[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 7054]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                          LIVABLE COMMUNITIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Blumenauer) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Madam Speaker, focusing on livable communities is an 
opportunity for the major Presidential candidates to give citizens 
relief from the standard political fare by embracing a positive 
message: how to make our families safe, healthy, and economically 
secure.
  One of the reasons this message has such potential for elevating the 
political discussion is because this is truly a national movement that 
is being driven at the grassroots level.
  Every year it seems more State and local ballot initiatives are 
passed protecting open space, giving more transportation choices to our 
communities and controlling unplanned growth. One grassroots effort was 
dealt with this morning in the Washington Post describing the efforts 
to protect the Chesapeake Bay, one of our Nation's most cherished 
waterway and, sadly, Governor Gilmore of Virginia's reluctance for 
Virginia to provide true leadership.
  For 15 years, citizens and communities across a six-State area and 
Federal partners and private citizens are developing solutions not 
necessarily to eliminate sprawl in this Chesapeake Bay watershed, but 
to cut it by one-third by the year 2012. The political leadership in 
Virginia, however, has been slow to respond and only recently provided 
its support for a new agreement, assuming that Virginians care less 
about the environment and protecting the Bay than their neighbors in 
the surrounding States. I think that is a sad commentary and a 
misreading of the citizens of Virginia.
  In sharp contrast, one of the most exciting stories of regional 
cooperation and addressing unplanned growth is unfolding now in the 
Speaker's home State of Illinois. Metropolitan Chicago has a long 
tradition of being a leader in the heartland; its importance as a 
national transportation hub with the transcontinental railroads, so it 
is today with O'Hare Airport, the busiest in the Nation; and the 
important role that Chicago has played in the City Beautiful Movement 
at the turn of the century with the magnificent Burnham plan, one of 
the most influential city plans in world history, illustrating the 
power of planning for growth in a fashion that balanced downtown 
interests with open space and access to that city's majestic 
waterfront.
  Chicago was unfortunately a leader in the consequence of unplanned 
growth. From 1970 to 1990, when metropolitan Chicago increased only 4 
percent in population, it increased 46 percent in the urbanized area, 
10 times faster than the rate of population increase and, clearly, a 
development pattern that is not sustainable. It has resulted in Chicago 
having the second longest average commute in the country, with 11 
percent of its commuters traveling an hour or more each way each day.
  But in keeping with the tradition of leadership, Chicago is now 
providing important direction on livability. I have had a chance to 
review the Metropolitan 2020 plan, a visionary document preparing 
metropolitan Chicago for the 21st century. It recalls the history and 
provides a vision for the future. This fascinating study is one of the 
best that I have seen, providing a framework for developing a regional 
vision of growth over the next 20 years while it recognizes the 
realities and challenges facing the region. It addresses the reality of 
the present system's inability to pave its way out of traffic 
congestion; the importance of the productivity of the region's growing 
minority population, which will supply the majority of its future work 
force; the need on focusing the entire region's pool of talent to meet 
the specialized needs of a growing economy; and, most important, the 
symbiotic relationship between the suburbanites, who actually earn 
twice as much from their income from downtown as Chicagoans earn from 
suburban areas, $14 billion versus $21 billion.
  With over 1300 units of local government and almost 70 percent of the 
State's population living in the metropolitan Chicago area, the 
Metropolitan 2020 effort is a powerful example of the potential for 
business and civic leaders, community leadership, and the planning 
profession to come together to develop solutions to guide governmental 
investments. I strongly urge my colleagues to join me today at 2 p.m. 
in SC-10 of the Capitol for a joint briefing of the Senate's Smart 
Growth Task Force and the Livable Communities Task Force, hearing from 
a group from Chicago who will give a comprehensive overview of their 
initiatives. They will also focus on the important role of the Federal 
Government in assisting the regional effort to create more livable 
communities.
  Chicago is as good a model as we will find in an area of the country 
that a lot of us spend a lot of time in. It is a solution to make our 
communities more livable and our families safe, healthy and more 
economically secure.

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