How do you picture Chicago in 2050?
Voices from around the city explored what Chicago could and should look like in 2050 in a series of essays.
This collection represents a collaboration between Tribune Opinion and World Business Chicago, whose Horizon Lines: Visions for Chicago 2050 initiative also included a design competition inviting the public to share the bold ideas and civic investments Chicago could make in the next 25 years.
After the series has been published here, World Business Chicago expects to republish the essays.
Mary Schmich writes her dreams for the future of her ‘complete city’
A couple of years ago, I was at a party when someone asked, “Why do you stay in Chicago?”
This person was from some smaller, gentler town and was perplexed by my dedication to a place that freezes in winter, boils in summer and, if you’re lucky enough to own a home, pummels you with property taxes.
I could have answered that I stay because Chicago is home. Because I have a community of people who make my life meaningful. Because I can walk or bike along that great, blue lake and marvel at the skyline, even as I wish there were fewer pooping geese to share the view.
I didn’t say those things. Instead, a thought landed on me with the force of revelation, and ever since it’s been my shorthand for why I live here: “I stay because Chicago is a complete city.” Read more here.
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Tonika Lewis Johnson imagines a city skyline that bridges racial dividing lines
Imagine discovering that someone else lives at your exact address — 15 miles away.
One person lives in Chicago in the 6900 block of North Ashland Avenue. The other lives in Chicago in the 6900 block of South Ashland Avenue. Their homes share the same street name in the same city, but they exist in neighborhoods shaped by very different histories — North Ashland largely white and affluent, and South Ashland predominantly Black and long disinvested.
When these two residents meet and walk through each other’s neighborhoods together, the differences between North Side and South Side become visible almost immediately: housing conditions, neighborhood resources, commercial activity, safety, even the presence of trees.
But their conversation reveals something deeper. Segregation in Chicago did more than determine where opportunities accumulated and where they did not. It also prevented our social networks from being as diverse as the city. Read more here.
Tracy Baim writes about the city’s next transformational ‘Great Migration’
Looking back from Chicago in the year 2050, the signs of change were evident. Beginning in 2025, parents planned their exits from states banning health care for their children. People moved to our city for access to reproductive care. Immigrants came for safety. By the early 2030s, hundreds of thousands joined the migration.
Chicago became a beacon for people seeking a better life, one where people were treated equally regardless of the color of their skin, their religion, their countries of origin and who they love. They were also provided bodily autonomy. Read more here.
Laura Washington wants to bring glittering downtown institutions to the city’s neighborhoods
The future of Chicago resides in its neighborhoods. The lions who ferociously guard the Art Institute on Michigan Avenue also could be roaming the grassy fields of Garfield Park. A migration in investment is already underway. Explosive development around the United Center and Fulton Market is leading expansion and energy away from the Loop. Read more here.
Daniel Holz writes about pursuing progress and avoiding doomsday
This exercise of envisioning “Chicago 2050” is inherently optimistic. It presumes that the city of Chicago will still be here a quarter century from now. We can certainly hope that this is the case, but there is no assurance of the continued existence of the city, the state, the country or even civilization itself. Over the past century, human ingenuity and technological progress have created numerous ways for humanity to destroy itself, including through nuclear war, climate change, biological threats and, most recently, artificial intelligence. The defining challenge for the coming 25 years is to ensure that new technologies are used for human flourishing. Few cities are as deeply tied to existential risks as Chicago. Read more here.
IDOT’s secretary writes about the future of transportation in ‘The City that Works’
Chicago might have too many nicknames. We’re the Windy City. The City of the Big Shoulders. City in a Garden. The Second City. The Third Coast. New ones seem to crop up all the time, and I’m saying right here that you’ll never get me to call it “Chi-Town.” But I’ve always been partial to “The City that Works.” I have more than a decade working for the city in urban planning, parks and transportation, and for me, “The City that Works” means we’re a city that, well, works. And we work hard and smart. We grind, adapt, move forward, build and rebuild, figure it out, get big things done, and we ought to work well for the people who live here. The tilt toward action, movement, is part of the appeal. Read more here.
Ashish Sharma on how the city will learn to live with weather
It’s the year 2050 on the South Side of Chicago. As I walk near the former U.S. Steel South Works along Lake Michigan on a summer morning, I see more than redevelopment. I see the results of a deliberate transformation in hard tech like quantum computing and climate intelligence technology. Despite the previous night’s heavy rain, the streets are water-free. Neighborhoods are not reporting residential flooding on my flood tracker, and there are no flood insurance claims. Local media are not reporting any major flash flood damages or disruptions. Even with extreme weather, the infrastructure is resilient, and people are embracing rain without fear of catastrophic damage. Read more here.
Poet Leslé Honoré envisions an ‘Emerald City’ in our future
When asked to imagine what Chicago would feel like in 2050, I immediately thought of all of the people who are working hard to plant seeds of change across Chicago. Seeds of hope that will be harvested by other people they may never meet. This poem is a tribute to the residents in all 77 neighborhoods, those who work with a deep love for this city and a desire to make it better for the next generation. Read more here.
Stacy Davis Gates writes on how CPS will be rooted in sustainability in 25 years
In imagining our city’s future, there’s one institution at the heart of what happens next: Chicago’s public schools.
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They are where families gather for football games, quiz bowls, yearbook layouts and school photos, report card day, recitals, dances and proms; where the joy of teaching and learning is shared between educators and students and where many of us cast our ballots to vote. Read more here.
Professors advise on how Chicago can train workers to succeed with AI
Our vision for Chicago 2050 is a workforce ready for the new world of artificial intelligence. With every new headline describing some amazing (or sometimes shocking) AI feat, Chicagoans can be forgiven for imagining 2050 will be a bleak place for humans: not just all the manual labor being done by robots, but all the thinking as well. The stakes couldn’t be higher.
We need a plan. That plan has to start with the differences between artificial and human intelligence. AI excels at routine tasks. For humans to add value, they’ll need to be good at what’s hard for AI: novel problem-solving and navigating social interactions with other people. Essentially, another form of problem-solving. Read more here.
David Awschalom on the future of quantum technologies
It is 2050. The Chicago region is the beating pulse of Earth’s most prized commodity — information.
We are still a trading center, having moved deftly in the 20th century from stockyards to steel to the Chicago Board of Trade’s futures pits, and now to the fiber optics, algorithms and satellite links of the global quantum internet. Ours is an economy built from entangled qubits, or quantum bits — the foundation of technologies that have changed how the world sends, stores, protects and processes the information encoding nearly every inch of our lives.
Today, in the 2050s, quantum networks send information that protects our banks, power grids and personal identities. Read more here.
Alaina Harkness on a thriving city based on water
This April, as the astronauts of Artemis II rocketed around the moon, they boosted the spirit of American science, exploration and discovery on a planetary scale. On the mission’s final morning, the Orion capsule filled with the sound of their hand-picked wake-up song to gear up for their final descent: “Run to the Water,” by the alternative rock band Live.
It was a fitting choice, given their trip to the moon was propelled in part by a search for ice-locked lunar water to convert into breathable air and rocket fuel for future missions. Water turns out to be as critical for life in space as it is here on Earth, a limiting factor in how long we can stay and how far we can go. The Artemis crew’s record-setting voyage from our own blue planet should sharpen our perspective on the value of the water in our own backyard that we take for granted. Read more here.
Glenn Davis writes on the abundant future of Chicago theater
In 2050, I envision a Chicago that is world-renowned for not only its sports, politics, skyline, food and businesses, but also its dynamic arts scene. The arts will be the centerpiece of our cultural ecosystem.
With the advent of artificial intelligence, many see technology as a hazard to the creative arts — particularly theater, film and television — with actors being replaced by digital approximations of themselves. I see the opposite. This technological advancement will challenge our notions of what the arts are capable of. Read more here.
Penny Pritzker and Bryan Traubert on the importance of Chicagoans’ civic life
When we celebrate the new year in 2050 — if we are fortunate enough — we will be in our 90s, and our four grandchildren will be approaching age 30. Our hope is to see Chicago celebrated in headlines for its vibrancy — a city attracting new residents, welcoming immigrants, generating economic opportunity citywide and offering meaningful paths forward for the next generation.
We also hope Chicago remains a place where young people, including our grandchildren, choose to live or move to and build their lives.
There’s no doubt that Chicago today already offers unmatched culture, diversity, architecture, neighborhoods and, most importantly, energetic and creative people. But cities are not static. How Chicago evolves will depend on the choices made by the Chicagoans of today. Will you choose to stay and engage in civic life? Will you choose to contribute your talent, leadership, creativity and time to strengthening the city around you? Read more here.
Valerie Jarrett on the Obama Presidential Center as a unique catalyst for change
For far too long, the South Side of Chicago had not received the investment that it deserves.
But when the Obama Presidential Center opens in June, it will mark the beginning of a new day for the proud residents of a community that the Obamas and I call home.
As a child of the South Side, I have seen the incredible potential in this community, particularly the resilience of its people. I’ve also seen great ideas, sparks of progress and coordinated efforts to lift up our neighborhoods — but until now, I have not seen the realization of our collective vision for a resurgence on this scale.
When the center opens, it will be a unique catalyst not just for these neighborhoods but also for a newly energized Chicago in the years ahead. Read more here.
Broadway in Chicago CEO on a city guided forward by culture
Chicago has always been many things at once.
But if we ask what will ultimately define Chicago in 2050, the answer may be simpler and more powerful than we think: culture. Culture is our North Star. It shapes how the city grows, how we welcome the world and how we understand ourselves. Read more here.
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Mayor Brandon Johnson on building the city for a bright future
Over the past several weeks, our city has heard from some of our brightest minds, each offering a vision for what Chicago can become by 2050.
What stood out most to me wasn’t only the ambition of these ideas, but also the belief behind them. Chicago’s future isn’t something we wait for. It’s something we choose to build together.
At its core, Chicago 2050 to me is about delivering on a simple truth: that every resident, in every neighborhood, is able to live, work and thrive in a safe and affordable city. Read more here.
Letters: What Chicago could achieve by 2050, one neighborhood at a time
Chicago, such a great city, so real, so American, with the tough, middle-of-the-country vibe. Chicago needs to retain and live up to its reputation as feisty, down-to-earth, in-your-face and independent.
Chicago was my center for living, as a resident for many years and now as an adjunct member from a suburb. As one who still has roots, connections and family in Chicago, I have dreams of it, perfected. These dreams are centered on the citizens who live, work and relax right there. Read more here.