Chicago Faces Deep-Seated Ills in Shadow of Citadel-Boeing Defections
Crime, taxes dim city's luster as business leaders seek new course.
The “Bean” statue in Chicago’s Millennium Park, where a curfew on unaccompanied minors remains in place following a May homicide.
Photographer: Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP/Getty ImagesEarlier this year, as Chicago’s frigid weather was finally giving way to spring and commuters began returning to downtown office buildings, the city got an unwelcome jolt.
In the space of just seven weeks in May and June, Chicago was hit by a pair of corporate defections: Illinois’s richest man, Ken Griffin, announced he’s moving the home of his $57 billion Citadel hedge fund to Miami and Boeing Co. said it would pull its headquarters from the city. Caterpillar Inc. also decided to move its global headquarters to Texas from the nearby suburb of Deerfield.