Chicago the new Silicon Lakeshore?

By Rick Blumenberg  / @rickblumenberg

Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced today that Chicago has won the bid for a new digital manufacturing institute. Public and private funds will combine to make it possible and the windy lakeshore city beat out Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other equally high tech bidders. One reason they won was because Chicago exceeded the requirement of equally matching the $70 million in government funds. Private sources from the Chicago area came up with $250 million in matching funds.

Could Chicago become the new Silicon Lakeshore? Senator Dick Durbin, D-Ill thinks so. He said, "We had to over-perform to make sure it was not only a good grab, but the best, so the president, the White House and everybody else can look at it with a straight face and say, 'Of course it's Illinois.'"

Some people are calling it the new Silicon Valley, but Chicago’s not a valley! What we’re talking about is the new Silicon Lakeshore—an emphasis like this will impact the entire world of Lake Michigan’s Lakeshore from Wisconsin to Southwest Michigan and radiate out into the offshore areas as well, from Rockford, to Champaign-Urbana, home of the University of Illinois, a major player in the success of the Chicago bid. And who knows, but my guess is we here in Bridgman, the City on the Lake, home of lots of Chicago lovers, may also be involved.

Exciting things are also happening in nearby South Bend, Indiana, where the University of Notre Dame is breaking new ground in the field of Nano Technology. The City of South Bend is their enthusiastic partner. Together they have created Innovation and Ignition Parks in an attempt to combine the educational expertise of the University of Notre Dame and the manufacturing expertise/abilities of South Bend area leaders to make the area a hub for nanotechnology.

“It’s off to a great start,” said Arnold Phifer, External Relations Director for Notre Dame’s Center for Nano Science and Technology.  “It is starting to spin-off companies and move some of the technologies out of the lab into Innovation Park and then ultimately to Ignition Park. Businesses who can’t afford their own labs are coming to South Bend to work at Notre Dame’s facilities.”[i]

Our economy has gone through some real struggles lately. Partly because of the economic downturn, but a great part of it is the reality of the manufacturing change from the old style hardware production to the new style Digital and Nano manufacturing. It doesn’t all have to happen on the East and West Coasts. The Midwest’s Third Coast of marvelous Lake Michigan, where those of us who know it, love to live, may well be the new happening place.

As for me I look forward to being a part of the new Silicon Lakeshore if only as an enthusiastic cheerleader.

I’m Rick Blumenberg and that’s My View from Tanner Creek—a small, but delightful tributary of beautiful Lake Michigan.

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[i] Quoted by Tony Spehar, “Is Nanotechnology still in South Bend’s Future?” ABC57 News, October 13, 2013
     

The Miracle of Family

We live in Bridgman, Michigan, where people come to vacation during summer months. Beautiful Lake Michigan and its fabulous beaches, the surrounding agricultural bounties and the beautiful Southwest Michigan scenery call out to people from throughout the Midwest and beyond, to come and enjoy our delightful offerings. Years ago when our granddaughter Rebekah was a pre-teen, she expressed it well on a visit from central Indiana.

She said, “This is a place people come to!” Another way of saying Southwest Michigan is a destination for people who seek a fun place to spend a vacation.

Most of those who come are families and it is one reason I enjoy living here. I like to see families interact on vacation—playing together and having fun, and see parents share important life truths with their offspring in that joyful process.

A good example happened recently in a public bathroom. The boy was about four years old and I found it interesting to see his Dad re-emphasizing what had obviously already been taught about washing hands and being polite to others who shared the public facilities. To the boy it was just a fun day with Dad. He had no idea he was learning important lessons that would help him live well for decades—lessons he would someday pass on to his children, thus passing the knowledge from generation to generation.

That is how God planned it. He said we should teach our children throughout the day…

^“4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. ⁵ Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-7^(NIV), New International Version Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica)

In strong families that function as God planned, every life encounter is a learning opportunity if we take advantage of it. If it is done well, it is so much fun the children don’t think of it as a task. They think it is just the pure joy of living—and they are right.

Sometimes those families are not “normal” families. Recently while on vacation with friends in Mexico we went on a whale-watching expedition. A part of our group of about 25 or 30 people was a vacation family made up of two couples and one single mom and about ten teenage children from all three families. I was intrigued and had already begun this article, so I wanted to find out more about them. When I talked to the single mom, she said none of them were related, but the boys were in sports together and the three families had been friends and schoolmates for several years. They had a special relationship that was fun to watch throughout the morning.

Families are God’s miracle for the survival and advancement of society. No other organization means so much to individual persons or to society as a whole, as the family. When the family is dysfunctional, unless someone else steps in to make up the difference, the children in the family suffer from that dysfunction the rest of their lives. When children grow up in a loving, supportive, educational family, they gain benefits that are immeasurable. Thank God for strong families! Thank God for parents who rise to the occasion to meet the needs of their growing children. And thank God for adults who fill in for children who don’t have functional families, helping them to grow into persons that will bless society for a lifetime.

I'm Rick Blumenberg . . . and that's My View from Tanner Creek.