Randy Blankenhorn

CMAP meetings. The CMAP Board will meet at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, September 10, 2008. Click here for the agenda and materials. Prior to the Board meeting, the Programming Coordinating Committee will meet at 7:30 a.m. and the Planning Coordinating Committee will meet at 8:00 a.m. Click here for the Programming materials and here for the Planning materials. At 11:00 a.m. or immediately after the Board meeting, the Executive Committee will meet. All three meetings are in the CMAP offices, Suite 800 of Sears Tower, 233 S. Wacker Drive in Chicago.

County census estimates. On August 26, 2008, the U.S. Census Bureau released its 2007 county census estimates. See http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/census_8-26-08.aspx for CMAP spreadsheets with analysis of median household income, poverty rates for individuals and poverty rates for families (links open Excel files). Click here to visit the bureau's American Factfinder website. Among our findings, from 2000 to 2007, median household income decreased in five of seven counties in the region -- Cook, DuPage, Kane, McHenry and Will. For further information, please contact Jon Hallas, 312-386-8764 or jhallas@cmap.illinois.gov.

New GO TO 2040 blog entries. You can read more about the census in an entry posted today by CMAP's Erin Aleman. And our Stephen Ostrander wrote about the challenges of conservation design, which references a recent GO TO 2040 strategy paper that addresses the topic. We're always interested in feedback, so please read, comment, and encourage colleagues to do the same. 

Upcoming talks. I have quite a few talks scheduled starting this month. On September 10, 2008, I'll be a panelist (along with MarySue Barrett from the Metropolitan Planning Council and Arnold Randall from the City of Chicago) participating in a real estate summit hosted by Freeborn Peters LLP. Also next week, on September 11, CMAP is hosting -- with the National Association of Regional Councils and the U.S. Department of Transportation -- a workshop on Integrating Land Use and Transportation Planning. I'll give welcoming remarks at this event that features other CMAP speakers including Bob Dean, Sef Okoth, and Ty Warner. And the following week, on September 17, I will speak about transportation-oriented development to the Kane County Economic Development Advisory Board.

IML annual conference. Fall is surely upon us when the annual Illinois Municipal League conference is just around the corner, September 25-28, 2008, at the Hilton Chicago Hotel. The last day for on-line registration is Friday, September 12. On Friday, September 26, from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m., CMAP will host a panel on "The GO TO 2040 Campaign: metropolitan Chicago's first truly comprehensive regional plan." Panelists will include CMAP Board chairman Gerald Bennett (mayor of Palos Hills), vice chairman Rita Athas (executive director of World Business Chicago), Board member Zenovia Evans (mayor of Riverdale), and myself.

CNT turns 30. The Center for Neighborhood Technology is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary on September 17, 2008, at the Garfield Park Conservatory. On behalf of everyone at CMAP, I congratulate them on 30 years of promoting urban sustainability. Click here for event details, or contact Nicole Gotthelf (nicoleg@cnt.org).

IDOT Fall Conference. The Illinois Department of Transportation's Annual Fall Planning Conference will be held October 2-3, 2008 at the Stoney Creek Inn and Conference Center in Moline. Those encouraged to attend include the Metropolitan Planning Organizations, Transportation Planners, and consultants who are in the transportation field. Topics will include Sunset of SAFETEA-LU, Disaster Relief Management, Freight and Transit Planning Issues, and Census 2010. Keynote presentations will include the National Transportation Funding Outlook and the 2016 Chicago Olympic Bid. Click here for event details. For more, contact Betsy Tracy (217-785-2368 or Elizabeth.Tracy@illinois.gov). 

Green communities event. On Thursday, October 2, 2008, "GreenTown: The Future of Community" will be held at the Paramount Theatre in Aurora. The event is targeted to mayors and elected officials, city managers, public works directors, park district directors, planners, developers, engineers, architects, landscape architects, builders -- and many others interested in sustainable development. Following the success of last year’s inaugural conference, attendees will learn from been-there case studies and discuss actionable procedures to make communities more eco-effective. This year's key speakers include Terry Tamminen, former secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency and author of Lives Per Gallon: The True Cost of Our Oil Addiction, and Dean Kubani, manager of the City of Santa Monica's Office of Sustainability. See http://www.greentownconference.com for details.

TFIC meeting reminder. Don't forget the Transportation for Illinois Coalition's annual meeting will be held September 22, 2008, in Bolingbrook. See http://www.tficillinois.org/Calendar-Events.htm for details.

Smart growth conference. AMPO is among sponsors of the 8th Annual New Partners for Smart Growth Conference: Building Safe, Healthy and Livable Communities, which will be held January 22-24, 2009, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The three-day schedule includes a dynamic mix of plenaries, breakouts, implementation workshops, specialized trainings, peer-to-peer learning opportunities, and coordinated networking activities. It will also feature exciting tours of local projects in the Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Taos areas, and many other interesting case studies from throughout the region. Attendees will gain insights, valuable tools, and strategies for smart growth. See http://www.newpartners.org for details, including registration.