In our April newsletter, we offered tips for spring cleaning your gutters. Now that your gutters are clear and able to catch the rainwater from your roof, let’s talk about where this water is flowing. The gutters connect to downspouts that direct rainwater from the roof down the exterior walls of the home to the ground. The downspouts may discharge into pipes that take water to the sewer system or be disconnected, which is a good way to keep water from overwhelming the sewer and backing up... Continue reading »

One of the first times Mary Carvlin’s basement filled with rainwater overnight, a local water manager told her something that has, hauntingly, proven true time and time again. He told her that “the thing that makes flooding so traumatic is that when the flood is over, the nightmare is just beginning.” Mary lives in Blue Island, a suburb south of Chicago that saw its heyday back when the primacy of American manufacturing wasn’t yet a memory. Thanks to funding from Cook County, CNT’s RainReady... Continue reading »

AllTransitTM aggregates data from over 800 transit agencies across the U.S. to help communities build smarter, more equitable transit systems Chicago, IL - Today, the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) and TransitCenter unveiled a first-of-its-kind interactive online tool to help people understand the value of transit in their communities. AllTransit aggregates information from over 543,000 transit stops, 800 transit agencies, and 15,000 routes nationwide – a collection of data of... Continue reading »

One out of every three spaces. CNT visited the back lots and garages of apartment buildings around Chicago at 4:00 a.m., when tenants are asleep and their cars parked, and found one third of parking spaces empty. This excess parking capacity is a neighborhood affordability issue. Each indoor, underground parking space costs $37,300 to build. Multiply that by all of the spaces in the lot, and the price tag is huge. What if developers applied that money to build more affordable housing instead... Continue reading »

Ten years ago, there was widespread concern about the Digital Divide; people in poor neighborhoods had few PCs and little Internet access and thus couldn’t break into the mainstream economy. Today, smartphones have solved a lot of these problems: residents of low-income communities are more likely than more affluent communities to own and use smart phones as a communications vehicle where there is a lack of broadband access. But that’s just the start of what’s possible: moving from... Continue reading »

New CNT Report Shows How Unused Residential Parking Makes Housing More Expensive CHICAGO, March 28, 2016 – It’s common to hear Chicago residents complain about the city’s dearth of parking, but new research from the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) has found that parking spaces at many of the city’s apartment buildings sit empty during their peak hours. The cost of that unused parking is often passed on to residents through higher rents. Released today, CNT’s report Stalled Out:... Continue reading »

In January, the Village of Midlothian, located in Chicago’s southern suburbs, took the groundbreaking step of adopting the nation’s first RainReady Plan. Midlothian residents have faced chronic flooding for decades, even in moderately sized rainstorms. Our RainReady program’s planning process – hailed as “transformative” in the Chicago Tribune – brought together residents, civic leaders, regional agencies and federal partners to identify community-scale solutions that will stem flooding and... Continue reading »

Gasoline is at the lowest price it’s been in five years, currently hovering around $2.00/gallon. It captures everyone’s attention. And it lowers household costs, but not as much as one might think.  The cost of gas represents only about 25% of the cost of owning a car. The other costs, like insurance and maintenance – not to mention the cost of the car itself – don’t fluctuate when gas prices do. Even a 50% decrease in pump prices only reduces the cost of owning a car by about 12.5%. We... Continue reading »

The Center for Neighborhood Technology Board of Directors announces its search for new leadership, as Kathy Tholin, its well-respected, long-time CEO, has decided to retire from CNT at the end of June. The Board is looking for an exceptional leader who can build on the organization’s long history of successful innovation to create sustainable cities. “We’re extraordinarily grateful for Kathy’s leadership through a period of dramatic growth and significant achievement,” said Board president... Continue reading »

Flooding is the most expensive "natural" disaster faced by homeowners across America. Flooding costs communities billions of dollars every year according to damage payouts by insurance companies. Much of the damage can be avoided by smarter, greener infrastructure in our built environments. Read stories of real flood victims below: “It's awful to wade through feces in your own home.  My home was essentially destroyed during Hurricane Sandy, just the biggest storm to come surging... Continue reading »