Make no small plans?

                In a city like Chicago we can look ahead in quite a few different ways. We have to estimate how much we will grow and how quickly. And we also have to estimate our costs of renovating buildings that are going to be redone. Most of all we have to watch the politicians.

                The politicians are the biggest problem that we will have. Our track record with politicians is that they are corrupt and LOVE money. Unfortunately this is very bad for us because it causes the city and sometimes state lots of money and this puts us in a worse off place than before. Our city has a very colorful history in out buildings and they are not exactly young. Some dating as far back as the early 1900s we have to fix these eventually. Unfortunately this will cost a fortune. Unlike Las Vegas which had an interesting policy. You want to replace a casino, ok use this dynamite and make the old one collapse. Than just rebuild yours with all new stuff. In Chicago we have plenty of organizations and architectural experts that would not allow us to make the old buildings disappear to create a new Wal-Mart or Target; instead they have to build in these buildings renovating them and fight the city to hang up neon signs.

                The population factor is going to be the hardest to look into the future on, but it will be the biggest impact for generations to come. Rush hour is already horrible, but if it were to get worse and become gridlock in 2020 like it has been predicted you would basically live in your car, and never leave the city for work. Instead working at home or living in your office would be the only way to do it. Immigrants have been coming to this city for decades and it is not going to change overnight. Nor will it change anytime soon. Rather we should start building now for what we expect in 50 years and not what we expect in 10-15 years.

                We may have to try and predict where everyone will move to if they come out to live here in the Chicago area, but we have to figure out where they are going to work. If it is in the city we have to change where pedestrians walk, how they train, L, and bus system works, and where they are going to work, because we can only build so high.