By: Mark Glennon*
It’s March, which means we are being subjected the dumbest annual study going about how well Chicago is doing.
It’s Site Selection Magazine’s yearly ranking of Chicagoland as its top metro in America for — the 13th consecutive year in a row that the magazine has coronated Chicago as No. 1. Local and national media trumpeted the headline. Illinois politicians like Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson celebrated as if they just cut the ribbon for a luxury stadium for the Bears in Chicago.
There’s just one problem. The study is junk. Worse than worthless.
Here’s why:
Site Selection Magazine bases its ranking on just one number – the raw total of new projects in a metro above any of three thresholds, namely $1 million in investment, or 20 new jobs or 20,000 feet of renovated space.
That’s it. One number.
Astonishingly, that means there’s no accounting for businesses that fled. We’re supposed to pretend that all the departures over the last 13 years from Chicago don’t matter, like Ken Griffin’s Citadel, Boeing, Caterpillar, Tyson Foods, Freight company TTX, Guggenheim Partners, PEAK6 and many others.
Just as foolishly, projects on the list are treated as if they are equal. There’s no distinction between, say, a Fortune 100 headquarters and a warehouse. A 20 person call center counts for as much as a $2 billion auto factory in South Carolina. A hog processor with 20,000 square feet counts as much as the SpaceX headquarters in Texas.
And why are part of Indiana’s new projects included? The Site Selection article based its number on the Chicago area Core-Based Statistical Area (CBSA), which the magazine correctly labeled as including part of Indiana. The Chicago CBSA does ,in fact, include Jasper, Lake, Newton and Porter Counties in Indiana. Relocations to there obviously should not be counted as victories for Chicago.
Mayor Brandon Johnson declared the ranking “one of the country’s clearest measures of economic and business expansion,” adding that Chicago serves as “the backbone of American commerce.” He listed Universal Horror Unleashed and a David Byrne collaboration with the Goodman Theatre as proof that Chicago’s “historic strengths continue to power new industries.” A haunted house and a Broadway director.
Governor Pritzker’s press release says Illinois “solidified its position as an economic powerhouse, crediting “innovative workforce development efforts, competitive incentives, and unmatched infrastructure.” Lieutenant Governor and U.S. Senate candidate Juliana Stratton said “These rankings are a reflection of the innovative and accommodating business environment we’ve built here in Illinois.”
That’s the real problem with Site Selection’s ranking that makes it worse than worthless: It gives cover to Illinois politicians to do what they do best — deny the catastrophe Chicago faces while refusing to act. I won’t try to summarize those problems, which are documented in thousands of pages of research by Wirepoints and others that we’ve published here.
I will, however, leave you with one recent graphic we haven’t yet published about corporate moves that gets closer to the truth, which is from the Visual Capitalist summarizing data from CBRE Group.
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
Audio and summary 
A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.
Audio and summary
I lived in Chicago for over 50 yrs and relocated, still in Illinois, but over 100
miles away (hold the comments about not leaving) and very close to the Wisconsin border. Everywhere just over the border there are major construction jobs going on. Huge warehouses, industrial complexes, large buildings that I don’t know what is moving in but huge, thousands of square feet. Drive down 90 towards Chicago and nothing compares to that activity. A phony article comes to my mind immediately
There’s plenty of truly huge warehouses being built or were fairly recently built in the far SW suburbs of Chicago. As a Wirepoints reader I am continually astonished when driving that area to take a contrary viewpoint to what otherwise usually seems economic gloom and doom predictions from so many posters here. I guess if you don’t do likewise with your driving you will be inclined to vehemently disagree. It’s likely a case of you “gotta see it to believe it.” That’s often true: we all want to believe our gut feelings over what seems compelling evidence to the contrary.… Read more »
Those are limited pockets that are fairly healthy. The warehouse sector is very healthy in many places. Beyond that, for sure, the southwest suburbs are generally better off than the south suburbs, which is what you are referring to that we have often written about. The Palos burbs seem fine, for example. And the I57 corridor is lined with those warehouses and light manufacturers once you go below Cook County. But it’s much different in places like Chicago Heights, Ford Heights, University Park and many others, not to mention places like Harvey, Dolton, Markham, etc. One stretch down there where… Read more »
Sure, I can agree with your entire comment here. Thanks for your pleasant and timely response here.
Conway Data, owner of Site Selection, has its office in Atlanta which brings up the question why they are not moving to Chicago
What a tremendous success. 13 years in a row. Through Covid and everything. All compiled by a not for profit organized by Chicago Dems for Chicago dems spewing data for Indiana and suburbs. Sounds like just the kind of data demofilth rely on. Based on this, it’s business as usual. No problems. Enjoy the ride while the rest of us laugh at you.
Like including the St Louis MSA in IL averages when over 80% of the population is in MO. The gaslighting in IL is epic.
Interesting that Cincinnati outperforms Los Angeles. Someone tell Gavin.
Democrats love to gaslight. Pritzker leadership. So easy to poke holes in it, yet they persist in it since their electorate is easily duped.
And you can’t begin to think that’s true for Republicans as well, right? My viewpoint is that all sorts of people are some combination of stupid and gullible. Politics is only one way it’s manifested, and political affiliation is no guarantee or even a reasonably good measure of being immune to it.
Definately not. Simply look at all the nauseating political ads from Democrats that are 100% gaslighting. Raja ads are by far the most dishonest.
That explains it, I saw that and said to myself how in the … did they come up with that?
Duh! Haven’t we figured out yet that Dems ( and politicians in general to be fair ) love to trumpet what they perceive to be victories that really aren’t and can’t hide their failures fast enough? Joe Biden ( with a mountain of enabling ) got away with fabrications, half- truths, exaggerations and outright bullshit for four years.
very true-however both sides are equally guilty of doing this and the trump admin is just as, if not moreso, adept at calling victories where there are none while at the same time ignoring any and all facts which firmly contradict their narratives.
If Trump, whom I personally find as repugnant at times as many NYC residents are, tries to do anything, he is hamstrung seven ways from Sunday. The kerfuffle of Republicans that are seeing their gravy boat being upended with the SAVE Act battle tells me that. Thomas Jefferson proposed “ bleeding the tree “ as needed, and I feel that now is the time.