Environmental Justice

In 2020, Center for Neighborhood Technology and a group including Equiticity, Active Transportation Alliance, Northwest Center, Metropolitan Planning Council and others convened the Network. Currently over 30 organizational members belong to the Transportation Equity Network. The Network helped advocate for Chicago’s Connected Communities Ordinance in 2022.

Climate and Transportation

We’re members of the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition currently working to pass the Clean And Equitable Transportation Campaign package of state legislation to:

• Reduce greenhouse gases by regulating diesel- and gas-fueled truck transportation and investing in public transit. We recently highlighted the need for such regulation with our Chicago Truck Count data map.
• Reduce greenhouse gases from buildings and promote a reliable electric grid.
• We’ve endorsed (and our own Jacky Grimshaw was on the committee that helped to create) the Plan of Action for Regional Transit detailing a way forward

One reason behind the ‘fiscal cliff’ the Plan of Action for Regional Transit addresses is transit agencies' lack of dedicated public funding for operations. We belong to the National Campaign on Transit Justice, which supports legislation in the U.S. Senate called the Moving Transit Forward Act to create a funding program to supplement transit agencies' existing operating budgets.

Water

We often partner with front-line organizations to highlight current issues and opportunities to develop more community-centered policies. A case in point from 2023 is a publication we produced with the Southeast Environmental Taskforce: An Advocate's Guide to Land Use Decisions Along the Calumet River. This report shows how environment and public health concerns reflect a legacy of urban planning and policy decisions, setting a new context for addressing those concerns.