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The Absentocracy, ctd.

There's a phenomenon we've been talking about on the 13th floor for years. We call it the "absentocracy." The concept comes down to ...

There's a phenomenon we've been talking about on the 13th floor for years. We call it the "absentocracy." The concept comes down to a simple question: Can big business maintain local values, even as national and international conglomerates swallow up hometown companies?

marshall-field-1.jpg Chicago is the latest place where this deep civic question is flaring up. The Windy City is furious at Federated Department Stores for changing the name of Marshall Field's, the famous chain whose flagship store sits on State Street, to Macy's.

A website, www.keepitfields.org, has sprung up as an online petition to stop the change. Meanwhile, Roger Ebert, the Chicago-based film critic spoke for many locals when he boiled over the other day: "It's a rape and pillage of the city of Chicago," he said. "You might as well rename the Cubs the Mets as rename Marshall Field's Macy's."

Chicago's angst is not really so much about nostalgia. Nor is it a Second City inferiority complex having to do with Macy's obvious ties to New York City.

Rather, Chicago's anguish comes from the sense of hopelessness that comes with seeing decisions that hurt the city's image being made somewhere else. Federated, which after a merger now owns both Field's and Macy's, is based in Cincinnati.

Retail chains aren't the only culprits in the absentocracy. Local banks were always big players on the local civic scene. But how many local banks are left in your community? Chances are, most have been chomped up by national behemoths that are based either in New York or Charlotte.

Big business' civic energy was once dispersed in every community. It manifested itself in the form of local philanthropy, or perhaps a sincere corporate interest in the quality of local schools. That energy, however, is increasingly consolidated in faraway corporate boardrooms, subject to the bottom-line concerns of stockholders.

The department store name game is only the latest chapter of this saga. Federated says that customer surveys supported changing Field's to Macy's. Chicago's emotional response suggests otherwise. Rather, this sounds like another case of big business listening to Wall Street and ignoring Main Street.

MORE: The Rule of the Absentocracy (Governing, September 1991)

          Mysteries of Urban Momentum (Governing, April 2002)

Christopher Swope was GOVERNING's executive editor.
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