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In 1996, The Commercial Club of Chicago - a membership organization of leading area business and civic leaders - undertook the Metropolis Project, an effort to ensure the preeminence of the Chicago Metropolitan Region in the 21st century. The premise of the Metropolis Project was that the issues facing the region - Cook, DuPage, Lake, McHenry, Kane and Will counties - are interdependent. There are numerous issues vital to our social and economic well-being, which must be addressed regionally. These issues relate to unlimited, low density sprawl; concentration of poor minorities; the spatial mismatch between jobs, affordable housing and transportation; and disparate degrees of access to quality education. More than 200 members of The Commercial Club examined those issues in special committees organized around six areas: education, economic development, taxation, governance, transportation and land use and housing. The committees consulted with experts and met with regional community, civic and government representatives. The culmination of their two-year effort was a report titled: "Chicago Metropolis 2020: Preparing Metropolitan Chicago for the 21st Century." The report was released in March 1999, published in book form in 2000 and is now available for purchase from The University of Chicago Press. A key recommendation of the report called for the creation of a new organization: Chicago Metropolis 2020. This new organization continues the process started by The Commercial Club and is implementing the ideas contained in the report. Chicago Metropolis 2020 has focused on creating collaborations with other organizations and is developing a new kind of "civic entrepreneurship," in the region. An Executive Council governs Chicago Metropolis
2020 and includes representatives from business, labor, civic, religious
and governmental organizations. Half of the representatives on the
Executive Council are members of The Commercial Club of Chicago.
Donald G. Lubin, Partner and Former Chairman of Sonnenschein, Nath
& Rosenthal, serves as Chairman. George A. Ranney Jr., Senior
Counsel at Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw and formerly Vice President
of Inland Steel Industries, is President and Chief Executive Officer.
Frank H. Beal, former President and CEO of Ryerson International,
is the Executive Director. |
