Architect Daniel Burnham inspired the residents of the City of Chicago to accept his vision of a beautiful "Metropolis of the Middle West" in time to preserve some of the natural assets of the City. Today, the urgency is building for a new vision of the Chicago Metropolis in time to save a broad array of regional assets from natural areas to industrial infrastructure.

Physical Description: The key defining physical features of the Chicago Metropolitan area are Lake Michigan and its rivers, although the credit for the development of Chicago into a major metropolis at the Southern edge of Lake Michigan belongs more to the railroad network radiating from the City. The railroad lines seem to extend forever, but there are sound reasons for drawing the boundaries of the region more tightly.

Regional economists often use commute patterns to define the boundaries of a region. On this basis, the Chicago metropolitan area includes eight northeastern Illinois counties, extends north to include Kenosha County in Wisconsin (and its discount malls), and extends east around Lake Michigan to include three counties in Northwest Indiana.

Some even argue for a larger area. The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago has referred to the "Lower Lake Michigan Megalopolis," including the three counties in Northwest Indiana that border Lake Michigan, the six county Chicago metropolitan area, and seven Wisconsin Counties (including the Milwaukee Metropolitan Area).

However, the most commonly accepted definition of the region is the smaller -- and single-state -- six-county SMSA which includes Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will Counties.

Historic Development Patterns: Chicago grew up on the edge of Lake Michigan by its river harbor. Since World War II, the boundaries of the South Lake Michigan region have been moving farther and farther out from the Southern edge of Lake Michigan.

First people began to move farther away from the urban center. Then jobs followed.

In northeastern Illinois, the overall population increased only 4.1% from 1970 to 1990, but residential land consumption increased by an estimated 46%. Between 1980 and 1990, municipalities at or near the 6-county region's center lost about 800 thousand people, while outlying areas gained more than 1 million residents.

Jobs have been moving away from the central city for decades. Now jobs have begun to also abandon suburban areas close to the central city. The number of workers who commute across county lines in the 6-county Chicago metropolitan area has tripled since 1960. Northwest Indiana and Southeastern Wisconsin have had similar patterns of development.

Metropolitan Government Structures: There is a high degree of integration among firms and their suppliers in the Chicago Metropolitan region, perhaps higher than other regions. The connections, however, do not carry over to the local government units where these firms are located. For example, the six-county Chicago metropolitan area contains over 265 communities and 1,200 local taxing districts. This is the greatest number of government units of any major metropolitan area. Competition between them is the rule. Municipalities which rely heavily on property taxes to meet local service needs compete vigorously to attract commercial development. There is also very little collaboration between northeastern Illinois and northwestern Indiana, even though they share a labor market and much more.

Three agencies address regional planning issues for the six-county Chicago metropolitan area. Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission (NIPC) produces and adopts growth forecasts and studies regional planning issues for its member cities and counties. The Chicago Area Transportation Study (CATS) prepares and adopts the regional transportation plan. The Regional Transit Authority (RTA) oversees public transit planning, projects and funding.

As an outgrowth of NIPC, there are also a number of wastewater treatment collaborations and transportation corridor planning councils. There are memorandums of understanding between any number of communities in the region. A variety of associations of mayors and managers are committed to a regional agenda. The three in Cook County -- Northwest Municipal Conference, West Central Municipal Conference, and South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association -- have formed an alliance called Suburban Mayors Action Coalition. There is also DuPage Mayors and Managers Association which has researched regional issues and needs, and the Lake County Municipal League.

Economy: The Chicago regional economy has enormous diversity. Because of it, the Chicago metropolitan area economy was able to weather the industrial decline of the 1970s and 1980s, although employment expansion between 1975 and 1995 in the region was around 30.6%, below the national average of 47%. While key manufacturing sectors downsized, services stepped up, new industries emerged, and exports boomed.

Chicago's economy still depends upon manufacturing production, but it is as much a center for business services, tourism, trade, and transportation. Key industry clusters today are business & professional services, electronics & communications, financial services, health services, primary and fabricated metals, industrial machinery, industrial supplies, printing & publishing, medical products, materials supplies, tourism & entertainment, and transportation & trade services.

Transportation and distribution are particularly important, and most Americans know that Chicago O'Hare Airport is one of the busiest airports in the world. Fewer know how important freight transportation by railroad is, or that there is a threat that some of this capacity will soon be lost.

Ecology: The Illinois Natural Areas Inventory of the Illinois Department of Conservation has found more high-quality natural areas in the Chicago area than most other parts of the state of Illinois, probably the greatest surviving concentration of such lands anywhere in the corn belt. Important remaining habitat including open lake, coastal wetlands, dunes, lake plain, tributaries, prairies and savannas, sand barrens, meadows, swamps and ponds, each supporting rare and unique animals and plants.

Failure to protect flood plains from development in the region has resulted in high costs for flood damage, flood insurance, flood-prone property acquisition, flood-proofing of buildings, and construction and maintenance of flood control structures. A 1988 study revealed a $2.8 billion backlog in flood and storm water management projects in northeastern Illinois.

In part because of transportation flows, The Chicago Metropolitan Area is a severe ozone nonattainment area under the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. Even though the Lake Michigan Ozone Study has found that about half of the ozone precursors originate outside of the region, the other half originate in the region, and must be dealt with on a regional basis.

Lake Michigan has much better water quality than in the 1970's due to environmental clean up and tougher pollution standards. However, some toxins are still at hazardous levels. A Lake-wide management plan has been created by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to pull together government agencies, industry, tribes and community groups to devise environmental protection plans that go beyond regulatory fixes. A big part of the problem with toxic pollution is what is already leaching out of disposal sites, being burned in incinerators, and re-entering water systems from contaminated sediments.

Societal Change: In 1990, the City of Chicago was 38% white, down from 43 percent in 1980, and 62% minority. Suburban Cook and the collar counties are all 80% or more white, except Kane County (79%). A 1996 analysis by the Chicago Reporter found white flight has slowed to its lowest level in 40 years. Neighborhoods in Chicago are no longer turning white to black, instead becoming ethnically mixed. However, in 1990, the Chicago and Gary-Hammond areas were still two of the top three areas in the national in terms of racial segregation. Most of Chicago's African-Americans continue to live in all-black communities, many hard hit by decades of poverty. Blacks moving to white areas in the City and suburbs continue to encounter sporadic cross burnings and other hate crimes.

A 1996 study predicts that Latinos will be the City's largest population group by 2005.

Chicago's Latino population is 535,315 according to the 1990 Census, about 20% of City population and 6.3% in the suburbs. Latino population in suburban Chicago grew from 158,531 in 1980 to 291,053 in 1990. Clashes have and will erupt in the suburbs over housing.

Poverty has concentrated in the City of Chicago and, more so, within particular neighborhoods in the City, but poverty is rising in some suburbs as well. The income gap between the city and suburbs rose by 24% in the 1980s. In 1990, 21.6% of Chicagoans lived below the poverty line and 33.66 of children lived in below-poverty-line households. In the suburbs, the numbers were 4.9% and 7.3% respectively. Much of the difference can be attributed to disparities in city-suburban job growth and growing city poverty among female-headed households.

To maintain a vibrant, attractive Chicago metropolitan region, it will be necessary to address a whole range of regional issues, including job creation and competitiveness; skills and training; poverty; housing costs and match between jobs and housing; local government fiscal capacity; educational quality; infrastructure budgeting; congestion; pollution; preservation of farmland and open space; and capacity to act as a region to address regional issues. Some of the key trends that will affect the future of our region are summarized below.

Higher Growth Than in the Recent Past: Projections indicated that the next 20 years will be a period of higher growth for the Chicago area. While there was only a 4 percent increase in population from 1970 to 1990, there was another 4 percent increase just between 1990 and 1995. With substantially faster growth, it has become more important to consider what kind of future residents of the Chicago region want.

Diverging Job Prospects: Some workers are finding growing opportunities and wages in the region's economy, but it is becoming harder to find permanent, low-skill jobs. Also, between 1980 and 1986, two of every three jobs added were created in the suburbs. Inner-city residents often do not find out about these regional job opportunities and have difficulty commuting to these job sites. People seeking jobs in Chicago also face increasing wage inequality. This is mostly due to the fall in wages for low-skill workers, especially those without a college degree.

Skills and Training Gap: There is a growing skills gap in the Chicago Metropolitan area. A 1990 survey by the Illinois Manufacturers' Association found that only about half of Chicago businesses surveyed said their applicants had "average" skills. The other half rated applicants' skills as "poor." The prospects for filling the skills gap are not good. Especially hourly and other workers -- often minorities, women, and immigrants -- who need education most are least likely to receive it from their employers. The training gap may exact a price for the entire metropolitan economy as the region is reaching the limits of its supply of skilled workers, while skill requirements are rising.

Concentration of the Poor: Another trend is for poor people to be concentrated in the older areas, farther and farther away from jobs. In 1990, 22 percent of Chicago's population was below the poverty line, with other areas of the 6 county Chicago region ranging from 2.7 percent to 7 percent. Census tracts in Chicago with rates of poverty above 40 percent are increasing in number, even while there is only a small increase in the number of poor people. Poverty is also concentrating in certain inner suburbs that have a majority of people of color. According to Chicago Tribune's 1994 "Graying of Suburbia" series, many inner-ring suburbs are experiencing population loss, declining home values and tax revenues, and growing crime and poverty. There are signs that decline will continue to expand outward unless something is done.

Rising Housing Costs: The share of income going to housing has increased for both renters and owners throughout the region. According to the Metropolitan Planning Council, there are 300,000 households in the Chicago 6-county area that pay more than 30 percent of their income for housing. Metropolitan Planning Council suggests that the rise at least in part is due to inflated prices throughout the region because of the choice of may higher income households to purchase bigger, more expensive houses. A variety of local zoning requirements continue to limit the supply of moderate cost housing and drive up the cost of all housing, including prohibitions on multi-family development, density restrictions, and unpredictable development processes with long delays.

Housing/Jobs Mismatch: There is also a worsening housing/jobs mismatch. Metropolitan Planning Council research shows the mismatch between areas of high job growth and areas of low housing cost. Metropolitan Planning Council found that 56 percent of new jobs were in areas with housing costs 18% above the regional average. While the suburban Chicago average in 1986 was 3.6 lower-paying jobs for every affordable housing unit, such ratios ranged from 5.3 to 10.2 within the area including DuPage, north and northwest Cook, central Kane, and southwestern Lake counties in Illinois. Job access is also declining because suburban development has grown beyond transit's reach. Many new employment centers are not accessible without a car. Others are very long commutes from moderate- and low-income communities.

Growing Disparity in Local Government Fiscal Capacity : The capacity of many local governments to meet the needs of residents for safety, education, recreation, and other services is declining. Local revenue raising ability is particularly important in the Chicago area where local property taxes account for a larger than average share of local and state revenue. In 1987, the City of Chicago's revenue raising ability was 80 percent of the six-county average and its per capita cost to deliver area-wide average services was 11 percent above the average. So, its overall fiscal capacity was only 72 percent of the average for all local governments in the region. Lake Forest had an index of 266, while Maywood had a 53. Poverty levels are driving service needs up as they drive local revenue capacity down.

The key role of local property taxes in fiscal disparities was highlighted in a recent report commissioned by the Metropolitan Planning Council. The report suggests that fringe communities that attract new business development have a net fiscal benefit, but many communities located near these communities are facing larger fiscal costs to provide new services for an expanding population related to the business development without the added tax revenue from that development.

Schools at Risk: Illinois communities rely on local property taxes to fund schools more than other states. Variations in the tax base across communities create disparities in school quality. Some school districts are raising 15 times the property tax revenues per pupil than poorer districts. School reform in Chicago is producing some improvements in quality. Many believe that school finance reform is the next crucial step.

Rising Infrastructure Costs/Stranded Infrastructure: The Chicago Metropolitan region now needs streets, sewers, roads, etc. for a 45% larger area with about the same population as in 1970. Some worry that tax money is going into new infrastructure that has more valuable uses elsewhere, including maintaining existing infrastructure.

The 6-county Chicago region spends about $2.6 billion in public funds annually to build maintain and support its road infrastructure. Over half of the costs, $1.3 billion is for capital projects. According to the Metropolitan Planning Council, total costs exceed user-based revenues by $600 million or 25 percent. Thus, residents in older communities are subsidizing the new development. At the same time, new development leaves existing infrastructure underutilized. According to Chicago Enterprise, roughly 18 percent of Chicago's industrial land is vacant or inactive.

Higher Vehicle Miles Traveled, A Transit Crisis, and Worsening Congestion: The dispersion of people in the 6-county region between 1970 and 1990 has led to an increase in vehicle miles traveled of 49%, many times greater than the increase in new road miles. Dispersion is likely to continue as households seek less costly housing, firms seek large, campus-like environments, and communities continue to aggressively seek business development. Meanwhile, the transit system is in a financial crisis. Traditional approaches to transit cannot work given the dispersion of population and jobs.. Transit ridership declined 32% in the Chicago area between 1980 and 1993. Congestion has grown worse, a trend that is expected to continue. According to one study, the costs of congestion in Metropolitan Chicago are almost $2 billion per year.

Rising Air and Water Pollution: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency predicts that ozone and volatile organic compounds will worsen even with full state and local implementation of the Clean Air Act. The higher vehicle miles traveled in a dispersed and highly auto-dependent region will cause the VOC to be 48 percent short of compliance by 2010, offsetting the air quality gains achieved by cleaner-burning fuels. There will also be higher health costs. It is estimated that air pollution from motor vehicle sources costs the Chicago region a minimum of $123 million annually in health care costs. The health and environmental costs fall disproportionately on the very young, the very old, minorities, and (because of weather and hydrology) older, inner city communities.

Loss of Prime Farmland: Farms are giving way to towns and scattered residential development. Northeastern Illinois lost an estimated 444 square miles or nearly one-quarter of its farmland between 1979 and 1990. There were losses in Northwest Indiana too. The Lake County Soil and Water Conservation district estimates that about 2000 acres of agricultural land are being lost annually in Lake County, Indiana.

Loss of Biodiversity and Open space: Industrial pollution has taken a major toll on the remaining natural habitats in the region. However, habitat fragmentation and other physical changes have surpassed conventional pollution as threats to ecosystems.

The continuing loss of shoreline, inland, and tributary habitats to development is a threat to Lake Michigan and its species. Many of the habitats in the Chicago metropolitan area depend upon each other. To survive and adapt, natural areas in the Chicago metropolitan region need to be expanded and connected in a way that allows them to be fully functional. The desire to preserve the region's vast biodiversity requires a regional approach..

Class, Race and Distribution Issues: The trends described above portent increasing inequality in jobs, housing, and quality of life for minorities and low income households. The Chicago metropolitan region is at a crossroads.

Challenges and Opportunities: The Chicago metropolitan region has many attractive features, including a beautiful lakefront, a prime location, and a strong economy. It also faces serious economic and social changes. Computer maps produced by Myron Orfield starkly illustrate the growing disparities in tax base, crime rate, education, income and employment among communities in the region.

Reports of the Federal Reserve Bank and Great Lakes Commission confirm the detrimental environmental consequences of sprawl, including increased water and air pollution, higher transportation and residential energy use, increasing encroachment on agricultural lands and natural areas, and burdensome physical infrastructure requirements. They have agreed that these trends portend a more difficult, if not unsustainable, future for the region.

Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission and Metropolitan Planning Council studies agree, pointing out that, without strong leadership to advocate regional approaches for addressing economic growth, we can expect not only the environmental impacts described by the Federal Reserve, but also increased bifurcation of the region into favored and unfavored locations for development, increase social costs as some areas benefit and others do not, and a less competitive business environment due to increasing traffic congestion and tax burdens.

Goals and Strategies: There are a variety of strategies being tried to address these issues and challenges in the Chicago metropolitan region. Those receiving the most attention are initiatives to reduce dependence on local property taxes, use the flexibility in the Federal Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 to incorporate land use, energy, environmental, and socioeconomic goals into transportation plans, promote open housing in the region, improve educational opportunity, preserve open space, and capture the benefits of location efficiency. All of these initiatives are uniting residents from across the region to cooperate to achieve common goals, but the numbers are still small. All of these initiatives face major barriers which it is hoped a Metropolitan Initiative -- a partnership between metropolitan regions and the federal government -- can begin to address. These initiatives also can learn from each other, a side benefit of a Metropolitan Initiative.

The Metropolitan Initiative offers the possibility that the federal government could become a partner in regional prosperity. To thrive, the Chicago region needs federal policies that are consistent across programs rather than at cross purposes, encourage city and suburb to work together rather than compete for dollars, and provide a flexible and predictable regulatory environment for business, even if it requires high performance.

The Federal Role: The federal government can become a source of encouragement for flexibility and innovation in metropolitan cooperation. When the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development surveyed civic leaders in the Chicago metropolitan region about their views of what the federal government could do better, Chicago leaders said:

• Information and Planning: Encourage regional planning and problem solving through the use of planning mandates and other regional formulas, while providing the technical assistance. needed to effectively execute goals. Encourage additional neighborhood-based planning and community participation, providing the technical assistance. and training needed to execute.

• Funding: Increase the usage of formula funding that is under regional control, allowing communities to better plan for the use and control of its own resources, as well as those federally provided resources. Continue support for locally-led programs like CDBG, HOME, ISTEA, Youthbuild, Empowerment Zones, Brownfields, and community policing. Create flexible financing programs that leverage private investment funds, rather than discourage investment all together.

• Regulation and Standards: Allow for more flexibility.

The following paragraphs highlight activities already underway in the region and suggest ways federal agencies can assist regional collaboration in the Chicago Metropolitan Region.

Regional Planning/Transportation Planning: This is a crucial time for planning in the Chicago Metropolitan Area. There is the 2020 transportation plan. There is also planning for a third airport and new toll roads.

The planning process run by CATS in preparing the 2020 plan may not have captured the full possibilities in ISTEA, but there is a broadening commitment to the principles of ISTEA, especially using federal funding to enable local strategies within broad federal standards. The Chicagoland Transportation and Air Quality Commission, convened by the Center for Neighborhood Technology has created the Citizen Transportation Plan for Northeastern Illinois which lays out a policy and planning framework for transportation decisions for the next 25 years. Many in the region are interested in seeing these kinds of ideas captured in the region's transportation plan and strengthened in the reauthorization of ISTEA.

Northern Illinois Planning Commission members will soon vote to adopt development projections for the Chicago metropolitan region. Picking the infill and redevelopment scenario, which assumes strong farmland protection policies, increased development near transit stops, and brownfield redevelopment incentives, could set the stage for beginning to moderate sprawl in the region. Many of the policy changes required to achieve this more balanced development pattern could be accomplished at the state level, but the federal government could help, for example, by encouraging more cooperative activities or funding experiments with pricing auto use closer to full costs.

Major toll road expansions are under consideration with the potential to exacerbate many of the negative trends described above. Environmental Law and Policy Center of the Midwest, Business and Professional People for the Public Interest, the Center for Neighborhood Technology, the American Lung Association, the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation, and the Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club have a campaign to stop toll road expansion and educate the public about threats imposed by toll road expansions as well as the larger issues of urban disinvestment and suburban sprawl.

A great deal of energy has gone into planning for a third airport in Chicago. What there has not been is a process in place to reach a regional consensus about whether a new airport is needed and, if so, where it should be. Because of the FAAës role in providing airport planning dollars, it could be helpful if the federal government along with dollars required a process to reach consensus on forecasts of need, appropriate sites, alternatives and ways to preserve options.

More and more, leaders in the Chicago metropolitan region are seeing the need to take a comprehensive look at all of these transportation decisions and their implications for the region's economy, opportunity, and quality of life. For example, Chicago attorney, Elmer Johnson, is leading The Commercial Club of Chicago in a project called Preparing Metropolitan Chicago for the 21st Century. The Metropolitan Alliance of Congregations is bringing citizen input to the region's 25-year transportation plan process. The Metropolitan Planning Council is convening developers and planners to build support for regional transit and affordable housing, pricing auto use closer to its full costs and strengthening transportation and land use planning connections. It is also creating a coalition of business interests to help shape debate about transportation needs and strategies.

Other regional and sub-regional actors in transportation and regional planning include The Bi-State Chicago-Gary Airport Authority, Suburban Mayors Action Coalition, The Regional Action Plan 2000+ out of Governors State University, the Chicago Assembly, the Regional Partnership, Northwest 2001, Chicago Report which is covering race relations and regionalism in Chicago,

For these efforts to bear fruit, there must be strong implementation of ISTEA and continuing support for its principles. Federal and state agencies need to actively advocate for sustainable development. Federal support could also provide incentives for regional efforts to coalesce around a common regional vision and experiment with actions which move us towards this vision. One new experiment is being conducted by the Center for Neighborhood Technology which is negotiating with Fanne Mae over terms under which it will support an experimental underwriting of location efficient mortgages in Chicago. There have been letters of interest in participating from Harris, Northern Trust, First Chicago, Bank of America, and Midtown Bank.

Education and work force development investments: There is growing concern about educational quality in the Chicago metropolitan area. There are a number of initiatives working for quality reforms, additional school funding, and property tax reform. For example, the Metropolitan Planning Council is staffing Reform 1997, which includes Voices for Illinois Children, Chicago United, the Chicago Urban League, the Chicago Development Council, Northwest 20001, and the South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association, among others. The Civic Committee of the Commercial has a similar platform. The Federal government could provide technical assistance for regional reform efforts and target funding to willing participants.

Adult education is also garnering more attention. The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago just released a report, guided by 150 economists and related experts, which says more education and training for low income workers and the unemployed are crucial to the region's economic future. Welfare reform makes training and job placement an even more urgent issue, as pointed out by groups such as Work, Welfare, and Families which is trying to build a regional agenda. Organizations such as Council for Adult and Experiential Learning which works with businesses throughout the region and Chicago Jobs Council have an important federal and state training policy agenda. The Commercial Club's Metropolitan Chicago for the 21st Century Project is also focusing on job training strategies. Advancing the Federal government's efforts to coordinate and streamline all of its many programs for funding training should help. The region might also benefit from information about effective approaches elsewhere.

Community and Economic Development: Regional marketing is not as strong in Chicago as in many other metropolitan regions. Recently, the City of Chicago and the State began working together with private entities to promote tourism and conventions in Chicago. However, for broader regional marketing/business attraction, the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs (DCCA) now comes closest to carrying out this function for the Chicago area

With federal information and technical support, the region might create a single organization with a high level of business participation to market the region and complement local development efforts. Existing capacity can provide the base for such an activity. For example, the Commercial Club of Chicago has a new regional initiative and the Northwest Indiana Forum is working together with local businesses to improve the business climate and attract new business and jobs to Northwest Indiana.

The federal government is already an active partner in many local development efforts, but could do more to connect and broaden its initiatives:

Empowerment Zones: More than 100 neighborhood organizations were involved in the Chicago Empowerment Zone application, including the West Side, South Side and Pilsen-Little Village. Some feel that Empower Zones need to be shaped within the context of regional labor markets and with strong local input into implementation.

Brownfields: The Chicago Interdepartmental Brownfields Workgroup is facilitating redevelopment of Chicago brownfields sites with the help of a $50 million loan from HUD. The Northwest Indiana Brownfield Redevelopment Project: (NWIBRP) is trying to bring good-paying jobs to Hammond, Gary and East Chicago while cleaning up the environment by solving the brownfield problem. NWIBRP is considered a national model because it represents community groups, labor, residents, environmental organizations, business people, and local and state public officials. The West Central Municipal Conference (WCMC) also received a U.S. EPA grant to develop a pilot redevelopment program in Cook County. Federal brownfields redevelopment tax credits would help, as would leveling the playing field between tax benefits for new building and improvements of existing buildings.

Emissions Trading: Under the U.S. EPA's emission trading system, the City of Chicago established a bank of donated credits to dole out to companies considering locating in Chicago. The hope is that 300 credits donated by 3M will lure small firms to Chicago which might have trouble meeting the area's Clean Air Act requirements.

Pollution Prevention and Environmental preservation: The Chicago region has an especially rich array of efforts to preserve environmental quality and open space. Many of these efforts are already partnerships with the federal government. Targeted incentives and support from the federal government could help these projects achieve their goals and enable more such projects to emerge.

Pollution Prevention: The Great Printers Project includes environmentalists, government leaders and printing industry representatives in a cooperative program to prevent pollution and reward firms who do with positive publicity and more customers. Illinois' team is led by Illinois EPA, RR Donnelley & Sons Printing, the Printing Industry of Illinois/Indiana and the Center for Neighborhood Technology. Clean Sites, Inc. is bringing together oil companies to voluntarily improve environmental management and holding a basin-wide dialog on pollution prevention in the primary metals industries.

Natural Areas and Open Space: The Chicago Rivers Demonstration Project: includes Friends of the Chicago River working in collaboration with the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Forest Service to conduct a major assessment of natural resources along the river corridor, document public perception of the usage and health of the river, and put resources into specific restoration projects located in communities where there is enthusiasm and leadership. The projects involve all levels of government and citizen groups working together.

Chicago Wilderness is a consortium of organizations formed to achieve broad based understanding of the global significance of the Chicago region's biodiversity and support for its long-term protection, restoration, and stewardship. The Council is a unique collaboration of more than 35 organizations including the Chicago Park District, the Chicago Department of Environment, the metropolitan county forest preserves, state and federal agencies, conservation groups, arboretums, aquarium, botanical gardens, zoos, biologically-oriented museums, and other land owners.

The Northeastern Illinois Regional Greenways Plan is a project of the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission, Openlands Project, Forest Preserve Districts of Cook, Will, DuPage County, Kane County, Lake and McHenry counties, as well as many other local and state organizations. It has produced a vision for an interconnected region-wide network of linear open spaces to provide benefits to rural, urban, and suburban parts of the region. The Illinois & Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor extends over 78 miles, and it is hoped will one day stretch from Chicago's Navy Pier to LaSalle/Peru, Illinois. The Corridor is the result of cooperation among companies, local governments throughout the Chicago metropolitan area, and many private citizens who volunteer as caretakers of the Canal.

Housing and Access to Jobs: There is broad agreement that providing affordable housing close to jobs is crucial to the future of the Chicago metropolitan region. Some have proposed that the principles of regional initiative with federal funding and broad standards which are in ISTEA be extended to cover federal housing policy as well.

There are a variety of initiatives in the Chicago area working to promote affordable housing and reduce discrimination. NIPC has called for efforts to increase affordable housing in job-rich parts of the region. The Metropolitan Planning Council has promoted HUD public housing reform, focusing on deconcentrating isolated, high density pockets of poverty with the creation of mixed-income communities. The Commercial Club's Metropolitan Chicago for the 21st Century project is exploring ways to reduce the economic and social costs of segregation.

The Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities continues its effective efforts to place low-income Chicago public housing residents in suburban settings, resulting in families with higher employment rates and children with better performance in school. Open housing is one of the interests of the Regional Action Project 2000+ initiative in the South Suburbs of the region. The Chicago Affordable Housing and Jobs Campaign, headed by the Chicago Rehab Network, has organized 250 community groups citywide to push for better affordable housing opportunities from the City. The City responded with a $200 million, five year commitment to 18,000 new units of affordable housing.

At the same time, there are a growing number of effective experiments at transporting workers to jobs. For example, Suburban Job-Link in Chicago is collaborating with the City of Chicago Mayor's Office of Employment and Training, the Pace Suburban Bus Company, churches, community organizations, and social service groups to combine carpooling with community organizing and job placement to help residents of urban communities find work in the suburbs. Another example is the Shuttle Bug Reverse Commute Project, a public-private partnership between the Transportation management Association of Lake-Cook, the Villages of Northbrook and Deerfield and their respective Chambers of Commerce, and 14 businesses with over 11,000 employees.

The opportunity exists to pursue a more sustainable future for the Chicago metropolitan region. It is possible to have growth with less sprawl in the region bordering the southern edge of Lake Michigan. Regional action now could help the region meet rules limiting ozone emissions. It could increase the efficiency with which the region incurs infrastructure costs and uses land and materials. And it could improve economic opportunity for the entire region, but especially its less advantaged residents.

The challenge is finding a way to work together. Even though the future of the Chicago region will be shared by all of the people who live and work here, there is very little push for collective action to address these threats. The region is so big. Local government is so fragmented. The tax structure encourages so much competition. Some suburbs are encouraging development with tax incentives, while others are regulating growth.

The challenge is to come together around a common agenda for a sustainable future of the region. By providing financial incentives, ideas and data, and flexibility to experiment, the Metropolitan Initiative can provide an opportunity to enhance the likelihood of success.