In Chicago's Industrial Decline Robert Lewis charts the city's decline since the 1920s and describes the early development of Chicago's famed (and reviled) growth machine. Beginning in the 1940s and led by local politicians, downtown business interest, financial institutions, and real estate groups, place-dependent organizations in Chicago implemented several industrial renewal initiatives with the dual purpose of stopping factory closings and attracting new firms in order to turn blighted property into modern industrial sites. At the same time, a more powerful coalition sought to adapt the urban fabric to appeal to middle-class consumption and residential living. As Lewis shows, the two aims were never well integrated, and the result was on-going disinvestment and the inexorable decline of Chicago's industrial space. By the 1950s, Lewis argues, it was evident that the early incarnation of the growth machine had failed to maintain Chicago's economic center in industry. Although larger economic and social forces—specifically, competition for business and for residential development from the suburbs in the Chicagoland region and across the whole United States—played a role in the city's industrial decline, Lewis stresses the deep incoherence of post-WWII economic policy and urban planning that hoped to square the circle by supporting both heavy industry and middle- to upper-class amenities in downtown Chicago.

"This book outlines the decline of Chicago's industrial base and the rise of the suburbs as a substantial industrial district between 1920 and 1975, explores the attempts by the city's political and business leaders to deal with industrial decline, and shows why these initiatives have failed"--

The long-term decline in manufacturing employment in the Chicago metropolitan area and in the city of Chicago is examined. Manufacturing employment at the metropolitan level is estimated to decline by 0.90% per year if manufacturing employment is constant in the nation, and to change by about 1% when the change at the national level is 1%. Manufacturing employment in the city of Chicago declines (on balance moves to the suburbs) by 1.9% per year if manufacturing employment is constant at the metropolitan level, and changes by 1% when the metropolitan area changes by 1%. In other words, an annual 1% decline of manufacturing employment in the nation translates into a 1.9% decline in the Chicago metropolitan area and a decline of 2.9% in the city of Chicago. The decline in manufacturing in the city and the metropolitan area was not caused by an unfavorable mix of industries. Since the 1960s several public programs have tried to retain and/or increase manufacturing jobs in the city, but have achieved only marginal success, if any.

Examining Chicago as a model for urban economic development in the post-World War II era, Joel Rast challenges the conventional belief that structural economic change has forced cities to concentrate resources on downtown revitalization efforts in order to remain fiscally viable. Rast argues instead that cities face multiple economic development choices and that politics play a fundamental role in deciding among them. During the late 1950s, a coalition of city officials and downtown business leaders initiated planning efforts that would help reshape central Chicago into a modern mecca of service industries and affluent residential neighborhoods, chasing viable manufacturers from the near downtown area in the process. More recently, however, manufacturers have sought protection and support from city government, forming alliances with labor and community organizations concerned with the decline of well-paying industrial job opportunities. Responding to these pressures, city officials from the Harold Washington, Eugene Sawyer, and Richard M. Daley administrations have taken steps to implement a citywide industrial policy. Remaking Chicago portrays urban economic development as open-ended and politically contested. It demonstrates that who governs matters and shows how opportunities exist for creative local responses to urban economic restructuring. Based on extensive research, this well-written case study will appeal to those interested in urban planning and politics, economic development, and Chicago history and politics.