Where the Idea Came From

Several years ago, long before A More Just Chicago existed, I observed close friends working at an organization most Chicagoans have never heard of: Association for a More Just Society (ASJ).

ASJ is based in Honduras, a country long burdened by corruption, violence, and deep public distrust in institutions, particularly the police. Reform efforts there had followed a familiar cycle: public outrage after abuse, promises from officials, then a slow return to the status quo. Their approach to fundamentally changing the internal dynamics of Honduras was disciplined coalition building combined with a comprehensive messaging campaign that made their suggested reforms undeniably persuasive.

Rather than advocating from the outside or demanding change from a single institution, ASJ focused on coalition-building. They convened civil society organizations, reform-minded officials, legal experts, faith leaders, journalists, and international partners into a sustained alliance. Over time, that coalition helped drive nationwide police reforms, including changes to recruitment standards, training requirements, internal accountability systems, and oversight mechanisms.

Over the years, I’ve been thinking about Chicago’s version of what ASJ accomplished in Honduras. Our entrenched issues here that lead to uneven experiences can’t just be the status quo.

I don’t compare Honduras and Chicago because they are the same, they are not, but because it revealed something universal: lasting reform rarely comes from pressure alone. It comes from alignment.

Justice Is Structural, Not Rhetorical

When we began thinking seriously about Chicago’s future, we kept returning to that lesson.

Chicago does not suffer from a shortage of advocacy. It does not lack passionate voices or sharp critiques. What it struggles with is something more subtle and more consequential: fragmentation.

Institutions operate in parallel rather than in partnership. Good ideas remain siloed. Pilot programs fail to scale. Over time, public trust has eroded because systems fail to add up to something coherent or logical. That is why the word justice matters to us.

Justice, as we understand it, is not only about outcomes. It is about whether systems are designed to be fair, transparent, accountable, and capable of learning over time. It is about whether rules are understandable, power is exercised predictably, and participation actually matters. In that sense, justice is not abstract, it is structural.

Why “More” Matters

We didn’t call this effort A Just Chicago for a reason.

Chicago is not starting from zero. The city already contains extraordinary civic capacity: universities, nonprofits, foundations, labor organizations, neighborhood leaders, and public servants doing serious work.

Some of our institutions, however, have fallen out of sync with the city they serve. Too many residents experience public systems as slow, confusing, or unfair even when intentions are good. The word more acknowledges the fact that we are continually aspiring to make Chicago a better place for everyone here.

It says we are not chasing perfection. We are committing to progress. We are recognizing that justice is something cities build incrementally, through modernization, coordination, and shared responsibility not through a single election, policy, or organization.

What Coalition-Building Looks Like in Chicago

The lesson from ASJ was not “find better leaders” or “apply more pressure.” It was this: bring the right people into the same room, keep them there, and do the hard work of aligning incentives, evidence, and authority.

That is the model we believe Chicago needs now.

Coalition-building for structural change means:

• Convening institutions that rarely collaborate

• Bridging sectors that speak different languages

• Grounding reform in both data and lived experience

• Designing processes that learn from other places, and outlast any single administration

Why This Moment Calls for This Work

As we’ve argued throughout this series, Chicago is at a turning point.

Residents are asking for competence and fairness. Institutions are investing and experimenting. Neighborhoods have always been adapting and changing. Long-held assumptions about growth, governance, and who gets to shape the city’s future are loosening. There are financial pitfalls everywhere you look with the looming threat of a crisis coming at any time. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all of the potential change that is in front of us, but with alignment we think we can work to turn this into opportunity.

A More Just Chicago exists to do the work in between: convening, translating, connecting, and sustaining focus on the structures that shape daily life in the city. Not to replace existing efforts but to help them add up to something greater.

We are hosting a series of dinners all over the city. We are going to host dinners in the next month or so in the following neighborhoods.

• Lincoln Square

• Bronzeville

• Lawndale

• Streeterville

• South Loop

If you’d like to join us, email us with the link below and let us know if you’d like to join!

Most people don’t start with the goal of forming a nonprofit.

They start with an idea:

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• A program that fills a real gap

• A project rooted in lived experience

• A response to a problem they can’t ignore

Then they run into the same wall: funding.

Grants, foundations, and many donors require tax-deductible giving. Becoming a 501(c)(3) takes time, money, and administrative capacity—often before you’ve had a chance to prove your idea works.

This is where fiscal sponsorship comes in.

What Is Fiscal Sponsorship?

Fiscal sponsorship is a contractual relationship between a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and a group or individual whose work aligns with the nonprofit’s mission.

Through this relationship, the sponsoring organization extends certain benefits of its nonprofit status—most notably the ability to receive tax-deductible donations—to the sponsored project.

In plain terms:
someone else builds the institutional infrastructure so you don’t have to—yet.

Fiscal sponsorship allows early-stage ideas to:

• Raise funds legitimately

• Build credibility with donors and funders

• Focus on program design and impact

• Learn what it actually takes to operate sustainably

All without rushing into forming a standalone nonprofit too soon.

What Fiscal Sponsorship Is Not

Fiscal sponsorship is often misunderstood, so it’s worth being clear about what it isn’t.

It is not:

• A shortcut to avoid accountability

• A way to bypass nonprofit rules

• Someone else “owning” your idea

• A permanent substitute for governance

A good fiscal sponsor provides structure, guardrails, and oversight—not control over your vision or day-to-day leadership.

What Fiscal Sponsorship Makes Possible

When done well, fiscal sponsorship can unlock practical tools that many early leaders simply don’t have access to on their own, including:

• Accepting tax-deductible donations

• Applying for grants and corporate support

• Receiving funds via ACH, checks, or credit cards

• Running crowdfunding or recurring donation campaigns

• Establishing clean financial records from day one

• Getting guidance on compliant fundraising and spending

Just as importantly, it allows leaders to test and refine their ideas before committing to the cost and complexity of forming a full nonprofit organization.

Why This Matters (Especially Early On)

One of the most common mistakes new nonprofit leaders make is forming an organization before they’ve clarified:

• What problem they’re solving

• Who they’re serving

• What a viable pilot actually looks like

• What it really costs to operate

Fiscal sponsorship creates space to learn those things with real dollars and real accountability, rather than hypotheticals.

It turns:

“I think this could work”
into
“We’ve raised funds, run a pilot, measured outcomes, and know what’s next.”

That’s not just helpful—it’s funder-ready.

A Tool, Not a Crutch

At its best, fiscal sponsorship is developmental.

It helps leaders:

• Build fundraising confidence

• Learn financial discipline

• Understand compliance and donor expectations

• Decide whether and when independence makes sense

Some projects eventually spin off into standalone nonprofits.
Others remain sponsored because that structure continues to serve their goals.

Neither outcome is a failure. The goal is impact with integrity.

Final Thought

Strong ideas deserve a fair chance to succeed.

Fiscal sponsorship exists because we’ve learned—often the hard way—that good work doesn’t always come with built-in infrastructure. Sometimes, the smartest move isn’t building everything from scratch, but standing on a solid foundation while you figure out what you’re building.

Fundraising is a skill.
Infrastructure is a tool.
Fiscal sponsorship makes both accessible—when it’s done right.

If you’d like to schedule a call with Coach House to see if this is right for you, click here.

(If you are already subscribed to the A More Just Chicago Substack, feel free to unsubscribe here!!)

I. A City at a Crossroads

Chicago has seen times of great uncertainty before but has evolved into the next iteration every time.

• The Great Fire meant the end of the city.

• The closing of the stockyards and steel mills meant the end of the economy.

• Population shifts to the suburbs could never be reversed.

• No one would return to the Loop after the pandemic.

And now, today, we’re confronted with a similarly existential crisis. There is a sentiment that Chicago can never come out of its current financial crises. The financial threat to the city is basically that the city has gone too far into debt and the only way out of this is to raise taxes and cut services. The argument is that this will lead to further population loss and deeper inequities around the city.

Today’s version of the story is familiar to past moments: people are leaving, finances are strained, trust in government is thin and the city often feels caught between nostalgia for what once worked and anxiety about what comes next. For many Chicagoans, the quiet question beneath it all is not how the city will grow, but whether it still can.

We would like to make a different assertion: Chicago is not a city in free fall. It is a city in transition.

Acute transitions at the scale of a large city in 2026 are uncomfortable and chaotic and out of control. It feels out of control, institutional weaknesses are exposed, public patience is constantly tested.

It’s often the case that the transition isn’t even noticeable until a crisis forces decision makers to pivot in a new direction. But historically, transitions are also when cities decide what they will become next. Chicago’s most defining chapters of reinvention, ambition, and civic confidence have emerged not from stability, but from the chaos of a crisis.

II. Chicago Has Been Here Before

The city that rebuilt itself after the Great Fire of 1871 did so amid political disorder, corruption, and extraordinary inequality. By the turn of the 20th century, Chicago had become the fastest‑growing major city in the United States, fueled by railroads, manufacturing, and immigration. Later, between 1950 and 1990, Chicago lost more than 800,000 residents¹, as stockyards and factories closed and middle‑class families moved to the suburbs.

Each inflection point arrived when existing systems were strained to the point of breaking because of a crisis event. Building codes followed the fire. Planning and zoning set the international standard for urban development, while still facilitating great industrial growth. Chicago’s trajectory has always been shaped less by whether challenges existed and more by whether or not institutions adapted to meet them.

III. Why This Moment Is Different

Chicago has navigated transition before. But this decade stands apart because so many foundational forces are shifting at once.

From 2011 until present there has been continual leadership reset. After decades of Daley’s ruling the system that they created we’ve moved to a likelihood of regular 1 term mayors. Since 2019, Chicago has experienced near constant turnover across the mayor’s office, City Council, Chicago Public Schools, and key civic institutions. Ending long‑standing political arrangements and creating space for reform, while also exposing major gaps in accountability and transparency.

A changing economic model. After historically being in the 10-15% range, downtown Chicago office vacancy in the central business district was 23.4% in 2024 and continues to rise², reflecting a structural shift toward hybrid work and neighborhood‑based economic activity rather than a temporary downturn. (JLL)

Climate‑driven migration. National climate risk models consistently identify the Great Lakes region as among the most climate‑resilient areas in the country, particularly compared to the Southwest and Gulf Coast. (First Street Foundation; U.S. Global Change Research Program).

The risk factors are complex and nothing is guaranteed³, but how Chicago adapts over the coming century will define how readily able the city will be to thrive in a changing world. This potential for changing population trends in the coming century is there, but it’s hard to see when we’ve been losing population for decades.

Declining trust in government when strong leadership is most necessary. With the long term implications of these challenges, strong leadership is absolutely essential. But with declining rates of trust in government, finding strong leaders to rise to the occasion has proven challenging. According to a citywide public sentiment survey from Spring 2025, only approximately 19 % of Chicago residents trust city government overall, a figure that sits well below trust in the police (36 %) and courts (28 %) among residents⁴.

Additionally, Chicago voter turnout for municipal elections is extremely low⁵. According to Board of Elections data, voter turnout for municipal elections is around 30%-40% and around 60%-70% for general elections.

We have historically challenging issues to confront:

• Low trust in government

• Low participation in municipal elections

The result of these processes playing out like this is that we have a disjointed plan not focused on a long-term thriving city, but rather temporary fixes that just don’t work.

What distinguishes this moment from past periods of uncertainty is not the severity of Chicago’s challenges, but the alignment of conditions that still make meaningful change possible.

The city still has assets that many peer cities do not: globally significant institutions, a deep nonprofit and philanthropic ecosystem, underutilized downtown infrastructure that can be repurposed rather than abandoned, and a long-term advantage as a climate-resilient Great Lakes city. At the same time, leadership turnover across major institutions has created rare space to rethink systems that were designed for a different era.

This window will not remain open indefinitely.

Decisions made over the next five years about governance, civic participation, and how public and private capacity are aligned will determine whether Chicago’s transition becomes a foundation for renewal or a prolonged period of drift. The opportunity is real, but it is time-bound.

IV. The Quiet Strength of Chicago’s Civic Ecosystem

One of Chicago’s most underappreciated assets is not found in government at all.

Illinois is home to tens of thousands of nonprofits, with Chicago serving as the state’s primary civic hub. Major foundations headquartered in Chicago like the MacArthur Foundation, Chicago Community Trust, and Joyce Foundation invest hundreds of millions of dollars annually in education, governance, and community development.

Chicago’s universities educate tens of thousands of students across the metropolitan region and anchor research, workforce development, and policy innovation that extends far beyond city boundaries.

The challenge is not civic capacity, it is coordination and implementing lasting changes that are in step with overall goals of the city. Our civic institutions have done and continue to do incredible work but the fact remains that without a city government that is set up to succeed, our non-profit ecosystem is not enough. Too often, promising initiatives remain fragmented, pilot programs fail to scale, and lessons learned do not translate into durable institutional change.

Excellence in cross-sector collaboration isn’t abstract, we have real world examples of how this is possible. United Way’s 211 Metro initiative started in 2023. It’s a 24/7/365 helpline that has connected hundreds of thousands of people in need of health and social services with providers that can assist. It’s a collaboration between the City of Chicago and United Way. It’s sustainable civic infrastructure that models the kind of cross-sector collaboration that is the essential building block of a city in transformation. It’s local government, philanthropy, healthcare and corporate partners solving a systemic problem.

211 Metro is not a one-off success. It is a glimpse of what becomes possible when institutions are designed to collaborate at scale. Just think if this model was effectively applied to:

• Finding housing

• Workforce transitions

• Neighborhood redevelopment

• Civic participation

We already know how to build the next chapter, but the challenge is that this is not the default. The government alone can’t solve every issue, but the goal must be to evolve our civic institutions to change the expectations of our elected officials to think bigger with strategic partnerships so that solutions are durable.

V. The Choice Before Us

The conditions shaping Chicago’s future are already in motion and how we manage it will dictate the city that we become. Take the below two examples. It’s a great illustration of the real challenges we face and how we’re currently handling the issues.

Chicago adopted a $17.3 billion operating budget for FY2025⁶, reflecting a sharp increase from pre-pandemic levels. This growth has been driven less by expanded services and more by rising legacy costs—particularly pensions. According to the Civic Federation, the City’s annual pension contributions increased from approximately $1.4 billion in FY2019 to about $2.9 billion in FY2025, more than doubling in six years. The City of Chicago’s FY2025 Budget Overview confirms that pension contributions across the City’s four retirement systems total nearly $2.9 billion, consuming a significant and growing share of the operating budget. As the Civic Federation notes⁷, pension and debt service costs together now account for roughly 40 percent of the FY2025 budget, limiting the City’s fiscal flexibility even as service demands grow.

At the same time, Chicago continues to carry thousands of unfilled public-sector positions. As of 2025, the City had just over 4,000 vacant positions across all departments⁸, with the Chicago Police Department alone posting 1,293 unfilled slots — a 9.4 % vacancy rate. Such persistent vacancies contribute to reliance on overtime to maintain service levels, with CPD regularly spending far more on overtime than budgeted

These realities underscore the choice ahead: manage decline incrementally with short term solutions, or modernize governance and institutions to align with the city Chicago is becoming.

We must choose between continuing to operate institutions designed for a 20th-century city or deliberately modernizing governance so the city’s existing strengths can compound over time.

Modernizing governance would allow Chicago to translate stability into growth: turning downtown vacancy into housing and innovation space, converting philanthropic investment into durable public systems, aligning nonprofit expertise with citywide priorities and transforming civic participation into legitimate, long-term decision-making. These shifts would not eliminate tradeoffs or challenges, but they would create a city capable of addressing them with coherence and confidence.

Incremental, short-term fixes may preserve the appearance of progress, but they do not build the institutional capacity required. The opportunity of this decade is to move beyond managing symptoms and instead design systems that can steward growth, equity, and trust over the long term.

This is part 1 of a 4 part series about why Chicago is at a turning point. Contributions by Joel Hamernick and Justin Miller at A More Just Chicago.

Now, I’m excited to share that my writing and work are expanding into two distinct — but deeply connected — directions.

1. Coach House Solutions Group: Building Better Nonprofits

At Coach House, we’re helping small and emerging nonprofits turn great ideas into real-world impact. Our Idea to Impact Accelerator has already equipped dozens of founders with the clarity, systems, and confidence to lead strong, sustainable organizations.

We’re now scaling that effort — both locally in Chicago and online — and launching a new Substack called Open NFP, where we’ll share resources, stories, and practical tools for nonprofit leaders. It’s designed to be open source for social good: simple, clear, and accessible. It will also allow us a great space to highlight the amazing and often inter-related work our clients are doing to serve the city.

A critical observation has come through this work: very few Executive Directors of nonprofits (especially new ones) have formal training for this role. It is our delight to work with dozens (and soon hundreds) of aspiring leaders to guide them toward effectiveness and sustainability in their work.

👉 Subscribe to Open NFP →

2. A More Just Chicago: Building a Better City

Alongside that, I’m stepping into formal leadership with A More Just Chicago (AMJC) — a civic initiative focused on reforming our city’s outdated governance structures and building an alliance needed for long-term growth and opportunity.

As bold as it sounds, we want to do nothing less than change the way democracy works (or doesn’t) in Chicago. I’ve spoken to many of you about the idea that Chicago is the only large city in the US that has no charter: no constitutional document. It’s a big part of our dysfunction, and it’s time to change this.

We’re launching a dedicated Substack for AMJC to explore governance reform, research, and citizen-led civic innovation — the kind of structural change Chicago needs to thrive in its next century.

👉 Subscribe to A More Just Chicago →

Two Orgs. Two Boards. Two Budgets. Two Substacks. One Passion.

I love this city. And if you are a Chicagoan, chances are really high that you do too.

Today feels a bit like earlier seasons in my life — when I led two distinct but complementary organizations (Sunshine Gospel & Sunshine Enterprises) each serving a different side of the same vision: helping communities and entrepreneurs flourish.

To those who’ve supported Paula and me over the years, and/or through Coach House these past 2 years: thank you! You’ve helped lay the foundation for the next phase.

For those who’ve followed Civic Lens: I’ll be posting less here for now, but I hope you’ll join me at one or both of these new spaces — depending on whether your heart leans toward building strong nonprofits or building a stronger city.

See you there,
Joel

Chicago is not just a place where people live — it is a system of systems. Public transit, housing, schools, parks, hospitals, markets, governance, and civic life all interlock. No one system works perfectly, yet when woven together, they form one of humanity’s most remarkable inventions: a city.

Among many benefits, Glaeser argues, cities are not environmental disasters — they are, in fact, the greenest way to live. By concentrating people, cities reduce per-capita energy use. Apartments share heating and cooling costs. Dense living means shorter trips and more public transit. The very thing that makes cities messy — so many people packed together — is also what makes them efficient, sustainable, and resilient.

So, we should be hopeful about our future.

But systems can also produce unintended consequences. Consider our history of public housing: a system meant to provide stability and opportunity that instead ended up exacerbating segregation and trapping many families in cycles of poverty. These mistakes remind us that interventions in complex systems require humility, vigilance, and constant learning.

So, we should be careful.

Chicago today stands on the edge of new systemic shifts and at the center of radically advancing sciences. The PsiQuantum Campus on the Southside is driving scientific investment and innovation, holding enormous promise. But unless these opportunities benefit the whole city, they risk deepening divides.

As Eric Schmidt and his co-authors argue in their book The Age of AI: And Our Human Future, we cannot leave decisions about transformative technologies solely to scientists and investors. Civic leaders, policymakers, and communities must be a part of how these systems develop.

So, we should engage. Across the city.

The same lesson applies to our system of governance. With just 30% turnout in municipal elections, Chicago is missing a critical input: the voice of its people. Without robust deliberative democracy, our city’s governance system operates with too little feedback and too little legitimacy. No system can function well when its most vital component — citizen participation — is absent.

Governing a city well requires more than technical expertise. It requires curiosity, attentiveness, and imagination. Curiosity to ask the right questions, attentiveness to notice when outcomes differ from expectations, and imagination to envision new possibilities. As Glaeser reminds us, the wealth and progress of cities come not from their physical structures, but from the people within them — learning, trading, innovating, and adapting together.

If Chicago is a system of systems, then strengthening its future means asking how these systems can work better together — and how the people who live within them can shape that change.

So, we should have a strategy to hear from everyone.

That’s the purpose of a new coming alliance: to convene folks across every neighborhood to explore the city’s challenges and opportunities, to learn from past mistakes, and to build a governance system and economic future worthy of the city’s potential.

Chicago, like all cities, will never be perfect. But it remains humanity’s most powerful tool for connection, innovation, and sustainability. The question is whether we will nurture Chicago’s systems with the curiosity and courage they deserve.

The alliance we are building is designed to ensure that answer is: yes, we will build a more just Chicago.

Join us!

What’s abundantly clear is this: Chicagoans love this city. We believe in its potential. We want it to work—for everyone.

But it’s also clear that something is broken, and our future is not guaranteed.

As I’ve read extensively about our city’s finances and looked back on history, I keep returning to a haunting parallel: New York City in the 1970s.

In 1973, a dump truck fell through the West Side Highway in Manhattan. What looked like an isolated accident was, in reality, a symbol of structural failure—both literally and fiscally. Just two years later, NYC was on the edge of bankruptcy. Its public workforce was slashed, neighborhoods crumbled, and the poorest communities paid the highest price.

Many of the decisions that led New York to the brink—overspending, short-term thinking, expanding services without a sustainable tax base—are frighteningly similar to the ones we’ve made here in Chicago.

We should be deeply worried.

Worried about the future of our public schools, where staffing surged with short-term federal COVID dollars that have now dried up.
Worried about our transit system, which is approaching a $1 billion deficit with no clear rescue in sight.
Worried about our staggering pension obligations, which continue to grow—increased this week by another $7+ billion—with no path to structural balance.

And we should be especially worried about who will pay the price if we stay this course. Just like in 1970s New York, the burden will fall hardest on low-income neighborhoods and communities of color.

That future is not inevitable—but it is possible. NYC ended up slashing its workforce by 20%. Can you imagine 15,000 layoffs in Chicago? Default is not a pretty word, but it may be our reality. NYC was ultimately bailed out by the federal government. That’s not in our future.

We need a different path. Not just better budgets, but better governance. Not just new policies, but a new civic culture.

We need a citywide alliance—a civic coalition committed to building this culture.

· Long-term thinking over short-term wins

· Deliberative democracy over reactionary politics

· Data over ideology

· Solutions over scapegoats

· Collaboration over combat

This isn’t about left or right. It’s about whether we can build a Chicago that works—for everyone, for the long haul.

There’s a growing network of Chicagoans who believe it’s possible. Who are ready to listen, to lead, and to build.

We don’t need to repeat New York’s past.
We need to write a different story for Chicago’s future.

A civic alliance is coming. Stay tuned.

Having recently finished Mike Madrid’s book “The Latino Century” and then started Snyders book, I discovered that both authors had spent time in Ukraine during the Russian invasion. Each told a story of interacting with Ukrainians who explained that they were not fighting against something (Putin, Russia, etc.) but that they were fighting for freedom.

Snyder has convinced me that we have lost track of this in the US. I am on a journey that I’ll share a lot more about in coming months, but suffice to say this project involves sitting down with folks in every neighborhood in Chicago and talking. Talking about life, hopes, dreams and the future of our city.

Snyder has also convinced me that far too many of us have been taken captive. Having reflected on goals and strategies of communism, he concludes that those themes echo in our own submission to Silicon Valley overlords.

Five brain hacks. This is behaviorism 101. Experimental Isolation: the rat in the cage, alone presses a lever. . . and gets fed. Look at the person next to you facing their phone. Same thing.

Intermittent reinforcement. Confirmation bias. Social conformity.

“Our fears are cultivated to conform to what others in our categories fear. If you are a white middle aged man and you fear exactly what other white middle aged males fear, you have been had. When your fears are predictable, then so are you. Which means that you (and your digital demographic) are ripe for manipulation. when you are predictable, you bring your country [or city?] down.”

Cognitive dissonance.

“Freedom needs human thinkers, sovereign and unpredictable. Unfreedom needs yielding and predictable creatures, quaking from fear in self-built cages, dreaming of enemies they’ve never met and of friends and lovers they do not have.

When we see how the brain hacks work we can escape predictification. That will involve changing the internet, but it will require doing other things with our bodies than staring at screens. It is our move.”

I wonder how many tables we can set that are thoughtful, unpredictable, engaged, breaking toward freedom. Let me know if you want to join the conversation.

In its first 50 years of existence, Chicago was the fastest growing city, perhaps in the history of the world. Just 50 years into existence Chicago reached a population of 1 million people.

In 1871 following the Great Chicago Fire, the city rebuilt at unimaginable speeds, to take advantage of the growing economic opportunity. The city attracted architects from around the world who soon built the city back, but with higher standards for safety and greater architectural creativity than ever before.

Between 1910 and 1940 tens of thousands of Bungalows were built. These homes designed to be durable and affordable provided the room to add hundreds of thousands of primarily working class immigrants. Unfortunately during that same time frame patterns of deep segregation were created through redlining, block busting, and white flight that laid a foundation for depopulation 30 years later.

Having peaked at a population of 3.6 million in the 1950 census was the point of demarcation after which, and ever since, we have been in decline.

In spite of this decline Chicago assets including its strategic location as a major transportation and logistics hub, a diversified economy with robust sectors like finance, technology, and manufacturing, and world-class educational institutions such as the University of Chicago and Northwestern University. The city is renowned for its rich architectural heritage, vibrant arts scene, and extensive public parks along the lakefront. Additionally, Chicago's dynamic neighborhoods reflect its multicultural diversity, contributing to a renowned culinary scene and a passionate sports culture. Chicago, while in decline, remains a true global city.

I wonder what it would take to utilize these assets that largely did not exist in 1837, 1871, or 1910 yet the city grew and built like no other city in the world?

As Chicago approaches its 200th anniversary, the city stands on the cusp of transformative change. Under the "Chicago 2037" initiative we are gathering a coalition of civic leaders, thinkers, and doers who believe in a thriving future for our city. The goal? To add one million new residents by 2037. This isn't just about growth—it's about invigorating our city through strategic civic leadership that enhances every aspect of urban life.

The Charter Commission: A Foundation for Change

The recent push for a Charter Commission, highlighted by voices like Joe Ferguson and initiatives led by State Representative Kam Buckner, marks a crucial step. A charter would serve as a structure leading to a constitutional document that not only guides governance but also aligns with our broader vision of growth and development. This framework is essential for addressing the systemic challenges that have historically hindered our city's progress, positioning the city to embrace its past and to become a builder of the future.

Housing: Building the Future

To accommodate an additional million residents, Chicago must undergo a significant expansion in housing. This involves not only constructing new homes but also revitalizing existing structures and neighborhoods in a way that fosters community and connectivity. The impact on urban planning, zoning, and infrastructure must be thoughtfully managed to ensure affordability and accessibility, keeping the dream of living in Chicago within everyone's reach. As David Doig has pointed out recently, last year Houston had over 30,000 new permits through just the third quarter. Austin Texas, had over 26,000 new homes built in 2024 and rents in Austin have dropped 22%. Compare that to Chicago which issued 4,360 new residential construction (only 321 were detached homes). We need to return to our roots and BUILD.

Climate Change Migration: We can grow.

If we add 1 million people to our city, our CTA would be full (and solvent) and our schools would be full, less segregated and safer.

The Chicago 2037 coalition needs to become a voice calling for critical issues that make Chicago a larger, safer, thriving city. The charter may be the first issue, but supporting a strategy for massive increases in residential construction and working to attract hundreds of thousands of people who are and will be displaced by the impacts of climate change are also near term considerations. Finally, the economic revolution coming through advancements in the sciences need to be harnessed in a way that the health, education and economic advancements flow to all parts of the city.

2037 could be a momentous year for Chicago. Let’s figure out the civic leadership needed to get there.

In The Age of AI and Our Human Future, Henry Kissinger, Eric Schmidt, and Daniel Huttenlocher discuss AI’s transformative power. Published in 2021, the book was already outdated upon release. The authors compare AI’s impact to that of the Gutenberg printing press. That comparison might undersell it. The press reshaped civilization over centuries. AI is doing it in a handful of years.

So what does this mean for civic leadership and the future of Chicago?

The Reflection Gap

Artificial intelligence (AI) is swiftly reshaping the daily experiences of pretty much every one of us. This evolution stems from the integration of AI into various applications, such as problem-solving tools or automated meeting transcription services. Less noticed but soon to be felt very personally, AI is revolutionizing the medical field by propelling biological research and expediting drug discovery. These advancements are poised to affect everyone in coming years. While we might passively reap the benefits of these innovations, recognizing their broader impact on our city necessitates a deliberate practice that AI doesn't inherently promote: reflection.

I’m wondering

How will advances in AI benefit our educational system? Will these advances help or hinder the growth of local entrepreneurship? How will AI inform the management of our natural resources? Can AI help find efficiencies in our local public transportation systems to tip them toward getting out of the red? Is there a way that AI can help improve our planning so as to reduce segregation, increase household income, and improve the quality of policing in the city?

AI and the Workforce

Last month Meta announced it was laying off 5% of its workforce. But what if it becomes 50%? or 85%? What happens when the strongest industry of the last 20 years no longer guarantees job security? We’ve spent decades telling students that a college degree, hard work, and high grades would lead to stability. But if even top-tier engineers at Google aren’t safe from AI-driven job displacement, what does that mean for the rest of us?

The disruption is systemic. AI doesn’t just replace blue-collar jobs; it will threaten white-collar professions that were once considered untouchable. Legal research, journalism, financial analysis—jobs that require years of education—are all being automated. If civic leaders don’t act, AI won’t just widen inequality; it could create a new class of economic exiles: highly educated, deeply indebted, and structurally unemployed.

The question is not whether AI will reshape our workforce but how we prepare for it. Chicago must invest in AI literacy, not just for engineers but for workers across all sectors. We need retraining programs that aren’t reactive but anticipatory, designed for a world where adaptability matters more than pedigree.

When the stockyards and steel mills closed. . . our workforce was utterly changed, and we didn’t really see it coming. AI is going to do that again and we have an opportunity to think ahead of time about this. But we don’t have long.

AI and Education

The 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (commonly called the national report card) shows that our educational systems is largely broken. Less than 1/3 of students read proficiently. This is not because students lack intelligence, rather they lack access to personalized learning. AI could change that. Imagine putting the sum total of human knowledge into the hands of a young Black child on the South Side of Chicago— What happens then? Could we combine that information in AI adapted and tailored to their individual learning style, pace, and goals. That’s an opportunity we’ve never had before.

Chicago’s leadership must ensure that AI is used to expand access to opportunity across medicine, education, employment and more. . . and do so with the most vulnerable in mind.

AI’s Future: Doom, Optimism, or Pragmatism?

So where do I stand? I’m not a doomer, nor an uncritical optimist. I’m a pragmatist. AI is neither salvation nor destruction—it’s a tool. The question is: Who wields it? And to what end?

If we allow AI to be driven solely by profit, it will accelerate inequality, displace workers, and deepen social divisions. But if we approach it with foresight, we can harness its power to democratize education, empower workers, and make governance more accountable, objective, and strategic.

Chicago’s future won’t be determined by AI itself but by how we choose to integrate it into our civic life. The reflection gap is real. If we don’t take time to think—deeply, collectively, and with intention—we risk letting the controllers of AI shape our future without our input. Afterall - information is power and AI is the centralization of information. We cannot afford to be passive observers.

The question we must ask and answer together -- what is our collective objective?

Our Shared Responsibility

I believe we have a shared responsibility to ensure that the best available tools serve as a force for equity, empowerment, and truth, rather than mechanisms for deepening inequality, displacing workers, or distorting reality.

Chicago, like many cities, stands at an inflection point. Advancements in technology will reshape governance, education, and economic opportunity—but will we guide this future intentionally, or let it happen to us?

• In governance, our objective should be transparency, accountability, and the pursuit of truth. The best tools should enhance democratic decision-making, not entrench corruption or bias.

• In education, we must ensure every student has access to the best learning resources, tailored to their individual needs—because an educated Chicago is a stronger Chicago.

• In the workforce, we must prioritize adaptability, ensuring that job transitions are supported, not abandoned to the forces of disruption.

• In business, sustainable and inclusive economic growth should take precedence over short-term gains, ensuring that innovation benefits all communities, not just those in power.

Ultimately, our objective is democracy in action—a Chicago built together by its people, for its people. A stronger city is not dictated by a few, but forged by the many. We are responsible for shaping a future rooted in truth, justice, and opportunity for all. If we do not demand accountability, transparency, and a clear vision, then the future will simply “happen” to us—shaped by forces that do not share our interests.

Our mission is clear: Chicago’s future must be built by all of us, for all of us. The best tools and innovations should lift people up—not push them aside. They should create opportunity, strengthen our communities, and bring us closer to the truth, not divide us. If we do this right, Chicago can be a city that is growing, and in which children, workers, and families have a real shot at success—where progress isn’t just for some, but for all. The future is ours to shape, together.

I traveled to Tegucigalpa, Honduras on a number of occasions to learn about the work ASJ was doing. I remember distinctly standing in a barrio that had been created by squatters astounded by the way in which thousands of migrants had built small homes, created their own water systems, carved roads out of steep hill sides, built churches and school and their own neighborhood.

The problem was, as is common in the developing world, they had no way to gain legal title to their homes. The government claimed it owned the land, while local gangs and nearby property owners made the same claim. If they wanted the title they would have to buy it again and again.

In his amazing book “The Mystery of Capital: why capitalism triumphs in the west”, and fails everywhere else”, Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto shows convincingly that the legal system supporting private property in the United States unlocked trillions of dollars of value that is simply not available to most places in the world.

ASJ started with one such hope-to-be-home owner and created a set of solutions that would lead to more than 20,000 families gaining access to land title. The kind of civic leadership displayed at ASJ also led to a purge of the national police and the re-creation of a police academy rooted in best practices from around the world.

I wonder what an Association for a More Just Chicago would tackle first?

95% of shootings in Chicago go unsolved.

Chicago is consistently identified as the most corrupt city in the United States.

350,000 African Americans have left the city, 85,000 in the past decade.

40% of our city budget pays debt and pension payments, eliminating the possibility of funding high priority city services.

Chicago Public Schools are nearly insolvent.

Chicago has no constitutional document.

When a prior mayor inked the parking meter deal, he signed off on perhaps the worst financial decision in the history of American cities.

Addressing our deeply entrenched problems will require a long look back at our governing structures. . . and a long look forward as the implication of climate change and advances in science will remake our world, and our city in the next couple of decades.

This lack of access created by segregation, however, is overcome by those that develop extensive networks. Networks are essentially relationships. The ties that networks build are sometimes strong and sometimes weak, but according to network theory, having substantial ties is enough — it doesn’t matter if they are strong or weak. Both forms of ties create access to knowledge and opportunity.

It is with this in mind that the work we do is aimed at accessing, building and sharing networks. Networks lead to jobs, expertise, capital, encouragement, care and more. Just think about what it feels like when someone says to you “I know someone you need to know!” It feels amazing because it makes you sense an opportunity or a surprise is at hand.

There are effectively three ways to build your network. First is word of mouth. Someone you know introduces you to someone else. Second is proximity. You go someplace where you are more likely to meet a “relevant” person such as a conference, a special event or a co-working space. Third, is technology.

We are working to use all three of these means to develop networks as we seek to build and give away our network to organizational leaders who will benefit from them. Networks are one way to break up the effects of segregation. If the MPC premise is accurate, it also means that networks are a pathway to life and opportunity!

I know someone you need to know!

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Welcome to Civic Lens

Our city stands at a pivotal moment—on the verge of becoming a global climate destination while facing structural challenges that demand thoughtful reform and collaboration.

This blog will examine the big questions: How do we stabilize and grow Chicago’s economy while ensuring opportunity for all? How can civic planning, innovation, and bold leadership shape a more equitable, sustainable future? What lessons can we draw from Chicago’s rich history to guide this transformation?

From climate resilience and life sciences to economic development and civic reform, Civic Lens is about offering a forward-looking perspective grounded in the belief that lasting change requires collective effort. No single person or group can solve these challenges alone—it takes shared vision, strategic planning, and a commitment to the greater good.

Together, let’s explore how Chicago can lead with purpose, ensuring progress benefits the many, not just the few. Welcome to the conversation.

Another climate driven impact to consider is the 40 million people who get their water from the Colorado River basin. The water supply is down 20% and projections are that it will decrease another 20% by 2050.

At odds with this are the conditions of Chicago.

We don’t have hurricanes, wildfires, mudslides, or earthquakes. And we have a lot of water. With that in mind, let me share some thoughts about what the future of Chicago can be, starting with two basic suppositions.

Supposition #1: Chicago is a climate change destination. According to Howard Learner at the Environmental Law and Policy Center, our competitive climate advantages create a real prospect for growth.

Supposition #2: Chicago is poised to be at the forefront of advances in the sciences whose scale could exceed the regional impacts of the stockyards and steel mills of earlier eras.

Data science, Computer science, AI, the Biological sciences and Quantum science are moving so fast, it’s hard to keep up. Chicago boasts among the most advanced quantum schools and scientists which are in turn leading to new quantum inventions and companies. With the announcement of the worlds largest quantum computer coming to the south side, a revolution is at hand.

What kind of leadership will it take to take advantage of these two mechanisms of societal transformation resulting in Chicago being a larger, more diverse, more equitable, safer and vibrant global city?

To stir our imagination we should remember that Chicago’s civic leaders have accomplished amazing things during the history of the city. The reversing of the Chicago River, the elevation of the loop, the building of the canal all come to mind. In their book Lakefront: Public Trust and Private Rights, Joseph Kearney and Thomas Merrill tell the story of how it is that Chicago ended up with the most iconic 20 miles of lakefront of perhaps any city in the world. These stories inspire the kind of big picture thinking that bears out over many years and accomplishes societal transformation that can occur beyond normal imagination.

If these suppositions are true, and if a coalition of civic leaders can gather and work together, the impacts could be beyond the imagination of many Chicagoans.

Chicago is at a place where it needs the kind of imaginative, transformative civic leadership to overcome our devastating problems, and take advantage of the possibility of transformative growth. Intentionally driving change so that we become a larger, more diverse, more economically stable and equitable city will take leadership. Private, civic leadership. Bold but humble. Ego-free. Curious. Determined. Hopeful. Relational. Collaborative. Diverse in every way.

The sort of transformation we need has been accomplished in other places. Stories from Honduras, Omaha, New York and LA are instructive. More on that soon.

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