It used to be that driving along I-94 from Cook County, Illinois, to Wisconsin was a matter of not just miles but also mindset. They were different worlds.
While Chicago clearly remains the โbig cityโ sister to Milwaukee, the two metro areas are increasingly growing together into one megaregion, connected by the I-94 corridor lined with booming development and business parks in Lake County on the Illinois side of the state line and areas like Pleasant Prairie on the Wisconsin side of the line.
A business move from the Chicago area to southeastern Wisconsin is no longer considered a huge cultural shift. If a business with national clientele and national brand recognition relocates from northern Illinois to southeastern Wisconsin, that distance of between 15 and 50 miles rarely affects its operations, says Kelly OโBrien, president and chief executive officer of the Chicago-based regional economic competitiveness organization Alliance for Regional Development. After all, there are just as many โ if not more โ miles between Wisconsin communities Brookfield and Mount Pleasant, or Oak Creek and Waukesha, with workers commuting within those zones already.
โMilwaukee is really going through a renaissance with the amazing restaurants, craft beer and the freshwater sector,โ OโBrien said. โIt should no longer be the stepchild of Chicago. Milwaukeeโs got to get over the idea that theyโre lesser than because theyโre not Chicago.โ
More and more, Wisconsin companies โ when chatting with colleagues or contacts in Asia or Europe โ proclaim their location to be in the Chicago area.
Turns out, this is not just a gimmicky line. There is real truth to the matter. The Alliance for Regional Development seeks to build upon the idea that Chicago, Milwaukee and northwest Indiana are now one economic megaregion.
โMilwaukee does not have the name recognition abroad so we usually end up saying, โWeโre from Chicago,โโ said John Gurda, a Milwaukee historian and author. โWhat Iโve compared it to is like โsleeping with an elephant,โ former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeauโs line for Canada with the U.S. Weโll forever be overshadowed by Chicago.โ
Similarly, OโBrien often hears Milwaukee-area businesspeople say they are โan hour outside of Chicagoโ when in touch with Asian businesses.
โWhy not use that (description) nationally? Youโre catching on to the fact that proximity to Chicago is a benefit,โ she said.
OโBrienโs goal is to eventually rid the ages-old rivalry between Wisconsin and Chicago. Sheโd like to see a newly named economic region with โno brick wallsโ on state lines.
โWe really have more in common than we do differences,โ she said. โWe look for areas where it really does make sense to collaborate, like transportation.โ
After all, in a 2012 report authored by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 21 counties in Wisconsin, Chicago and Northwest Indiana are characterized as operating as an economic region and collectively are the third-largest contributor to U.S. Gross Domestic Product. But the downside is that between 1990 and 2010, the region grew at a slower pace than the national average. This translates to 6,000 jobs lost.
โI know for a fact we are still not growing at the national average,โ OโBrien said.
Some of this is due to population loss; all three states have suffered declines.
As a follow-up to the report, and with an eye on maximizing that GDP while attracting companies, Alliance for Regional Development was born.
Itโs important to look at the regionโs history to understand why Chicago has for many years been a sexier city in which to do business.
โThey both had ports and for about 50 years, the cities were pretty much on an even basis,โ Gurda said. โWhen railroads came to Chicago, it was a little like Milwaukee lost to the rivalry.โ
โThe two cities are peas of dissimilar size in the same regional pod,โ he wrote in a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel column published in 2012, in advance of a daylong workshop at Marquette University exploring the relationship between the two cities. โChicago and Milwaukee grew up as siblings, and they were locked in a fierce sibling rivalry for years.โ
Remember that $1 million advertising campaign the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. launched last year, aimed at luring millennials out of Chicago and into Wisconsin?
OโBrien thinks companies can do better by not shunning one state in favor of another.
โI thought we were trying to get away from moving chess pieces,โ she said.
A goal is to convince companies to relocate to the region โ not just move within it. OโBrien advocates โbeing thoughtful in addressing the population issues for the megaregion in a place-based branding campaignโ by highlighting its assets.
โAs the talent base grows, more companies will want to be here,โ she said. โWe need to take the bold steps of doing what we need to do to attract people to move to our megaregion and for current residents to feel proud of where they live.โ ฮฝ
