Has Chicago Peaked?

The Economist reports:

For many people Chicago is the quintessential American city, an extraordinary artifact in the middle of the heartland, where tall buildings reach for the heavens, overhead railways rattle above the sidewalks, politicians rule by machine and immigrants are fashioned into citizens of the world's first new nation. In terms of capturing the imagination, its only American rivals are New York and Los Angeles. Yet in one respect Chicago is more like other big American cities than it would like to be: its growth is in the suburbs, in towns like Waukegan, whose population increased by 26% in the 1990s, or Aurora (43%) or Naperville (48%). Chicago's rose by a mere 4% in the same decade, and has been falling since, whereas the suburbs have continued to grow. And beyond the suburbs are the exurbs. Drive west from the Loop, out past Naperville, through Aurora and eventually, just after Pioneers Village, you reach farmland--and a sign saying "Settlers Ridge, a true community, coming soon". This is the future.

Chicago,like many old industrial cities,peaked in the 1950's.