It was Saturday morning and my last day to spend in Chicago after the International Manufacturers Technology Show.  After my new friend Walt Denton (economic developer from Prescott) and I enjoyed a nice breakfast at Carton's Restaurant, we decided to take advantage of our last sight-seeing opportunity before catching the plane in mid-afternoon.  Neither one of us had been to the top of the John Hancock Tower on Michigan Avenue just a block away from our hotel, so we agreed to meet there after we checked out of the hotel.

I didn't realize that they charge eight bucks just to ride the elevator up 94 floors.  Seems like a rip-off to me, but the view is incredible, and they have added a museum with historical memorabilia about the founding and progress of the City of Chicago and about the building of the tower.

While I waited for Walt, I took the time to study the famous quotations on the walls and found myself wondering if Jacksonville has what it takes to make a truly great city like Chicago.

Seems that even the earliest visitors to the site knew that it was a perfect location for a city.  Louis Jolliet said, "Here some day will be found one of the world's great cities."   I am surprised that Jolliet was such a prophet, but I must admit that the location right on Lake Michigan is breath-taking.  Our Friday night dinner cruise aboard the Anita Dee II was one of the most awesome evenings of my life.  I was totally unprepared for the beauty of the Chicago skyline when viewed from the lake as darkness crept across the sky.

The greatness of this city didn't just happen; it was the result of careful planning.  Back at the turn of the century, the city commissioned one of the first city-planners, Daniel H. Burnham, to make a plan and write a book called Plan of Chicago.  He was quoted several times in writings on a mural depicting the progress of Chicago.

Perhaps his best quote was this:
"Make no little plans
They have no magic to stir men's blood...
Make big plans... a noble logical diagram once recorded will never die but... will be a living thing."

When given the choice of planning small or planning big, Burnham went for the grandiose.  Surely Chicago has its failures, but they were failures made in attempting something grand.  I wondered if Jacksonville's leaders have what it takes to make a grand design for a city that will endure for a hundred years and serve as a lasting monument to those who dreamed big.

I wondered if Jacksonville could ever become the stuff of poems like that famous one by Carl Sandburg where he described Chicago with these words:
"Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler; Stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders..."

I wondered what Carl would say if he set his poetic mind to describing our city?

The constant renovations inspired another Chicago-great, Saul Bellow, to describe the city this way:
"Chicago builds itself up,
Tears itself down,
Scraps away the rubble,
And starts over."

I found myself jealous of all the natural advantages of Chicago, of the lake, of the long history, of the billions of dollars invested, and of the great people who have invested of themselves to make this city what it is.  I was feeling like our small town fared poorly in comparison.  But then I found this quote from Daniel Burnham:

"This spirit – the spirit of Chicago – is our greatest asset.  It is not merely civic pride; it is rather the constant, steady determination to bring about the very best conditions of city life."

That's when I realized that we may not have beautiful Lake Michigan nor the multi-billion dollar skyline like Chicago, but we can have that kind of spirit, that kind of determination to make a city great.

Sometimes, in my better moments, I think that's what my work at the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce is about.  Most of the time, I must confess, I get bogged down with a million details.  But there are times when I think I am pouring out the energy of my working day to make our city a better place to live, to "bring about the very best conditions of city life."  And those are the times that keep me going.