To 2040 and Beyond: A Burnham Plan for the 21st Century

As every native Chicagoan learns in elementary school social studies, over 100 years ago Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennett crafted a plan to make Chicago a global city for the 20th century, through a series of integrated infrastructure projects.  Around the same time, in response to the threats of sewage pollution to the city’s drinking water supply, engineers reversed the flow of the Chicago River away from Lake Michigan to protect public health.  Our region’s history owes a great deal to the revolutionary Burnham plan and Chicago River reversal.  But, 100 years later, we need a plan to move us into the 21st century.

The Chicago Metropolitan Agency of Planning (CMAP) recognized this void in our regional strategy, proposing it be filled with the GO TO 2040 Comprehensive Regional Plan for the greater Chicago area.  As my colleague Kaid Benfield blogged when GO TO 2040 was in its formative stages, the draft plan does a remarkable job of addressing many of the impediments to our region’s sustainable growth.  Kaid also explains how, even without explicitly addressing climate change, GO TO 2040 will go a long way in supporting the Chicago Climate Action Plan and protecting the region from extreme weather events like the ones we’ve suffered with this summer.

Before the close of the draft plan’s public comment period today, I, along with my colleagues Karen Hobbs and Jen Henry, made a few recommendations to CMAP on how to make the plan even better in the areas of water and energy efficiency, smart growth, public transportation, water infrastructure, and freight movement. As expressed in the comments we filed, we believe that a permanent separation between the Mississippi River basin and Great Lakes basin is equally central to keeping our region alive and well.  This separation will stop the spread of Asian carp and other looming aquatic invasive species that can currently travel freely between the watersheds.  But, as I’ve written about before, restoring the natural flow of the Chicago River and the natural separation between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins has benefits far beyond these aquatic invaders.

The comprehensive scale of urban planning set forth by the Burnham plan had never before been seen in an American city. Instead of clinging to the past and treating the status quo as immutable like Burnham and Bennett’s contemporaries once did, we need to channel their innovation and again make Chicago the country’s leading-edge urban center. The only chance we have to boost our prosperity is to adopt holistic strategies like those set forth by the GO TO 2040 plan and like those offered along with a hydrological separation of the Great Lakes and Mississippi River.  In doing so, we will not only protect both basins from invasive species, but also create jobs and enhance our regional sustainability by investing in long-overdue water and transportation infrastructure improvements. If done right, Chicagoland could see the end of basement flooding, contaminated recreational waters, traffic jams, toxic air pollution and Asian carp.  A significant part of this effort should entail a better integration of our waterborne commerce into rail and truck networks, through construction of cleaner and more efficient intermodal facilities -- just like Daniel Burnham would have wanted.

The task might seem daunting, but as Daniel Burnham once said, “Make no little plans.  They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably will not themselves be realized.”

Comments