Rockford has known good, bad times; now we’re going to be a part of Chicagoland
April 30th, 2008 at 05:14pm Chuck Sweeny
Hi, I’m Chuck Sweeny, political editor of the Rockford Register Star, or rrstar.com if you prefer. Listen up:
Rockford adapts.
The city started as a manufacturing center in the old water power district south of downtown. There, fast-running water from a mill race channeled off the Rock River turned gears attached to leather belts that ran machines, in the days before electricity.
Rockford built — and still builds — all kinds of things out of wood, metal, plastic and fiberglass.
Because manufacturing is essentially all we’ve ever done, we’ve gone through disastrous economic situations — 1893 was awful. More than a dozen furniture factories went bust. Luckily, P.A. Peterson rescued them in a co-op arrangement.
When the Depression hit in 1929, Rockford had its own shanty towns, one near Charles and 22nd Street, which an old Swede remembered when he returned to Rockford a few years back from Stockholm to relive memories of his youth here in the 1930s. Times were so bad here back then that the man’s immigrant family had to leave the Not-So-Promised Land and returned to the Old Country. They were not the only ones.
Rockford lost 10,000 people during the 30s, but the population began growing with the onset of World War II. After that war, the economy took off like gangbusters as Rockford’s dynamic companies, most of them home-owned, provided valuable products to the auto , machine tool and aviation industries. Baby Boomers, who grew up here in those prospeous times, tend to think that Rockford was always riding on easy street.
We hit a major speed bump in the early 80s, and the population declined 9,000 in that decade. But, back we came in the 90s, as manufacturers learned to work smarter and began to realize that “export” doesn’t mean sending products to Cincinnatti.
Now, Rockford is uneasy again, and once more is trying to find its place in the world. Unlike cities such as Dayton, Flint or Peoria, we’re not dependent totally on one company. But we are still largely a manufacturing center, and we’ve taken another big hit as competition from Asia has drained jobs away from us.
What’s the next Rockford going to look like? One thing I know for sure: We’ll become more and more integrated into greater Chicagoland. Don’t fret: That’s what’s going to save Rockford from the fates of isolated small cities like those in Iowa, which are dying because they’re not part of a huge, metropolitan area.
Like it or not, people no longer live in cities and towns. The majority of Americans live in large population blobs I call “megametros.” In one series on Rockford’s challenges, which I did back in the 1990s, I referred to our region as “The Chi-Waukee Metroplex.” I don’t like that monicker anymore; it’s too Cheesehead-heavy.
But hear this warning: Unless Rockford upgrades our public schools and adds significantly to our post secondary education opportunities, our importance to Chicagoland is going to be minimal and we’ll be left to be the distribution center kings and queens.
Entry Filed under: 180 Degrees, Uncategorized
6 Comments Add your own
1. Leatherneck | May 2nd, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Sounds good, but to say that Rockford is part of “Chicagoland”
is disingenous.
We are a good 2 hours drive from downtown Chicago, when you factor in thick traffic and lights. Also, whenever I drive to Woodfield, as I find myself nodding off and my body sore from sitting and driving, I think of all these fools who commute every day to Chicago suburbs. They must be nuts. It is a tiring trip.
Maybe it sounds nice to say Rockford is part of Chicago, and people who aren’t from around here might actually believe it. But the truth is that we are still a helluva long way from Chicago.
2. Chuck Sweeny | May 3rd, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Let’s be accurate: Chicagoland starts at Randall Road.
3. Chuck Sweeny | May 3rd, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Let’s be accurate: Chicagoland starts at Randall Road. There are new subdivisions in Genoa. McHenry County has surpassed Winnebago County in population. And Boone can’t figure out how it can stem the tide. We are on the cusp of rapid growth and we’d better figure out how to handle it.
4. Adam Sharp | May 4th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
I agree Chicago starts at Randal Road, I grew up in St. Charles, and I still refer to the Chicago area as my home town.
Chuck is right though Chicago is moving this way. Just look at I90 it will soon be 6 lanes from Chicago to Minneapolis.
5. Leatherneck | May 4th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
But my point is that it’s not “close” to Rockford in the traditional sense. This weekend, I had the misfortune of making 2 round trips to Schaumburg and it’s somewhere between Elgin and Randall Road that I am falling asleep at the wheel. Now if these places were that “close”, in the geographic sense, I would not be dozing off. And then I see the sign that calls the Rockford airport “Chicagoland” and my own laughter awakens me. It is the backwater of all backwaters, the outer limits of the outer limits. Okay, probably closer to Chicago than to Timbuktu, but not by much.
6. RRStar Visitor | May 5th, 2008 at 4:28 am
I personally would fall asleep less on the trip to the ‘burbs if there were 4 lanes for traffic in each direction: driving behind someone who will not let you pass them (when you are driving 60+ MPH in the LEFT lane) makes a one-hour trip extend out a lot longer. We have needed many lanes in this direction for the past 15 years now, and a commuter train will NOT minimize this need (but only enhance those already driving there for the substantially higher wages and better job opportunities than are available in Rockford, gas prices notwithstanding). Why work for $9 an hour doing a service job in Rockford when you can make DOUBLE that (or more) by driving 45 minutes to work? For what it’s worth, it took me 45 minutes to get from downtown Rockford recently to Beloit: the same time it takes one to drive into Elgin; that said, maybe better transportation options are needed strictly within the Rockford area, not simply into the Chicago areas.
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