CMAP funding reminder.  We continue to work with legislators, the Governor's office, and others in Springfield to reinstate the Comprehensive Regional Planning Fund (CRPF).  Please take a moment, if you haven't yet, to make your feelings known to the Governor, IDOT, and leaders of the General Assembly. To make that easier for you, we've posted a "call to action" fact sheet, sample letter, and list of contacts.  My email next week will recap the scheduled Springfield visit on Wednesday, May 6, by members of the CMAP Board.

Stimulus guide.  CMAP recently developed a quick guide for local governments to determine eligibility for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) projects.  The guide provides information on jurisdictions that will receive direct formula allocations, to date.  The spreadsheet also provides information on which agency should be contacted (state, federal, or county) if a direct allocation was not received or if the program is a competitive grant.  Please note that this document does not include transportation funds or an exhaustive list of all ARRA projects.  It includes only those that CMAP has been tracking in recent months.

Bold Ideas contests. We'll kick off a series of GO TO 2040 Bold Ideas contests next week with events at Bloom Trails High School on Thursday, May 7, and both Waukegan High School and Highland Park High School on Friday, May 8. Information on these events and all of the participating schools in the Bold Ideas program can be found at the GO TO 2040 Bold Ideas page.

FLIP story.  The Sun-Times News Group wrote about our Future Leaders in Planning concluding event last week.  As I was pleased to announce that night, we'll conduct the program again in the 2009-10 school year.  Please refer high school students to our application materials.

Big Shoulders photos.  Click here for images from last week's mapping event held by the Big Shoulders Fund and the Burnham Centennial (with an assist from CMAP's David Clark).  If you use Flickr, consider adding appropriate photos to our Explore Northeastern Illinois Flickr group.

HUD remarks.  In recent testimony to a House Appropriations subcommittee, U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan cited CMAP's GO TO 2040 process as a model of comprehensive regional planning.  Read about it on this HUD web page, not quite halfway down, and just before a nice mention of the Center for Neighborhood Technology.

Blog entries.  Our GO TO 2040 blog has the second installment of Stephen Ostrander's series about our scenario-based community design work with the Village of Streamwood.  And Shana Alford writes about news from the National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife regarding economic impacts of fishing and hunting.

MacArthur awards.  Speaking of CNT, I'd like to congratulate them and the Chicago Community Loan Fund on being honored this week with the MacArthur Foundation's Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. 

Chicago Clean Cities Coalition.  The ARRA allocated $300 million in stimulus funding to the Clean Cities program, which promotes the use and manufacture of energy-efficient transportation vehicles and alternative fuels. The Chicago Area Clean Cities Coalition is currently seeking partners to strengthen a regional application. Full details are available on our Regional Response to the ARRA page.

RTA Report Card.  The RTA invites public comment on its first-time Performance Measures "2007 Report Card" that was produced with input from the CTA, Metra, and Pace. The Report aggregates data from each transit agency to assess how they are collectively meeting their missions and thus the region's transit needs.  Comments can be e-mailed to reportcard@rtachicago.org before the Report Card will be discussed at the May 21 RTA board meeting.

CN reports.  As required by the federal Surface Transportation Board, Canadian National railway has begun filing monthly operational reports and quarterly environmental reports for the Elgin, Joliet, and Eastern railway that it acquired earlier this year.  See http://www.stbfinancedocket35087.com.