Do you think the Chicago Metro area will ever extend? (Aurora: low income, home)

[meteorologistChi]

Do you think sometime in the near future, the Chicago Metro will be extended further out?

[DaPerpKazoo]

I certainly hope not.

[chet everett]

Why? How?

As it is there is a sharp divide between those who are fond adherants to the "denser is better" mantra and those who desire maximum "elbow room". The trends seem to be giving more "elbow room" to those parts of Chicago itself that were once more popolous as minorities and low income whites that are escaping the violence and educational failure of Chicago.

Meanwhile the generation that came of age after 9/11 is increasinly flocking to jobs in the core of Chicago, leaving suburban centric employers to deal with their vast empty office parks...

The likely fate of the whole region is shrink.

[urza216]

Originally Posted by chet everett

Why? How?

As it is there is a sharp divide between those who are fond adherants to the "denser is better" mantra and those who desire maximum "elbow room". The trends seem to be giving more "elbow room" to those parts of Chicago itself that were once more popolous as minorities and low income whites that are escaping the violence and educational failure of Chicago.

Meanwhile the generation that came of age after 9/11 is increasinly flocking to jobs in the core of Chicago, leaving suburban centric employers to deal with their vast empty office parks...

The likely fate of the whole region is shrink.

Or maybe it has more to do our generation not finding good jobs at all. Or at least a lot less than previous generations. We are in a recession.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by meteorologistChi

Do you think sometime in the near future, the Chicago Metro will be extended further out?

The Chicago area has been continually extending outward for the better part of 200 years now.

[Alacran]

It's constantly expanding.

I don't get this topic?

[SmartGXL]

Originally Posted by chet everett

Why? How?

As it is there is a sharp divide between those who are fond adherants to the "denser is better" mantra and those who desire maximum "elbow room". The trends seem to be giving more "elbow room" to those parts of Chicago itself that were once more popolous as minorities and low income whites that are escaping the violence and educational failure of Chicago.

Meanwhile the generation that came of age after 9/11 is increasinly flocking to jobs in the core of Chicago, leaving suburban centric employers to deal with their vast empty office parks...

The likely fate of the whole region is shrink.

The empty office parks dont have anything to do with people refusing to work there.

There has been a certain cache to working in the Loop for closer to 20+ years now, as TV and movies have depicted working in downtown settings (such as Manhattan) as glamorous. This is part of a larger trend that was taking place well before 9/11. A lot of jobs have been eliminated over the years due to improvements in productivity (thanks to the internet, MS Word, Excel etc) and other innovative software tools that eliminate the need for humans. I know those arent the ONLY things, but they have been big contributors. Not to mention, the over all bad economy, in which many companies are downsizing and not hiring at all. There are also things like work-from-home initiatives where certain types of jobs now allow workers to work from home (we work from home 1 day per week, meaning that on any given day of the week, my office has 20% less staff present in the office). This means that less office space is needed ongoing into the future.

[chet everett]

The trend against road expansion (from both the environmental impacts as well as lack of governmental funding), increasing cost of commuting, and general distaste for sprawl all would seem to favor contraction of the metropolitan area. The countervailing forces of an ongoing shift in warehouse / assembly type work out from traditional industrial areas of Chicago / Cook Co to the more favorable tax treatment they receive in other areas seems to have slowed. Perhaps the poor economy is a temporary thing that has merely delayed this expansion, however the longer term forces of escalating agricultural prices may ultimately be the force that snuffs out expansion...

I did not mean to suggest that there is some sort of "mass refusal" of younger people to work further out, but rather the trend toward "re urbanization" is a force that heretofore has not been a factor and now seems to be a large factor in corporate decision makers' minds about where best to locate their offices.

The "expansion of the past 200 years" has NOT been "continuous" in the sense that there have definately been periods of more rapid expansion, some prior lulls and even some notable contractions in the past -- towns like Elgin , Aurora, and Joliet that once were industrial hubs spread out from the core of Chicago are the most obvious remnants of the sort of contraction that has played out when changes in work reshaped the face of where / how people lived. More subtle shifts in the once agrarian communities of DuPage, Lake, Kane, Will and other "collar counties" into bedroom communities and now fairly well balanced places with substanstial employment bases can be thought of like the "evolution" of various climatic regions from grasslands to pine forest to hardwood forests -- and the contraction may, like a forest fire, see some shifts in land use to early stages. If / when the south suburban airport fantasy is finally abandoned and the speculators that bought up land finally yeild it to a new generations of buyers it very well could mean more agricultural and less home building, as just one scenario that might play out...