Leadership Quote by Richard M. Daley

Daley’s line is a master class in municipal salesmanship: say “international” enough times and the future starts to sound inevitable. The repetition isn’t clumsy; it’s strategic. He’s not arguing policy details, he’s invoking status. “International” becomes a kind of civic credential, a badge that Chicago can wear to prove it still belongs in the top tier of global cities.

The “treaty with Mexico” phrase is especially revealing. Cities don’t sign treaties in the traditional sense; nations do. Daley inflates the language to match the ambition, borrowing the gravitas of diplomacy to frame what’s likely a trade, logistics, or cooperation agreement. It’s a rhetorical land grab: if the city can talk like a state, it can justify acting like one - building big, spending big, competing big.

The subtext is competition anxiety. “We are competing internationally” is both warning and rallying cry, a nod to the late-20th/early-21st century consensus that globalization rewards places with infrastructure and punishes those without it. An “international airport for international cargo” isn’t just about planes; it’s about supply chains, jobs, and leverage in corporate site-selection battles.

Context matters: Daley’s Chicago was defined by mega-project pragmatism and a pro-business, growth-first ethos. The quote doesn’t pretend there are no costs - neighborhood disruption, environmental load, public financing fights - it just sweeps them aside with a single, insistent idea: global relevance is the price of admission, and the runway is how you buy it.