Balancing Scales

The Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission will begin a federally-funded pilot project called 'Full Circle', which is an effort to link regional planning efforts to neighborhoods through technology. Designers of the project say that it "intends to provide detailed and up-to-date land-use data widely available through the Internet to help residents guide neighborhood development....Planning officials and academics have access to huge amounts of information through computer programs that link places on a map....The problem is the data is not always up-to-date, nor is it available to residents, particularly those in lower-income communities." The pilot project will focus on community groups in urban and suburban areas of Chicago, and is envisioned to help residents and planners alike.

Thanks to Connie Chung