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| | by Anne Holub
8/3/09 This week's Flickr photo, taken by our Explore Northeastern Illinois Flickr pool, is titled "X-18" and was taken by Flickr user thomas.merton in Union, IL in McHenry County. The train was located at the very cool Illinois Railway Museum in Union, just a bit east of Marengo, IL. CMAP will be in McHenry County this week as we present a free GO TO 2040 Invent the Future workshop in Harvard, IL on Wednesday, August 5th at 7pm. Check out our workshops page for more information, and to find one near you! 
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| | by Anne Holub
6/5/09  This week, we have some exciting new ways for you to connect with GO TO 2040 and Have Your Say!
First, if you not only read blogs (like ours) but also write a blog or for other web media, be sure to check out our GO TO 2040 Online Press Kit, now available. There, you'll find many ways that you can get information about GO TO 2040 and share it online. Not only will you find links to our social networking outlets, but also to You Tube videos, web banners, and loads of information about "Invent the Future" -- our exciting new phase of the GO TO 2040 plan. You can check out the kit at http://www.goto2040.org/onlinepresskit/.  Another way you can connect with us online is by becoming our fan on Facebook. Be sure to keep an eye out there for details on all our events and activities! As always, you can check out all of our social networking outlets online.
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| | by Anne Holub
5/29/09 This morning brought the launch of the first of many GO TO 2040 Invent the Future kiosks that will be popping up around the region this summer. You can visit it and Get Involved in the future of metropolitan Chicago. The kiosk is located on the Franklin Street side of the Sears Tower (located at 233 S. Wacker Drive). You can also keep your eyes peeled for more kiosks at locations near you this summer. And, starting June 1, you can visit us here online at GO TO 2040 and use our exciting new interactive tool to create your own scenario of what you think the region should look like in the year 2040. Check out more pictures of the kiosk at our Flickr page. permalink |
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| | Get Your Hands Dirty with a Gardenby Anne Holub
3/25/09  | Tomatoes from my porch garden a
couple of years ago. |
With a series of rain showers blowing through the Chicago area this week, the ground starts to thaw and give off that muddy scent. One's mind turns to the soil, and perhaps growing a vegetable or two this year. Everybody's getting into the spirit of grow-your-own vegetable patches recently. Even the First Family broke ground on the first White House lawn vegetable patch since Eleanor Roosevelt's. First Lady Michelle Obama lead a group of school kids out to where they are starting a garden that will not only produce food for the White House's kitchens, but surplus crops will be donated to Washington, D.C.-area soup kitchens as well. The Obamas plan to grow a wide variety of vegetables and herbs, including lettuces, peas, rosemary, mint and even edible flowers like marigolds and nasturtiums. Check out the garden's layout here (PDF).  | A variety of vegetables and herbs grown
on my own porch a couple of years ago. |
If you're not quite at the Obama's level of gardening, there are many ways for first-time gardeners to get their hands dirty (so-to-speak) -- even if it's a windowsill garden. Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich wrote today about the urban gardener getting great tips from trained gardeners like Ron Wolford at the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences. Wolford also operates the University of Illinois Cook County Extension office's Master Gardener program. While the Master Gardener training is already underway for 2009, there are numerous volunteer opportunities around the area, as detailed on the Chicago Master Gardener blog which can give you some insight into the sheer number of garden plots in the area. One interesting volunteer gardening opportunity open to the public involves the certified green rooftop garden at Chicago restaurant/music venue Uncommon Ground in Rogers Park. Today, tomorrow, and continuing in April, the restaurant is offering volunteers a chance to help them prepare their garden for planting. On March 25th and 26th, help them create cold frames for seeds, and on April 17th, you can learn how to build raised beds. You can also keep up on the garden's progress on this blog. If you're a real urban dweller with zero available outdoor space, but you still want to grow what you can eat, perhaps try a windowsill garden! One option is to grow microgreens, like these, in recycled plastic takeout containers. Blogger You Grow Girl has some really neat ideas for not only growing interesting greens, but also making sure you're putting that plastic from the salad bar to good use. Here's even a CBS News story on the benefits of growing microgreens frm 2003! Maybe you're just getting started thinking about a garden, or maybe you're past growing tomatoes on your porch and you're up for more of a challenge. Even though it's still a bit chilly here in the midwest, it's just about time to start thinking seeds, and dirt, and sunshine. permalink |
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| | by Anne Holub
2/12/09  At our new CMAP web page you can follow along as our staff posts frequent updates and analysis of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan and how it might affect northeastern Illinois. Among highlights are CMAP's draft recommendation criteria for evaluating projects needing funding. You can check back to the page for frequent updates, or subscribe to a special RSS feed. 
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| | Submit Your Photos to Our Flickr Poolby Anne Holub
2/6/09 If you use Flickr to organize and share your photos of northeastern Illinois, then we'd love to see more of you! Check out our new GO TO 2040 Flickr page, and great photos in the Explore Northeastern Illinois Flickr pool. There you can check out (and submit) photos of northeastern Illinois including Chicago, Cook County, Will County, Lake County, Kendall County, DuPage County, and McHenry County. In the photo pool, we'd especially like to see pictures depicting topics such as land use, housing, environment, health & human services, transportation, and economic & community development. Plus. photos submitted to the pool might be selected for use here in the GO TO 2040 blog, and other places on the CMAP web sites. We look forward to seeing your photos of northeastern Illinois! permalink Do you Twitter? Follow Us! |
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| | by Anne Holub
2/5/09 A network of cameras in Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota and Missouri aren't interested in security, traffic, or a major event -- they're just checking out the skyline. The Midwest Hazecam project is a collaboration headed by the Midwest Regional Planning Organization, among other groups, to observe the air quality conditions in several urban and rural locations. Check out the webcams and you'll see conditions from Chicago, Cinncinnati, Milwaukee and even the Seney Wildlife Refuge in Michigan. The Midwest Hazecam project offers insights into causes of poor visibility and air pollution levels through data collected about air quality and meterological conditions. The Hazecam project also provides information on the causes of poor visibilty (whether it's a man-made cause or not). How does what we do in northeastern Illinois affect air quality in the region? CMAP's Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) for northeastern Illinois tracks the use of local, state, and federal transportation funds, and fosters a discussion about regional transportation needs. The topics of discussion include how the region's transportation plans may affect air quality in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will counties. Check out our Interactive TIP Map (beta version) for a look at projects now underway or in the planning process. permalink Do you Twitter? Follow Us! |
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| | Donate Your Christmas Tree to the FishesBy Anne Holub
1/9/09 If you've been lazy about taking that browning Christmas tree out to the curb, you can count yourself lucky, as now you have the opportunity to donate that tree to a unique ecological project. On Saturday, January 10, 2009, from 8am-noon, you can take your tree to Northern Harrier Lake in DuPage County and donate it to their "fish crib" project. Northern Harrier Lake, near Wayne, IL, used to be a quarry, and lacks natural brush and plants that fish enjoy for protective cover. Donated trees (without decorations or tinsel) will be broken up, attached to concrete buckets and added to the lake's floor, providing young fish with plenty of new homes (or "cribs"). The lake will open to the public this summer and will include fish such as smallmouth bass, perch, and walleye. Northern Harrier Lake is on Stearns Road, two miles west of Illinois Highway 59. More detailed directions can be found here. Read our recently posted report on Ecosystem Restoration to learn more about the region's biodiversity and how we can protect it! permalink |
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