At the recent groundbreaking for the new Marriott Marquis in Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel trumpeted the new jobs and revenue stream the project will create.
Indeed, the construction of the hotel, a centerpiece of the McCormick Place Entertainment District, is expected to create 7,400 construction jobs and 2,500 full-time jobs, along with tens of millions dollars in tourist and visitor revenue. This comes at a time when the unemployment rate in the Chicago area dropped a full percentage point over the last year. This is the kind of news the mayor needs.
After surviving a tougher-than-expected reelection bid earlier this year, Emanuel is demonstrating the attributes that enabled him to climb to the pinnacle of city politics: Identifying with the anxieties and discontent in Chicago, especially from the city’s low-income residents. But it will take more than new hotels to make them hopeful about their futures.
Let’s not forget that government analysts note that the unemployment rate drop has a lot to do with people giving up looking for job. Meanwhile, the city’s crime rate remains alarmingly high, and a new report shows Chicago police have fatally shot 70 people over a five-year span, putting it at the top of the country’s largest cities. Not surprisingly, the victims were nearly all male and most were black.
And yet the truth is that big-city mayors such as Emanuel actually have less control over their cities’ economy than might be perceived by the public. Policies on land use, tax abatements to entice development and public transit overhauls often take years to bear fruit. But what happens hundreds of miles under the Capitol dome or in the White House can often impact a city’s fortunes more dramatically than any initiative out of City Hall.
Consider, for example, a plan by the Obama administration to put in place on October 1 new restrictions on emissions of ground-level ozone, or smog. The plan seems reasonable and even simple to implement, setting the emissions standard as low as 65 parts per billion from the current 75 parts per billion.
But in truth, the economic consequences would be disastrous, particularly for many urban centers that are struggling to meet the current ground-ozone standard at the very same time that they are attempting to recover from the protracted recession.
From the perspective of industries like manufacturing or construction, the new requirements potentially hinder their operations, a situation that may in turn jeopardize employment opportunities. Meanwhile, many localities are bracing for a loss of federal aid for highways if they fail to meet the new standards limiting emissions anywhere from 65 parts per billion to 70 parts per billion. Ozone levels in Cook County, for instance, are at 82 parts per billion. But there are scores of localities across the country that will find themselves out of compliance if the new standards are implemented.
It is no wonder that these regulations are being labeled by some as the most expensive in history, with several studies predicting that they are likely to cost businesses and local government billions of dollars. But to what end is the administration taking this risky approach? The administration says it wants to improve air quality. But ozone levels are already on the decline and are expected to decline further as the current standard of 75 parts per billion is fully implemented.
More than ever, Emanuel needs his old boss, President Obama, to go to bat for Chicago, not to mention other urban areas that stand to lose if these standards are put into effect. Many of our cities are still in great need of help. President Obama must avoid doing anything that undermines the economies of these communities.
And if all this is not compelling enough on its own, President Obama would do well to remember one important fact as the 2016 elections approach: Cities are where the Democratic Party’s strongest pockets of support can be found.
Still, it is hard to believe that a president who has done so much for urban communities would allow these disastrous rules to go into effect.
Arness Dancy is president and CEO of Chicagoland Black Chamber of Commerce. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
