Chicago
By ED McMANUS

Selling Chicago as the place for business and industry

THERE ARE a lot of construction cranes climbing skyward in the Loop these days, and it makes a very pleasant view from the 20th floor of the First National Bank annex.

That's where Charles Sklavanitis and his team of city boosters, the 3-year-old Chicago Economic Development Commission (EDC), are headquartered. And it's a cheering sight to them — all that construction activity — a sign of vitality.

Out in the city, the picture is different: slums to the south and west, vacant industrial plants, long lines at the unemployment offices. The development commission wants to change all that, but it's an uphill battle.

Chicago lost 130,000 manufacturing jobs in the 1970's, and for most of those years, City Hall just sat back and watched it happen. Finally, in 1977, the Economic Development Commission was established, and in the last three years it has put together a program to retain existing industry and attract new firms to the city.

Last year, according to assistant executive director Myron D. Louik, the city gained an estimated 1,000 manufacturing jobs (that's a rough estimate, he says), the first year in a long time that there has been an increase. Whether or not that was a result of the commission's efforts is hard to determine.

The city has 43,000 employees; only 37 of them work for the EDC. The city's corporate fund totals $800 million; the commission's budget is $500,000. Some people believe Chicago needs to invest much more if it is to compete with other cities in attracting industry.

But even its critics concede that the commission is moving in the right direction, albeit at a snail's pace.

Sklavanitis and Louik provide this laundry list of the commission's chief functions:

•It has put together a set of investment incentives, including a property tax break for companies that build new plants or rehabilitate old ones; a subsidy program that enables firms to buy land at prices competitive with those in the suburbs and the Sun Belt; industrial revenue bonds to permit low-cost financing of new plants and equipment; and the establishment of manpower training programs.

•It has established a "one-stop" service for businesses needing municipal assistance ranging from alley cleaning to zoning changes. Rather than wrestle with bureaucratic agencies, a company can come to the EDC with its problem. "We can cut through the red tape so they don't have to deal with a myriad of agencies," says Louik. "We act as sort of an ombudsman."

•It is undertaking a series of studies of particular industries, outlining why Chicago is a good place for a firm in a specific industry to locate. The first such project involved the plastics industry; more are planned on the machine tool, fabricated metals, electronics and printing industries.

•It has published a brochure describing Chicago's economic advantages and is launching a modest advertising campaign. "We don't have a large enough budget for a national ad campaign," Louik says, "but we will run advertisements in Chicago publications and regional publications." The ads in Chicago, he said, are mainly "to assuage the egos of the people (firms) who are already here — telling them, in effect, 'You made a good choice.'"

•A commercial attraction committee will send the brochures out to the Fortune 500 companies. The commission also has set up what it calls "an early warning system" to alert it when a company is considering Chicago as a plant site. "When we catch wind of anything, we prepare a package to present to the company on what we have to offer," Louik says.

What Chicago has to offer, according to the EDC, is spelled out in its literature.

"Chicago city government strives to provide a profitable, secure environment for local business and industry through conservative municipal spending policies that have made the city's per capita government outlays less than half those of New York City."

"There are fewer labor disputes in Chicago than in New York and Los Angeles."

"The world's busiest airport, O'Hare International is only 12 miles from the business district." (The Airline Passengers Assn. rates it the worst airport in the country.)

"Ninety-nine percent of the people in Chicago's metropolitan area live within 3/4 mile of a bus or train stop. "

"Chicago has less per capita crime than San Francisco, Miami, Phoenix, Denver, Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, St. Louis, Detroit, San Diego, Los Angeles, Houston, New York City, Cleveland, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Tulsa, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Memphis."

"Nine hundred firefighters are on duty at all times."

Louik contends that 90 percent of the companies that have moved out of Chicago in recent years have moved to suburbs in the Chicago area, not to the Sun Belt as is commonly assumed. "The Sun Belt has a lot of disadvantages — lack of water, a poor labor market, and so forth," he says. "And we find that some of the companies in the suburbs are dissatisfied. We are attracting them back to the city."

Nationally, the EDC has its hands full. Corporate executives are influenced not only by neat packages prepared by boosters; they read the newspapers, too, and wonder whether they want to move to a city of crooked public officials (the Chicago Sun-Times' "Mirage" series was picked up by the national media), a city with a school system going broke (even European papers picked up this story), a city with an unpredictable mayor.

But the EDC keeps a stiff upper lip. "Chicago is a tough city that appears capable of handling tough situations better than any other city in the nation," says Sklavanitis.

Time will tell.

36/October 1980/Illinois Issues