Text Box: Chaddick Update      April 10, 2008

Text Box: 243 S. Wabash Ave, Suite 9000 Chicago, IL 60604 312.362.5731 http://www.depaul.edu/~chaddick      

Text Box: Upcoming Events · Thurs., April 17 Chaddick Young Professionals outing: Chicago Loop Alliance; 5:45 p.m. · Tues., April 22 Municipal Design Review Network event: Arlington Heights; 9 a.m.—11:45 a.m.; Walking tour to follow · Sat., April 26 Transit Rider’s Alliance  meeting. Speaker: Steven Schlickman, executive director, RTA. 10 am at Chaddick · Wed., May 7 Technical Workshop, “Rising Sales Taxes and Local Economic Development: New Challenges Facing Municipal Governments in Metropolitan Chicago” 9:15 a.m.—noon · Wed., May 21, “Transportation Funding in Illinois”, breakfast seminar at American Public Work Association, Schaumburg.  Call for details. · Thurs., May 22 Final Presentations for Leading Community Change Program; West Garfield Park; Call for details · Sat., May 24 Chaddick Young Professionals outing: Joliet Jackhammers game; Call for more info! · Wed., June 11 Chaddick Year-end Reception;  5:45 p.m.        

Text Box: It’s Saturday, but School is in Session! “By the end of the program, high schoolers never look at their neighborhood in quite the same way again,” notes Chaddick Institute program manager Joe Kearney. Kearney is referring to the institute’s Leading Community Change program, which allows high school students to experience the excitement of high-quality urban planning on Saturdays and school holidays.  Thirty students are participating in this year’s program in the West Garfield Park neighborhood on the city’s West Side. This program, offered jointly with Bethel New Life and the Chicago Public Schools’ service learning department, consists of six full-day sessions, with  extensive technical instruction by DePaul graduate students, field visits throughout Chicago, and hands-on projects. “We’ve logged several hundred volunteer hours since launching the program last year,” reports Kearney, who has found that “the payoffs have been appreciable for this year’s youngsters.“ For a podcast of Kearney’s recent Tuesdays at APA session highlighting the program, go to:  www.planning.org/podcasts/tuesdays.htm      

Text Box: The Return of the Intercity Bus  Study attracts National Attention  A comeback is underway in intercity bus travel on a scale not seen in more than 40 years, a new Chaddick Institute study shows.  The number of scheduled runs has jumped about 13 percent nationally since early 2006. New companies that shun traditional stations by operating from curbside locations are winning the loyalties of riders who would never have considered taking the bus a decade ago. These carriers offer ultra-low promotional fares and generally issue tickets only via the Internet.   “The industry’s recovery here in the Midwest has been extraordinary,” says Lauren Fischer, a co-author of the new study. The study received coverage on Nightly Business Report, and NPR’s All Things Considered program as well as in the major newspapers, including the Chicago Sun Times,  Boston Globe, and St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  Professor Joe Schwieterman and Fischer, Sara Smith, and Christine Towles, who are graduate students in the School of Public Service, co-authored the study.  The Return of the Intercity Bus can be downloaded free of charge from our web site.  

Text Box: Did You Know? + Since autumn, sixty municipalities and organizations have sent representatives to our workshops. Our most recent Technical Workshops featured strategies for managing stormwater, tackling brownfield sites and streamlining “development approval” techniques. +  Staffers Elizabeth Wilp, Susan Aaron, and Lauren Fischer are supporting the upcoming 2009 Burnham Centennial celebrations.  Wilp is working closely with Chicago Metropolis 2020, which is providing executive leadership on the project   + DePaul’s School of Public Service (formerly the Public Services Graduate Program) celebrated its new status as a school in February with a gala event keynoted by Sen. Richard Durbin.  Our Institute was honored to support the event. + The Chaddick Young Professionals visited both  Camiros, Ltd., and the CHA Management and Analysis Department in recent weeks. +More than a dozen graduate students are well on their way to completing the requirements necessary to become a Chaddick Scholar.  +Visit our website to watch the eight-minute video about the Chaddick Institute!          

Text Box: Upcoming Design Review Forum  in Arlington Heights! As interest in the beautification of streetscapes grows, village staff and appointees to design-review committees can benefit from sharing perspective with peers in neighboring locales. On Tuesday April 22, the Municipal Design Review Network, hosted by Chaddick, will provide such a forum, meeting in Arlington Heights to explore the importance of suburban “place making.”  The event includes a brief walking tour of the village’s revitalized downtown district.  This special gathering, which starts at 9 a.m., is free of charge with advance registration through Chaddick.  Please email jkearne2@depaul.edu for details.     Effects of Demographic C hange in   unicipal Planning and    Development” Dealing with the Effects of Demographhange in Municipal Planning and Development”  

Text Box: Above: Travelers cluster around MegaBus double-deckers at Chicago Union Station. A new institute study shows that intercity bus travel is making a strong comeback.

Text Box: Above: School of Public Service graduate student Sara Smith (left) helps Leading Community Change participants with a presentation on campus in February.

Text Box: Rebuilding Dreams after Katrina: One Step at a Time It’s back to New Orleans!  A team from the Chaddick Institute and School of Public Service heads south this month to provide  more technical assistance to a neighborhood that was struggling even before Hurricane Katrina devastated its housing stock.  The team is working to support the “Rebuild Center”, a community center opened last summer by St. Joseph Church, and to move ahead with a newly adopted Strategic Plan “We’re enormously proud of the Rebuild Center, which provides many of the services we identified as being critical back in late 2005,” reports Professor Gloria Simo, who heads the DePaul effort.  The Center serves about 200 residents each day by providing lunches, showers, laundry, and other basic services. It is also used to screen potential buyers for the new homes being built by the neighborhood organization. Simo’s newly assembled team consists of sixteen current SPS students, ten who will take courses for academic credit, and six who are either working on “capstone projects” or  volunteering their time and talents to rebuilding this section of New Orleans.

Text Box: Photo credit: Jeremy Bircher

Text Box: Special Event Exploring Municipal Strategies in the Wake of Recent Sales Tax Increases        

Text Box: Join us Wednesday, May 7th from 9:15 a.m.—noon for a special workshop to discuss the impacts of the recent county sales-tax increases on local economic development. Gerald Roper, CEO of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and Greg Hinz of Crain’s Chicago Business will anchor our panel. The $45 registration fee includes a continental breakfast (three registrations for $115); More information available on the Chaddick Website. RSVP to Joe Kearney at jkearne2@depaul.edu

Text Box: Arlington Heights’ award winning downtown district includes the popular Arlington Theater.  On April 22, our Municipal Design Review Network event will feature an optional walking tour of the area.

Text Box: Above left: Sr. Vera Butler attends to one of several homes refurbished by New Orleans’ Tulane-Canal Neighborhood Development Corporation. Above right: A home damaged by five feet of flood waters awaits repairs.