Site Selection magazine top ten cities for corporate expansions in 2010

[grapico]

Originally Posted by DANNYY

I've really been wanting to call out this parallel for a few days now, but the more I think about it, the more my hometown Chicago reminds me of my home land of Singapore. Chicago in many ways is like the American version of Singapore (I'm half Singaporean) and ironically both cities rank about the same in terms of finance, banking, logistics, economy, and transportation. And all the GaWC, Foreign Policy, Taylor, and all those other rankings have them at about the same level too. The numbers 5 & 6 largest financial centers in the world. Singapore 2nd largest intermodal port in the world & Chicago 3rd largest intermodal port. Chicago being top logistical hub in North America with Singapore in Asia. United Airlines corresponding to Singapore Airlines. Their economies are built almost to the T in the exact same fashion, and even their transit is almost the exact same.

The problem with both is, they're prone to stagnation after large boom & bust cycle periodical gaps, the amount that Chicago lost of its GDP in 2009 compared to 2008 was almost the exact same Singapore lost too (by rate). In 2010 Singapore was the fastest growing economy in the world at a rate of 14.2% increase, and Chicago's must be really high too.

In 2009 both cities took it to the chin when it came to trade and transportation declining, both cities lost large shares because of that and both lost a chunk from their economy due to slowing down in finance too. To keep the parallels going, its even more ironic that both of them are in the exact same position right now in terms of financial acquisitions, Singapore's Exchange is about to merge (and keep main base in Singapore, liquidating Australia's) with Australia's where as Chicago's CME partnership with NASDAQ is proceeding to both take over NYSE (NASDAQ being a New York based organization). All 3 cities of Chicago, Singapore, & New York are going to have a better financial year in 2010 & 2011 than they did in 2009.

Sorry for the distractor, but the similarities between the two places has been haunting, I've lived in Singapore and even the segregation & integration there is just like Chicago's, the only difference is it has Houston weather rather than Chicago weather.

All in all though, Chicago's had a much improved performance in 2010 with its economy recovering significantly, and 2011 seems poised for an even better year for Chicago (and Singapore). And I remember the city wanting to implement more in terms of media advertisements & tech and I guess its carrying out with it like it planned, which is good for its economy overall. Now only if they could get rid of the crooked politics (ironically Singapore suffers from this too, LOL). Also and they both have large and dense skylines on a great waterfront, the similarities just keep piling up.

Chicago is definitely getting more involved with tech, from giant MS server farms, to 37signals (Basecamp and Ruby on Rails) to Groupon (fastest growing company in history)

The inventor of the internet will be in town this week also
Plain Talk on Complexity : Northwestern University Newscenter

As was the President of China last month, only visited DC and Chicago...

So yeah... Chicago took a hit, but there are good things.

I see some similiraties with Singapore also, as they are both ultra planned cities, Singapore even more so than Chicago.

Originally Posted by DANNYY

I'm actually half Singaporean and used to live there before and agree you wont notice that kind of atmosphere outside of economy, you wont witness economical stagnation based off one year. (2010 & 2011 have been extremely good years for Singapore & Hong Kong) Singapore is a boom and bust city, just like Chicago it has those phases. For example its economy grew significantly from 2001 to 2003 (as did Chicago's) and then it declined a bit in 2005, and then picked up again in 2007 and declines again in 2009, and has now picked up again. That's the same way Chicago is, its just going around in circles. Hong Kong is slowing down economically and the mainland cities are surpassing it one by one, Beijing & Shanghai already did, and a few other posed too due to slower gains.

Stagnation isn't visual, places can build all the skyscrapers they want and have all the energy in the world but it doesn't stop their economy from seeing boom & bust cycles periodically. For Singapore its the industries its in that are limiting it with new competition and other places stealing from its base. For Hong Kong its just the fact that it cant keep up with the rate of the mainland cities in China. Both their economies are still primarily based off finance, banking, & transportation (trading) and all those industries took it to the chin in the global recession in 2009 especially.

It's because their economies are intentionally well rounded, thus Chicago survived and excelled when other midwest cities kind of fell to the side.
So as the global market goes, so will Chicago and Singapore... They handle core infrastructure that other businesses rely upon such as transportation/markets as their 1 and 2 bread and butter niches.


Another city I have always thought is a bit similar to Chicago is Frankfurt Germany... Though when I brought it up before, most people just laughed... oh well, but they have a lot of economic similarities...


Frankfurt now...

[kidphilly]

Originally Posted by grapico

Chicago is definitely getting more involved with tech, from giant MS server farms, to 37signals (Basecamp and Ruby on Rails) to Groupon (fastest growing company in history)
...

If I get one more GD Groupon email to buy corn I am gonna flip out

[DANNYY]

Originally Posted by grapico

Another city I have always thought is a bit similar to Chicago is Frankfurt Germany... Though when I brought it up before, most people just laughed... oh well, but they have a lot of economic similarities...


Frankfurt now...

You're not going to believe me when I say this but before you edited your post to add in the Frankfurt part I was also thinking about Frankfurt being the most closely based city in Europe to Chicago. I also think Toronto (while a bit different) would finish off the group with these 4 cities. Singapore, Toronto, Chicago, & Frankfurt, truly feel like peer cities through and through on similarities too. In many respects those are probably the closest cities to Chicago behind the scenes than any others.

Frankfurt & Toronto surely continue the economic mold with the similarities: logistics, intermodal trade, finance, banking, commodities exchange, & diversely integrated economies.

[grapico]

Originally Posted by DANNYY

You're not going to believe me when I say this but before you edited your post to add in the Frankfurt part I was also thinking about Frankfurt being the most closely based city in Europe to Chicago. I also think Toronto (while a bit different) would finish off the group with these 4 cities. Singapore, Toronto, Chicago, & Frankfurt, truly feel like peer cities through and through on similarities too. In many respects those are probably the closest cities to Chicago behind the scenes than any others.

Frankfurt & Toronto surely continue the economic mold with the similarities: logistics, intermodal trade, finance, banking, commodities exchange, & diversely integrated economies.

and before you posted, I was also going to mention Toronto... they might serve as more of a NYC function in their own country being media center. I definitely agree on those four though being extremely similar in function/stature. None of them are quite a Paris or NYC or London Tokyo... but they are also somewhere ahead of some other cities lower than them b/c of their business networks.