The Idea Zone is your portal to a wealth of materials being generated by the GO TO 2040 team. Metropolitan Chicago is hard at work envisioning its future, and this is where you can participate in that dialogue. You can comment on Strategy Papers and read Regional Snapshot reports on topics that will be key to the GO TO 2040 plan, which will be published in 2010. (Click here for a PDF of our planning timeline.) With our partners, we're holding "Community Conversations," small meetings in communities across the seven counties that make up metropolitan Chicago. Click here to request a meeting in your community, where residents like you can express your preferences for preserving and enhancing our region's high quality of life.
For the GO TO 2040 plan to be implemented and succeed in shaping growth, residents and their leaders across the seven-county region need to make their views known NOW. So read on in the Idea Zone and elsehwere in our website. Your opinions matter, and we want to hear from you throughout this campaign for a brighter tomorrow.
CMAP Board approves GO TO 2040 Regional Vision
On June 11, 2008, the CMAP Board voted unanimously to approve the GO TO 2040 Regional Vision (opens 3.2MB PDF). The GO TO 2040 planning process began in September 2007 with development of the Regional Vision for 2040. The vision was drafted by CMAP and its stakeholders and then revised based on extensive public input via committees and surveys. Click here to read more about that process and the resulting Regional Vision.
CMAP and its partners are now in an intensive research phase to develop a set of indicators for predicting and measuring economic, environmental, social, and cultural variables that affect quality of life. The public can provide input during July and August 2008 in a series of Indicators Workshops. The indicators will be used to gauge the effects of strategies that are being considered to implement the Regional Vision. Click here to read more about the GO TO 2040 planning process (opens 147KB PDF).
Latest snapshot report covers "infill"
CMAP is developing a series of Regional Snapshot reports to summarize important issues that will be part of the GO TO 2040 comprehensive plan. The latest snapshot report attempts to identify potential infill opportunities across the region. Redeveloping infill sites can offer substantial benefits. It can revitalize stressed communities, increase tax revenues, provide opportunities to create affordable housing, preserve natural resources in undeveloped areas, and effectively use existing infrastructure and services. Click the image at right to download the Regional Snapshot on Infill (1.4 MB PDF).
Get interactive at the GO TO 2040 blog
Read and comment on entries in the blog section, which is being updated several times per week with postings by the GO TO 2040 staff. Bloggers so far include Shana Alford, Lindsay Banks, Randy Blankenhorn, Gordon Smith, Stephen Ostrander, Ingrid Ruttendjie, and Diana Torres. Topics include Earth Hour 2008, the recent event in which Chicagoans participated in shutting off lights across the city to demonstrate the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. You can also learn about the GO TO 2040 "Bold Ideas" contest held at Whitney Young High School, where young people showed their creativity in expressing their hopes and concerns for the future. At the GO TO 2040 blog, you can be part of the dialogue about how metropolitan Chicago should look by the year 2040 and beyond.
Let your voice be heard! Take the GO TO 2040 survey
Imagine that the year is 2040. How do you get to work? How is the education system different? Where do you shop? Is there more open space or less? Where do you go for health care? How have we addressed problems like poverty, climate change, and increasing energy costs?
Tell us how YOU want the region to look in 2040. Take 10 minutes to complete the GO TO 2040 survey and help shape the region's plan for the next 30 years and beyond.
Imagine that by 2040 we have a transportation system second to none. Imagine that we have a healthy natural environment. Safe communities. Abundant jobs. What do you imagine when you go to 2040?
GO TO 2040 Strategy Papers
We're taking your comments on issues that shape quality of life for residents of metropolitan Chicago. The GO TO 2040 team has posted the first few in our series of strategy papers. Ever wake up one morning to find your neighbor's house had been razed? Read about the teardown phenomenon in Teardowns: Definitions, Effects and Strategies. And if you think bicycling is just for kids or fitness fanatics, read Bicycling: Strategies for Transportation, Recreation, and Place-Making. Newer reports include: Inclusionary Zoning, Urban Design, and Brownfields.
We want your feedback, so the on-line papers are interactive to allow any registered user to comment. Click here for a list of topics and for more information about the GO TO 2040 strategy papers. These reports will help define the regional plan's approach to dozens of important issues that shape our lives each day.
GO TO 2040 Community Conversations
In conjunction with the CMAP Citizens' Advisory Committee (CAC) and a number of partner organizations, GO TO 2040 is holding "Community Conversations," small meetings in communities across the seven counties that make up metropolitan Chicago. At these gatherings, we will ask residents like you about your preferences for preserving and enhancing our region's high quality of life. We need to learn what you love about your community, and which aspects you would like to see change in the future. The GO TO 2040 regional plan will be built on a common vision of how residents want northeastern Illinois to look for themselves, their children, and their grandchildren. Please note that space is limited and, in some cases, these events are targeted to the needs of a particular group (e.g., the disabled). Additional Community Conversations will be scheduled in the future. Please contact info@cmap.illinois.gov for more information.
We want to know the things you value about your community and the region. What would you like to see preserved for the future? What would you like to see change? GO TO 2040 is collecting residents' stories, which are an important way to personalize the issues that matter to us all.
Send us your "Imagine That" story
We want to know the things you value about your community and the region. What would you like to see preserved for the future? What would you like to see change? GO TO 2040 is collecting residents' stories, which are an important way to personalize the issues that matter to us all. Click here to read others' stories and submit your own.