About Steve Breese

Steve Breese is the web developer for Greenway Planning Database , Fast Track Racing Team and Arlington Trotters Running Club.

More about Steve

Steve as pictured in Adventure Cyclist magazine, March 2003
Download "Cycling Chicago" article (PDF - 6 Mb)
picture taken by David Nevala

Welcome to my website!  I hope you find it useful and informative.  I started developing the "Greenway Planning Database" in 2005 as a way to organize my collection of trail plans.  Since then I have added numerous pages that catalog many of the critical components necessary to develop greenway trails.  These pages are driven by geographical queries that fetch and display reams of information in an organized manner. 

Steve in 2009
Steve at work (click for full picture - 811 Kb)
In addition to this side project, I also attend trail supporter meetings and occasionally write to local government officials to inform them of trail development opportunities I think they would otherwise miss.  All my ideas for this site come to me and are thought out while out on one of my runs.  The coding is done on my home computer.

Here's a bit more about myself: I studied Urban Planning and Geography at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  Upon graduating I took a position at Chicago Area Transportation Study.  One of my tasks there was to inventory existing and proposed bikeways in the Chicagoland area using GIS.  

I soon realized that a lack of public ownership along linear corridors was a major obstacle to the development of greenways in northeastern Illinois.  In 2005, I took a position as a Geographic Information System Analyst for the land acquisition department of a county open space district.  The district has been active in acquiring and developing greenway corridors in order to create and connect open spaces in the county. 

Another impetus for developing this site was to organize a strategy for advocating for the development of a greenway trail near my home.  In early 2006, IDOT announced plans for a bridge reconstruction project between Palatine and Inverness.  The finalized design did not accommodate a proposed multi-use trail shown in NIPC's Greenway and Trail Plan.  My goal was to get a pedestrian underpass included with the project.  I approached the local park districts regarding this proposal.   This led to a meeting between 6 government agencies to investigate trail opportunities in relation to this project.  Although an pedestrian underpass was not build, the bridge span over the railroad was extended to incorporate a future trail.  Additionally, the Palatine Park District has taken steps to build a multi-use tail in the corridor.  More information regarding this trail proposal is available on this page.

GIS

I have been using GIS since the summer of 2000.  Before that, I used AutoCAD at to produce maps and data.  I'm am comfortable drafting detailed and accurate data in both the same.   

I have completed Elmhurst College's GIS Certificate Program - Professional Track. My courses included programming with ArcObjects, GIS data modeling, and imagery.
Technology Training Certificate
GIS, incl. spatial analysis, UI programming, database development, & remote sensing Elmhurst College GIS Certificate Program - "Professional Track" Certificate in GIS

Web Development

I first began developing websites as a hobby while a student at University of Illinois.   I have since learned many web technologies, all of which I utilize in my own websites.
Technology Training Certificate
HTML/CSS College of DuPage course HTML Developer Certificate
CSS College of DuPage course CSS Developer Certificate
JavaScript/HTML DOM Self Taught JavaScript Developer Certificate
Udemy's JavaScript Tutorial
jQuery Self Taught jQuery Developer Certificate
PHP - Intro Self Taught PHP Developer Certificate
PHP - Advanced Self Taught Zend Certified PHP Engineer
MySQL Self Taught Certified MySQL 5.0 Developer

Other Interests

2007 Halloween Hustle 5K, Palatine
2nd Place overall male

View Race Results
Steve in costume - 2007 Halloween Hustle 5K
I enjoy running, cycling (with 1 or 2 wheels), and rollerblading.   During the winter I enjoy snowboarding in Wisconsin or the Rockies.

I ran the Boston Marathon in 2006 and completed the historic 26.2 mile course in 2 hours and 50 minutes and became a top Illinois finisher.

Boston Marathon pictures

Click on the following thumbnails to enlarge

(24 kb) (1.4 Mb)
(29 kb) (1.0 Mb)


   
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