how far does chicago's sphere of influence extend? (Moline, Rock Island: crime, home)

[Drover]

Well, Chicago is one of the most economically influential cities in the world. Its economic influence throughout the Midwest can hardly be overstated. It is the transportation hub for much of the agricultural output from throughout the Midwest, not to mention one of the major consumers of those products. Some of those products are are processed here too, even though the old Stockyard days are long gone. CPI, for instance, processes God knows how many millions of pounds of corn each year, turning it into corn syrup, corn meal, corn oil, dextrose, and who knows what else. And yeah, we still do some meat packing here.

Chicago also serves as a "capital hub" from which flows currency in the form of loans for homes, property, farm equipment, light-industrial equipment, etc., throughout the Midwest. Huge sums of cash also flow through Chicago to purchase Midwest-produced agricultural goods; if I recall correctly, the Chicago Board of Trade is the largest ag commodities exchange in the world by monetary volume.

Chicago came into existence primarily to act as the Midwest's central clearinghouse for these activities. Chicago is the heart of the Midwest. If Chicago dies, the Midwest dies.

[reppin_the_847]

I bet that Metra plays a role in all of this. Having that Metra line extend to points as far out as Elgin, Fox Lake, Kenosha (WI), Waukegan, Aurora, Elburn, Harvard, Joliet, (etc.) sure makes it easy for exurbanites and people from the far away suburbs and furthest reaches of the metro to daytrip it into the city any time.

[mel2000]

The big question regarding influence is, what *daily* newspaper do most people in the area read to get nationwide content? If it's one of the two Chicagoland papers ... there you go. I've lived or visited numerous cities in this country and find that newspaper coverage tells a lot about influence.

[thepizzaguy]

The long arm of the law only extends to the city limits, bit occasionally you can find the CHicago Police traveling through nearby villages on their was to suburban court houses. You'll also see them with in a 1-2 block radius of the city performing a traffic stop.

City and County's mismanagment of funds is fell across the state. The County is 900 million dollars in debt, and CHicago is a big part of that bill, and the state still doesn;t have a budget to cover.

Politically the Mayor grasp is fairly strong. He is the power in the area. The largest effect I've seen or heard other than the missing 900 million is in the Casino area. In Illinois, there were only 10 permits handed out. 9 of them have been used, and Chicago is fighting tooth and nail for the final permit. The fact is one casino in Chicago will not serve of 2-4 million people, and will be constantly packed, and reservations and time limits would have to be set in order to give everyone a fair chance to lose their money.

[sonicreducer]

As a couple people have pointed out, there's a big difference between being "part of Chicagoland", and with saying that Chicago has a big influence on the Midwest (well, duh).

Chicago is without a doubt, the cultural and financial capital of the Midwest. It's the biggest population concentration, and it has the biggest sphere of influence, without a doubt. But that doesn't mean that people in the entire region consider it the de-facto big-city go-to place for everything.

I'm from the Champaign-Urbana region. People there absolutely do not think of themselves as being part of Chicagoland. We're 135 miles away. Chicago is not commutable for work purposes. It's a weekend getaway. But there are other big cities nearby as well--Indianapolis is a tad closer, at 120 miles, and St. Louis is 175 miles away. I grew up going to St. Louis and Indy way more than Chicago, but I had friends who had the opposite experience. It kind of depends on where your family is from, to some degree, and if they have connections in any of these places. (I'd also say the baseball team affiliations is a complicated affair downstate--loyalties were split between Cubs/Sox/Cardinals in no rational manner). I never knew anyone in the area to really read the Tribune or Sun unless they were refugees from Chicago. Locals read the Chambana paper, or maybe the NYT if they're worldly and sophisticated.

I'm in Madison, Wisconsin right now, which is about the same distance to Chicago. Madison is also most definitely NOT part of Chicagoland. Madison (like the rest of the state) is pulled into the Milwaukee sphere of influence, but this is a little debatable. Minneapolis may even have a little more influence on Madison. Even though Madison is a small city, it's got the flagship school, and state government. It like to fancy itself as an island into itself in many ways. But people definitely enjoy going to Chicago on getaways. People here are pretty ignorant of stuff that would be of concern to a native Chicagolander. I work for a guy who maintains a Madison and Oak Park residence, and it's kind of funny to see the hoops he has to jump through to get all the appropriate channels so he can watch his Chicago sports teams (and he wants EVERY game).

As a couple others have noted, it sounds like if you have a Metra stop, then you're definitely "in" Chicagoland to some degree. I always thought of "Chicagoland" running from around Kenosha, WI all the way S.E. to around the Indiana Dunes, with the Illinois W boundary being roughly around State Rt. 47, and the S boundary ending around Kankakee (and extending into that portion of Indiana). I think Michigan totally escapes being part of Chicagoland, although (like Wisconsin), there is a lot of tourism exchange.

I don't know what to make of Rockford. I always thought it was too far west to be included, and I always thought Rockford had it's own identity. Their airport is called "Chicago Rockford Airport" now though. Who are the ad wizards who came up with that on?

[ToriaT]

Chicago has a huge influence on the midwest and even parts of Canada. Chicago is the "unofficial capital" of the Great Lakes region holding about twenty percent of the world's fresh water.....the Great Lakes region is the third largest economy in the world!! So I would say there is a major influence although this is not commonly known by most people living their day to day lives.

[via chicago]

Chicago is one of only 10 Alpha Global cities (others being NY, London, Paris, Tokyo, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, LA, Milan and Singapore). So obviously the city is important not even just on a Midwestern stage, but a world one. But as has been mentioned, that dosent mean someone from downstate necessarily even feels an affiliation with it.

[AQUEMINI331]

What do you define as "sphere of influence"? Because Chicago has influence far beyond northeastern Illinois - I would argue its influence extends all the way down to the Deep South and every part of the Midwest and Great Lakes region.


Unfortunately, some of this influence is not the kind the Chamber of Commerce will brag about - for example, Chicago based street gangs setting up shop in Mississippi and Alabama. Or poor people from the South and West sides who were kicked out of former public housing sites by the thousands and relocating to small towns in the Midwest such as Des Moines and Springfield as well as southern cities like Memphis and Birmingham, in many cases bringing criminal behavior so common to these Chicago communities with them, contributing to the local crime rates the same way many Katrina evacuees caused crime rates in cities outside of the New Orleans area to rise shortly after the hurricane hit.



What do you define as Chicago's "sphere of influence"?

[Chicago60614]

I know Iowa City has massive ties to Chicago because of the University of Iowa. It's many times refered to as "Chicago's westernmost suburb". I'm from Iowa City, and actually saw people with those shirts on walking around in Iowa City. I think something like 1/3 of all the students at the U of Iowa are from Chicagoland, and bring a huge influence.

Other than Iowa City though, people just go to Chicago maybe once a year or so to shop or hit up 6 Flags. There's Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, St. Louis and Kansas City all within 4-5 hours from much of Eastern and Central Iowa. Most people just pick and choose a city based on what they want to do. Chicago is the biggest city, but people don't really think about it unless it's pressing on their immediate plans. Des Moines has been booming lately, and the CSA is now up to over 600,000 people. They have a lot of new shopping, revitalized downtown, a big new mall, cultrual events, new arena, rehabbed stadium, new highrises. I think this has replaced some trips to the bigger cities as far as casual shopping or cultural events.

[Tex?Il?]

Toronto is a Beta world city. New York is classified as a 12, Chicago as a 10 on the scale, and Toronto a 9. You could say Toronto is the Chicagos slightly shorter brother on the side of the border.

I personally would like to think Chicago has much more in common with Toronto than New York.