Welcome to the New Year

Dear GCI followers,

Hello and welcome back to a new year and a new semester.

We hope that you enjoyed the holiday season.

We are looking forward to another great semester of programming. Again, we will be hosting our Real Time Chicago Lecture Series with a focus on Planning for Diversity. We will also host special presentations. Randy Blankenhorn, Executive Director of Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP), will present on the funding the 2040 Proposal. From Toronto, we have a special guest, Graeme Stewart, who will present on suburbs in the Toronto area.

We will be hosting the second annual Cities Across the Globe Symposium, which brings together international scholars to discuss pressing urban issues. We are pleased that our keynote this year will be the Honorable Diego Auelistia, Minister of Urban and Housing Development in the Republic of Ecuador.

Stay tuned for more details but in the meantime, you can see our event flyer with the times and dates.

Lineup Flyer_Email

Harnessing the Power of Research: Solutions for Today’s Urban Challenges describes the work of Great Cities Institute. Over the next few months, we will be sharing our research and analyses in the areas of our research clusters: employment and economic development; local and regional governance; dynamic of global mobility; and energy and the environment.

Again, we wish you well during this coming year.

Sincerely,
Teresa Córdova
Director

Youth Voices Heard

On Tuesday, December 16th, 2014, The Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement (IPCE) at UIC hosted Chicago Public School (CPS) students from Alcott College Prep, Washington High School, Richards Career Academy and Chicago Virtual Charter School for a workshop titled, “Understanding Policy and Social Movements.” These schools participate in a CPS program called the Global Citizenship Initiative that was created in 2012 to address a lack of civic learning opportunities in school curriculum. The workshop included many sessions to introduce, explore, and engage with public policy issues and social movements in Chicago.

In one of the event’s workshops, students were introduced to participatory budgeting (PB). PB is a democratic process in which community members decide how to spend part of a public budget. The process engages community members with government and allows them to make budget decisions that affect their lives. In a typical PB process, community members brainstorm ideas for how to spend money, develop project proposals based on the brainstorming, and vote on the project proposals. The highest-voted proposals are then implemented in the community.

PB has been used at the city level for municipal budgets, at the county and state level, and in public agencies such as schools, universities and housing authorities. In Chicago, PB is currently used in three of Chicago’s Aldermanic Wards (22nd, 45thand 49th) where residents of the Ward determine how to spend roughly $1,200,000 dollars of the ward budget for infrastructure improvements.

As a part of the PB workshop, students participated in a mock participatory budgeting (PB) process where they were tasked to democratically decided how to spend $1,000,000 to improve the physical infrastructure of their school. Students in small groups brainstormed ideas, presented the ideas to the larger group, and voted on projects to determine the top three projects. Most of the ideas the students came up with involved improving or addition of student spaces. In the brainstorming sessions, students expressed inadequate space to study, lounge, eat, play sports, and utilize for drivers education classes as the most pressing infrastructure issues they face; citing cramped cafeterias, no lounge or study areas, shared or no drivers education range, and contested sports fields that are shared with other schools and not guaranteed every day. The top three projects the students voted to fund were: the renovating and reopening of a closed school with less infrastructure issues, a student lounge space for students to study and congregate, and a driver’s education range to provide realistic road space for students to learn to drive.

The appeal of the PB process to the students was that it allowed for direct involvement in combating the infrastructure issues they experience at school. The process was received well and many students vowed to express their interest in conducting the PB process at their schools to give input to the budget decisions that affect their lives at school.

About the Author:
Matt Wilson, Economic Development Planner: As an Economic Development Planner for GCI, Matt works primarily within the Neighborhoods Initiative, where he works in collaboration with community-based organizations, university faculty, and staff to provide technical assistance and services for community and economic development projects.

WBEZ Curious City: When is Chicago-area traffic the worst?

(AP Photo/Sitthixay Ditthavong)

(AP Photo/Sitthixay Ditthavong)

WBEZ’s “Curious City” quotes Nebiyou Tilahun, assistant professor of urban planning and policy, why the evening rush hour creates Chicago’s busiest traffic. Tilahun says that personal trips, not just commuting, add to the evening rush.

Why is the morning rush hour generally lighter than the afternoon-evening rush hours? Citing data from the Federal Highway Administration, Nebiyou Tilahun, an assistant professor of urban planning at the University of Illinois Chicago, says it’s because people are doing more than just commuting in the afternoon.

“In percentage terms, commuting dominates over other types of trips in the morning. In the afternoon, it is one of several trip types that congest the roadway. Family and personal trips as well as social/recreation trips are made with more or almost equal frequency,” he says.

Full Story from WBEZ »

Commercial Revitalization

Dan Lira, Executive Director for the South Chicago Chamber of Commerce, and Jaime di Paulo, Executive Director for the Little Village Chamber of Commerce, present about their respective commercial corridors. Abe Lentner, Adjunct Lecturer in Urban Planning and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago responds.

Vacancy + Spatial Justice

Kathleen Dickhut, Deputy Commissioner of Planning for the City of Chicago, speaks about the Large Lot Program; Ben Helphand, Executive Director for Neighborspace speaks about community gardening; Sanjeev Vidyarthi, Associate Professor, Urban Planning and Policy, responds.

LCC Event: Chocolate in Pilsen: Cuisine and Heritage

“Chocolate: Drink of Gods, Food of Mortals”
A series presented by the National Museum of Mexican Art in partnership with the UIC Latino Cultural Center and Department of Anthropology

Chocolate in Pilsen: Cuisine and Heritage

Join us for the last chocolate series event of 2014 at the National Museum of Mexican Art. La Catrina Café owner, Salvador Corona, will provide a lively cooking demonstration that highlights the use of chocolate in traditional Mexican cuisine. Salvador will feature his chocolate mole recipe, winner of the last Mole de Mayo competition in Pilsen.

Limited samples will be offered!

When: Saturday, December 13, 2014
Time: 11:00am to 12:30pm
Where: National Museum of Mexican Art
1852 W 19th St, Chicago, IL 60608

FREE admission

This event is co-sponsored by the Eighteenth Street Development Corporation (ESDC) and the UIC Chancellor’s Committee on the Status of Latinos (CCSL), Great Cities Institute (GCI), Latin American and Latino Studies Program (LALS), Latin American Recruitment and Educational Services program (LARES), and Office of Public and Government Affairs.

For more information, please call (312) 738-1503 or visit us at nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org and latinocultural.uic.edu

If you require any accommodations please contact us at least one week before the event.

 

Categories:

Illinois needs long-range transportation plan

The Daily Herald Business Ledger ran an op ed by Steve Schlickman, executive director of the Urban Transportation Center, on the need for a long-range plan the cost of repairing the Chicago region’s highway and transit systems. Schlickman say Metra’s fare increase to cover capital costs for infrastructure is rare, but a step in the right direction.

Most would agree that our surface transportation infrastructure, roads and bridges, mass transit systems, and bicycle and pedestrian ways, should be kept in good condition with sufficient capacity to ensure adequate mobility, technically known as a “state of good repair.”

Our societal needs depend on that.

However, elected officials don’t believe that constituents are willing to pay for the investment.

Full Op Ed from Daily Herald Business Ledger »

China Wants Its Urban Artists to Head for the Countryside

Factory 798 has become one of China's most celebrated contemporary art districts. (Courtesy of Yue Zhang)

Factory 798 has become one of China’s most celebrated contemporary art districts. (Courtesy of Yue Zhang)

Yue Zhang, former GCI scholar and associate professor of political science, is quoted by CityLab, the urban section of The Atlantic, in an article on urban and art issues in China. The story, which explores a new Chinese government program that sends artists to rural communities, also cites a study by Zhang.

A recent study emphasizes that the success of Factory 798—and Beijing’s growing art culture more broadly—can be traced to China’s acquiescence to the forces of globalization. China’s economic and military prowess was unquestionable by the late 20th century. But in order to gain world influence culturally, says Yue Zhang, a scholar and author of the new report, China needed to loosen the reins on their artists.

“Artists and art districts are often at the fore of urban changes,” and “Chinese artists are empowered by globalization,” Zhang explains in her study. “[T]he government has changed its attitude towards the art community from recurrent suppression to limited tolerance in order to create a better global image for itself.”

Full Story from CityLab »

Illiana, Peotone: questions, criticism continue

Steve Schlickman, executive director of the Urban Transportation Center in the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, is quoted in a Better Government Association article on Bruce Rauner’s authority to stop the Illiana highway and Peotone airport projects regardless of public pressure.

Rauner, a Republican who takes office in January, is vague about his position. He considers the Illiana an important economic development catalyst for Will County but questions the cost to taxpayers, a spokesman said. As for Peotone, any new airport “must have enough demand to be self-sustaining and not reduce economic activity at other airports in the region,” a Rauner statement said. So far, there isn’t demand from airlines or cargo carriers for Peotone and the impact on O’Hare and Midway airports remains a criticism.

“He has the authority to shelve (Illiana) — he doesn’t have to ask anyone,” said Stephen Schlickman, executive director of the Urban Transportation Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago. As for Peotone, Rauner “can say ‘we’ve done our best but we’re not getting any interest yet.'”

There will be political pressure for killing or moving forward on either project, Schlickman said. But the Illiana project is moving so rapidly that Rauner will need to make a relatively quick decision on whether to proceed, he said. Considering the state’s backlog of needed infrastructure projects, scarce government dollars and lack of demand for an airport, neither project makes sense in the near term, he adds.

Full Story from Northwest Indiana Times »

CAN TV Cablecast: City on the Make: Race and Inequality in Chicago

View on cable channel CAN TV21 in Chicago.

Andrew J. Diamond is Professor of American history and civilization at Paris-Sorbonne University. He is the author of numerous books and articles on race and politics in the metropolitan United States, including Mean Streets; Chicago Youths and the Everyday Struggle for Empowerment in the Multiracial City, 1908-1969 and the forthcoming City on the Make: Race and Inequality in Chicago. He has appeared frequently in the mainstream French media as an expert on American affairs.

Jesus “Chuy” Garcia is currently a Cook County Commissioner, he has long been involved in the politics of Chicago starting as an alderman under Mayor Harold Washington, and then serving for several years as an Illinois State Senator after which he became Executive Director at ENLACE, one of the city’s leading community development agencies. Commissioner Garcia received his Master’s degree in Urban Planning and Policy from UIC. He recently announced his candidacy for Mayor of the City of Chicago.

Don Rose is a political consultant heading Don Rose Communications and The Urban Political Group, and writes a weekly online column for the Chicago Daily Observer (CDOBS.com). The column won the Chicago Journalists Association award for commentary in 2010. Based in Chicago, his consulting firms have operated in 13 states. Clientele has included Supreme Court justices, U.S. senators, governors, mayors and state and municipal legislators.

Pauline Lipman is Professor of Education Policy Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her newest book is entitled, The New Political Economy of Urban Education: Neoliberalism, Race and the Right to the City. Her teaching, research, and activism grow out of her commitment to social justice and liberation. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on race and class inequality in education, globalization, and political economy of urban education, particularly the inter-relationship of education policy, urban restructuring, and the politics of race.

Victor B. Dickson is the new Executive Director of Safer Foundation, which is an organization that works on issues of re-entry and helping people with criminal records to find employment. Mr. Dickson has over 20 years’ experience in leadership roles in both corporate and not-for-profit arenas. His corporate experience includes more than 20 years in telecommunications with AT&T and Sprint. In addition, Victor served as Chief Operating Officer for a non-denominational mega church, where he directed a variety of entities providing social services, education and relief efforts locally and abroad.

Teresa Córdova is Director of UIC’s Great Cities Institute and is Professor of Urban Planning and Policy in the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs (CUPPA).  Dr. Córdova is a former elected and appointed member and/or chair of numerous national and local boards, commissions and steering committees of county government, community development corporations, grassroots organizations, editorial boards, research centers, planning organizations, policy groups, and campus committees. She publishes in the area of Latino Studies and Community Development.

This video is now available here.

Categories: