In late 1998, The Commercial Club of Chicago published a report titled, Chicago Metropolis 2020: Preparing Metropolitan Chicago for the 21st Century. The report argued that the Chicago region has the economic and social potential to become a global metropolis, but that a new era of regional collaboration is needed to address these challenges:

• Reverse policies that encourage sprawl. Land-use and transportation policies are fostering a dispersed and auto-dependent development pattern that harms the economy and detracts from the quality of life in the region.
• Promote better education and skills training. Wide performance disparities within the region’s educational systems undercut the region’s economic future.
• Improve the social conditions of communities. Segregation by race, economics and age divides the region and prevents many of its residents from full participation in the economic mainstream.

The report triggered a sustained public discussion about how best to shape the region’s future. It also spurred creation of a new organization by the same name. Chicago Metropolis 2020 is charged with fostering changes at a regional level, a commitment to collaborate with existing organizations, and a bias for action. Chicago Metropolis 2020 has its origins in Chicago’s business community, but includes representatives of labor, government, faith-based groups and other civic activists. We are all at the same table, and we are thinking and acting regionally.

For the past year, Chicago Metropolis 2020 has sponsored numerous meetings, public forums and other activities to develop and test a set of goals for the region to share. Our first regional progress report, Regional Realities, is a result of that process. The report was designed to serve three purposes:

1. Measure progress toward meeting shared goals. There are a dozen shared goals for the region in the report and 40 measures of progress indicating how the region is doing in reaching those goals. The goals were developed through a collaborative process that involved more than 500 local residents and leaders and were confirmed by a public opinion survey of the region’s residents. In future reports, Chicago Metropolis 2020 will continue to chart our region’s progress in reaching these goals.
2. Encourage “regional thinking.” The regional progress report presents information about public policy issues from a regional perspective, not just how issues affect any single neighborhood, city or county. The report offers a picture of current conditions in the Chicago region. It does not explain why those conditions exist, nor does it prescribe what can be done to address conditions. We want people to begin thinking and talking about these issues from a regional viewpoint.
   
   The broad-gauged progress indicators in this report do not tell everything about our diverse region. The richness of the various issues cannot be captured in a few numbers. However, we hope you will be inspired to think about the complex issues we face as a region and offer additional indicators of progress.
3. Inspire action to achieve shared goals. We hope that the report’s release will generate debate, discussion and action. We hope it inspires you to think about what we can do together to help create the future that we will share.

Regional Realities is the first in a series that will continue periodically. The pages that follow contain fascinating reading about where we stand as a region. We invite your frank appraisal of the information, your suggestions for new ways to measure progress and your participation in preparing future editions.