To leverage limited ARRA resources, Chicago’s Metropolitan Planning Council is working with local leaders and key partners to build on efforts already underway to promote inter-jurisdictional cooperation in the city’s south suburbs around the first round of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP1). By layering new stimulus dollars for energy efficiency, workforce development, transit improvements and neighborhood stabilization into the same focused areas for investment identified by the south suburbs’ joint NSP1 application, these partners intend to enhance the benefits generated by any single program.
The Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) and key partners, the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus (MMC) and the South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association (SSMMA), support inter-jurisdictional cooperation over competition in generating effective ARRA implementation and have brought together a group of south Cook County suburbs to advance joint recovery initiatives. Many of these southern Chicago suburbs have been hit hard by the recession, particularly by foreclosures. As MPC notes, while the Chicago metro area as a whole in 2008 suffered 25.4 foreclosure filings per 1,000 mortgageable properties, the rate was 80 percent higher for just the south suburbs at 45.8 filings per 1,000 properties.
