The hyper-modern single-story blue building at the corner of 16th and Sawyer gives off vibes that are one part coffee shop, one part community space—just as envisioned by the Robles siblings, who run the lead firm on the project, the nonprofit Duo Development. The new building, named Starling—inspired by the ways large groups of the birds can generate figures when they come together—serves as a proof of concept for the firm's ideas. "We call it our album drop," Rafael 'Rafa'... Continue reading »

Advocates want the proposed North DuSable Lake Shore Drive to accommodate more transit access and climate-friendly solutions than the current proposal includes. ChiStock Images photo   Center for Neighborhood Technology is a proud member of the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition and partner of Better Streets Chicago. This is one of several stories we plan to highlight transit issues in the coming months.   Phase one of the multibillion-dollar North DuSable Lake Shore Drive... Continue reading »

We and the American Lung Association are part of the federally funded STELLAR project to promote equitable transportation electrification and decarbonization in communities. About a year into the work, we're finding that expanding access to clean transportation looks different in each STELLAR community. In Bronzeville, as this profile highlights, it’s all about bringing together tourism, technology, and transportation. “We innovate around tourism, transportation and technology,” says... Continue reading »

Public investment in local projects plus coaching and support proves a winning combination From the grand opening of a grocery cooperative in Rogers Park this July to a trade school and art hub project in Lawndale still on the drawing board, equitable transit-oriented development (ETOD) is inspiring some $350 million in new development projects across Chicago. Community-based organizations have the vision and local knowledge of what their neighborhoods need. Policy and planning... Continue reading »

During our recent Chicago Truck Data Portal project, cameras counted 5,159 trucks and buses, 129 pedestrians, and 53 bicyclists in 24 hours at West 41st Street and South Pulaski Road in Archer Heights. Truck count researcher and Urban Resilience Associate Paulina Vaca reflects on how supply chains, as currently configured, cause high truck concentrations. She also writes how supply chain operations harm communities and their residents and what we might do next to make supply chains... Continue reading »

Our 2024 “Visionary Voices” open house events bring people together for conversations focused on the built environment. Here are highlights from the first event, which took place at the Center for Neighborhood Technology office on Wednesday, July 10.   Diverse perspectives are critical in shaping urban environmental decisions – and they’re driving policy change, panelists at our first of three open house events agreed.   At Visionary Voices: Women to the Front,... Continue reading »

Continuing our series digging into the H+T Index, today we highlight what we learned about who uses our most popular tool from a recent user survey. We received 117 survey responses. While that represents just a fraction of the H+T Index’s regular monthly user base — the tool is accessed more than 2,000 times per month— responses were informative. Before sharing a quantitative snapshot of what we learned, here are a few stories based on interviews with four sets of users. Measuring... Continue reading »

While travel decisions can be deeply personal, decades of (often racist) land use and transportation policies and practices help determine them. Exhibit A is policies and practices that have prioritized car-centric designs that among other harms escalate greenhouse gas emissions and traffic fatalities. Worse, our road networks have destroyed the social, cultural, and economic fabric of communities and have disproportionately affected the health of marginalized groups, especially those in low... Continue reading »

Imagine tomorrow, all vehicles in the world suddenly became battery powered. Would that achieve all our climate and environmental justice goals? Not exactly. What will help close the gap between equity and climate goals is an electrification transition that follows the principles of the Towards Equitable Eletric Mobility (TEEM) platform. Or, as one TEEM leader stated, “If you aren’t looking for the intersection, you aren’t going to find the solution.” TEEM Platform Overview... Continue reading »

The main purpose of the H+T Index is to help users identify the most “location efficient” places across the United States by calculating the cost of housing as well as the cost of transportation to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the affordability of place. We learned through surveys and a series of interviews that the Housing, Transportation, and combined Housing + Transportation Cost metrics are regularly used to inform urban planning, governance, and policy decision making... Continue reading »