One resolution MPC made early last year was to deliver, by year's end, a new Web site that better reflected the depth, diversity and dynamism of our organization.
So enjoy! Ours may not be the flashiest site on the Web, but you won't find another that better illuminates the key issues facing the Chicago region.
If you're like me, clicking around the new site may prompt some new resolutions for 2001 . . . and beyond.
A year from now, I hope we can brag about being a region that has tamed the traffic beast, protected precious natural areas and provided the resources and tools necessary to help all students achieve.
The need for a change-agent like the Metropolitan Planning Council has never been greater. Our own Regional Rental Market Analysis (see Housing home page) documented that, during the 1990s, the six county region added 500,000 residents but had a net loss of 52,000 apartments. Too much of our growing workforce lives too far from where the jobs are, and pays too much of its income toward rent. These are symptoms, of course, of more systemic regional problems—problems involving tax structures, false economies, racial bias and more.
We must do more than stabilize the metropolitan patient. We need to heal.
And yet, despite the recent strong economy, and despite the excellent work of many of our community and governmental partners, intra-regional disparities are widening. A more balanced, equitable growth pattern will not be achieved without changing certain rules of the metropolitan game. This cannot be achieved solely on a local or municipal basis. Economic development, clean air and water and quality schools are goals that transcend local boundaries. We need to craft new tools and build stronger public-private alliances that tackle problems on a regional scale.
We want our new Web site to be just such a tool and just such an alliance-builder. Please use it to stay up-to-date on MPC's projects and those of our affiliated coalitions.
Take the seemingly mundane matter of inter-modal freight expansion. Geoffrey Hewings of the Regional Economic Applications Laboratory presented findings at the Business Leaders for Transportation Freight Leadership Conference in February 2000 (see Transportation home page) that quantifies Illinois' total annual trade with Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin at a whopping $65–$80 billion. A regional, perhaps even tri-state, approach to public and private investments is crucial to capturing our share of freight's explosive growth, while keeping conflicting highway and commuter rail traffic moving. The stakes are enormous. Projections show the freight rail industry will grow from an estimated $8.7 billion in 1996 to over $25 billion by 2020.
The new year also promises unique windows of opportunity in the Illinois General Assembly. Many concerned parents are not aware that the state guarantee of a minimum school spending level (currently set at $4,425 per pupil) expires as of June 30. MPC is organizing a broad-based coalition called Network 21: Quality Schools and Stronger Communities to build consensus around new quality tools and adequate funding to produce high student achievement.
Another legislative opening is the growing interest among mayors and developers in incentives to achieve sensible growth. As a member of the Illinois Growth Task Force, we have helped shape recommendations for near-term action. We're focusing MPC's energies on modernizing the 1920s planning statute, expanding technical assistance to local government and creating more resources for Employer-Assisted Housing.
Whether the challenge is transportation gridlock, high performing schools or incentives for sensible growth, MPC will continue to support market-based, common sense solutions capable of winning broad support. It is by advancing these solutions, and meeting these challenges, that the Chicago area will ensure its place among the most prosperous and livable regions of the world.
Now that's a resolution worth keeping.