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Workshop a Step Toward Raising Southland Quality of Life

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Crossing That Bridge by Keith Holt
Workshop a solid step toward raising Southland quality of life

The Cal Sag Channel Trail is best described as part of a solution to quality of life issues on Chicago’s far Southeast Side and inner-ring southern suburbs. The term "quality of life" might be overused, but the Cal-Sag will improve people’s lives where they live, right now.

This region has been exploited and neglected for decades. The Cal-Sag Channel Trail is the Southland’s line in the sand: We are finished with things getting worse in these communities. The Cal Sag trail will be a crucial step toward revitalization of the Southland region.

In order to construct this trail we need the support of communities, government professional engineers and citizens.

One solid step towards gaining further support for and public awareness of trail construction initiatives is the 2005 Southland-Calumet Healthy Streets and Trails Workshop September 16 and 17 in Lansing. This workshop is an opportunity for Chicagoland Bicycle Federation and our Southland and Northwest Indiana partners to provide expertise, innovative ideas and inspiration for improving bicycling and walking in the Southland and Northwest Indiana Communities. You can expect to:

• learn about trail-based economic development, Safe Routes to School, and current trail initiatives that cross the state line, such as the Cal-Sag Channel Trail, the Pennsy Greenway and the Marquette Greenway;

• share cutting-edge ideas and tactics for low-cost bicycle planning, effective grant writing and on-street/off-street bikeway design; and

• engage your peers on the best ways to tackle the barriers to better bicycling and walking in your community.

Take a stand with CBF and its two dozen community and agency partners by attending the workshop. Get your local officials to come – your neighbors and friends, too. We’ve got some trails to build.

Keith Holt is the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation liaison to the African-American community and to Chicago’s South Side