Although she is generally considered a figure of ridicule, I personally think a lot of the credit for getting the _process_ started has to go to Jane Byrne. Not because she accomplished much, because she didn't. But she was the first person in a long time (including Richard J. at the end of his reign) to not be down-in-the-mouth about Chicago; to stand up and say, "we can fix this. we can make things better". Did she succeed herself? For the most part no, although IIRC she was responsible for getting Chicagofest rolling which was a key event in getting people back downtown on weekends. But her attitude laid the groundwork for Washington and Richie M. to get things moving later.

Cranky

The article scares me. It seems now Chicago has nowhere to go but down. A lot of what is good about Chicago has happened since the infamous WSJ article in (I think) August of 1984 that called Chicago "Beirut on the lake". Things have been improving ever since. A strong argument can be made that Richard M. Daley is carrying on the legacy of Harold Washington, not his father's. Harold (I don't think anyone called him Mayor Washington) was really getting into the job and enjoying it. He had very competent administrators. Harold was getting warm receptions in white neighborhoods during his second term. Unfortunately, those receptions included a lot of food which he never turned down. He was enjoying life (and pierogi, soul food, kielbasa, etc) and was over 300 pounds. At the time of his death, his biggest critics were people like Lu Palmer and the black empowerment movement. They did not want reform - they wanted the same machine with blacks replacing the Irish. Harold reached out to everyone. I grew up on the northwest side of Chicago. The day after his election, one of my neighbors, a Ukranian immigrant, was cleaning his shotgun. He thought that blacks would be coming into the neighborhood to take his house. That is not meant to be funny. The racial tension and fear, stoked by the Vrdolyak 29, was palpable. When Washington died, that same neighbor said he was a good man and he was going to church to light a candle for him. I think Daley learned a lot from Washington.

Now if we can only figure out a way to rescue the University of Chicago from its decay.

I grew up in Chicago and was a senior in HS when the Economist did its Chicago survey (my first encounter with the Economist, with which I retain a like-despise relationship).

Call me an old fuddy-duddy, but I LIKED the decrepit, shop-worn, Rust Belt Chicago. I HATE the new, tourist-friendly, Harley-Davidson Cafe, ESPNZone, BLAH BLAH BLAH Chicago. Back then Chicago had a soul; now it's just another in a long line of Times Square Wannabes. Yuck.

I knew the city was doomed the day I say Daley the Younger on television, alongside the river, just after the Sun-Times building had been shuttered for Trump (Trump, yet!!), announce that, henceforth, the Business of Chicago would be Tourism.

Eegad, methought; you truly can't go home again. Were it not for the Green Mill and Miller's Pub, I wouldn't even be able to stomach the annual pilgrimage. Oh, for the days of the Cafe Bohemia (and if you know what that means, I'll credit you in fine postmodern style with being an "authentic" Chicagoan, odderwize youze'r just anudder terist t'me).

I came to an east coast city that was just undergoing urban renemwal of the typeof Old town in the early 80's I saw all the potential and stayed. The place never lived up to its potential.
The real reason is not just the ineptitude and provincialism of an east coast city vs its neighbors. Much of It really is leadership of the individual nature that moves mulitiple movers and shakers to compete. The other part is as the regional population of the Midwest looked for jobs and housing Chicago was the place. It was happening when I left. Three people I worked with were from a town in Michigan. All my visits back long before interest rates dropped throuhg the floor Chicago was growing. Nothing like a confluence of good things.

Now if only the Blackhawks and Bulls can participate in this revival...

Hold off on the self-congratulation. Not just Chicago but across the US, growth is largely driven by Mexican immigration, that is to say, by an undeniably hardworking but also extremely uneducated, largely unskilled populace that, in contrast to other immigrant groups, does not push its children to succeed in school.

How valuable is population growth if driven by a rapidly swelling proletariat of largely illiterate domestics? Granted, the ready availability of such jobs in the US spares us the creation of French-style mass unemployment among a sullen and unassimilated immigrant underclass.

OTOH, is it really helpful to the economy that one-third or more of the schoolchildren in our metro areas are now semi- or illiterate campesinos' kids who score "below proficiency" on statewide exams at rates of 80% or more? (for the grim results, see the California State Dept of Education school reports database: http://star.cde.ca.gov/star2004/viewreport.asp.
Select "County," then the appropriate School District, eg Santa Clara or San Fran or LA, and then sort by "Ethnicity" and under it, "Hispanic/Latino." Finally, hit the blue button at top of screen, "VIEW REPORT", to see the percent of hispanic, which means for the most part Mexican campesino, kids who are below the (already-low) level of "Proficient." Caution: results don't do this on a full stomach...

Would it not make more sense to impose some intelligent curbs on immigration by people who have no advanced skills and/or cannot read? And perhaps to lift entirely all (non-security-related) curbs on immigration by people from any nation who have an advanced technical or scientific degree.

"but I LIKED the decrepit, shop-worn, Rust Belt Chicago. I HATE the new, tourist-friendly, Harley-Davidson Cafe, ESPNZone, BLAH BLAH BLAH Chicago."

Clearly you do not have 20+ yr old daughters living in both Chicago and New York. I lived in Chicago from 1965 to 1972 and New York from 1975 to 1985. Both cities are an order of magnitude cleaner and nicer than they were 30 years ago.

If you want to be terrified, depressed, and miserable, please feel free to find some third world hell-hole like the banlieus of Paris to live in. But, what ever you do, please go away and leave the rest of in peace.