CNT Update, June 2008
CNT.ORG Gets a New Look
Thanks to the support of the Taproot Foundation and with the help of a volunteer design team, CNT has redesigned cnt.org to incorporate CNT’s new logo and color scheme.
The new logo was designed by Plan A and was launched last year as part of a re-branding of CNT. The new logo reflects CNT’s dynamic and creative work as a think-and-do tank working on sustainable urban issues. Our new tagline, Sustainable Communities, Attainable Results, captures the 30 year history of CNT.
Read more and view the new design.
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CNT Update, July 2008
Place Matters: For 30 years, CNT has been developing sustainable and livable communities for everyone. With the rise in gas prices and the increased concern about global warming, CNT’s research and analysis about the location efficiency of urban neighborhoods has been generating greater interest in our work. From testifying before a congressional committee and providing the most fuel efficient neighborhoods to Forbes, to updating our Housing + Transportation Affordability Index with current Gas Costs and expanding I-GO car-sharing as a option to owning a car, this Update highlights our some of our exciting activities.
Sustainability News
1. Location Efficiency and the G.R.E.E.N. Act
2. Where Did Your Stimulus Check End Up?
3. Streetcar Revival Hitched to Reurbanization
CNT News
1. Location, Location, Location. New Online Gas Maps Paint Money Saving Picture
2. New Maps Added to Natural Connections
3. CNT Launches Illinois Smart Grid Initiative
CNT Toolbox
1. Tool Profile: Two Views of Affordability
2. CNT in the News
3. Jobs
Support Your Green Think-and-Do Tank
1. Attend a planning workshop
2. Listen to a Knowledgeplex Expert Chat
3. Donate to CNT’s 30th Anniversary
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Sustainability News
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1. Location Efficiency and the G.R.E.E.N. Act
On June 11, Scott Bernstein, CNT President, testified in front of the House Financial Services Committee in support of the proposed “Green Resources for Energy Efficient Neighborhoods (G.R.E.E.N.) Act†by U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO).
The Bill provides incentives to lenders and financial institutions to provide lower interest loans and other benefits to consumers, who build, buy or remodel their homes and businesses to improve their energy efficiency. This timely legislation reflects foresight and the considered input of a broad coalition of housing advocates, financial institutions, government leaders, developers, and the environmental community.
Bernstein testified in support of the bill, along with suggesting improvements, including expanding “efficiency†in this case to include “location efficiency†– the importance of valuing location to transportation infrastructure as a function of energy efficiency. Read his full testimony, including improvements, here.
CNT helped develop the Location Efficient Mortgage (LEM)—mortgages that help people become homeowners in communities where they can walk from their homes to stores, schools, recreation, and public transportation, saving them money by reducing their need to drive from place to place. LEM’s were available in Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco from 2001-2004. A recent survey of all the awarded LEM’s showed that one had defaulted. In Chicago, for example, of the 41 loans there were no defaults and 30 percent of the borrowers sold a car.
The G.R.E.E.N. Act is a great start in providing incentives to homeowners in becoming more efficient, but should not overlook the importance of the ‘location’ of a home when determining its ‘efficiency’. Just like the Location Efficient Mortgage, the G.R.E.E.N. Act can be used as a tool for combating foreclosures by revealing hidden costs of inefficiently located housing.
CNT was recently asked by Forbes to compile the most fuel-efficient neighborhoods in the U.S. Read the recent article here. In addition, CNT’s newest tool to reveal these costs is the “Housing + Transportation Affordability Indexâ€, which is now available as an online interactive map at www.htaindex.org.
2. Where Did Your Stimulus Check End Up?
Without sufficient alternatives to driving, American families spent their entire economic stimulus check on high-priced gas. According to new analysis from the Illinois PIRG (Public Interest Research Group), since President Bush signed the tax rebates into law on February 13th, the average household spent over $1500 filling their tanks. Gas costs were higher than average in areas without robust public transportation.
The report highlighted the need to invest in the region’s transit infrastructure to give people an alternative to high gas prices.
“With adequate capital funding from lawmakers, we can invest in our transit network, expand service to communities that need it and make it easier for people to drive less,” said Emily Miller, Advocate with Illinois PIRG.
According to the analysis released by Illinois PIRG, since February when President Bush signed the tax rebates into law, the average cost per household for gasoline has gone from just over $60 weekly to almost $100 per week. Americans have responded to higher gas costs by taking public transportation at record rates in areas where it is available. American drivers traveled fewer miles last year for the first time in almost thirty years.
The Illinois PIRG-released analysis, generated by CNT, also shows that neighborhoods around the country with the best access to transit spent an average of $728 monthly on all transportation costs, including gas, insurance, upkeep, and transit fares. Households in neighborhoods with the least access to transit, by contrast, spent an average of $925 per month.
“Here in metropolitan Chicago, residents of transit rich communities like Evanston are able to keep their annual gas costs below $1,490 per year, while residents in communities with less access to transit, for example Hoffman Estates, are spending more than $4,500 per year, almost three times as much, ” said Scott Bernstein, CNT President.
Transit agencies have meanwhile struggled to keep up with the increased ridership volume. Despite the success of new rail routes and bus lines around the country, new transit projects, like the red line expansion, have remained stuck on the drawing board due to lack of funding.
“If Congress wants to do something long-term about high gas prices, it will give people more alternatives to driving,” said Miller. “Unless we make it easier to drive less, American families will be stuck in neutral as they spend more and more at the pump.”
Analysis by PIRG shows that public transportation created net oil savings totaling 3.4 billion gallons in 2006. This is enough to fuel 5.8 million cars for an entire year and to save about $13.6 billion in gasoline at today’s prices. Here in Northeastern Illinois, public transit saved 276 million gallons, the equivalent of saving $1.1 billion at the pump today.
Read the new report, “Squandering the Stimulus”.
For more information about transportation costs in 52 US Metropolitan areas, see http://htaindex.cnt.org.
3. Streetcar Revival Hitched to Reurbanization
With gas prices approaching $5/gallon, people are increasingly considering how not to rely on their vehicles to get to their work or do their errands. As a recent Wall Street Journal article reported, “Subprime-mortgage crisis and $4-a-gallon gasoline are causing many to think twice about remote subdivisions, rendering long commutes untenable.” The “collision” of all these factors is leading all sorts of people to re-think their commutes, where they live and how to get around cheaper and more efficiently.
Reurbanization has been happening for many years now. According to research by CNT and Reconnecting America, the number of households near transit stations will soar to 15 million by 2030, from 6 million now. This research shows it is less of a trend and more of a desire for entire lifestyle change. The interrelated nature of housing and transportation means that locating oneself closer to amenities, with better access to different forms of mobility will make deeper impact monetarily than switching to a more fuel-efficient vehicle, for example.
In tandem with the move toward more efficiently located living, the revival of the streetcar has been bubbling around the nation, and now is ever-more significant with the increase interest in urban living, and cities look for more options at providing more transit in often cheaper and quicker ways. Symbol of nostalgia for many, streetcars played an important role in urban cities all over in the early 1900’s of moving people around. Now, they are viewed as a great benefit for places that need transit, in a more readily, cost-effective way.
A recent Chicago Tribune article discusses the role that streetcars played in Chicago and the efforts to bring them back.
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CNT News
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1.Location, Location, Location. New Online Gas Maps Paint Money Saving Picture
Record-high gasoline prices are inspiring more Americans to celebrate Independence Day close to home. But those who live where they can walk, bike or take public transit to their local fireworks displays and other amenities are benefiting from another sort of independence – from gasoline.
New research from CNT shows that people who live close to transit, jobs, schools and retail – typically in cities and inner ring suburbs – spend up to $2,100 less annually on gasoline than residents of outer ring suburbs, where homes and amenities are generally more spread out and require more driving.
The research, which compares average household gasoline expenses based on the average number of vehicle miles traveled per household, examines 52 U.S. metropolitan areas across the country – encompassing 60 million households. It also looks at percentage of household income spent on transportation, number of vehicles per household, transit ridership and other variables on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis.
The gas-cost findings are a newly released addition to the Housing + Transportation Affordability Index, an interactive mapping web tool at http://htaindex.cnt.org.
Read the entire press release.
2. New Maps Added to Natural Connections
Natural Connections, the Chicago region’s first comprehensive database of green infrastructure featuring data for a 19-county region, has just expanded with new maps on pre-European settlement conditions in Northeastern Illinois and Chicago Wilderness Natural Communities Classification System.
In 2000, CNT and Openlands worked to collect data from more than 60 local, state, and federal agencies, as well as private land trusts and conservation groups. Collectively, the green infrastructure detailed on the map represents more than 175 layers of data.
Now, with funding from Chicago Wilderness, CNT and it’s partners have expanded the site. CNT has partnered with the Morton Arboretum, on the pre-European settlement conditions. One of these maps displays the pre-European settlement vegetation throughout the seven-county region of Northeastern Illinois-Cook, DuPage, Kane, McHenry, Kendall, Lake and Will Counties. Researchers at Morton Arboretum were able to compile notes and maps from the Government Land Office Public Land Survey (PLS) to develop maps illustrating the vegetation of the region. As importantly, technical reports which were completed for each county that include a quantitative analysis of the landscape pattern and timber composition are available online.
Collecting and displaying this data in a useful way can prove invaluable for land managers, students and educators by providing them context and references to the landscapes changes for restoration and conservation efforts. Over time, the landscape has changed so much-through fire suppression, agriculture, fragmentation by roads and development, logging, draining of wetlands, invasion of exotic plants and the effects of livestock, according to the researchers-that this information on pre-settlement conditions provides a pattern of the distribution and management needs of savanna, woodland forest vegetation.
CNT also worked with the Forest Preserve Districts of DuPage & Lake Counties, Fermilab and the Park District of Highland Park to create interactive maps showing and analyzing the distribution of natural communities within their land holdings. Using the Natural Communities Classification System developed by the Chicago Wilderness Consortium, these maps can facilitate an understanding of biodiversity while creating a tool for the assessment of the status of communities and aiding land managers in their work of restoring and maintaining diverse native ecosystems.
You can find the new maps at http://www.greenmapping.org/map by selecting the Featured Views of “Pre European Settlement Vegetation”, “Fermilab/DuPage Natural Communities”, “Highland Park Natural Communities”, and “Lake and McHenry Natural Communities”. At these maps, you can also read the corresponding reports.
3. CNT Launches Illinois Smart Grid Initiative
The Illinois Smart Grid Initiative is a voluntary group of state and local government, consumer, business, environmental, and utility stakeholders that will work together to examine how consumers can benefit from comprehensive grid modernization in Illinois. The Initiative is a project of CNT and is funded by the Galvin Project and assisted by the Galvin Electricity Initiative and USDOE.
A series of stakeholder meetings will be held in the coming months to engage policymakers and other influential leaders in the state in a discussion of the critical grid issues, opportunities, and costs, and to develop policies to improve performance of the electric power system. The Initiative plans to conclude its year-long project by issuing a report identifying key steps for improving electricity services throughout the State.
“As part of our goal to make Chicago the most environmentally-friendly city in the nation, we should not overlook improvements to our electric power grid,” said Mayor Daley. “The work of this initiative is a major step in the right direction and underscores the need for making electricity grids smarter, more efficient and most importantly, better for the environment.”
“Grid modernization should be approached in a way that provides concrete net benefits to consumers,” said Kathryn Tholin, CNT’s CEO. “This project’s unique contribution to the national discussion on smart grids is its focus on the opportunities for consumers, including residents, businesses, and institutions.”
Read more in an article by the Herald News.
Learn more at http://www.ilsmartgrid.org/.
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CNT Toolbox
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1. Tool Profile: Two Views of Affordability Select City Fact Sheets
The Housing + Transportation (H + T) Affordability Index is a new and more comprehensive way of thinking about the cost of housing and true affordability by exploring the impact that transportation costs associated with location have on a household’s economic bottom line.
Fact sheets are available on the Housing + Transportation data for ten select metropolitan areas: Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Denver, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.
View all at http://www.cnt.org/publications.
2. CNT in the News
A change-of-heart by a Newsweek author, who once claimed that a 20mpg SUV and a 35 mile commute were good choices. He mentions lots of handy websites for calculating housing costs, amount of income spent on gas, and walkability, including CNT’s HTA Index.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/144114/page/2
The move to car sharing continues. The CBS Evening News did a piece on car sharing with a mention that I-GO’s membership has soared 43% since last June.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/01/eveningnews/main4226335.shtml
What San Antonio is doing in response to higher energy prices, high waste, and CNT’s recent report.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/environment/stories/MYSA061208.1B.city_sustainability.EN.37bc4a0.html
This Tribune article briefly describes the different views of the Oak Park free trolley, with a quote from CNT Vice President, Steve Perkins.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-opshuttle_both_18jun18,0,5819236.story
3. Jobs
I-GO Marketing and Communications Coordinator
http://www.cnt.org/jobs#cmc
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Support your Green Think-and-Do Tank
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1. Attend a planning workshop
From the Margins to the Mainstream Workshop
Thursday and Friday, July 24-25
Denver, CO
The next installment of “From the Margins to the Mainstream†is a workshop to help participants understand what the principles referred to as “context sensitive solutions†(CSS) are, and how these principles can be used to balance and integrate the needs of travelers and communities in the planning and design of urban transportation systems. The workshop is directed at advocates, local officials and planning/design professionals in state DOTs, transit agencies, MPOs, and consultants.
The workshop will feature leading transportation experts, land use planners, and state and local officials as speakers and panelists. A field trip is included to give participants an opportunity to assess the potential of transforming a major urban corridor or transit station area by applying CSS principles.
The workshop will be held July 24-25th in Denver. REGISTER NOW!
2. Listen to a Knowledgeplex Expert Chat
KnowledgePlex Expert Chat on Housing + Transportation Affordability Index
Thursday, July 31, 2 p.m ET/1 p.m. CT
The Housing + Transportation Affordability Index, is an innovative tool that measures the true affordability of housing by including the cost of transportation associated with location. Planners, lenders, and most consumers traditionally measure housing affordability as 30 percent or less of income. The Housing + Transportation Affordability Index, in contrast, takes into account not just the cost of housing, but also the intrinsic value of place, as quantified through transportation expenses.
The latest release of the H + T Index, a project of the Brookings Institution’s Urban Markets Initiative, includes an interactive mapping site which provides housing and transportation costs at the neighborhood level for 52 metropolitan areas. Additionally, other key characteristics of neighborhoods are presented, including average VMT (vehicle miles traveled), auto ownership rates, employment density, and transit ridership. Recognizing the relationship between urban form, housing site selection, and transportation costs and integrating this way of thinking into the choices and decisions made by home buyers, renters, urban and transportation planners and developers are key factors in creating and establishing true affordability in housing choices.
In this chat, you will have the opportunity to learn about the Housing + Transportation Affordability Index and how it can be used by planners, housing advocates and transportation agencies. To view the Index prior to the chat, visit CNT’s interactive website at: http://htaindex.cnt.org
More information at http://www.knowledgeplex.org/xchat.html.
3. Donate to CNT’s 30th Anniversary
CNT was founded in 1978 as a center of innovation for the redevelopment of Chicago’s low- and moderate income communities. We started out as a small storefront operation with tomatoes growing in the windows and a goal to invent strategies that can turn community problems into assets. We’ve since grown to a national “think-and-do†tank that is leading the movement toward urban sustainability, with programs focusing on resource efficiency, transportation, job creation, and environmental quality.
CNT brings a unique perspective and three decades of experience to growing concerns about the environment. Our work is demonstrating that cities can be the solution to the challenge of climate change and economic inequality because of their inherent, yet often hidden, assets of density and social networks. And these solutions, if well crafted, can also reduce the cost of living.
Join us in celebrating our first 30 years of urban sustainability innovations at our 30th Anniversary Celebration on September 17th at the Garfield Park Conservatory. More information at http://www.cnt.org/30years.
