Aaron M. Renn

All Things Aaron

Archives for 2012

Milwaukee’s Relationship with the Chicago Mega-City Revisited

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[ I am going to take a break until early 2013. See you folks in the New Year. In the meantime, I'll leave you with this piece by David Holmes that follows up on my "Don't Fly Too Close to the Sun" piece. He makes some of the same points I did at the conference, as well as some new ones I found interesting. Bye for now! - Aaron. ] I was intrigued by Aaron’s recent post "Don't Fly Too Close to the Sun Piece" which focused on the relationship between Milwaukee and Chicago and the notion of whether “proximity to Chicago or another mega-city … [Read more...]

Regarding Smart Cities

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I was in Barcelona a couple weeks ago for the Smart City Expo and World Congress, where I moderated a session on the impact of smart city technologies on cities. Not only is Barcelona an amazing city itself, it was great to get to see European urbanists we don't always run across in the US, like Charles Landry and Ricky Burdett. As is often the case, I think we here in America (myself included) end up trapped in a US-centric bubble in our thinking. So it's good to break out of it. My session brought out a number of interesting points in … [Read more...]

Chicago’s Northwest Indiana Advantage

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This article is part of the State of Chicago. Chicago is in effect a tri-state area consisting of parts of Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. The lion's share of the population is in Illinois. Also, the city is by far the largest municipality in the area - it's bigger than a lot of states. This leads to a very Illinois-centric and Chicago-centric civic leadership and view of the world. Perhaps rightly so. However, Chicago, looking for advantages where ever it can, should seek to find them in collaboration with the other states. Today I'll … [Read more...]

New England vs. Midwest Culture

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How Physical, Cultural and Political Differences Shape Development and Economic Growth I was recently asked to make a comparison living in New England versus the Midwest-specifically how cultural and political differences impact the economic and physical development framework of the two regions. This is something that I have at least a modest knowledge of, given that I have lived and worked in both areas (Born and raised in Hamden, CT near New Haven, attended college near Boston and now live near Columbus, OH). As a real estate developer and … [Read more...]

Don’t Fly Too Close to the Sun

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I was honored to speak at a conference in Milwaukee over the summer called Milwaukee's Future in the Chicago Mega-City. Chicago and Milwaukee are about 90 miles apart on I-94. There's an Amtrak link that makes the journey in about 90 minutes. The two cities have been sprawling such that there's now more or less continuous development along the lakefront between the two cities. Milwaukee has been a challenged city economically and demographically. Chicago has had its own serious problems, but has seen its already muscular core boom in terms of … [Read more...]

Improving Chicago’s Business Climate

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This article is part of the State of Chicago. Chicago is a tale of two cities when it comes to the business climate. If you are a high profile Loop business, things are great. The city will move mountains for you, permits won't be an issue, and a healthy heaping portion of TIF dollars might even be coming your way. If you are a small business or someone without connections, it's a different story. Improving business conditions, especially for small business and especially in the neighborhoods, is critical to the city's economic future. I'll … [Read more...]

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...]

Film Review: Detropia

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Trailer for Detropia. If the video doesn't display, click here.I was lucky to get to see Detropia, a buzz-laden documentary about Detroit, at the UMass-Boston film series, where Heidi Ewing, one of the film makers, was present for a post-screening discussion. Ewing, incidentally, grew up in suburban Detroit. The title is an interesting word play. It's a portmanteau of ambiguous meaning. It could be a combination of "Detroit" with either "utopia" or "dystopia," though as the bleak civic outlook suggests, the latter is far more appropriate. … [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...]