MPC staff share their plans for strengthening the region, and the organization, in 2008
Though
2008 is just days old, MPC staff already has plans for how their daily work will
help improve the metropolitan region this year.
Joanna Trotter, Manager, MPC
Community Building Initiative
My New Year’s resolution is to foster greater cooperation between communities in the region.
My
hope for our region is that we begin to work across municipal boundaries for the
greater economic and social well being of the entire Chicagoland area. Toward
this end, I will help communities work together to pool resources in order to
create high-quality affordable housing in areas with good job opportunities,
such as the north and northwest satellite cities.
I also will work with communities that are jointly attracting new economic
development and investments to areas that historically have struggled to bring
in new business, industry, and quality jobs, such as those along the Calumet
River. By working together and not competing, communities will be more apt to
identify their individual strengths and unique place in our regional market and
will collectively attract resources and use them more efficiently.
Michael McLaughlin, Director of Regional Policy and
Transportation
With federal and state transportation dollars flat-lining and losing their
purchasing power, we need to find ways to stretch those dollars even further.
“Congestion pricing” is a mechanism proven worldwide to manage
demand for roads and other transportation modes. In 2008, cities such as New
York, San Francisco, Miami and Seattle likely will join the growing ranks of
metropolitan areas that will implement congestion pricing.
The
Chicago
region
should develop and coalesce around a comprehensive congestion pricing strategy
this year, so that 2009 will become the year of implementation of congestion
pricing in the region.
MPC
will explore the possibilities for congestion pricing in our region by
partnering with the Toll Highway Authority to study the effects of congestion
pricing on Chicagoland’s toll road network. MPC also will establish peer
exchanges and forums with other cities around the nation and world to highlight
best practices with regard to congestion pricing and related transit and road
improvements.
Karin Sommer , Associate
The focus for my first year at MPC will be on creating and sustaining great
places in Chicago. Three projects specifically address this goal: Placemaking; A
New North Lawndale; and our emerging transit-oriented development initiative.
The Placemaking
project will
establish a curriculum for creating and maintaining great public spaces in
Chicago
through the production of a guidebook,
trainings, and technical assistance to
Chicago
neighborhood groups.
A New North Lawndale deals with street design, using the
redevelopment of Ogden Avenue
into a
pedestrian-friendly corridor as a catalyst for change
in
Chicago’s
North Lawndale
community.
The
transit-oriented development initiative will build upon our successful
Jan.
10th
roundtable, “Within Our Reach: Your World in Half a Mile,” to encourage and implement
more development near transit
in
Chicago.
Katherine Bucar , Graphic Design Associate
I
resolve to streamline MPC’s communication to board, donors, partners, and
friends; and further develop MPC’s targeted electronic communications. In 2008,
MPC will increase the availability of our information online – and, in so doing,
reduce paper waste! Beginning later this month, we will introduce a new monthly
e-mail newsletter that consolidates two existing communiqués, and complements
our printed, tri-annual Regional Connection newsletter, as well as our quarterly
reports to the board.
Lillie Jernigan, Consultant, Employer-Assisted
Housing
In 2008, I'm excited to continue building on the momentum from the work MPC
started in 2007 under the Charter One Workforce Housing Initiative in Chicago's
northwest and northern suburbs. Partnering with 10 municipalities and
not-for-profit housing experts, the traction for this initiative is strong and
will continue to grow this year as we work with area employers to develop
public-private housing resources for area families.
Under this initiative in the northwest suburbs of Mt.
Prospect, Palatine, Arlington Heights, Rolling Meadows, and Buffalo Grove, the
partner is Housing Opportunity
Development Corporation (HODC). HODC is also the main partner in the
northern suburbs of Deerfield, Highwood, Highland Park, Lake Forest , and
Northbrook , along with the Affordable Housing Corporation of Lake County
(AHC).
In
addition to convening employers through unified outreach, several of these
communities are moving forward with their own unique contributions to the supply
of affordable workforce housing. Throughout 2008, I will be working closely with
municipal staff and our housing expert partners to take employer interest and
activity around workforce housing in these communities to the next
level.
Josh Ellis, Community Building Associate
By improving MPC’s research, analysis, and presentation capabilities, I hope
to help communities better understand and visualize the steps they can take to
make more equitable, sustainable and sensible choices about the future. Between
our publications, such as the forthcoming Housing 1-2-3 the hands-on
training workshops that go with them; and original research and analysis, my
hope is that any kind of community – from fast-growing suburbs to more
established, yet disinvested, communities – will be better equipped to tackle
any development challenge.
Kristi DeLaurentiis, Manager of Local Government and
Community
Relations
Many
municipalities have moved ahead on their plans to create livable, vibrant
communities.
Some, following
extensive planning processes, are already implementing the forward-looking
strategies that are needed to get them there. Others are learning from their
neighbors in the region or looking elsewhere across the globe, what it takes to
tackle particularly thorny challenges that impact residents and businesses.
My
New Year’s resolution is to showcase
Illinois
communities leading the way, where
planning and innovative strategies make a difference in the character of the
place
and
people’s lives; and examine
measures that can help others along the way.