Alliance brings together Chicago region.
The relationship between Northwest Indiana and the Greater Chicago area has often been described as a love-hate relationship. We love the proximity and the jobs provided for Hoosiers, but the state line has often seemed to be a barrier to collaboration.
A landmark study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2012 analyzed the economic interdependence between and among 21 counties in Northwest Indiana, the Greater Chicago area and Southeast Wisconsin. The findings were a mix of good news and bad news:
* The 21-county region would rank as the nation's third largest metropolitan region, exceeded only by New York and Los Angeles.
* It boasts a range of assets that include specialization in several high value-added sectors in manufacturing and services.
* It benefits from emerging new clusters in the “green sector” and generates a high volume of innovative activities.
* Its geographic position as the freight and logistic hub of North America allows the region to play a crucial role in the U.S. economy.
* The region's economic growth has lagged behind other U.S cities for most of the century, both in total and per-capita terms and may be losing its competitive edge.
* A serious mismatch of workforce skills has simultaneously generated labor shortages and pockets of unemployment.
* The region's aging transportation infrastructure is an obstacle to growth and threatens the functionality of a logistics hub, one of the main pillars for growth.
Richard Longworth, author of “Caught in the Middle: America's Heartland in the Age of Globalism,” expresses the hope that the OECD study would break “the psychological and political logjam that has kept this region–from Milwaukee through Chicago into Northern Indiana–from being the true economic region it should be.”
Tom Garritano, spokesman for the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, observes, “With economic development, there's more of a mindset of competition, and competition isn't in the interests of the entire region over the long run.”
Joe Cahill, writing in Crain's Chicago Business, puts it this way, “Internecine competition only makes all three states weaker. A job moving from Illinois to Indiana produces no net regional gain. But a new job created by outside investment in any of the three states benefits the entire region. One look at the stream of cross-border commuters traveling through the region should tell you that.”
And Paula Worthington of the University of the Chicago Harris School of Public Policy has asked, “How can the region compete with the metro regions in Brazil, India and China if leaders are preoccupied with business relocations between Illinois and Indiana?”
The recently formed Alliance for Regional Development is now at work on encouraging regional cooperation on three initial priorities:
* Green growth–working with The Water Council to capitalize on the region's water resources and innovative ways to stimulate environmentally friendly growth.
* Human capital–helping to assure that the region's workforce development efforts are coordinated and help to assure a workforce that is prepared for 21st century jobs
* Transportation & logistics–assuring that the region's infrastructure supports the region's leadership as a transportation and logistics hub
With support from a number of groups, including the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the U.S. Economic Development Administration, the Northwest Indiana Regional Planning Commission and its counterparts in Illinois and Wisconsin, the Alliance is broadening its base of support from both public and private sector leaders in Northwest Indiana.
The Alliance continues to build momentum and recently announced private sector managers for its workforce and transportation teams as well as a partnership with the internationally recognized Water Council. The focus will be on identifying cross-jurisdictional projects and creating collaborative strategies that will have the greatest positive impact on growing the regional economy for the 21-county area. An expanded Alliance board comprised of the three metropolitan planning organization directors, key university chancellors and private sector leaders will focus on broader policy issues and building relationships with public and private sector stakeholders including the relevant government agencies.
The challenge is to demonstrate clearly that regional collaboration and connectivity to the Greater Chicago area could be a major win for Northwest Indiana! More information about the Alliance is available at www.alliancerd.org.
Leigh Morris was chairman of the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority and Indiana's lead representative on the OECD study. He's currently an adjunct associate professor in Valparaiso University's College of Nursing and Health Sciences.
