Why is Chicago cool and Liverpool a kip?

Off-topic for a minute.

Recently, I spent the day in Liverpool. It is, if you'll excuse the vernacular, a kip. But it was once a thriving port and industrial town. Sometime in the middle of the 20th century, its key industries started to go into decline. And it has never found anything to replace them. As a result, the entire city feels run-down and tatty.

On the other side of the Atlantic, there is Chicago. (I travel to Chicago at least once a year, as I have family living there.)

Chicago, also, was a blue-collar, industrial, meat-packing, city. And much of its industry left sometime in the 1960s, too. But unlike Liverpool (or Glasgow, or Birmingham, to name a few more), it only slummed around for a couple of years before starting to dynamically pick up other business, industries and pursuits. Now, it has half the advertising industry in the US based there, is one of the conference capitals of the world and boasts excellent schools and universities.

And you can see it, walking around. The streets are clean. There are plenty of really nice shops. The older buildings are beautifully maintained and spotless inside. Any hotel you stay in is comfortable, clean and inviting. In short, the city has a real buzz.

So if Chicago can do this, why can't Liverpool, or any of the other northern British cities (which are ugly places)?

My own view is that it is something to do with the way the British run their country. Which is to say, not very well. Granted, we're hardly ones to talk. But aside from a few spots in Dublin and Limerick, there is not the pervading sense of gloom that post-industrial British cities radiate.

It is true that Chicago (and any major US city) has worse gun-crime statistics than British cities. And the US can be a cruel, unforgiving place if you find yourself at the bottom of the heap.

But show most people both cities and give them a choice of which to live in: I know which one most people would pick.

Comments

[Aaron]

To take a very business view of running a government (and, frankly, I think that the US is where it is today because they run their country like a business in many respects… A poorly run business in places and at times, but a business none the less): Management structures. In the UK and Ireland we manage centrally. Weak local government, ineffectual and good for collecting the bins with whatever funds the national government sees fit to give them.

In the US it's a federal system with much more local play - the mayor of a city actually has influence. Here? We're just about getting back to the idea of having one... Except s/he will likely again play only for the scraps that national government allows him/her to have.

Give local stakeholders the tools and resources to do their own thing and they will enterprise themselves out of being a craphole, because ultimately they've gotta live there.

In Ireland, with our national system, the localities only get whatever amenities are going to get their TD re-elected, presuming that TD has some sway. There’s one or two or three or four eejits (who know nothing about management, or development or anything else, because they’re career politicians; nor do they have the effectual staff to do the job for them; even local councils get the same old civil servants… In the US, the senior civil service is a political appointment. The civil service lives or dies by whether or not they do a good job and their guy gets re-elected. Here they just live for the next pay increment.) Same was as in a business: The MD/CEO chooses his management team, who (in a large organization) picks their management team, and if they do a poor job they get shown the door.

Naturally “Run your country like a business” doesn’t cover all the bases; and as you say, get on the bottom of the heap in the US and you’re screwed, same as in business. Then again, a lot of businesspeople are moving into philanthropy, proving that business sense doesn’t have to be aimed at maximum profit: It can be aimed at getting the best benefits for all.

Ultimately, Liverpool – and a whole load of Irish segments, be they places or organizations – is a heap of crap because there’s no experienced, motivated or empowered team to develop and implement a vision for the place to which their own personal standing in the world will be attached (succeed and move up the ladder, fail and move down it.) No vision. No empowerment. Simply the daily grind of collecting the bins.

[Mark]

I think with the US each state is run more like an individual country. It needs to be like that, most states are the size of countries. So if you look at it like that then Illinois has Chicago like England has London but it also has places like Alexander and Jackson which are 50% more poverty stricken than the state average.

[Adrian]

Aaron,

I agree with 90 per cent of what you say. Except we cannot, generally, fire people in Ireland. Especially in the public sector.

If somebody tried, they'd up being hated and blackballed. And, ultimately, no-one would stand up for their efforts to improve services. Instead, it would be all about the bully/victim psychology.

Which is what we specialise in in this country.

[Sundaeg1rl]

I go to Liverpool every 12-18 months - I went the other week and I was gobsmacked! All the shopping area has been done up and it's all new and shiny and unrecognisable! Note that this was all done for the Liverpool City of Culture thing last year, and focussed on touristy amenities.

Liverpool has been jazzed up a lot lately and is actually looking a lot better than it did. Having said that, the new look to Liverpool comes at a price, namely losing its older, more quirky shops (it happened to Manchester when they redid the bombed bit - we lost a lot of independent traders and it's only now that things are picking up on that front).

All Liverpool needs to do is get its reputation up to scratch...which is not helped by people badmouthing it!

If you don't like it, don't come to the North!

[Kieran]

Its also Location, Location, Location.

Liverpool might have been a great city in the 19th century and up to the 1960s. But it has lost it. Why would one want to visit Liverpool today. Its no longer a port and its certainly not on a crossroads.

It has lost out to Manchester which is a crossroads and a meeting place. Look where all the media biz is outside of London.

Chicago is a great crossroads. Its the meeting point for a huge hinterland that includes a lot of Canada as much as the midwest and the rustbelt.