You Can’t Insert Jobs Into Communities Without Markets

Job creation is not a starting point. It is an outcome of a set of conditions that either exist or do not.

Last month, I wrote about school quality and walkability. Why do they determine market-rate absorption before construction finishes?

This month, I want to address something that keeps coming up in conversations about the South Side.

Job creation.

There is an ongoing conversation around job creation on the South Side that continues to start at the wrong point in the sequence.

The question is always framed the same way. Where are the jobs? What is the strategy for bringing employment into the community? Which employers are being targeted and how quickly can they be introduced?

The framing suggests that jobs can be inserted into a neighborhood as a primary intervention. It assumes that employment is a lever that can be pulled independently of the surrounding conditions. In practice, that is not how local economies form or sustain themselves.

Job creation is not a starting point. It is an outcome of a set of conditions that either exist or do not.

What Precedes Employment Density

When businesses evaluate where to locate, they are not making decisions in isolation. They are reading signals about the environment they are entering. These signals are not limited to incentives or available real estate. They are grounded in patterns of activity that indicate whether a neighborhood can support consistent economic circulation.

In many South Side communities, that layer is still developing.

This is where the conversation often becomes misaligned. There is a tendency to focus on attracting employers before establishing the conditions that make those employers viable. Without those conditions, businesses struggle to sustain themselves, and job creation becomes episodic rather than systemic.

Activity is the precursor.

Not activity defined by occasional events or isolated programming, but consistent, observable patterns of use that demonstrate that people are choosing to spend time in the neighborhood. This includes informal economies, cultural activity, and localized commerce that reflect the identity of the community itself.

Think about Hyde Park. On any given Tuesday afternoon, you’ll see students studying at coffee shops, families walking to the bookstore, and people meeting for lunch at locally owned restaurants. That’s not programmed activity. That’s daily use patterns that signal to a new business owner: there’s an existing customer base here.

• Making room for local artisans is part of this.
• Creating space for farmers markets is part of this.
• Programming block-level events that are connected to the culture of the community is part of this. These are not peripheral initiatives.

But these work when they build on existing daily patterns, not when they substitute for them. A Saturday farmers market reinforces activity that’s already happening Monday through Friday. A one-time festival doesn’t create the sustained foot traffic a business needs to stay open year-round.

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