By Steve Miller, Founding Partner, Origin Ventures - September 18, 2019
It’s a question I’m frequently asked as the founding partner of Origin Ventures, a venture capital firm based in Chicago.
The answer is always: it’s complicated. To me, my business and its health go way beyond the bottom line. Indeed, “So how’s business?” is intertwined with answering the question, “So how’s Chicago?”
Of course, that’s also difficult to answer, but understanding the health and vitality of our city’s economy, its people and government is pivotal.
Chicago is at an incredible crossroads. New leadership in the Mayor’s Office gives me hope that a reform-minded mayor can help reinvent the culture of our city. But can Chicago shed the cynicism that’s been fed a steady diet of corruption and uneven investment? I worry that even as the downtown is booming, too many neighborhoods are being bypassed by growth.
In late July, the Metropolitan Planning Council convened its Executive Advisors—a group of Chicago-area CEO’s and leaders who are committed to civic engagement and the desire to contribute to the vibrancy and vitality of Chicago and the surrounding region—to discuss, “So how’s Chicago?” I’m proud to be a part of this group because we don’t shy away from thorny questions, and instead, believe we must be part of a solution forward.
Leading the conversation was Amy Liu, vice president and director of the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution, a strategic partner to MPC. She walked us through compelling new data about economic development and equity. Spoiler alert: they’re connected.
Amy described the three goals every region should pursue: growth, prosperity and inclusion. In Chicagoland, our performance on all three of those indicators is uneven. According to Brookings’ data, for the top 100 metros, Chicago ranks 72nd in growth, 57th in prosperity and 28th in inclusion. Amy’s entire slide deck is linked here, and it’s worth a look.
Rankings, however, don’t show the full picture, and Chicago’s forecast is also complicated. Job growth (+2.6% from 2007-2017) is keeping pace with population, but as MPC has documented so well, population growth is stagnant. Median earnings are also up (+1.3% between 2007-2017), but the Brookings data show that’s primarily driven by jobs for high-wage earners. Bottom line: there’s strong signs of economic momentum, but it’s not reaching everyone.
And now comes the question I care deeply about: “So what do we do about it?” MPC’s approach is varied and comprehensive, because that’s what it takes. We need it all: equitable development, accessible transportation, streamlined government, smart land-use planning. If we invest in our people and communities in a smart, thoughtful way, the answer to the proverbial question, “So how’s Chicago?” will be “Great!”