Then, in June, at the end of this year’s legislative session, Gov. After repeated attempts failed, the city went all in after legislators legalized video gambling in 2009, quickly becoming one of the state’s top markets. Since the early 1990s, city officials have lobbied the state for a casino, believing that would help pull Waukegan out of its financial doldrums. But as with many Rust Belt cities, manufacturing’s decades-long decline bled resources from government, hammered small businesses and eroded the population, which has fallen 2.6% since 2010, to just shy of 87,000. Good jobs and affordable housing drew immigrants.
Waukegan once teemed with people and industry.
