The Colorado politicians are apoplectic. They have the sadz that a planned Space Command is moving from Colorado to Alabama. They are categorizing it as political, and if you read Reddit threads, it is a precursor to the Civil War because the Confederates did the same thing!
The reasoning behind putting it in Colorado was mostly political in the first place.
Government space offices, when not in Washington, DC, have been put in places like Houston, Texas; Huntsville, Alabama; Cape Canaveral, Florida, for six decades now. Private space companies are based in Texas.
Colorado boasts some space stuff. Obviously, the USAFA is in Colorado Springs. NORAD has some installations there. But when you think of “space” and the state of Colorado, it’s not the first thing that comes to mind.
However, when you dig a bit deeper, Colorado does have a footprint in space. Amazingly, it is the second-largest aerospace economy in the U.S. More than 2,000 businesses either directly or tangentially employ people, with a record-breaking $38 billion in federal aerospace funding in 2024. Key players include Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and United Launch Alliance, alongside startups like Astroscale and Lunar Outpost. The state supports NASA’s Artemis program, with companies like Lockheed Martin building the Orion spacecraft and United Launch Alliance developing the Vulcan Centaur rocket.
That wasn’t what the politicos in Colorado said in their releases.
Alabama has a similar amount of network density when it comes to the space industry. Putting Space Command there isn’t a bad idea. In addition, it is closer to places like Houston and Florida. Elon Musk’s SpaceX operation is in Austin, Texas, so that is closer as well.
Chicago has a lot of things wrong with it. One thing it has right is the network effects in trading. Two major exchanges are based there. Several clearinghouses. Several minor exchanges. Plenty of electronic trading firms. They all compete, but the employees of those firms bump into each other and create network effects. There are also savings on infrastructure costs and things like that.
Detroit has a network density with autos. NY with stock exchanges and investment banking. Silicon Valley with startups. You can point to a big city, and if you know the reason for its existence, you can find positive network effects that propel it and keep it on the map.
Instead of politics, maybe what the people in the Trump administration are doing is smart. What the politicians are actually crying about is the loss of federal money.
Colorado went from Red, to Purple, to Blue, to Crazy Blue. Sad, but not that surprising.
I wonder how much synergy from trading firms remains in Chicago. I was briefly in Chicago last week and took a ride downtown on my old Metra line. The Loop wasn’t as empty as I thought it would be, but it also was not vibrant at all. Little or no car traffic.
I walked through all 5 buildings I used to work in, 4 of them on LaSalle Street adjacent to the CBOT Building. 3 of these buildings have been given back to the lenders by the owners. It was a ghost town around the CBOT. It was really sad to see the CBOE Building dark with a posted “Vacant Building” notice on it with a City of Chicago registration number.
Lots of vacant storefronts at street level everywhere I walked, from the river down to the CBOT. Building lobbies were dead, and I don’t see how any of the remaining restaurants remain in business. Most telling to me was the number of Starbucks locations that closed. I was there at lunchtime, but I imagine the Loop has to be a rather forbidding environment at night. I do not see why anyone would want to live in the Loop in one of these proposed office buildings converted into apartments or condos, unless they’re Section 8 housing.