With Nov. 7 just 25 days away, A+ Illinois
and its partners in the fight for adequate
school funding in
Illinois
are turning up the heat. On
Saturday, Oct.
14
, at
noon, supporters will gather in downtown
Chicago
at
Federal
Plaza
(at the corner of
Dearborn and Adams streets) to demonstrate to state leaders that our children
can’t wait any longer for education funding and quality reform. The march will
end at the
James
R.
Thompson
Center
at Randolph and Clark streets.
Sponsors include A+ Illinois, Illinois Action for Children, the Center for Tax
and Budget Accountability,
Chicago
Public Schools
, Chicago Teachers’
Union
, Citizen Action, The Golden Apple
Foundation, Illinois Education Association, Illinois PTA, NAACP, Protestants for
the Common Good, and Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.
On Monday,
Oct. 23 , at 7 p.m.,
A+ Illinois – in partnership with Latino Coalition for Prevention,
Clergy Speaks Interdenominational, Illinois State Black Chamber of Commerce,
South Suburban Action Caucus, and U.S. Rep. Danny K. Davis’ (D-Chicago)
Education Task Force – is hosting a community forum on education funding and
quality reform at Chicago Embassy Church, 5848 S. Princeton Ave. All three
gubernatorial candidates have been invited
In the past year, A+ Illinois (co-led by the Metropolitan
Planning Council and eight other groups from Voices for Illinois Children to the
Illinois Farm Bureau, and joined by tens of thousands of individuals) has become a
go-to source for reporters working on stories related to local or statewide
school funding and property tax reform. A+ Illinois can provide information
ranging from policy analyses to real stories of students, teachers and property
owners hurt
by
Illinois’ broken school funding
system.
MPC contact: MarySue Barrett, President, 312
.863.6001, msbarrett@metroplanning.org
A+ Illinois contact:
Bindu Batchu, Campaign Manager, A+ Illinois, 312.863.6014, bbatchu@aplusillinois.org
Rail~Volution Conference on Transit-Oriented Development Rolls into Town
As
the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) builds regional consensus for
increased transit funding, and Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning
positions itself to improve the connections between transportation and
development decisions, the Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) is excited to
partner with RTA as host, from
Nov. 5 to
8,
to Rail~Volution Chicago 2006, a national conference on building
communities around public transit, as well as a pedestrian and
bicycling-friendly streets.
Chicago
is
considered the “granddaddy of transit-oriented development,” the practice of
building great neighborhoods around public transit. Rail~Volution Chicago 2006
will feature 22 mobile workshops that take participants (by train, bike and
foot) to different locations in the tri-state region where transit-oriented
development is shaping communities. Learn more at
www.railvolution.com.
“Public
transit not only gets us around, but also sparks new development, homes at a
range of price points, and community interaction,” said
Peter
Skosey
MPC’s vice president of external relations.
“Rail~Volution Chicago 2006 will showcase how transit benefits everyone in the
region – not just riders of the system.”
MPC contact: Peter Skosey , Vice President of External Relations,
312.863.6004, pskosey@metroplanning.org
Ogden Avenue Redevelopment Next Step in North Lawndale’s
Revitalization
Residents, business owners, and community leaders want to transform Ogden
Avenue from a forbidding, expansive speedway to an inviting boulevard that
defines and anchors the neighborhood. Working in close partnership with Ald.
Michael Chandler (24 th Ward) and the Chicago Depts. of Transportation (CDOT)
and Planning and Development, and with the support of the Steans Family
Foundation, Harris Bank, and LISC, the Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) is
leading a process to gather community input on a new design for this long
stretch of Ogden.
North
Lawndale has a proud history, but until recently, the neighborhood had been in a
vicious cycle of disinvestment. Thanks to the sustained efforts of residents, the
future is looking brighter
in North
Lawndale.
Ogden
’s redevelopment will be critical to
North Lawndale
’s future, and will demonstrate
how “context sensitive” street design can support community
redevelopment.
At the first meeting of the Ogden Avenue Coordinating
Committee on Sept. 26 meeting, stakeholders shared their ideas with Acting CDOT
Commissioner Cheri Heramb and Ald. Chandler, a discussion that revealed the
complexity of creating a vision of Ogden Avenue as North Lawndale ’s main
street. Much of the project’s success rests on the ability to attract more
retail and residential developments to draw users to the street – from people
shopping and walking, to bicyclists, transit riders and drivers.
MPC contact:
Peter
Skosey
,
Vice President of External Relations, 312.863.6004,
pskosey@metroplanning.org
Stay Up to Date on MPC’s Work with New Online Newsroom and RSS Feed
To make it easier for you to get
the information you need when you’re working on a story, we’ve updated the
Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC ) Web site by expanding and improving our
online Newsroom, and adding an option to receive updates on our work through
RSS.
In one convenient click, the online Newsroom provides
access to MPC’s most recent media releases and reports; help determining the
right expert on our staff to help you when you’re on deadline; answers to
frequently asked questions about the Council; an articles archive; our calendar
of events; and a history of our 72-year-old organization. To check out the new
newsroom, visit our homepage, www.metroplanning.org
, and click on the Newsroom tab at
the top.
To subscribe to an RSS feed,
organized by our issues, look for the link at the bottom of each program
homepage (under the Our Work tab). Just copy the link into your feed reader, or
“aggregator,” and you’ll have access to all media news releases, Web articles,
and online resources related to your chosen subject.
These new Web features are intended to make life easier
for you. However, if digital digging isn’t you’re style, feel free to direct
inquiries to MPC Communications Associate Mandy Burrell , who handles our media
relations. She can be reached at 312.863.6018 or mburrell@metroplanning.org. Or try MPC
Communications Director Kim Bolton at 312.863.6020 or kbolton@metroplanning.org
.