Chicago can have a manufacturing future – Chicago Sun-Times

Updated: March 7, 2014 6:45PM

On Tuesday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel joined Adam Lowry and Drew Fraser, founder and CEO of Method, to mark the wall raising of the first manufacturing plant that the 13-year-old cleaning products company has built on U.S. soil. While the announcement of 100 entirely new manufacturing jobs on Chicago’s long vacant Southeast Side would in and of itself be good news for Chicago, Method’s decision is emblematic of a bigger and ultimately more important story.

For Method is not alone in its choice. Ford, A. Finkl & Sons, and Asphalt Operating Services are among the companies that over the past few years, like Method, have quietly and without fanfare expanded or moved their operations to the Pullman/Calumet area, bringing with them $1 billion of investment, more than 1,500 jobs — and hints of a strategy for a sustainable Chicago future.

Chicago has many assets (weather not being one of them!). Like Boston, we have one of the nation’s largest aggregations of colleges and college students. Like New York and L.A., Chicago is home to a large number of the nation’s largest corporate headquarters. But the one asset that no other place, not only in the nation but in the world, has is a transportation system that provides unparalleled access to national and world markets — with its epicenter on Chicago’s Southeast Side.

It is here that the nation’s five Class 1 railroads converge, connecting east with west, north with south and through which more than one-quarter of the nation’s rail cartage passes. It is here where seven major interstate highways meet and the nation’s most vigorous air transport is found. And it is here that, with the demise of big steel at the end of the last century, vast quantities of land (over 1,000 acres of undeveloped or underdeveloped land) are available adjacent to the rail, roads and ships that connect companies and products to the world market.

Much of the company movement to Chicago has been self-directed, as more American companies consider “on-shoring” in the face of rising energy and transport costs worldwide. But with the Chicago region’s transportation nexus holding an undisputed competitive advantage, we can and should do more.

Yes, Chicago wants to and needs to be a tech hub. Yes, Chicago wants to and needs to be a world destination — attracting visitors that fuel the tourism economy. But like a well-constructed stool, Chicago needs a third leg — advanced manufacturing, co-located around our transportation hubs. Chicago needs manufacturing that can be aided and abetted by the advances made in technology. Chicago needs manufacturing that will provide the high-wage jobs that can allow local residents, as well as tourists, to enjoy the shopping, theater, restaurants and culture that Chicago has to offer and that builds off the one asset that no other city or geography offers.

Imagine what we could do, and how the area would thrive, if coordinated attention and marketing were afforded to the area. A thoughtful coordination of city, county and private industry resources should lead to the conclusion that the Port of Chicago is not an albatross, but rather, an investment opportunity.

An understanding of the area’s potential would yield a coordinated marketing campaign that thoughtfully integrates the Port with rail, road, air and land resources that abound, supported by both government and private industry (particularly the rail, truck and barge industries) and aiming to reach manufacturers whose ability to distribute and export would be enhanced by locating in what Method’s leadership, as well as many authors, have termed “nature’s metropolis.” And, of course, an understanding of manufacturing and transport as real growth areas would lead to a rigorous assessment and restructuring of education and training options in our region to ensure that we have a workforce prepared to take the well-paying, skilled jobs that the sector offers — jobs that are enhanced, not eliminated, by robotics and automation.

Chicago has lost nearly half a million jobs over the last decade and has one of the highest unemployment and foreclosure rates in the nation. We believe that under Mayor Emanuel’s leadership there is no better time to rethink and build an industrial future for Chicago’s Southeast Side.

David Doig is president of Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives, a not-for-profit community development organization focusing and coordinating redevelopment efforts on Chicago South and Far South sides.Ted Stainos is president of the Calumet Area Industrial Commission, a 45-year-old membership organization representing more than 120 manufacturing and industrial companies in the Calumet region.