Vote for your favorite place or find somewhere new
The Metropolitan Planning Council is offering Chicago area residents a chance to speak up for their favorite neighborhood places as well as learn about exciting new destinations in the region.
Voting in the "What Makes Your Place Great?" photo and video contest started Monday and will remain open through Sept. 14 at placemakingchicago.com/places.
Program Associate Karin Sommer said the "placemaking" the planning council promotes is the creation of desirable public spaces, and the nominees in this contest represent successes in that endeavor.
"We wanted to draw attention to the public places around the region," she said.
The intention was to go beyond just the big places everyone knows about - like Millennium Park or the city museums - to showcase the smaller places which are cherished by their neighbors but unknown to most residents of the Chicago area.
The photos and videos depict many scenic locales of the suburbs, including the shops of Long Grove, Harmony Park in Arlington Heights, Town Square and the Robert O. Atcher municipal grounds in Schaumburg, Pottawatomie Park in St. Charles, the Graue Mill and Museum in Oak Brook, the Naper Settlement and Riverwalk in Naperville, Phillips Park in Aurora, RiverPark in Geneva and Village Green in Elk Grove Village.
While there's nothing wrong with people voting for a place they already like, Sommer said the hope is that they will look beyond even the composition of the photos and production values of the videos to base their decision on what they've really learned about each place.
The only rule voters need to follow is that only one vote per computer will be counted.
There will be four overall winners in the contest: one video and one photo winner chosen by online voters, and a video and a photo winner chosen by a panel of placemaking experts, Sommer said.
The winning entries, to be named Sept. 25, will reap prizes for their submitters and be promoted as part of the planning council's "Plan Your 'Staycation'" campaign.
But many entrants, especially those who work for municipalities, say their main wish is to draw wider attention to their local public planning achievements.
Schaumburg Public Relations Coordinator Mary Jo Follert said she hopes her photo tells a larger audience of the "mini-Ravinia" that is her village's Summer Breeze Concert Series.
And Arlington Heights Design Planner Afshan Hamid wants her video of Harmony Park to reveal a hidden treasure near a busy downtown.
"It really is always transforming and dynamic, like the village itself," Hamid said. "It's almost like this valley among these nice, tall buildings. It's like being in the palm of a hand."