Chicago and jobs

By CHARLES N. WHEELER III

Faro Dealer for the State
Crap Shooter, Spinner of Wheels
Player with Slots and the Nation's
Blackjack Mecca Touting, grifting,
shilling City of the Big Casinos
(With apologies to Carl Sandburg)

When the legislature returns for its fall veto session, heading its agenda will be a proposal that could change sharply the well-known image of Chicago drawn by Galesburg's foremost man of letters. Lawmakers will be asked to approve a $2 billion casino gambling project that developers promise will draw tourists, jobs and economic development opportunities to the region.

The project's head cheerleader is Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, a one-time foe of casino gambling who changed his tune when promoters talked about 36,000 jobs and $140 million in new city taxes. The most prominent opponent has been Gov. Jim Edgar, who fears the casino plan would cost existing farm jobs, undercut the state lottery, damage economic recovery in riverboat gambling towns and push up crime and law enforcement costs.

To all such criticism, Daley has a standard response: "Jobs, jobs, jobs." There are no other megaprojects pending, the mayor says; no one else is holding out hope for economic salvation to a city that seems to have lost its employment soul. "What we're trying to provide is ideas for a city that has to change," Daley said recently. "Everybody's living in the past. If you don't see the future, you're denying economic development and jobs for our people."

Perhaps the mayor is correct. Perhaps casino gambling is all that's left for a city that has seen a steady erosion of population and manufacturing jobs, as Chicago has in recent decades. And yet, if the mayor is as desperate for jobs as he says, why did he abandon so quickly the proposed Lake Calumet airport, a project that could have created five or six times as many jobs as the casino plan? A former state senator, Daley certainly should know one lost roll call is hardly the death knell for any proposal; indeed, it's almost axiomatic that major capital projects — McCormick Place, Comiskey Park, Arlington Park, you name it — get sidetracked somewhere along the way before finally reaching the governor's desk.

Lake Calumet aside, if the mayor's assessment is correct, perhaps a more fundamental question needs to be asked: Why can't Chicago lure any industry other than gaming? There's probably no single answer to a question that complex, but there are a number of factors that no doubt contribute to the city's difficulties in attracting new industry. The list could include:

• Chicago public schools. A few years ago, U.S. Education Secy. William Bennet labeled city schools the nation's worst, an assessment buttressed recently by the first-ever comparison of the nation's largest public school systems. The study showed Chicago had the lowest achievement test scores and the highest four-year dropout rate of any of the nation's big-city schools. In math, 48 percent of city students scored in the bottom quarter, compared to a 28 percent big-city average, while 47 percent of Chicago kids were in the bottom quarter in reading, compared to 32 percent of all big-city students. Chicago had a four-year dropout rate of 45.9 percent, compared to the big-city average of 26.1 percent.

What kind of message is sent to a company looking to relocate when half its prospective work force doesn't finish high school and many of those who stick it out can't read or do simple math as well as most other kids?

• Crime. Chicago's crime rate increased 10 percent last year, and the city's homicide count through September was running ahead of last year's, the second deadliest year in Chicago history. Chicagoans traveling afar might find it amusing when a mere mention of the city brings a "Boom, boom, Al Capone" response. But all-too-frequent incidents of gang warfare, drive-by shootings and other assorted mayhem create a bloody image that would give any employer second thoughts about the city.

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• Taxes. In 101 Illinois counties, real property is to be assessed at one-third of market value. Cook County's unique classification system, though, calls for commercial property to be valued at 38 percent and industrial property at 36 percent, while residential property is to be assessed at 16 percent. As a result, some of the property tax burden is shifted away from homeowners and onto business. Chicago also has the state's highest sales and gasoline taxes, as well as an employee head tax. Any wonder that a bottom-line conscious executive might not be interested in relocating his company to Chicago?

• City economic development shortcomings. When Spiegel announced it was relocating its south side distribution center to Columbus, Ohio, a few weeks ago, city officials complained they'd "moved heaven and earth" to find the catalog retailing giant a new site in the city. Spiegel officials said the best site the city had to offer was near Lake Calumet and under up to 30 feet of water in places. They were unwilling to rely on city assurances the site could be filled in time to meet their construction plans. An isolated instance? Maybe. But a 1991 report suggested the city could retain or create 150,000 jobs if it could meet the demand for more space by industrial firms already located in Chicago.

• Labor costs. Chicago's reputation as a strong union town offers little incentive to companies looking to pay lower wages and fewer fringe benefits.

The foregoing list is hardly all encompassing, nor should it contain any surprises. In the past, however, efforts to deal with these issues too often have degenerated into finger-pointing and name-calling, frequently along partisan and regional lines.

If state and city leaders can set such pettiness aside and resolve to confront the city's problems forthrightly, perhaps Chicago again could express the economic vitality celebrated by Carl Sandburg.

Charles N. Wheeler III is a correspondent in the Springfield Bureau of the Chicago Suntimes.

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