Season’s
Greetings, Media Tips Readers,
In the grand tradition of holiday correspondence, we thought we’d share our
’06 highlights – sort of like Aunt Martha’s annual letter, with a twist: these
stories don’t drone on about us, the staff of the Metropolitan Planning Council.
They feature the people whose lives we work to improve every day, through our
efforts to increase the availability of affordable homes, expand and improve
public transit, maintain our region’s economic well-being, and ensure adequate
funding for our schools. We hope you will consider covering regional trends from
their perspective.
Regular Media Tips readers know we send four tips each
month, featuring recent events, breakthroughs, and perspectives on the issues we
care about. In 2007, look for revamped Media Tips, with more stories like the
ones you’re about to read, and profiles of local experts who can help you
analyze trends when the news is breaking. Also, next time you're on deadline,
visit MPC’s new Online Newsroom, offering our latest media releases
and reports, FAQs, and an expert guide.
Thanks to all of you who have
called on MPC in the past year. We are glad to be a resource you can rely on,
and we look forward to working with you in
2007!
First-Time Homebuyer Learns There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays
Like nearly half of all
Americans, Dannetta Smith establishes personal goals at the start of each new
year. What sets Dannetta apart is that she actually accomplished her 2006 New
Year’s resolution
before
2007, when
she purchased her first home this year.
The
Park
Forest
resident’s path to homeownership was rocky. But her resolve
to provide a better life for her family, combined with an innovative homebuyer
assistance program offered by her employer, St. James Hospital and Health
Centers, helped Dannetta, 39, overcome financial and institutional obstacles
that prevent millions of Americans from ever owning their own homes. By
participating in the hospital’s employer-assisted housing (EAH) program,
Dannetta received invaluable homeownership counseling from the nonprofit
Regional Redevelopment Corp., plus $5,000 in down payment assistance from St.
James. This money leveraged an additional $8,000 in assistance from other public
and private homeownership programs. St. James’ EAH program made it possible for
Dannetta, a lifelong renter who had been on public assistance for a decade, to
buy a home five minutes from her job as a patient care coordinator at the
hospital’s
Chicago
Heights
campus.
“[Becoming a homeowner] was a
struggle, and the program was a lot of work, but I wanted to leave something for
my children,” said Smith, 39, who has two daughters, ages 21 and 15. “Now I know
I can do all things if I stay focused.”
MPC introduced EAH in our region and helps employers
design EAH programs. Learn more about EAH in Illinois, including a list of
60-plus participating employers, at the REACH Illinois Web site. Contact MPC Communications Associate
Mandy Burrell at 312-863-6018 or mburrell@metroplanning.org
to be connected with Dannetta,
and others like her who purchased homes thanks to EAH programs.
Far Too Many Spinning Their Wheels Trying to Get Around the Region
As an Army officer
in
Iraq,
Donald Cole had no choice but to rise and shine for early morning wake-up calls.
After his deployment ended in 2003, he looked forward to “sleeping in” – by a
soldier’s standards, letting the sun rise before you do.
Yet on
this chilly morning, two hours
before daylight
dawns
over Lake Michigan, Cole is awake. By 5:35 a.m., he’s out the door, waiting to catch
the #70 CTA bus. It’s the first leg of his nearly two-and-a-half-hour daily
commute from the apartment he shares with his
wife,
Anne,
in
Chicago’s
Humboldt Park neighborhood, to his
job at Federal Signal Corporation in
south suburban
University Park. Cole transfers from the bus
to a Blue Line train headed for the Loop, where he catches a Metra train
to University
Park.
It’s the end of the line for the train, but not for Cole: he hops into his car,
which he keeps parked in the lot at the station, and drives five minutes to
Federal Signal.
“There’s no other way for me to
get from the station to work,” says Cole. “No Pace busses offer service. My
company used to have a shuttle, but apparently they stopped it two years ago
because only a few people were riding it.”
Cole isn’t alone. From passing up job offers to
relocating to less desirable communities, families across the region are being
forced to make disappointing tradeoffs to avoid the expense and stress of
“extreme” commutes. Meanwhile, our transit service providers – Metra, Pace and
the Chicago Transit Authority – are faced with shrinking budgets as they
struggle to maintain and expand the rail lines and bus routes that serve our
region’s growing transportation needs. The Regional Transportation Authority and
its partners in the “Moving Beyond Congestion” campaign
(including MPC) are
calling 2007 “The Year of
Decision” for critical transit investments.
Securing funding is only half the battle: careful
planning is required to make the most of these investments. At MPC, we will be
seizing the spring legislative session as the opportunity to identify new
revenues for maintaining and expanding our public transportation network, and
improving land use planning, so that people like Donald Cole can stop spinning
their wheels. For more transportation-related tales from commuters, business
leaders and community planners, contact MPC Communications Associate Mandy
Burrell at 312-863-6018 or mburrell@metroplanning.org
.
Redevelopment Project Gives Couple the Greatest Gift of All: Self-Employment
Longtime Garfield Park resident Minnie Smith and her
husband of 50 years, Joe, have fulfilled many of their dreams: they raised
six children and ran a
BBQ
restaurant on Chicago’s South
Side, and Minnie serves as president of their block club and tends three
community gardens
in their
West Side neighborhood.
This summer, they celebrated their latest endeavor when the doors
opened
to
Garfield Park’s first and only coffee shop, Westside
Coffee Express, at Lake and Pulaski in
the
Bethel
Center.
“There used to be a restaurant on this corner, years ago, but it’s
long gone,” said Minnie. “We didn’t have any coffee places in our area, and
everybody wanted a place where we could have meetings and get a cup of coffee.
This is it.”
Owning a business in Garfield Park is a dream Minnie and
Joe say they couldn’t have accomplished without help from Bethel New Life, Inc
. Through the
development of the
Bethel
Center
– a “green-designed” building
connected to the Green Line El station at Lake and Pulaski, with businesses such
as Westside Coffee Express, a dry cleaner, daycare, Community Saving Center, and
employment center –
Bethel
is helping many Garfield Parkers find
better opportunities in their neighborhood.
Bethel Center – together with Parkside Estates, Bethel’s affordable housing
development two blocks away – connects jobs, places to shop, public transit, and
affordable homes. Representing community planning at its best, this combined
development earned Bethel New Life, Inc. MPC’s 2006 Burnham Award for Excellence in Planning.
Across Chicagoland, new economic and residential
development near transit, also known as transit-oriented development (TOD), is meeting the needs of
many markets: Local businesses get a steady source of customers. Communities
reap new tax revenues. Residents save money and time by not having to drive
everywhere. And all taxpayers are better served when we develop where expensive
infrastructure, like roads and sewers, already exist, rather than digging up
precious green space. Contact MPC Communications Associate Mandy Burrell at
312-863-6018 or mburrell@metroplanning.org
for background on transit-oriented development and to learn more about
communities you cover that are jumping on the TOD
bandwagon.
Rural, Urban, and Suburban Schools Pin Funding Hopes on New Year
Gordon Bidner, 69, a
retired businessman and rural land owner in downstate Carlock, worries about
today’s
students:
Illinois’ school funding crisis is hurting
their chances for success, he says.
Bidner
lives
in
Olympia
School District 16, geographically the largest
district
in Illinois, with some 2,100 students covering more than
375 square miles, including eight towns and touching five counties in the
sprawling farm region
near
Bloomington.
Like many other rural districts,
Olympia
has seen
its main source of revenue—local property taxes—dwindle as state legislators
attempt to help farmers by reducing farm property assessments. Bidner said his
property assessments have decreased about 30 percent since 2001. Meanwhile,
Olympia
’s share
of revenue from property taxes has dropped below the state average (54 percent,
compared with 57 percent statewide), leaving the district less able to
supplement state dollars with local ones.
Olympia
has lost its last two property
tax referenda attempts, forcing the district to cut quality programs, according
to Superintendent Don Hahn. The district has dwindled from six grade schools to
three, significantly hiked fees, laid off teachers, slashed programs, and
increased class sizes.
It’s the program cutting that
Bidner worries about. What will happen to rural students who compete for college
admissions with their urban and suburban counterparts who have greater access to
music, art or Advanced Placement classes?
“I’m afraid that children won’t
be able to attend the
University
of
Illinois
because of limited course
offerings,” he said. “If the schools financially can’t offer those courses,
that’s a problem and it needs to be addressed. I don’t think it’s right or
fair.”
Members of A+ Illinois, a statewide campaign for school funding and
property tax reform co-led by MPC and seven other organizations, agree with
Bidner – as do many legislators. During the November veto session, lawmakers
from both sides of the aisle and every region of the state joined A+ Illinois
for a news conference in Springfield
. They expressed their desire “to
put sound public policy ahead of politics” and work together to improve school
funding and quality statewide. A new legislative “Education Caucus” has pledged
to make education funding and property tax relief their top priority in the 2007
General Assembly, which convenes in January.
Stay
up-to-date on the latest news at
the
A+ Illinois Web site. Contact Clare Fauke, A+ Illinois
communications coordinator, at 312-863-6012 or cfauke@aplusillinois.org
for many more stories and background information on
school funding and property tax reform.