How Chicago stacks up in terms of global talent/innovation/tech (design, people)

[personone]

Originally Posted by Nafster

Vibrancy problem? Lmfao

That's not a problem in Chicago AT ALL.

Safety and desirability?

Those are problems.

I wouldn't say that "desirability" is necessarily a direct problem. It may be indirectly because of safety concerns. Most people (at least on this site) always repeat the notion of wanting to move to Chicago but "unsure because of safety." In their heart of hearts, I think they know that like almost all big cities, if you are in one of the nice neighborhoods, you don't have much to worry about. Although, I can't discount their concerns because in the last 2 years, there has been more violent incidents and safety concerns in the "nice" neighborhoods, than I can remember. In the grand scheme of things, these are still relatively rare in the more desirable neighborhoods.

But I still think Chicago is thought of as "desirable" by most big-city enthusiasts. It's just that its reputation for violent crime has impacted it's desirability to a degree.

I would say that Safety (or more accurately "Violent Crime") is the root problem.

[Chi-town]

On the city vs city and General US forums. So many vs threads over months and years. Many who liked Chicago and commented it higher vs another city and liked.

So many would add. A but for its WINTERS, they could consider it as a choice. Even vs East coast cities.

The scourge and perception of Real Winters is another KEY factor against Chicago even more then crime IMO. Just opinion.

Chicago gives off positive vibes to visitors and comes off as clean and greener then many expect. Far more a exceeded expectations over not that some cities get, but DA WINTER is a bust to consider by many....

[personone]

https://www.city-data.com/forum/city...2-onwards.html

Not exclusively tech, but Venture Capital

[Drewjdeg]

Looks like FTX has opened their US headquarters in Chicago, no doubt because of the talent pool of C++ developers and HFT people that work at places like Citadel. Now Chicago has both FTX and Jump Crypto, with Citadel also moving into crypto soon. Interesting times ahead for sure.

A lot of people outside of tech don't realize how deep the talent is in Chicago trading/finance firms.

[personone]

Originally Posted by Drewjdeg

Looks like FTX has opened their US headquarters in Chicago, no doubt because of the talent pool of C++ developers and HFT people that work at places like Citadel. Now Chicago has both FTX and Jump Crypto, with Citadel also moving into crypto soon. Interesting times ahead for sure.

A lot of people outside of tech don't realize how deep the talent is in Chicago trading/finance firms.

True. This is what boosts Chicago up on a lot of the “global indices” rankings. It has one of the strongest finance, private equity, trading presences outside of NYC.

If it can boost its tech a little, it will set up the city well financially for the future.

[Gaylord_Focker]

Originally Posted by Greencheese

The issue here is that Chicago is 3rd in population. It really shows that Chicago is LAUGHABLY underperforming vs other cities much smaller than itself. While other cities are climbing the rankings Chicago appears to be doing little more than slipping. Simply being a large city in itself is no longer the only requirement for success, maybe someday our leaders will acknowledge that.

Third largest city, third largest economy. Is it underperforming?

[DannFrankenstein]

I have to question the legitimacy of this article. Chicago should be ranked at least a little higher. Have we not all found articles that are unfairly biased against Chicago? Some folks have a deeply personal hate towards Chicago, and want to see it fail

[personone]

Originally Posted by DannFrankenstein

I have to question the legitimacy of this article. Chicago should be ranked at least a little higher. Have we not all found articles that are unfairly biased against Chicago? Some folks have a deeply personal hate towards Chicago, and want to see it fail

I personally don’t question the validity, although all “lists” are subject to biases. However, if you look at any “tech list,” Chicago is rarely in the top tier for any of them. Unless they have all conspired against Chicago

But I think it is making some strides, and is actually higher up on one of the lists than I would have thought. This article in question uses objective metrics, and is not conspiring against Chicago. This is focused solely on “tech/innovation.” While Chicago has that in it’s portfolio, I think it’s fair to say that it’s not one of its top tier industries. That is what this thread is about.

[JulianMabowski]

Chicago has the most diverse economy in the country, which is fantastic. Cities which rely to heavily on one industry like Seattle with tech and Houston with oil/gas are more turbulent.

[DannFrankenstein]

The article didn’t really specify how they were judging talent. Like, I think that’s very generous to be measuring such a left-brained field like tech in terms of talent. And there was no mention of something like Graphic Design, was there? Design is closely related to tech and Chicago has enough skilled, if not talented designers, that New City compiles a list of their 50 best designers each year. I knew a ton of impressive designers when I went to Columbia College, but alas, many of them moved and the school’s enrollment has been dropping. Maybe the article is right. I havn’t bothered visiting any of the links in the article, so maybe I should do that before I respond further