To the editors:
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Ben Joravsky’s June 3 Neighborhood News column on suburbanites who work in Chicago addresses a crucial problem, but shows the lack of solutions being offered, either by the City Council or most of its critics. Suburbanites who work here are not a problem per se, since there are also thousands of city residents working in the suburbs. The problem with suburbanites is not that they are taking “our” jobs (since we also take “theirs”) but that they benefit from the city while doing little for the city that supports them. When they visit our zoo and use our beaches they face no charge, unlike city folks who use their beaches, visit Brookfield Zoo, etc.
In his Reader article “Making It” (September 10) David Moberg addressed the need for a manufacturing comeback in Chicago. He correctly pointed out that industrial parks, as the city’s Economic Development Commission concedes, can create as many as 150,000 good jobs, dwarfing the number that even world-class casinos could create. While casinos would help, we should put more emphasis on creating the industrial parks that we have been promised for two decades.
W. Farwell
