Archive for the 'Featured Portfolio News' Category
Friday, March 12th, 2010
CNT Research Director, Linda Young, at the Chicago press conference in Union Station.
March 11th marked Transportation Freedom Day for the Chicago area—the date on which a typical area household has earned enough income to cover its annual transportation costs. In the Chicago region, it takes the average household 70 days to make enough money to cover their transportation costs. That’s about $8,300 per year, though costs vary widely in the region. For example, in Chicago’s Roscoe Village, transportation costs are only about $7,000 annually, whereas in suburban West Dundee, costs increase to almost $11,800 annually. In contrast, residents of New York City only spend about $5,400 on transportation each year.
In transit-rich neighborhoods within walking distance to retail, schools and recreation such as Roscoe Village and the South Loop in Chicago, household transportation costs are lower, and residents spend 6-8 weeks of pay for annual transportation costs. In dispersed communities, far from jobs and with no access to transit, such as West Dundee and Sugar Grove, households spend up to 13 weeks of wages on annual transportation costs.
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Friday, March 5th, 2010
"Chicago’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2000", copyright CNT, 2010.
When CNT set out to inventory Chicago’s greenhouse gas emissions, our goal was to give the Mayor’s Task Force on Climate Change the information it needed to better understand where Chicago’s emissions come from and to establish a baseline for comparison in future years. In addition to that, we created a portfolio of emissions reductions measures to better understand the scale and scope of actions that needed to be taken to meet the city’s emissions reduction targets.
Beyond the City-commissioned research, our broader goal is to make our climate change analysis transparent and available for cities around the world to take action on reducing their impact on climate change. Soon this research will be available in the Journal of Great Lakes Research and it is our belief that the valuable information in this peer-reviewed, scientific journal can serve as a useful tool for cities to use a model.
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Posted in Chicago Climate Action Plan, Climate, Featured Portfolio News | No Comments »
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
The Illinois Rain Garden Initiative grant program provides funds for the construction of a rain garden on public property. A rain garden is a depression, often near a downspout, that is planted with native wetland or aquatic vegetation. Rain gardens can be designed to flower throughout the summer and built to will hold stormwater runoff or snow melt, allowing the water to be absorbed slowly by the plants and the soil.
Rain gardens reduce stormwater runoff, improve water quality, allow for the recharge of groundwater supplies, increase wildlife habitat and often reduce the need for mowing and its associated costs and pollution. You’ll find the application forms at http://dnr.state.il.us/education/CLASSRM/RainGarden/applicationpage.htm. Teachers, not-for-profit organizations and community groups may apply. The maximum award is $1,000. Grant applications due by March 19, 2010. For more information, contact the Illinois Department of Natural Resources’ (IDNR) Division of Education (dnr.teachkids@illinois.gov or 217-785-0973). The IDNR and Illinois Conservation Foundation administer this program. Funds are provided through a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
(Photo of St. Margaret Mary School and Church raingarden)
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, Natural Resources | No Comments »
Thursday, February 18th, 2010
Yesterday, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation, Ray LaHood, announced the 51 projects—a mix of highways to boulevards projects, complete streets initiatives, streetcars and light-rail projects, and innovative highway funding—that will receive federal funding from the TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) program, which was funded by $1.5 billion included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). According to Sec. LaHood, awards went to “projects that create jobs, stimulate economic activity, and help develop livable communities.”
USDOT continues to affirm its commitment to fund innovative transportation projects that focus on multi-modal transport, reducing greenhouse gases and creating livable communities; simultaneously addressing economic, environmental and travel issues.
In particular, the Chicago region is poised to benefit greatly from a $100 million investment into the CREATE (Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency) program.
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Posted in Featured Portfolio News, Policy, Transportation and Community Development | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
Through the end of 2009, investments by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) in public transportation have created almost twice as many jobs per dollar as investments in highways – and the advantage is growing.
The most recent data from states, made available by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, shows that every billion dollars spent on public transportation produced 19,299 job-months, compared to 10,493 job-months for every billion spent on highway infrastructure. Public transportation projects create more jobs than road projects because they spend less money on land and more on labor, and because projects are often more complex, whether laying track or manufacturing vehicles.
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Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
As communities continue to grapple with perennial budget shortfalls, mounting water infrastructure needs, and overwhelming stormwater pollution problems, we need to ensure we are making the best water infrastructure investment decisions (economically, socially and environmentally) to utilize public funds most efficiently.
Traditional water planning has not recognized the interconnected nature of water supply, wastewater and stormwater management. More comprehensive planning methodologies, sometimes called “Integrated Resource Planning” (IRP), recognize these relationships from a least-cost, publicly transparent, and scenario-based perspective.
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Posted in Featured Portfolio News, Natural Resources | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
Congratulations to current and former CNT board members who were honored at the 16th Annual Chicago Neighborhood Development Awards. These awards recognize individuals, non-profits and for-profit organizations that have improved the quality of life in our region’s communities and neighborhoods.
Board member Patricia Saldaña Natke & her firm UrbanWorks won the First Place Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Award for Architectural Excellence in Community Design for the UNO Veterans Memorial School Campus – which once was an abandoned industrial bakery in the Archer Heights community area. In accepting the award, Pat expressed the joy she had in designing a facility for children of all ages in the neighborhood where she grew up. Its unique design opens up to the community through an inviting glass facade. This sustainable project includes a green roof, energy efficiency measures, and solar panels and has applied for LEED gold certification. Read more »
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Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
The Preservation Compact announced that CNT Energy’s innovative energy efficiency program, Cook County Energy Savers, is proving that residential energy retrofits can scale-up quickly, reaching thousands of residents and delivering cost-effective, large-scale benefits.
In just 18 months, Energy Savers has retrofitted 3,500 apartments and other rental units in Chicago and neighboring communities, typically cutting energy consumption by 30 percent. The program has more than 2,500 units in construction and is on track to complete more than 8,500 retrofits by the end of this year, making it one of the country’s largest and most successful programs for retrofitting existing multi-family, rental housing. Read more »
Posted in Energy, Featured Portfolio News | No Comments »
Monday, February 8th, 2010
The Illinois EPA is seeking public comment by Wednesday, February 24, 2010 on the development of a Stormwater Green Infrastructure Plan for the State of Illinois, as required by the Green Infrastructure for Clean Water Act, passed in 2009.
Green Infrastructure is the interconnected network of open spaces and natural areas that naturally recharges aquifers, improves water quality and quantity, and provides recreational opportunities and wildlife habitat. Green infrastructure manages stormwater by capturing raindrops where they fall. CNT encourages reuse of natural moisture by using rain gardens, swales, green roofs, tree planting, permeable pavement and other low impact approaches to restore natural drainage functions and recycle stormwater in urban environments. Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, Natural Resources, Policy | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
(From CNT’s partner, Reconnecting America)
The U.S. Department of Transportation has released its 2009 Record of Accomplishment, and it includes implementation of the Economic Recovery Act, called “the most ambitious infrastructure investment program in more than half a century, creation of the TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) grant program, and a number of other initiatives including the Federal Transit Administration’s work with the Center for Transit-Oriented Development.
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Posted in Featured Portfolio News, Policy, Transit-Oriented Development, Transportation and Community Development | No Comments »
