East Dundee has hired a consultant to work on their downtown.

Vandewalle will create an inventory of the 400 businesses in the village, devise a marketing plan and determine what kind of development should go where...“This can be one of the coolest little hidden gems of the Fox Valley,” he said.

This is great news for the Fox Valley. And what's good for the Fox Valley is good for Elgin. In fact, I think it would be helpful if all the Fox Valley towns and cities from Elgin to Aurora got together and created a unified marketing strategy in order to promote the Fox Valley as a whole as a place to live, work or visit. If we can promote a positive image of the Fox Valley, then it will be easier to promote a positive image of Elgin as the most significant city and cultural center of the Fox Valley.

We need to work together with the other Fox Valley towns to draw technology companies a little further west, away from Naperville, Schaumburg, etc. Even if we get only 1 or 2 major technology companies, it will have a big impact on the perception of the attractiveness of the Fox Valley for business. And the time is ripe for this, because so many office workers are moving further west. It makes perfect sense that their employers will at least consider the benefits of moving west with their employees. Whether these businesses initially move into Elgin or not, Elgin will benefit in many ways. I will blog more about this in the future.

Read the article.