Official site for the Midwest High-speed Rail

“Beauty, Opportunity, Quality of life:
We’ll Help You Find it all Here in the Heart of the U.S.”

Whenever you see a “Best of” headline in a magazine or newspaper, you can almost certainly expect to see Madison turn up high in the rankings.

In just the past couple of years alone, Madison and the surrounding communities have earned accolades as being among of the best places in America to live, raise a family, educate children, get a college degree, or expand business. It’s been called an “up and coming destination” in the New York Times Style Magazine, “a heartland hit” for families by Nick Jr. magazine, and even “this Paris of south-central Wisconsin” by Outside magazine.

A vibrant city of more than 225,000, Madison is a rare combination of thriving business, progressive government, rich culture and advanced education – all in a setting of rare natural beauty. Surrounded by five lakes, laced with bike trails, and enlivened with numerous parks and green spaces, the area offers countless opportunities to enjoy a prosperous career, operate a successful business, and enjoy your favorite pastimes.

Fast Facts:

• Madison is home to the crown jewel of one of the leading public educational institutions in the Nation; the University of Wisconsin at Madison – http://www.wisc.edu/
• The city of Madison is both the Capital City, and the county seat of government.
• Dane County is a diverse county with industry sectors ranging from Medical, to Manufacturing, to Agriculture. It is truly one of the more vibrant counties of its size, and scope, in the Nation – http://dwd.wisconsin.gov/oea/county_profiles/current/dane_profile.pdf

A city of more than 26,300 residents, Carbondale is home to a thriving business community strongly boosted by Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, recognized nationally for outstanding education, research, and athletics. Located in the heart of beautiful Southern Illinois, Carbondale and the surrounding region offer scenic lakes, a national forest, and abundant recreational opportunities, including two stops along the Southern Illinois Golf Trail. Carbondale is also the front door of the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail, the home of fabulous restaurants serving international cuisine, the retail center for multiple counties, and the region’s cultural center, with many stages filled with music, dance, and live theater.

Quick Facts:

• Mother News Earth publication released their 2009 edition listing Carbondale, Illinois as one of the “11 best places to live that you may not have heard of”. To view the complete article access their website below at: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Great-Places-2009.aspx
• The Carbondale area is referred to as “Little Egypt.” Theories about the nickname’s origins range from the region’s supplying grain to northern and central Illinois during an 1800′s famine, to comparing Illinois’ southern tip to Egypt’s Nile delta region. SIUC’s nickname, the Salukis, references this association, as the saluki was the royal dog of Egypt.
• Carbondale was recently named by Outdoor Life magazine as one of the top 200 towns for sportsmen and is home to one of Southern Illinois’ most beautiful recreational facilities right in its own backyard — Cedar Lake.

For more information on the city of Carbondale, visit: http://www.ci.carbondale.il.us/?q=node/90

Green Bay City Arial

The City of Green Bay’s population is over 104,000, with an additional 150,000 people living in the Green Bay metro area. Historically, the city’s largest employers have been the paper and shipping industries. Today that still holds true with Green Bay as a major Midwestern port city, and being home to one of the country’s largest trucking firms.

Greater Green Bay thrives with a progressive atmosphere in business and industry. Forbes, Inc. and Entrepreneur magazines have all recognized Greater Green Bay as a hot city for starting or owning a business.

Green Bay Route

Residents who move away to try another city, oftentimes return for the quality of life, family-friendly values and strong business community. The 2007 Kiplinger Report named Greater Green Bay as on of the top five cities in the nation to raise a family.

Known around the world for contributions to industry and agriculture, Green Bay is most known as being the smallest city host a National Football League team. Founded in 1919, the 12-time National Champion Green Bay Packers are the only NFL team to be owned by its fans.

Fast Facts:

Green Bay Stadium Arial

• Green Bay Area was settled in 1764, making it the oldest community in Wisconsin.
• The Fox River, which divides the cities of Green Bay and De Pere, is one of the few rivers in the world that runs north.
• Green Bay has long been known as the “toilet paper capital of the world” because the first splinter-free toilet paper was produced here. The paper industry is still one of the area’s largest employers.

For more information about Green Bay visit www.ci.green-bay.wi.us or www.greenbay.com.

Chicago is the third largest city in the United States, with a population of nearly three million people. Its scenic lakeside location, world-class cultural offerings and unique architecture are just some of the reasons why Chicago is a great place to live and visit.

Chicago is home to:

• 237 square miles of land
• An estimated 2,896,016 residents
• Dozens of cultural institutions, historical sites and museums
• More than 200 theaters
• Nearly 200 art galleries
• More than 7,300 restaurants
• 77 community areas containing more than 100 neighborhoods
• 26 miles of lakefront
• 15 miles of bathing beaches
• 36 annual parades
• 19 miles of lakefront bicycle paths
• 552 parks
• United States President Barack Obama

Did you know?

• More than 45 million people visited Chicago in 2007!
• Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837.
• Chicago’s nicknames include: The Windy City, the City of Big Shoulders, the Second City, and The City That Works.
• The “Historic Route 66″ begins in Chicago at Grant Park on Adams Street in front of the Art Institute of Chicago.
• The Chicagoland area contains nearly 10 million people in three states – Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana – and is the 22nd largest metropolitan area in the world.
• Chicago is home to eleven Fortune 500 companies, while the rest of the metropolitan area hosts an additional 21 Fortune 500 companies.
• McCormick Place, Chicago’s premier convention center, offers the largest amount of exhibition space in North America (2.2 million square feet).
• The first Ferris wheel made its debut in Chicago at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Today, Navy Pier is home to a 15-story Ferris wheel, modeled after the original one.
• Chicago’s downtown area is known as “The Loop.” The nickname refers to the area encircled by the elevated (‘L’) train tracks.
• 

  Chicago Water Tower

  The game of 16-inch softball, which is played without gloves, was invented in Chicago.

• In 1900, Chicago successfully completed a massive and highly innovative engineering project – reversing the flow of the Chicago River so that it emptied into the Mississippi River instead of Lake Michigan. Each year, the Chicago River is dyed green to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
• The Art Institute of Chicago has one of the largest and most extensive collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings in the world.
• Chicago was one of the first and largest municipalities to require public art as part of the renovation or construction of municipal buildings, with the passage of the Percentage-for-Arts Ordinance in 1978.
• The Chicago Cultural Center is the first free municipal cultural center in the U.S. and home to the world’s largest stained glass Tiffany dome.
• When it opened in 1991, the Harold Washington Library Center, with approximately 6.5 million books, was the world’s largest municipal library.
• 

  Chicago Millennium Park

  The Lincoln Park Zoo, one of only three major free zoos in the country, is the country’s oldest public zoo with an estimated annual attendance of three million.

• The Sears Tower is the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere at 110 stories high.
• The Sears Tower elevators are among the fastest in the world operating as fast as 1,600 feet per minute.
• Four states are visible from the Sear Tower Skydeck (Indiana, Illinois, Michigan & Wisconsin).
• The first steel rail road in the United States was produced in 1865.
• The first mail-order business, Montgomery Ward & Co., was established in 1872.
• The world’s first skyscraper, the Home Insurance Company, was built in 1885.
• The original Ferris wheel was built on the midway of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.
• The Adler Planetarium became the first planetarium in the Western Hemisphere in 1930.
• The nation’s first blood bank was established in 1937 by Dr. Bernard Fantus at Cook County Hospital.
• The first drive-in bank opened in 1946.
• Gwendolyn Brooks became the first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in 1949.
• The remote control was invented in 1950.
• The first Democratic National Convention televised coast-to-coast was held in 1952 at Chicago’s International Amphitheater. (The first televised Democratic National Convention, in 1948, only reached viewers in the Northeast.)
• Maria Callas made her U.S. debut at the Lyric Opera in 1954.
• The first televised U.S. presidential candidates’ debate was broadcast from Chicago’s CBS Studios on September 26, 1960, between John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Richard Milhous Nixon.
• Sen. Carol Moseley Braun became the country’s first female African-American U.S. senator in 1992.
• The late Mayor Richard J. Daley and current Mayor Richard M. Daley became the first father-son team to head the United States Conference of Mayors in 1996.

For more information on the City of Chicago, visit explorechicago.org.