CNT Update, November 2006
CNT Update, November 2006
November 2006
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Sustainability News
1. Recycling in Chicago Goes Legit
2. What Makes a Suburb Affordable?
3. How Your Organization Can Go Green
What’s New @ CNT?
1. Greenmapping.org Interactive Map Launched
2. Build Your Own Wi-Fi Network
3. New Staff
CNT Toolbox
1. Report Spotlight: “Paved Over”
2. CNT in the News
3. Jobs
Local Events
1. Walk for the People’s Chariot (i.e. the bus)
2. Green City, Green Mayor, Sustainable Urban Policy
3. Green Building Workshop: The Nuts and Bolts for Contractors
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Energy Tip of the Month: Replace your light bulbs with energy efficient Compact Florescent Lights (CFLs). Standard incandescent bulbs are very inefficient; only 10% of the energy used actually produces light, the remaining 90% is given off as heat. They even make energy-efficient strings for your outside holiday décor.
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SUSTAINABILITY NEWS
1. Recycling in Chicago Goes Legit
To the approval of reformists in Chicago, the city has taken one step closer to legitimizing Mayor Daley’s goal to make Chicago the “greenest city in America”. The much-deplored blue-bag program has been ‘bagged’ for a much more realistic and embraced form of recycling─ a blue bin.
As the pilot program in Beverly showed, the bins will provide residents with more assurance that their materials are actually being recycled. The pilot will expand to seven wards in Chicago, including CNT’s Ward 1. Many think this is still too slow of an approach for unveiling a program that is proven to be better than the previous bag program. But, the good news is that the City of Chicago is now reforming what many thought was perhaps the tarnish to Chicago’s otherwise green reputation. The bins are expected to drop by February 2007.
2. What Makes a Suburb Affordable?
Business Week just released a list of the 25 most affordable suburbs in the nation’s largest metropolitan areas, according to factors such as “low crime, reasonable commute, and good schools”. While most of these suburbs do not have the lowest national crimes rates, or the best schools in the area, when a mix of factors are considered, these suburbs continually rate above the national average.
Two of their key criteria are topics that CNT has researched extensively: transportation and housing costs. However, in the Business Week study, the criteria for transportation affordability were that a place be within one hour from the related major city. As a result, the study ranked Lake Zurich, Illinois as one of the most affordable.
However, using CNT’s Housing & Transportation Affordability Index tool, which measures the combined housing and transportation costs based on the characteristics of the neighborhood and its location within the region in relation to jobs, amenities, and transit, Lake Zurich is not an affordable place in the Chicago region, or in the nation. This is perhaps an example of how their simple measure of transportation-being within an hour of a major city-does not fully account for a household’s total transportation costs. To accurately measure a household’s total transportation costs, all trips must be included. Commuting is only one of five daily trips. As the commute gets longer and the other four daily trips, e.g. for the grocery, school, medical appointments, and recreation also have to be made by auto, a household’s costs transportation costs rapidly increase. When lower property taxes and home prices are paired with long commutes and high total transportation costs, a place is no longer affordable.
To read the Business Week article go to http://info.cnt.org/~annette/CNT Update/25Burbs.112806.pdf
3. How Your Organization Can Go Green
If you’ve wondered whether going green was possible for your organization, just come and tour CNT’s LEED-certified Platinum building. In our 2003 renovation, we showed that you don’t need a large budget or even a new building to reap the benefits of being a healthy and sustainable part of the community.
Many of us are aware of the potential benefits of a green building: lower overall energy costs, stormwater mitigation, lower heat-island effect for the surrounding area, for example. But a lot of people fail to understand that the conversion to a green building is cost-effective and readily available. Material prices are becoming lower as access to products is easier and more contractors provide green building practices as a standard service.
Read more about CNT’s Green Building Renovation at http://building.cnt.org. If you’re interested in green products in the Chicago area, check out the store Greenmaker Building Supply at http://www.greenmakersupply.com
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WHAT’S NEW @ CNT?
1. Greenmapping.org Interactive Map Launched
If you’ve had the chance to explore CNT’s Natural Connections website, you’d find yourself in a map-lover’s mecca. In 2002, CNT compiled data for 14 counties throughout the Chicago region and mapped out 20 layers of green infrastructure data. The maps are still available to download and print from the site.
Now, CNT took the data sets and made the maps interactive. You can search through 20 counties in the Chicago region, including Wisconsin and Indiana, and compile layer upon layer of useful and valuable information. The map is highly customizable, so you can choose an area by zip code, municipality, county, state or even watershed. Then you are able to choose what layers of data you want to see about that particular area, including floodplains, soils types, conservation easements, streets, wetlands, trails, mineral deposits, and greenways.
A map of this breadth has not been developed to date and has taken the effort of more than 100 organizations was necessary to compile data. Funding was provided by The Boeing Company, Illinois EPA, The Joyce Foundation, and Chicago Wilderness.
Take some time and explore the new site at http://www.greenmapping.org/map.
2. Build Your Own Wi-Fi Network
In 2003, CNT launched the Wireless Community Network Project to develop pilot networks in three different community settings: North Lawndale, a Chicago west side low- and moderate-income African American neighborhood; Pilsen, a Chicago near southwest side mixed-income Hispanic neighborhood; and West Frankfort, a southern Illinois former coal mining town.
This project, the first of its kind in the United States, has generated a wealth of hands-on experience that CNT wants to share with other groups who are considering launching a community wireless network. In addition, two of CNT’s community wireless technicians traveled to southern Mississippi and Northern Louisiana to assist with disaster relief following Hurricane Katrina.
The project has wrapped up and CNT has just finished a series of three reports: “Community Wireless Networks: Cutting Edge Technology for Internet Access;” a lessons-learned report, “What We Learned;” and a do-it-yourself manual, “Building Community Wireless Networks.”
All three are available to download at http://www.cnt.org/resources
3. New Staff
I-GO has expanded with new staff to help reach its 4000-member mark:
April Whitworth joins the staff after being an I-GO member since December 2005. April is I-GO’s Administrative Assistant and comes from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville with a degree in Business.
Sheena McNeal is I-GO’s new Outreach and Administrative Assistant and was born and raised right here in Chicago’s South Side. Sheena went to University of Illinois, earning a degree in English.
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CNT TOOLBOX
1. Report Spotlight: “Paved Over“
A newly released CNT report finds that acres of surface parking lots located near Metra train stations could be redeveloped to capture millions of dollars in new tax revenue, while also accommodating the growing demand for housing near transit.
The study, fully titled, “Paved Over: Surface Parking Lots or Opportunities for Tax-Generating, Sustainable Development?” looks at parking lots near transit in nine communities in the Chicago region and compares typical costs to support the parking lots as they are today with revenue that could be generated from the redevelopment of some portion of the lots for a mix of uses.
Since 1993, CNT has been working to promote transit-oriented development (TOD) as one tool for sustaining urban communities. In their current state, these parking lots are robbing our region of economic value because there is a higher and better use for the land.
The redevelopment potential of parking lots is especially high when they are near transit because – when developed according to TOD principles – the lots can support densities that generate greater public revenues for the city, state, and county. Demand for housing near transit is growing and these sites can play a key role in a community’s efforts to meet that demand and achieve a more sustainable region.
“Paved Over” builds off of recent research at CNT that revealed that combined housing and transportation costs determine a location’s affordability.
You can read the report at http://www.cnt.org/repository/PavedOver-Final.pdf
2. CNT in the News
Housing and transportation have been a big issue in the news lately, and these topics have always been an important focus within CNT’s work. CNT has published several reports of late in conjunction with our partners from the Center for Transit-Oriented Development and the Center for Housing Policy that have been of interest to local and national media outlets.
The Chicago Tribune covered CNT’s newly released report, “Paved Over: Surface Parking Lots or Opportunities for Tax-Generating, Sustainable Development?” The study identifies the economic benefit to communities and households through the potential reuse of surface parking lots located near Metra transit stations in suburban Cook County.
http://info.cnt.org/~annette/BLOG/Tribune_Paved.111506.pdf
Another newly published report titled, “Preserving and Promoting Diverse Transit-Oriented Developments” has gotten a lot of national attention. The study examined 41 regions nationwide and found a growing demand for housing near transit that also has an added benefit of creating diverse populations. The Realty Times reviewed the study.
http://info.cnt.org/~annette/BLOG/RealtyTimes.111606.pdf
Finally, another recent report, published by the Center for Housing Policy, with research from CNT, is titled, “A Heavy Load: The Combined Housing and Transportation Burdens of Working Families”. This report found that the combined burden of transportation and housing costs for working families was remarkably constant across all the Metropolitan areas studied at an average of 57 percent of annual income. The following article from Business Week covers the report.
http://info.cnt.org/~annette/BLOG/Business-Week.101806.pdf
***All three of these reports can be found at http://www.cnt.org/resources
3. Jobs
Research Manager, posted 10/23/06
http://www.cnt.org/jobs?job=research-manager&nofoot=1
Environmental Law and Policy Center, Clear Air Litigation Attorney
http://info.cnt.org/~annette/CNT Update/ELPC.doc
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LOCAL EVENTS
1. Walk for the People’s Chariot (i.e. the bus)
Walking and riding the bus go hand-in-hand. Like bees and flowers, each relies upon the other for its well-being. Good transit makes it possible for many of us to get through the day on foot. Indeed, people using public transportation tend to walk about 20 minutes per day to and from transit locations. This is why Logan Square Walks has decided to take a look at the quality of transit in Logan Square, starting with the Armitage Avenue bus.
On Wednesday, November 29th a group of Logan Square Walkers will be walking from Western to Central Park in an effort to identify recommendations for improving the route. Join them at 6:00 at the Green Eye bar (2403 W. Homer, by the Western EL). From there they’ll head west, finishing the journey at Weegee’s Lounge (3659 W. Armitage) where they will compile data and make recommendations.
2. Green City, Green Mayor, Sustainable Urban Policy
At the monthly Archeworks Lecture Series, special guest lecturer Sam Assefa, LEED AP, Director of Policy for the Department of Planning and Development, City of Chicago will be discussing Mayor Daley’s pledge to make Chicago the “Greenest City in America” and how this is helping create various policy initiatives both in the public and private sectors. As a result, Chicago is fast becoming a model for sustainability in the United States. The talk will highlight the key policy initiatives, with a focus on land and building development policies, to illustrate how the city is leading by example on sustainable development.
The Archeworks Lecture Series: Green City, Green Mayor, Sustainable Urban Policy is Wednesday, December 6 @ 6:00 PM, 625 North Kingsbury.
3. Green Building Workshop: The Nuts and Bolts for Contractors
This Workshop is designed to enhance your knowledge about green building strategies and procedures, the LEED® rating system, and the requirements that need to be met on the construction site to achieve a certified structure. Topics will include:
• Why GreenBuilding matters – market forces, economics, permitting and building codes, and financial incentives
• The GreenBuilding Team, and your role as a contractor
• Construction Methods
• Energy and Water Efficiency, and Indoor Air Quality techniques
• Building Commissioning
• Management of construction waste
• Procurement of green building materials and
• Documentation for LEED® credits
Instructors for this workshop were selected from a group of architects, contractors, and government personnel who have extensive experience in designing, building, permitting, commissioning, and documenting LEED®-certified structures. The workshop is January 26, 2007 at Wilbur Wright College.
More information about this event at http://info.cnt.org/~annette/CNT Update/GCTP.pdf
You can support our efforts in building more sustainable urban communities by making a donation online. Visit: http://www.cnt.org/support. You can also support CNT as part of Earth Share of Illinois workplace campaigns. For more information about workplace giving, contact Nicole at nicoleg@cnt.org. Thank you for your generosity!
Questions about anything you’ve read or interested in learning more? Contact Annette at annette@cnt.org
