Chicago As the Midwest’s Global Gateway

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This article is part of the State of Chicago series. Chicago is a city that has been ignoring its traditional role as capital of the Midwest in order to focus on ambitions to be a global city. But as this series has illustrated, Chicago has not thrived recently with this approach. Much of its economy remains tied to the region and to manufacturing, and with those sectors having struggled, Chicago has likewise struggled. Also, global city Chicago, powerful as it might be, is simply much too small to carry the region on its own. A broader plan … [Read more...]

Thoughts on Chicago’s Tech Scene

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This article is part of the State of Chicago. I wasn't planning to write a piece on Chicago tech, but I did a radio interview about it this week and since I never know how much might be used from me in a space constrained medium, I thought I'd lay out something here too. I've said before that I don't think Chicago is well positioned to become some type of dominant tech hub, but should only seek to get its "fair share" of tech. However, as the third largest city in America, Chicago's fair share on tech is still pretty darn big. If you look … [Read more...]

Review: The New Geography of Jobs

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The New Geography of Jobs by Enrico Moretti Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2012) Starting in the 1980s, the American economy bifurcated. On one side, cities with little human capital and traditional economies started experiencing diminishing returns and stiff competition from abroad. On the other hand, cities rich in human capital and economies based on knowledge-intensive sectors started seeing increasing returns and took full advantage of globalized markets. - Enrico MorettiFor unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have … [Read more...]

Rethinking Brand Chicago

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This post is part of the State of Chicago series. So many Midwest places flail around looking for a brand image or identity. Not Chicago. In fact, the identity and stories of Chicago overflow the page. They are too numerous to be written in a mere blog posting. Yet Chicago has in effect decided to jettison that powerful, historic brand identity in favor of a type of global city genericism. This, I believe, is a mistake. One trend you can't help but notice if you travel is the increasing homogenization of the urban culture and standard … [Read more...]

Fixing Chicago: Rahm’s Work in Progress

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This article is part of The State of Chicago. As I continue with my Chicago series, I'll turn now to the matter of how to fix what's wrong with Chicago, hopefully without damaging the things that are already right and going well. This first piece is to highlight what Mayor Rahm Emanuel has already been doing. The timing's risky, as at midnight tonight the teachers' union might go on strike. But I'll take my chances. I voted for Rahm for mayor, for three major reasons: 1. I see him as like his mentor Bill Clinton, namely someone to … [Read more...]

Gaps in Chicago’s Global City Fabric

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The is the last of three installments on Chicago as a global city, and is also part of my "State of Chicago" series. Chicago is definitely in a global city in any definition, but if you parse apart its economy, the global city part is smaller than is generally believed, and in any case is too small to carry the city, region, and state alone. Chicago is in many respects a regional capital like Atlanta, with an economy still tied heavily to its regional hinterland. I'd also like to point out that Chicago is completely missing various pieces … [Read more...]

Chicago As a Global City

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This article is part of the State of Chicago series. At this point in my series I'm looking at a couple of my frames on Chicago's problems that are not commonly known or held. The first was Chicago's lack of a calling card industry. I'm now looking at Chicago's weakness as a global city and the excessive focus civic leadership has put on being a global city at the expense of everything else. (I will not be further reviewing well-known and uncontroversial problems such as the fiscal mess). Ranking Chicago as a Global City Last week I … [Read more...]

The Columbus, Indiana Values Proposition

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[ Columbus, Indiana has long been known as a special place. Which is too bad, since unlike most small industrial cities in America, it has actually been a success. Alas, despite its clear superior performance, few places show any interest in trying to replicate the things that made it successful. National Public Radio recently ran a segment on Columbus' famed architecture. In it was another telling quote from town patriarch J. Irwin Miller that sums it up: "Whatever you do in this world, you've got a responsibility and a privilege of doing … [Read more...]

State of Chicago: Lacking a Calling Card Industry

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This article is part of The State of Chicago. I now want to transition from a look at historical and current conditions in Chicago to a defense of a couple of my more controversial diagnoses that attepted to explain the problems behind Chicago's weakness in recent years. These were my observation that Chicago lacks a "calling card" industry, and my claim that Chicago, while a global city, is weak enough in this dimension that it cannot rely on that alone to sustain it. Today I'll look at the former. In some rankings I've seen, Chicago has … [Read more...]

A Review of Saul Kaplan’s The Business Model Innovation Factory

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“Institutions are designed for stability. They are designed to protect the status quo. They are designed to resist change and are allergic even to the hint of transformation. They are not designed to reflect the will of citizens, consumers, students, patients, and entrepreneurs.” — Saul Kaplan, “The Business Model Innovation Factory”Some folks like to suggest that it is the biggest, most dense cities where the most serendipitous interactions tend to occur, the types of random encounters that lead to crazy innovative breakthroughs. I’ve found in … [Read more...]