On March 1, 2013, Governor Quinn issued an executive order to create a steering committee for the Millennium Reserve open space project that supports re-investment in ecology, economy, and community in the Calumet region of metropolitan Chicago.  Part of the America's Great Outdoors federal initiative, it will create and enhance urban parks and green spaces, as well as renew and... Read More

CMAP’s latest cluster drill-down report shows how, even in an era of increasing globalization, manufacturing continues to play a central role in metropolitan Chicago’s economy. While manufacturing employment did contract by a third during the past decade due to offshoring and automation, productivity continues to increase -- between 2001 and 2011, the region’s productivity per... Read More

CMAP has released Metropolitan Chicago’s Manufacturing Cluster:  A Drill-Down Report on Innovation, Workforce, and Infrastructure , the second report in its cluster series. The report, which focuses on the region’s manufacturing cluster , was shared at an event with stakeholders from throughout the region at Harper College on February 26.  A panel of experts discussed how the... Read More

Since the housing crisis began, many for-sale single-family homes (SFHs) in the region have become rental units or are now vacant.  This has diverse implications for how the region’s communities recover from the housing crisis and manage a housing stock that has traditionally been owner-occupied.  Recent data from the American Community Survey (ACS), which provides a rolling... Read More

Since the passage of GO TO 2040, CMAP has advocated that the State of Illinois and regional stakeholders should implement performance-based funding to prioritize transportation projects -- a transparent process that relies on data-driven metrics and the professional judgment of transportation stakeholders, often including input by the general public. This Policy Update summarizes the... Read More