Is Chicago Becoming the First City?

As the railroad hub of the U.S., the city of Chicago was instrumental in shaping this country's economy and social organization. Famous for its stockyards and its gangsters, Chicago was also where the consumer economy began, when mail-order outfits like Sears and Montgomery Wards used the railroads to supply individuals with products they'd seen as images, as dreams. As a port city and a worker's city connected by rail to the south as well as the east and west, Chicago has had to deal with racial and ethnic violence and diversity for over a century. It also not coincidentally became a model for American suburbia, with its radiating suburbs centered on shopping malls.

Now Chicago may be poised to lead the nation into its only viable future. According to TIME magazine, Mayor Richard Daley and his environmental comissioner Sadhu Johnston are working to turn Chicago into what [Johnston] claims will be the most environmentally friendly city in the U.S. — as well as the nation's center for environmental design and the manufacturing of components for the production of alternative energy. If it works — and Daley is betting a hefty sum it will, with promises to buy millions in solar panels, for example — the green movement here is expected to yield the city perhaps billions in saved energy costs and new business.

This is the kind of vision this country needs. Without it, the U.S. will find itself a second-class country in another decade, because other nations are moving ahead. If Chicago is successful, it will help not only North America but the rest of the world, owing to the size and influence of the American economy and popular culture.

In much the same way that cities like Austin and San Francisco latched onto the boom in the Internet or biotech industry to propel their economies, Chicago is working hard to rev up its manufacturing and capitalize on the growth in green construction and wind and solar energies.

Chicago has taken first successful steps--more rooftop gardens on downtown buildings than anywhere, emphasis on energy efficiency in the widespread and important operations of city government (nobody in Chicago forgets that mayors have lost their jobs for not clearing the snow efficiently) and in environmental design. Beyond this, the goals are lofty but there is promise. Chicago's goal to use renewable energy for a quarter of its operations has already attracted a couple of solar panel manufacturers to the area.

That city government is taking the lead is not entirely out of character. Private enterprise worshippers like to believe that government is only a barrier, but especially in paradigm changes, that's an illusion (if not a conscious lie.) Infrastructure enabled or even sponsored by government (notably highways) has been key to change in the past. Partly because renewable energy is often also decentralized energy, smaller units of government---like cities--can enable and sponsor this wave of change effectively.

TIME says that Green Bay, Wisconsin is already consciously copying Chicago's efforts. Rust belt cities with a tradition of manufacturing and a manufacturing workforce should take heart, and take a long look at efforts like Chicago's, or the plans of the Apollo Alliance. In the meantime, Chicago is to be lauded for daring to seize the future once again.