“Cities and the Global Challenges” – Special Session on the Global City of Chicago

Workshop “Cities and Global Challenges”

Prof. Lamia KAMAL-CHAOUI, Advisor to the OECD Secretary General and former Head of the Urban Development Programme

SPECIAL SESSION ON THE GLOBAL CITY OF CHICAGO

With guest speakers:

– Lance PRESSL, Ph.D., former President of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce Foundation
– Peter A.CRETICOS, Ph.D., President and Executive Director of the Institute for Work and the Economy in Chicago

The Chicago tri-state metro-region is home to approximately 9.5 million people, of whom over 90% live in Illinois, less than 2% in Wisconsin and the remainder in Indiana. It is the third most populous metropolitan area in the United States, only Los Angeles and New York have larger populations within the US.  The City of Chicago has a population of 2.7 million (28% of the total metro population).

The tri-state region’s economic growth rate has been slipping; for most of this century, its GDP growth has lagged behind that of the US average and other large metro regions around the world. This slowdown has been even more marked in per capita terms. Between 2001 and 2007, real annual GDP growth averaged 1.6% lower than the OECD average for metro-regions (at 2.6%).

The Chicago Tri-State metro-region is an economic powerhouse of international consequence with significant innovation potential but faces several structural challenges related to sustaining innovation-driven economic development, its transportation and logistics-hub functions, the effectiveness of its workforce development strategies over the long-term and reducing negative environmental impacts while harnessing the potential of its green sector.

These challenges speak to the region’s antiquated organizational structures, narrow policy approaches and fragmented or nonexistent relationships between the key stakeholder groups that drive innovation and ensure long-term economic growth. The fact that the region crosses three state boundaries and encompasses a large number of municipal and other service-based administrative units (many of which were created a century or more ago) pose particular challenges for future regional governance and development. 

Globalization demands that metro regions adopt new and agile public policies, organizational structures and partnerships to be competitive in the 21^st economy.  To date the Chicago tri-state metro-region has been slow to adjust to the new realities of the day.  Chicago’s new Mayor, Rahm Emanuel, represents a new breed of big city mayors with a global vision.  Only time will tell if traditional approaches and legacy leadership will yield to a new regional vision with a more global approach to boosting economic performance.

The speakers will present the key results of the OECD Territorial Review of the Chicago Tri-State metropolitan area and will provide an overview of the political context in the region. The Chicago review, which is the first of its kind conducted by the OECD in the United States, assesses the region’s capacity to contribute effectively to regional and national economic performance and quality of life. The Review focuses on four thematic policy issues: i) the effectiveness and coordination of workforce development programmes in the Chicago Tri-State metro-region; ii) the metro-region’s capacity for innovation; iii) its role as a major centre for logistics in North America; and (iv) its capacity to encourage green growth over the long term. The review also focuses on the state of region-wide institutional collaboration and offers a vision for effective tri-state region-wide stakeholder engagement.  

The OECD Review of the Chicago Tri-State metropolitan area was commissioned to draw attention to the challenges facing the region as well as serve as a “call to action” to spur innovative approaches and new leadership to boost the region’s economy and position the Chicago Tri-State metro region as a leader in the 21^st economy.  The speakers will offer their assessment of the progress to date and their prognosis for the future.

 

Lance PRESSL has extensive experience in the public, private, and not for profit sectors.  He currently serves as Senior Policy Fellow at the Institute for Work and the Economy.  He is also leading two new start-up ventures.  Previously, Pressl served as President of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce Foundation, where he led “The Territorial Review of the Chicago Tri-State Metropolitan Area”, conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Pressl began his professional career in state government in 1979.  He joined a small venture capital firm in 1987 and starting in 1990, he served as director of corporate affairs and issues management for Philip Morris Companies, Inc.

In 1996, Pressl was named president of the Civic Federation, the oldest taxpayer watchdog organization in the country.
In 2000, Pressl was the Democratic Candidate for the United States Eighth Congressional District of Illinois.  His congressional race is the subject of the book, Challenging the Incumbent.  Pressl served as senior associate for government and public policy for the American Council on Education and vice president at the Council of Graduate Schools. Pressl was awarded the Ford Fellowship for Regional Sustainable Development in the spring of 2008. He earned his BA, MA and Ph.D. in political science from Northwestern University.

 

Peter A. CRETICOS is President and Executive Director of the Institute for Work and the Economy, a small Chicago-based think tank specializing in national and regional workforce and economic development policies, and Principal of the policy consultancy, Peter A. Creticos, Ltd. He recently finished a four-yearlong appointment as Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame. He is adjunct faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Urban Planning and Public Administration, at the Illinois Institute of Technology Stuart School of Business, and in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at Roosevelt University.

Prior to establishing the Institute in 2000, Dr. Creticos served in senior positions in state and local government and national and state NGOs. Dr. Creticos earned his Ph.D. at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Northwestern University due to his innovative work on job matching.  He also earned a Master of Management at Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management, a Master of Arts in Political Science from the University of Missouri at St. Louis and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Washington University in St. Louis.