Industrial Cities Initiative Profiled in New Report
Community Development and Policy Studies at the Chicago Fed recently published profiles of a group of 10 cities that experienced significant manufacturing job loss in recent decades.
The Industrial Cities Initiative (ICI) includes, Aurora and Joliet in Illinois; Fort Wayne and Gary in Indiana; Cedar Rapids and Waterloo in Iowa; Grand Rapids and Pontiac in Michigan; and, Green Bay and Racine in Wisconsin. While each city has been blogged about before (see the “BLOG” tab), a complete set of more detailed profiles are now compiled into one report.
Collectively, the profiles provide insights from local economic development leaders on the cities’ actions in the wake of the job loss that have either helped or hindered redevelopment efforts.
The authors and contributors to the ICI do not pass judgment on individual cities. So, while we understand the temptation to simply link directly to just one city’s profile, we encourage readers to start their exploration of the ICI with the Summary.
The ICI looked at cities’ conditions, trends and experiences and concluded that efforts to improve their economic and social well-being are shaped by:
- Macroeconomic forces: Regardless of their size or location, these cities are impacted by globalization, immigration, education, job training needs, demographic trends including an aging population, and the benefits and burdens of wealth, wages, and poverty;
- State and national policies: State and national policies pit one city against another in a zero-sum competition for job- and wealth-generated firms; and
- The dynamic relationship between the city and the region in which it is located: Regional strengths and weaknesses to a large extent determine the fate of the respective cities.
The ICI homepage provides access to the full ICI report, individual ICI city profiles and related research, and blogs from around the country about cities that share a manufacturing legacy.
