08/23/2025
What Does It Mean to Invest in Streator?
‐‐-----------
When we talk about investment, we usually think of dollar signs. A new project gets announced, a big number is attached, and suddenly the town feels richer. But true investment isn’t just about money moving around—it’s about whether that money, that effort, that risk, sticks here and grows into something lasting.
Andrew Yang, in Smart People Should Build Things, argues that societies thrive when smart, capable people take the harder path of creating businesses and institutions instead of chasing safe paychecks or waiting for outsiders to arrive with promises. The best investment, he reminds us, is not speculative—it’s generative. It’s building something close to home that strengthens the community that built you.
The Investments That Stick
Streator has examples of this all around us:
Cora’s Trailer Manufacturing. A company that designs and builds in Streator and ships across the country. Wealth is created locally and exported outward. Every trailer sold represents jobs that fund mortgages, groceries, and school sports right here.
More on Main. A building many thought unsalvageable is now a thriving café. Its owners didn’t wait for a developer to “invest”—they took the risk themselves. In doing so, they created not only a business but a gathering place that anchors downtown.
Gaetano’s Vault. A shuttered bank reborn as a speakeasy-style restaurant. That transformation wasn’t just construction—it was vision, sweat, and belief in the value of Main Street.
Weber House & Garden. What began as one man’s eccentric dream now draws visitors from across Illinois. Tour buses stop here, weddings happen here, and out-of-town dollars circulate into our local economy.
Local restaurants. From La Casa Jalisco to Chix to Dig Doug’s BBQ, families have staked their futures here. Every taco, chicken dinner, or pulled pork plate sold keeps money cycling through Streator instead of siphoning it to a distant corporate office.
These are investments measured less in millions and more in stickiness. They keep wealth here. They build resilience. They multiply themselves over time.
The Investments That Pass Through
By contrast, outside projects often look bigger on paper than they feel in practice. Take Beck’s. We’ve been told they are investing $8.5 million into Streator. That’s a big number. But how much of it will really remain here? If most of the contractors and suppliers are out-of-town, if profits are sent to corporate headquarters, then what we really get is a building, some short-term jobs, and a convenience store. That’s spending, not investing.
None of this is to say Beck’s shouldn’t exist—it’s simply to recognize the difference between dollars that pass through and dollars that take root.
The Choice Ahead
Streator’s future depends less on landing the next “big investment” and more on whether our own smart people keep building things here. That means backing the entrepreneurs willing to risk their own money and reputations. It means restoring what we already have instead of demolishing it for something disposable. It means treating local talent as the key to our future, not a footnote in someone else’s project.
Investment is not just what someone else does to us. It is what we choose to do for ourselves. And the return is measured not in press releases, but in stronger neighborhoods, healthier businesses, and children who see a reason to come back after college.
That’s the kind of investment that lasts. And yes, it’s the only investment we can count on—because nobody is coming to save our city. We must save it ourselves. We must take responsibility for building Streator up to where we want it to be. If we don’t, no one else will. If we do, then the wealth, the pride, and the future will be ours.
