Editorial: An appreciation of the voices in our pages who imagined a better Chicago in 2050

What will Chicago look like in 2050? Will it be a thriving metropolis? A hollowed-out shell? Something in between?

How you answer those questions largely depends on whether you view Chicago as a city in decline or a landscape full of potential.

We heard from a wide variety of hopeful, forward-looking voices - from poets to scientists to transit experts - in our recent Chicago 2050 series, which brought together notables from around the city to explore what Chicago could and should look like 25 years from now in a package of thought-provoking essays.

What tied these pieces together was not ideology but a refusal to surrender to cynicism.

In a city often consumed by political fights, budget crises and population anxieties, the Chicago 2050 project asked a rarer and more valuable question: What kind of city are we actually trying to build?

The project saw the welcome return of longtime Tribune columnist Mary Schmich, who reflected on her many reasons for staying in Chicago, which she dubbed a "complete city" - one that contains some of everything. Art, weather, people, languages and neighborhoods that offer enough variety to keep a person here happily for decades.

Daniel Holz studies black holes. No, the payoff here is not an allegory about Chicago and its finances. Holz, a professor of physics at the University of Chicago who oversees the Doomsday Clock, understands the fragility of humanity and the intolerably high risks civilization faces from the threat of nuclear war. But, he wrote, our city's geographic location insulates it from the influences of Silicon Valley, Washington, D.C., and Hollywood in a way that may better position Chicago to navigate an uncertain future.

Tracy Baim reflected on Chicago's civic identity and its role in the Great Migration, which brought 6 million African Americans from the nation's rural South to Chicago and other Northern and Western cities. She imagines a new "Great Migration" to the city to build on that legacy, and argues that in the future, cities will increasingly compete not just on jobs or taxes, but on culture, rights and quality of life, and that Chicago should lean aggressively into being an open, pluralistic city.

Our readers also shared their thoughts. Many yearn for 2050 to bring us a metropolis that better connects Chicagoans to their city, making it safer for kids to bike and play, and giving everyone better access to Lake Michigan, our greatest natural resource.

Poet Leslé Honoré's vision of Chicago as an Emerald City ties up the series in a beautiful green ribbon.

This project, in partnership with World Business Chicago, started an important conversation. Chicago always has been a city built by people confident enough to imagine something bigger than what already existed. The next 25 years will test whether we can maintain that identity.

You can read all of the Chicago 2050 essays at chicagotribune.com/chicago2050.

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.

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This story was originally published May 20, 2026 at 5:12 AM.