With its surging job and population growth, and high retail sales, downtown Chicago is outperforming the suburbs for the first time in decades. Perhaps more than any other city in the country, it reflects the inversion of the post-war paradigm.
Greg Hinz describes how downtown Chicago, which is "adding residents faster than any other urban core in America," has become "the new economic engine of the metropolitan area and, increasingly, the rest of Illinois."
"The Chicago Loop long has been one of the world's greatest job centers, of course. For much of its history, though, downtown emptied out after office hours. And as the city aged and its population declined, the suburbs rose to become the preferred home to generations of young families and the tollways became employment corridors of their own."
"In recent years, those trends have reversed. After decades of watching the suburbs boom (often at the city's expense), Chicago now is outperforming the surrounding area by almost any measure—jobs, income, retail sales and residential property values, to name a few—despite the loss of 200,000 people in the 2010 census."
"If for decades after World War II we asked whether the area could prosper with rich suburbs but a dying inner city, the question now is whether the area can prosper with a thriving core but sinking neighborhoods and inner-ring suburbs around it."
Read the full story: The hottest urban center in the U.S. — Chicago's mega-Loop
Explaining America's Great Inversion
Richard Florida speaks with Alan Ehrenhalt about the subject of his new book, The Great Inversion and the Future of the American City: the reversal of the last century's great shift in people and economic activity to the suburbs
Central Park has seen three deadly crashes since June. It banned cars 8 years ago.
100,000 bikers, pedestrians and horseback riders compete for space on the loop daily, sometimes resulting in deadly collisions.
Arizona Overrides Moratorium Imposed due to Water Crisis, Approves up to 60K New Homes
A newly created legal process allows development to proceed if builders agree to bring in renewable water sources and reduce their groundwater use by 25%.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
HUD modernizes 50-year-old manufactured housing framework
The Next Generation Manufactured Housing Action Plan establishes new energy-efficiency standards for manufactured homes, and new guidelines for anchoring them.
Data reveals that NYC’s bet on congestion pricing has paid off
After almost two years of the program, reports show positive impacts on traffic and air quality and no disruptions to parking.
How Chicago, New York and Seattle are funding transit projects amid tough times
Notes from the American Public Transportation Association's TransForm conference in Chicago.
Transport for London tackles hate crime spike with free bystander training
Recorded hate crime offences on the London's transport network have increased by 36 per cent.
Denver is solving homelessness. Why aren't the rest of us?
Since 2023, Denver's street homeless population has decreased by 64%, proving that effective tools exist to support those in need of housing.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
One Hundred Miles
County of Mendocino
planning NEXT
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
Montrose County
Northern Illinois Transit Authority (NITA)
The Pocatello Development Authority