Center for Neighborhood Technology

New Housing + Transportation Affordability Index Website Launches

Update! The Housing + Transportation Affordability Index has received lots of attention around the country. From bloggers to the Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal to other industry professionals, here’s what people are saying.

CNT’s new Housing + Transportation Affordability Index interactive mapping tool has just launched; the new website - http://htaindex.cnt.org - will enable planners, policy-makers, housing and transit advocates, and individuals to calculate the true costs of housing and transportation in cities across the United States.

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How Should the Next President of the United States Address Climate Change?

CNT is pleased to announce the release of the Presidential Climate Action Plan (PCAP), a plan to help the next President of the United States take bold action on global warming within the first 100 days of the new administration. Developed by a broad group of leaders from around the nation, the PCAP is the most comprehensive and detailed plan for national climate action yet presented to the presidential candidates and the American people. It consists of more than 100 proposed policies and programs covering more than a dozen critical areas of endeavor. More broadly, PCAP identifies how the 44th President and the Congress can help America find its path to a 21st Century economy that achieves three critical objectives: security, opportunity and stewardship.

CNT was part of the group of experts that developed the plan over the past year. CNT’s research and expertise in transportation, land use, and climate change forms the basis for much of the plan’s transportation agenda. In addition, CNT President Scott Bernstein serves on the Steering Committee of the Presidential Climate Action Project, bringing CNT’s deep understanding of sustainable, measurable, place-based solutions with net economic benefits to this monumental project. We look forward to working with leaders and residents around the country in collaboration with the Presidential Climate Action Project to gain widespread support for this plan in coming months and to put this plan into action.

For more information about the plan read the full report here.

Or visit the Presidential Climate Action Project’s website for more information.

The project team is inviting public input on PCAP at www.helium.com and will consider suggestions as it finalizes the plan. You can also send comments and ideas for climate leadership to feedback@climateactionproject.com.

For more information on CNT’s Climate Program, visit www.cnt.org/climate.

Regional Fare Hikes Put Burden on Low-Income Residents

The entire Northeastern Illinois region took a hit when the Illinois House failed to pass SB 572, a comprehensive transit funding and reform bill, which would have restructured the governance system for transit in Northeastern Illinois as well as guaranteed a long-term source of funding for transit. The bill would also have prevented CTA and Pace’s “doomsday” scenarios from coming into effect on September 16.

Moving citizens from their homes to their workplaces is a regional dilemma. Because the Governor has failed to present an effective solution to the mass transit crisis, low-income resident have the greater burden of carrying the cost of transit, versus an equitable tax increase to all residents.

All residents benefit from a viable transit system. A sales tax increase to all residents makes sense when reduced transit service and increased fares not only negatively impact tens of thousands of household budgets, but result in adding more vehicles to the region’s clogged roads and contributing to the region’s air pollution.
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Reliable Public Transit Instrumental in Climate Change Mitigation

Last Thursday, CNT and other top regional environmental leaders held a press conference to speak out about the importance of public transit and the need to find a long-term solution to the pending transit crisis in Northeastern Illinois. Factor in global warming implications and the need to invest in infrastructure that can help mitigate the effects becomes even more timely and important.

“The Governor has publicly stated that Illinois should cut the production of greenhouse gasses to 1990 levels by 2020,” Scott Bernstein, President of CNT, reminded the group. “Since motor vehicles alone account for more than one third of greenhouse gasses, there is simply no way to achieve that kind goal without strong regional transit. Transit will be the backbone of any successful climate change strategy in Illinois.”

The group signed a petition that was delivered to Governor Blagojevich as well as party leaders in the General Assembly, which has until July 1st to take action on the $226 million deficit faced by the CTA, Metra, and Pace.

Read the press release here.

Also, join Transit Future tomorrow in Springfield for a press conference urging Governor Blagojevich and the Illinois General Assembly to act on transit funding proposals. Improving the region’s transit system is the surest method to reduce air pollution, curb sprawling development and mitigate emissions of global warming gases. More information on tomorrow’s event at http://transitfuture.cnt.org/.

Leaders Unite to Preserve the Chicago Region’s Affordable Rental Housing

Affordable housing, especially in the Chicago region, is increasingly difficult to acquire and is a threat to the economic future of the region. Today, area leaders in government, non-profit and the business sectors unveiled a program to reverse these dramatic losses in the affordable rental housing stock. Created in 2005, The Preservation Compact is a project of the Urban Land Institute and is supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

The program is the nation’s most comprehensive approach to a problem that challenges communities everywhere—turning around the significant loss of rental housing that is affordable to moderate and low wage workers. A series of initiatives to save at least 75,000 existing homes in Cook County by the year 2020 is planned.

At the center of the program is a new Preservation Fund, an umbrella for a suite of financial products. The fund will provide acquisition and bridge financing to nonprofit and for-profit developers, making it possible for them to obtain as much as a half a million dollars to support the long-term preservation of rental housing in Cook County.

Equally important are a series of partnerships between local organizations, each charged with responsibility for solving a different aspect of the affordable rental housing problem.

CNT is partnering with other organizations to work in the area of reducing operating costs in multifamily rental properties. The organizations have created Cook County Energy Savers, a one-stop energy efficiency program that will provide technical assistance and loans for energy-efficiency improvements.

More information on the Cook County Energy Savers program and CNT’s participation here. You can also read more about the strategy to preserve affordable housing in Cook County at the Urban Land Institute’s site here.

The Innovative Mind behind Energy-Smart Pricing

At the Chicago Sun-Times Innovations Awards ceremony in October, where the Community Energy Cooperative’s Energy-Smart Pricing Plan was recognized for saving consumers money while reducing stress on the electricity grid, to the delight of everyone from the Coop, Maurie Gamze was in attendance.

CNT’s CEO, Kathy Tholin, in receiving the Innovations Award, recognized Maurie from the podium as the real innovator behind the Energy-Smart Pricing Plan.

Maurie Gamze is a visionary engineer, who served on the Board at CNT and recently retired from a staff position at the Community Energy Cooperative. While working with the Cooperative, Gamze applied his decades of energy management experience to develop the framework of the ground-breaking electricity pricing program.

Today the Energy-Smart Pricing Plan has demonstrated that hourly pricing can save customers money, encourage energy efficiency, and reduce strain on the electricity infrastructure during hours when demand is highest. We were happy that Mr. Gamze was in attendance to take part in the honor of this innovation.

Customers who are interested in receiving more information about how they can enroll in the new, expanded program can fill out an interest form at www.energycooperative.org.

New Report Reveals Revenue Opportunities Near Transit

A new report CNT released finds that acres of surface parking lots in suburban Cook County located near Metra train stations could be redeveloped to capture millions of dollars in new tax revenue, while also accommodating the growing demand for housing near transit.

The study, entitled Paved Over: Surface Parking Lots or Opportunities for Tax-Generating, Sustainable Development?, looks at parking lots near transit in nine communities in the Chicago region and compares typical costs to support the parking lots as they are today with revenue that could be generated from the redevelopment of some portion of the lots for a mix of uses.

Since 1993, CNT has been working to promote transit-oriented development (TOD) as one tool for sustaining urban communities. In their current state, these parking lots are robbing our region of economic value because there is a higher and better use for the land.

The redevelopment potential of parking lots is especially high when they are near transit because – when developed according to TOD principles – the lots can support densities that generate greater public revenues for the city, state, and county. Demand for housing near transit is growing and these sites can play a key role in a community’s efforts to meet that demand and achieve a more sustainable region.

Paved Over builds off of recent research at CNT that revealed that combined housing and transportation costs determine a location’s affordability.

And check out an article by the Chicago Tribune covering this new report, here.

New Report Released Finds Growing Demand for Housing near Transit

As hundreds of transit activists assembled in Chicago for the 2006 Rail~volution conference, which ended on Wednesday, CNT released a new report highlighting the growing demand for diverse housing near transit, in conjunction with Reconnecting America and Strategic Economics –the partners in the Center for Transit-Oriented Development (TOD).

The study reveals the significant diversity – economically and racially – currently present in transit-served neighborhoods, or transit zones, and suggests that additional development of mixed-income, mixed-race housing in these areas would respond to growing demand for affordable and livable communities while also providing numerous benefits to cities, regions, and the environment.

The study of 41 regions ─ 32 regions with transit and 9 regions planning it ─ entitled Preserving and Promoting Diverse Transit-Oriented Neighborhoods was funded by the Ford Foundation and highlights data on neighborhoods near transit today and the demand for such neighborhoods by 2030.

The current picture reveals a presence of diversity by race and/or income in transit neighborhoods – whether urban or suburban – that surpasses the diversity of the surrounding neighborhoods and overall regions. Projections to 2030 indicate that 16 million households – compared to 6 million currently living near transit in 2000 – will want to live near transit and that low-to-moderate income households represent a significant portion of the future demand.

For more information on the new report, you can read the press release and fact sheet here and the Summary Report of Preserving and Promoting Diverse Transit-Oriented Neighborhoods here.

Wireless Community Network Launches in North Lawndale

CNT is proud to announce the launch of the Wireless Community Network in North Lawndale, Chicago, today at 2pm.

The network will provide North Lawndale residents, organizations, and businesses with high-speed, low-cost internet access. The network makes use of old infrastructure—the Old Sears Tower is the home of the antennae that originates the network signal—and 21st century wireless networking technology.

A press conference will be held in the lobby of the Homan Square Community Center, 3517 W Arthington.

I-GO website new URL

Please note that the website for I-GO car sharing has a new URL:

igocars.org

The URL is currently a redirect to the I-GO section of the Flexcar website.

You’ll still be able to access the site from the old URL, i-go-cars.org, but please update your bookmarks and links to the new one.