In order to get to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore from my home in Milwaukee, I have to go through all of Chicago, with its sprawling suburbs and its densely packed downtown, spiked with skyscrapers, and then across the skyway. The view from the skyway is of a vast apocalyptic landscape seething with active refineries, steel mills, and inactive, abandoned industrial sites. Past the last steel mill I begin to see woodlands and wetlands instead of enormous factory sheds, steel armatures, and tall smokestacks. It is worth the effort.

I've been to the dunes many times, but always to lie on the beach in warm weather. Last weekend could have been more of the same, but it was freezing! So, instead of sticking to the beach I explored one of the inland trails where it was out of the wind and much warmer. And what a lovely discovery! The Cowles Bog trail led me through some swamplands, over oak covered hills, and past glacial kettle ponds.

The Adler Institute on Social Exclusion (whose director, Lynn Todman, Ph.D., spoke at GLUE's annual conference last year) is hosting its annual conference on June 3-4, 2010. The conference, entitled "The Social Determinants of Mental Health: From Awareness to Action" will help participants understand the relationship between social conditions and mental health. Dr. Todman provided such deep insight into the intractability of certain social issues at our conference last year and introduced our participants to a new perspective on addressing these social challenges. I'm sure this conference will provide similar new insight for its attendants...

In the south suburbs of Chicago, a growing group of more than 18 communities are taking a coordinated approach to make the most of federal foreclosure recovery funding, also known as the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) (you can read the first two parts of this story here and here). While the South Suburban Housing Collaborative may seem radical

This week, meet Mandy Burrell Booth, who has frequently helped GLUE think about new media questions, and who is guest-blogging our August Issue Focus on a collaborative NSP application in Chicagoland. (Mandy's org is also the muscle behind the placemaking contest we told you about earlier.) Title, Organization: Assistant Communications Director, Metropolitan Planning Council. Describe one of your favorite places or things to do in your city: Chicago is an amazing city for food lovers, and I

Haley from Grand Bend won one of our photo contests a while ago and suggested that we feature the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago. The Old Town School is the largest independent community arts school in the United States and offers music, dance, art and theater classes and performances for adults and children. Students from all over the Chicago area attend weekly classes taught by dedicated professionals and can work with groups like The Grateful Dead, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, and many others. Most classes perform at the end of the eight-week term in the "Big Gig" or at local venues. The current enrollment is about 6,000 students per week. Many well-known folk, world, bluegrass, jazz, blues and country musicians from all over the world perform at the Lincoln Avenue location...

As promised on Monday, today we're introducing you to Jane Tigan, GLUEster extraordinaire, who will be heading up the Urban Innovations Guidebook as part of her Master's thesis/capstone project. We're really excited to have Jane involved with this important project. Without further ado... Title, Organization: I

Every Tuesday, GLUE announces a photo contest based around a simple theme. Photo entries should be of scenes in a GLUE city, and you're free to interpret the theme broadly. Each contest will be open for one week, and the winner will get to choose a local business or non-profit that GLUE will feature in a short write-up the following week. It's a great way to win some attention to your favorite local organization! This week's contest theme is: "Tall Buildings." Our cities boast beautiful skyscrapers from an earlier era -- heck, the skyscraper was invented in the Great Lakes city of Chicago. Well, I'm not requiring total sky-scraping magnitude, but this week I'd like to collect photos of tall, grand buildings, like Detroit's beautifully ornate Fisher Building...

Advocate+Communicate=Change: Making Media Connections, June 10-11, 2009... If the last time you read a newspaper was this morning, you are in a shrinking minority. On the other hand, if you and your co-workers have spent more time recently discussing a Facebook page, blog, revised Web site, or other enlarged online presence, welcome to the crowd. Changing times demand some reflection on the challenges and opportunities those changes will bring us as we seek to communicate effectively to varied constituents in support of program, advocacy, fundraising and other efforts...

This past weekend I spent a morning with pony-tailed environmentalists, ladies in church hats,

A new report from William H. Frey, senior fellow at Brookings: "Newly released U.S. Census Bureau population data for U.S. cities show a new twist on a well-known theme that could be good news for older cities hoping to reverse population declines of the past... Beyond the very largest cities, the Midwest is showing positive signs of city population retention. Thirty of its 44 cities with populations exceeding 100,000 either gained more or lost fewer people in 2006