November 2011
10 posts
7 tags
Triple Bottom Line #1: No dollar left behind →
The way it should be: East Peoria is integrating access to Fon du Lac Park District’s River Trail in its downtown development plans.
People walking and biking in a merchant district are like an indicator species as to the health and resiliency of the local economy:
They don’t need a $4000 parking space for 300 square feet of asphalt (parking space plus aisles) provided to convert...
“…safer trail connections help Illinois families turn around some major...”
– “Bicycle, Pedestrian Access Improved with Paving of Lemont Road Bridge.” November 15 Lemont Patch.
6 tags
“Improving America’s health will require new emphases on and attention to...”
– David R. Williams and James Marks, “Community Development Efforts Offer A Major Opportunity To Advance Americans’ Health.” Health Affairs November 2011
It will require Trails for Illinois! Think long and hard about the direction inactivity is taking life in Illinois, and realize how...
12 tags
Trails connecting cultures, kids to nature →
8 tags
So you think rural Illinois doesn't need trails? →
Growing up in the 70s and 80s in rural Indiana, I watched my extended family exit farming in less than a decade. It was brutal, and many Amish families bought and subdivided the hundreds and hundreds of acres into smaller family plots.
I also watched the calories from a diet that once sustained dawn-to-dusk labor pile on the health complications after the work disappeared. Weight gain and...
12 tags
Senate Bill shrinks funding for trails, adds... →
Last Friday, still dripping from a wave of support from Illinois and the rest of America to preserve trail funding, the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee released its draft transportation reauthorization bill that shrinks trails funding for the next two years by more than $80 million, from $1.15 billion to $833 million. And those funds are no longer set aside by mandate for...
6 tags
Turning your driveway into your trailhead=living... →
If your trail experience already can begin at your front door—and we mean without needing to drive somewhere to have one—you’ll be delighted in this report that justifies how annoyingly happy and healthy you are to all of your friends and family. :-)
This is the heart of our work at Trails for Illinois—we believe that extending trail opportunities and experiences to every Illinoisan...
4 tags
7 tags
Trails win (again)! Thank U.S. Senator Kirk (R-IL)... →
SMACK! POW! Kentucky Senator Rand Paul’s amendment to kill trails funding lost 60-38 today. U.S. Senator Mark Kirk roared out of the trail supporters’ corner to help clock trail opposition on the chin with his vote AGAINST Paul’s feint to save bridges by eliminating Enhancements funding.
Together with Senator Richard Durbin, Senator Kirk upholds a long tradition of bipartisan...
