Chicago Becomes Dominated By the Suburbs

Dennis Byrne in The Chicago Tribune reports:

But just as the recession is a nationwide affliction, Chicago's new mayor and City Council are caught in the new reality of the American metropolis: suburban dominance. It is the result of understandable human cravings for a better life, and no amount of cajoling or 20-year plans can stop it. Suburban dominance has become so entrenched that old cities must actively adjust to the new reality. Here, for example, the majority of the region's residents and jobs now are in the suburbs, and such boneheaded efforts as, say, trying to bar Walmart stores from the city, can be fatal.

Yet, ending or even reversing that flight has been the unfulfilled dream of urban planners, civic groups and others in the grip of a romantic and nostalgic vision. It's as if they saw urban salvation in a return to the intensely dense form that gave birth to many American cities a century or more ago. They have hung on to that vision with remarkable tenacity, and when they saw a slight blip in the urban population of young, middle-class singles and retired empty nesters they heralded a "return-to-the city" movement.

An article well worth your time.