When Chicago tallies the cost of hosting the NATO summit, its downtown business community can rightly say, “We gave at the office.”
From the business community’s perspective, being asked to support this global gathering of world leaders, protesters and onlookers was a big ask — perhaps bigger than anyone realized. The Loop office crowd is shouldering a substantial share of the burden.
The costs go beyond downtown restaurateurs and merchants ringing up a fraction of their usual receipts. They go beyond the extra security measures that some private companies and building owners undertook at significant expense.
Many Loop offices will be ghost towns Monday, much as they were Friday.
A four-day weekend, pleasant though it is for the workers involved, inevitably disrupts company routines and hurts productivity. It’s as if a blizzard hit in the middle of May, except this one was no act of nature. It costs a lot of money to shut down business for a couple of days in a downtown as vital as Chicago’s.
For all the talk about telecommuting, it should be acknowledged that to make the most of flexible work arrangements requires time, discipline and sustained institutional support. Cutting the office loose for a couple of days to avoid the protesters is not the best way to introduce new practices.
We suspect that a lot less business is getting done than would be done in the absence of NATO.
Nevertheless, we believe hosting the NATO summit is a net positive for Chicago and its business community.
Much has been said about how the exposure will boost Chicago as an international travel destination. The NATO spotlight will, we hope, enhance the city’s image as a world-class business center.
The world’s greatest cities manage to make their downtowns multifunctional. Work is one function. Ideally, workplaces share the urban core with housing, shopping, culture, entertainment, tourist attractions and, yes, government.
One of the reasons Chicago’s downtown is so strong is that it accommodates the different demands of those various sectors. Business benefits from the diversity. The interaction of all those parts helps incubate companies, create jobs, inspire innovation and contribute to a business culture that attracts and nurtures talent.
ConsiderSara Lee Corp.’s reason for moving its newly formed meat company into the Loop from the western suburbs: “This move will put our new company’s headquarters in the heart of one of the world’s business capitals and will be one of the key elements of building our more nimble, creative and innovative culture.”
Sara Lee has it right. The NATO summit is part of doing business in a global city worthy of the name.
