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Freight Hub of the United States: Sustaining Metropolitan Chicago’s Role in the 21st Century
October 15, 2013 @ 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm CDT
Free
GCI Real Time Chicago Lecture Series
“Freight Hub of the United States: Sustaining Metropolitan Chicago’s Role in the 21st Century”
Randy Blankenhorn
Executive Director
Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP)
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Great Cities Institute
412 South Peoria Street
Suite 400, 4th Floor
Chicago, IL 60607
Over a quarter of all freight in the U.S. moves through the Chicago region, making it the nation’s main freight hub. Freight is a cornerstone of the regional economy, and over 25 percent of all the region’s jobs are in industries directly tied to this sector. Moreover, demand for freight is expected to double in the next 20 years.
In last fall’s Real Time Chicago lecture series, Randy Blankenhorn spoke of the importance of creating a more efficient freight network in the Chicago region to maintain this competitive advantage, as recommended by the GO TO 2040 comprehensive regional plan. This talk will focus on progress that has been made over the past year to support freight, including analysis of the freight cluster’s central importance to local manufacturing, as well as the creation of a new Regional Freight Leadership Task Force.
Randy Blankenhorn is executive director of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP). Under his leadership, CMAP developed and is now guiding the implementation of GO TO 2040, metropolitan Chicago’s first comprehensive regional plan in more than 100 years. The plan’s four themes — Livable Communities, Human Capital, Efficient Governance, and Regional Mobility — address the fundamental challenges that shape residents’ daily lives. Randy and CMAP staff work closely with seven counties, 284 municipalities, and scores of stakeholder groups to implement the plan’s strategies for aligning public policies and investments. Prior to joining CMAP in 2006, Randy was Bureau Chief of Urban Program Planning for the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), coordinating activities of the 14 metropolitan planning organizations across Illinois.
To request disability accomodations, please contact Christiana Kinder, Great Cities Institute, (312) 996-8700, christia@uic.edu
