News for September, 2012
Thursday, September 27th, 2012
CNT’s upcoming event, Reinventing Chicago: What’s Technology Got To Do with It? features talks from experts such as CNT’s own President Scott Bernstein, seminal architect and urban planner Andrés Duany, and the Chief Technology Officer for the City of Chicago John Tolva. We are enthusiastically looking forward to John’s speech because, ever since taking the position of CTO in May 2011, John has worked tirelessly for a more free and open method of storing city data, which allows for the development of tools and online applications that use this data and support sustainable lifestyles and choices.
John began his career in information technology at IBM, as a manager of Corporate Community Relations, focusing on projects concerned with cultural heritage. Most notable of his projects while there were the site of the Hermitage State Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, in which visitors can search through and view more than 5,000 masterpieces; and Eternal Egypt, a multimedia re-creation of artifacts, monuments, and historical events that “weave together seven millennia of Egyptian culture and civilization.” Read more »
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Tuesday, September 25th, 2012
The City of Chicago has selected CNT to manage the Chicago Sustainable Backyards Program (SusBy) which encourages Chicagoans to create more environmentally-friendly landscapes in their yards, as well as in community and school gardens. The program promotes simple, low-cost measures that residents can use to enhance the environment and reduce neighborhood flooding. It offers Chicago residents educational information and rebates up to 50% back on their purchases of trees, native plants, compost bins and rain barrels. Funding for rebates currently comes from the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Pollution Prevention Program and a USDA Forest Service Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Grant. Read more »
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Tuesday, September 25th, 2012
CHICAGO (September 24, 2012) – The City of Chicago has selected the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) to manage the Chicago Sustainable Backyards Program (SusBy). SusBy promotes simple, low-cost measures that residents can use to enhance the environment and reduce neighborhood flooding.
“CNT is excited to work with the City to foster backyards and community spaces that conserve water, manage stormwater, combat climate change and bring nature to Chicago, all while helping residents save money,” said CNT CEO Kathryn Tholin.
Sustainable Backyards encourages Chicagoans to create more environmentally-friendly landscapes in their yards, as well as in community and school gardens. The program offers Chicago residents educational information and rebates up to 50% back on their purchases of:
- TREES (up to $100 back)
- NATIVE PLANTS (up to $60 back)
- COMPOST BINS (up to $50 back)
- RAIN BARRELS (up to $40 back)
The SusBy program was created to alleviate basement and neighborhood flooding and reduce the flow of polluted water into our rivers and Lake Michigan using green infrastructure. Green infrastructure, as opposed to gray infrastructure (such as pipes), uses natural processes in order to infiltrate, evaporate, and/or reuse stormwater. Many of the green infrastructure practices encouraged have a multitude of benefits, from providing wildlife habitat to cooling the air and fostering a sense of community. Educational workshops will continue to be offered to residents who want to learn more about the SusBy program and the basics of making their green spaces more sustainable.
Sustainable Backyards is part of CNT’s “Smart Water for Smart Regions” initiative, which includes research, inventive solutions, and regional advocacy focused on water supply and stormwater management in the Great Lakes region. Sustainable Backyards will complement CNT’s wet weather retrofitting program, “Wetrofit,” to test and install fixes for flooding, currently being piloted in Chicago’s Albany Park and Rogers Park neighborhoods.
Funding for rebates currently comes from the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Pollution Prevention Program and a USDA Forest Service Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Grant.
The public can find more information at www.cityofchicago.org/rainbarrel or by contacting susby@cnt.org or 312.743.9283.
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CONTACT
CDOT: Sean Wiedel, 312.744.8182
CNT: Nicole Gotthelf, 773.269.4029
Posted in Press Releases | 1 Comment »
Monday, September 24th, 2012
CNT’s upcoming event, Reinventing Chicago: What’s Technology Got To Do with It? features talks from experts such as CNT’s own President Scott Bernstein, the Chief Technology Officer for the City of Chicago John Tolva, and seminal architect and urban planner Andrés Duany. We are very excited to be working with Mr. Duany, because in looking for a figure in smart, sustainable development, we couldn’t have found a better authority.
Andrés worked as a successful condominium developer in Miami, Florida until 1980, when he became disillusioned with developer culture and formed an independent practice with his wife: Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ). DPZ began working on smart urban planning using a philosophy that came to be known as New Urbanism. Thirty years later, Andrés says this of New Urbanism:
“Basically it is making communities that are mixed-use and mixed-income and complete, to the extent that they allow you to live without a car. And that has all sorts of implications. For the 50 percent of Americans who do not drive, they have a kind of freedom of movement.” Read more »
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Tuesday, September 18th, 2012
Chicago’s transformational public transit system celebrated its 120th anniversary this past June, and the city’s system of trains and buses continues to grow in popularity. According to the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), ridership on Chicago’s heavy rail systems (defined as subway and elevated train lines) has increased by 8.9 percent during the first quarter of 2012; if this trend continues, ridership could reach levels not seen since 1957, a sign that car-centric lifestyles are becoming a fad of the past.
While commuting via car had become commonplace by the end of the 20th century, rising fuel costs, a poor economy, and concerns about the environment have contributed to a 21st century resurgence of public transportation usage. Numbers taken from CTA records show a clear correlation between increased transit ridership and the recession.
Chart showing CTA ridership, created using data from the CTA ridership reports, http://www.transitchicago.com/news_initiatives/ridershipreports.aspx
Between 2008 and 2011, 11.3 percent more residents chose to ride a train or bus on an average weekday, while 33.2 percent more chose to ride on an average Saturday, and 39.6 on an average Sunday. High gas prices and the increasingly high costs of car ownership make car-centric lifestyles seem frivolous and untenable. Public transportation provides a viable solution to Chicago’s congestion, access, and mobility problems and the newest generation of urbanites is making it clear that they choose transit over cars.
This recent CTA data also reveals something deeper about the consciousness of people choosing sustainable transportation. The automobile age is in a slow decline and the way we view and invest in transportation networks needs to adapt. The heyday of the exurbs is over, and lifestyles are no longer arranged around a car. Our neighbor to the southwest, Kendall County, is proving this point: between 2000 and 2010, Kendall County was the fastest growing county in the entire nation, but in 2011 growth came to a standstill, and Kendall’s standing plummeted to 236.
Investments in car-centric, expansive residential neighborhoods like the ones in Kendall are becoming rare as we move out of the recession. Chicagoans are supporting walkable communities, transit-oriented developments, and reduced traffic and air pollution. As the CTA numbers reveal, our city is becoming a national model during this turning point for American attitudes toward public transit.
Chart showing reduced Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT), from IDOT's 2011 report on travel statistics, http://www.dot.state.il.us/travelstats/2011_ITS.pdf
Additional supporting evidence for this shift away from cars can be seen in data from the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) for vehicle miles traveled (VMT) within Cook County between 2007 and 2011.The IDOT data shows that VMT declined by over one billion in Cook County between 2007 and 2011, a clear indication that when transit ridership goes up, car ridership goes down. I think these trends are a positive sign for Chicago’s transportation goals.
As the newest generation of urban residents chooses public transit over private cars, Chicago will lead the way in transitioning American cities toward more sustainable systems of transportation. I am confident that Chicago will continue to provide a good example for other metropolitan areas and, as always, I am excited to see how growing demand for efficiency and sustainability will cause transit systems to evolve.
Posted in Advocacy, Chicago, Going Places, Regional, Staff Blog, Transit Ridership | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 11th, 2012
In July, I was a panelist for “Transportation: The Missing Link for your Clients” at the West Suburban Jobs Council in DuPage County. I, along with representatives from three other organizations, presented ideas to address the problem of transportation, the most difficult barrier to overcome for low-income job seekers in the area. Solutions to this transportation deficiency can be found in the plans outlined in CNT’s report, Prospering in Place.
Prospering in Place links jobs, development, and transit to spur Chicago’s economy, and can be broken into three categories: transit oriented development (TOD), cargo oriented development (COD), and employment oriented transit. TOD uses mixed use development to help make areas more affordable to all income levels. COD, on the other hand, brings jobs to low-income areas by infilling unused or underused land areas. Employment oriented transit connects businesses to transit locations so that individuals without vehicles are not excluded from the job pool. In order to achieve the goals laid out in Prospering in Place, CNT has five recommendations that can be achieved with community support: prioritize development areas, create a regional sustainable communities initiative, align resources, find new resources, and create new funding mechanisms.
Establishing priority development areas for TOD, COD, and employment oriented transit can help reduce sprawl, keep people better connected to their jobs and homes, and create thriving local economies. Mirroring the federal partnership for sustainable communities is critical for economic growth, so CNT calls for directing $1 billion toward transportation to encourage development in these areas. With budgets tight at the local, state, and federal level it is important to ensure that investments support these development plans rather than derail them by building districts that only work for single-occupancy vehicles.
In order to help reach the funding requirements for these projects, Chicago and its surrounding areas should utilize new revenue streams. In Los Angeles, Denver, the Twin Cities, and most recently in three regions of Georgia, citizens elected to tax themselves in order to reach their transportation goals in a timely and efficient manner. These types of innovative revenue streams could be implemented here in Chicago to help make Prospering in Place a reality. Finally, enacting the Brownfield Redevelopment and Intermodal Promotion Act by the General Assembly and the Land Bank Legislation in Cook County, both necessary legislative components, is essential to making this type of development affordable.
With your help, we transform these recommendations from report to reality. Talk with your local government and your legislators and let them know that you support development that encourages transit use and redevelopment of vacant properties. Discuss with your co-workers the benefits of connecting the workplace to a transit stop. And support initiatives that will provide a revenue source for transit to allow Chicago’s transportation system to meet the needs of current and future generations.
Posted in Advocacy, Chicago, Economic Development, Going Places, Regional, Staff Blog, Transit Policy, Transit-Oriented Development | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 11th, 2012
In a US EPA-funded project, CNT is using its highly acclaimed guide – The Value of Green Infrastructure: A Guide to Recognizing Its Economic, Environmental and Social Benefits to help showcase the added economic benefits of green infrastructure.
CNT released the guide in 2011 to provide municipalities with a methodology for assessing the financial, environmental and community benefits of select green infrastructure elements. By demonstrating that a comprehensive green infrastructure strategy can help reduce the economic burden of water management while improving a community’s quality of life, CNT has helped establish green infrastructure as part of a viable planning solution to stormwater management. The City of Lancaster, PA will be used as the basis of the upcoming case study. Lancaster developed its own Green Infrastructure Plan in 2010 to establish a more sustainable community and reduce the volume of stormwater runoff returned to local waterways. Read more »
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Thursday, September 6th, 2012
CNT is excited to announce the Reinventing Chicago conversation and Hackathon! The event is a one-day conversation between the public and three great thinkers on technology and sustainability followed by a weekend-long Hackathon in which developers will compete with each other to turn the ideas raised at the conversation into reality. The conversation is being hosted by Red Frog Events and the Hackathon is hosted by TechNexus Venture Collaborative on October 4 and October 5-7, respectively.
Reinventing Chicago: What’s Technology Got to Do with It? will seek to answer the question: how can the “placeless” internet address problems like housing, transportation, and energy usage and support sustainable development of real places? What sorts of apps and tools can be developed to facilitate a smarter use of land, buildings, and resources? These are the sorts of issues our three experts will be addressing during the conversation. Read more »
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