Friends of Downtown invites you to be a member of the organization and to
become actively involved in helping to achieve its goals for downtown.

OUR CORE VALUES:

• Perspective: We believe that downtown Chicago has a wonderful mix of business, residential, and cultural assets that are the envy of almost every other downtown in America, but we strive for continuous improvement.
• Respecting the past, embracing the future: We believe a vibrant future includes respecting and preserving past treasures, along with welcoming innovative, unique, and distinctive projects, businesses, and activities that promote an eclectic, evolving environment.
• Independence: We value being a balanced, objective, consistent, and respected voice, which can exist only when that voice is independent from narrow political and business influences.
• Transparency: We believe in public and open processes. We hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards and level of accountability. We expect the same from our business and government leaders, especially in the planning and review processes.
• Participation: We value public discourse and the opportunity for input and engagement in an effort to reach reasoned consensus. We understand that unanimity on any proposal is unrealistic. However, we strongly believe that public participation isn’t a hurdle but an opportunity for improvement and ownership. We value all opinions, even those with which we might disagree.
• Diversity: We embrace a diverse downtown, both in its physical environment and in its human constituency.
• Accessibility: We believe our downtown infrastructure should enable everyone to move about freely, safely, and efficiently, whether they walk, ride, bike, or drive.

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