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Secretary
of the
ILLINOIS DEPT of TRANSPORTATION RANDY BLANKENHORN ...will talk about why we need to stop planning for yesterday’s transportation needs and start looking to the present and the future. He'll take questions about public-private partnerships in highways and airports, managed traffic lanes, self-driving cars, texting-while-driving, rail-freight congestion, drones, aging infrastructure, and whatever our audience is curious about in terms of transportation planning. |
Randall S. Blankenhorn has served as Illinois Transportation Secretary under Gov. Bruce Rauner since 2015. As head of the Illinois Department of Transportation, he leads an agency of 10 offices that serve the transportation needs of Illinois across multiple modes, in rural, suburban, and urban environments. At IDOT, Blankenhorn oversees a $3 billion operating budget that supports a workforce of 4,800 employees, with annual oversight of more than $3.4 billion in capital projects. Prior to his appointment, Blankenhorn was the executive director of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. At CMAP, Blankenhorn oversaw transportation, land use, housing, economic development, environmental and other quality-of-life issues in the seven-county region of Northeastern Illinois. CMAP implemented GO TO 2040, the first truly comprehensive regional plan for the Chicago metropolitan area in more than a century. His appointment as Transportation Secretary represented a return to IDOT, after having worked at the agency for 22 years. He served in a number of key positions in both the policy and planning divisions, eventually rising to the Bureau Chief of Urban Program Planning. A lifelong Illinois resident, Blankenhorn is president of the Mid-American Association of State Transportation Officials, an organization striving to create a balanced transportation system that serves the transportation needs of the 10 member states, which also includes Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin. |
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About the Cigar Society of Chicago
ONE OF THE
OLDEST AND greatest traditions of the city clubs of
Chicago is the discussion of intellectual, social,
legal, artistic, historical, scientific, musical,
theatrical, and philosophical issues in the company of
educated, bright, and appropriately provocative
individuals, all under the beneficent influence of
substantial amounts of tobacco and spirits. The
Cigar Society of Chicago embraces
this tradition and extends it with its Informal
Smokers, University Series lectures,
and Cigar Society Dinners, in which cigars,
and from time to time pipes and cigarettes, appear as
an important component of our version of the classical
symposium. To be included in the Cigar Society's
mailing list, write to the secretary at
curtis.tuckey@logicophilosophicus.org.