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View CTAQC's "2004 Legislative Priorities," released at CTAQC's April 17th Spring Legislative Issues Forum
The second annual Spring Legislative Issues Forum brought together advocates from throughout northeastern Illinois to discuss the implementation of legislative priorities like the Northeastern Illinois Regional Transportation Task Force and Context Sensitive Solutions. Advocates also came together to strategize for pending legislative initiatives like Safe Routes to School and Location Efficiency. The Forum took place on April 17, 2004 at DePaul University's Urban Egan Center.
The 2004 Forum included a special videotaped message from NBC Unit 5 Investigative Reporter, Renee Ferguson. In her message, Ms. Ferguson emphasized the importance of the partnership between the media and public. She used her story that exposed inequities between the Metra Electric line and other Metra lines as an example of how effective this partnership can be to work for change. She urged attendees to continue advocacy efforts to improve communities in the region through CTAQC policies.
The main activities of the 2004 Forum were focused around four workshops. Two workshops provided information on legislative priorities. One workshop provided more information on legislation that would provide economic incentives for businesses that choose to locate near transit and affordable housing. The second offered an overview of context sensitive design principles (the policy that encourages road building with all users in mind and with sensitivity to the surrounding communities) and the role of the pedestrian environment to suburban bus transit.
The last two workshops focused on the Ònuts and boltsÓ of how to organize around transportation issues, one through available web-based technology and the other through traditional grassroots strategies. Many attendees participated in an informational workshop during one session and a complementary organizing workshop in the second session.
CNT's Vice-President for Policy, Jacky Grimshaw, closed the Forum with an address on the work ahead for CTAQC and transportation advocates alike through an activity called the Wall of Choice and Change. She asked each attendee to commit to helping some kind of transportation change come about in their community. Attendees wrote their commitments on postcards that they posted on the wall next to Jacky. These postcards will be sent as a reminder to Forum participants in late May as a reminder to continue to work for change.
The Spring Legislatives Issues Forum took place on April 26, 2003 at Kasbeer Hall, Loyola University Chicago, Water Tower Campus. The meeting was hugely successful with over 100 participants in attendance.
Tim Martin, Secretary of the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) delivered the keynote address about transportation issues in Illinois. He discussed the state budget cuts that face IDOT and the need for increased national funding. Martin also stressed infrastructure maintenance as a critical concern for Illinois.
A panel of state legislators and transportation experts discussed three bills focused on Context Sensitive Design, Safe Routes to School, and creating a taskforce to evaluate the region's transportation (CATS) and land use (NIPC) commissions. For more information about these bills, please visit the legislation section.
Following the meeting, a large group marched (via the CTA) to a CATS public involvement meeting at DePaul University. The CATS meeting was designed to gather public input regarding Shared Path 2030, the long-term transportation plan for northeastern Illinois. The 35 attendees transplanted from the Legislative Issues Forum closely examined the material and were unafraid to gave opinions, their voices would not be ignored.
