Two Regions in One Metropolis

Two studies released within 24 hours of each other added momentum to southwestern Illinois' movement toward independence from St. Louis.

The first of the two studies was Vision 2020 Southwestern Illinois, spearheaded by Leadership Council Southwestern Illinois in concert with the Madison-Bond and MidAmerica workforce investment boards.

John Navin, professor of economics and finance at Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville (SIUE), noted that this study was unusual in shifting the focus of southwestern Illinois eastward. Instead of looking just at the three Mississippi River counties Monroe, Madison, and St. Clair, the study area was broadened to the east to include Bond, Clinton, Washington, and Randolph counties.

In summarizing both the reasons and the findings of the study, Navin said, "we are not against the metro area, but we have to work independently."

Vision 2020 included an assessment of the current economies of the 7-county region, a comparative analysis of other two-state metropolitan areas that are divided by a river, and a "strength, weakness, opportunities, threats" (SWOT) analysis.

The study concluded with what T.R. Carr, chair of the public administration/policy analysis department of SIUE called "a blueprint for progress" for the next 10 years. The blueprint included:

• recommendations for channeling investment towards six industry clusters (logistics and transportation, heavy industry, light industry, energy, allied health, and agriculture);

• development strategies; and

• development initiatives

"In the past we let others define who we are. This process (Vision 2020) is important because this time we figured it out. We are defining what we want and how to get there," said Patrick McKeehan, executive director of the Leadership Council Southwestern Illinois.

One of the key next steps over the next year, will be to establish a regional brand, he added.

Madison County Chairman Alan Dunstan agreed. "The RCGA has been telling us what we are, now let's tell them what we are," he told the Vision 2020 group. "When I travel, I tell people I'm from the St. Louis area, but now we need to come up with our own brand.

"We need to tell the people in Missouri what we want," he added. "If they want to help, good. If not, we need to go it alone," he said.

A day later, "The State of St. Louis Workforce Report" from St. Louis Community College, Missouri Career Center, and the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center (MERIC) gave east side counties another reason to pursue an independent economic development plan.

The "State of the Workforce" report derived from survey results and interviews with 1,500 area employers. As often happens with such surveys, the business operators surveyed feel better about themselves than they do about their competitors: they think they are doing better than their competitors and they think the prospects for themselves are better than the prospects for their industry or for the economy as a whole.

Marty Ramitti, director of MERIC, noted that economists are a little more pessimistic about the St. Louis economy than employers seem to be.

After some slight job recovery in the short-term, 'experts think St. Louis's economy will be an "L",' he said. In other words, St. Louis is in for a prolonged period of economic stagnation. According to outside experts, "the St. Louis economy will not create one net new job in the next 10 years," compared to 2008, he said. That's equivalent to "350,000 missed job opportunities in the next 10 years," he said.

And there is some evidence that the state's economy already is stagnating. Although median household income has grown in the U.S. over the last decade, in Missouri, "median household income is less than it was in 1996," Ramitti said.

The message for Illinois is that there is unlikely to be much economic growth to spill over from St. Louis in the next 10 years, so if they want to grow, they may well have to work at it on their own.

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