[galleyfox]

San Francisco and Houston and other such cities have never faced deindustrialization and economic collapse like the Midwest has dealt with. The only way to keep off decline is to ensure the health of the core, and that means consolidation. The suburbs just are not productive enough by themselves to fuel any new growth or recovery. They will decline with or without their current campuses.

It's like the death of a star. After the initial fuel runs out, it can either fade away into nothing, a mere white dwarf. Or we can consolidate into something so dense that nothing can escape our gravity.

And frankly, I want Chicago to be at the center of the economic universe so if it's a zero-sum game between Chicago and the suburbs, Chicago's gotta win out until it has enough gravity to attract investment from the outside.