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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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Chicago architect Carmen Vidal-Hallett and her photojournalist husband Mark Hallett recently released a multimedia study comparing Chicago with a fairly obscure city in South Brazil. Curitiba is a former backwater turned city of 1.5 million, which now rivals Chicago as a center of progressive urbanism. It was for this reason that the husband-and-wife team used their Graham Foundation grant to study the Brazilian city through Mark and Carmen’s photos and analysis.

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Maps are not only tools to get you from point A to point B. They can also expose visually an important story about resource patterns and trends of a defined area. They tackle social questions like, “Are Starbucks an indicator of gentrification?” or “Do lower-income communities have less access to fresh produce?” Depicting instances like these help community members and planners better deal with the needs of an area that may not always be clear.

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PCAP is encouraging President George Bush to consider the assessment of climate change and policy as he prepares his State of the Union address on Monday, January 28, 2008. In releasing the report, PCAP “regret[s] to report that the state of the nation’s climate policy is poor, and the climate and the ecosystems that depend upon it are showing increasing signs of disruption. Global climate change now threatens not only the environment, but also our national security, our economic stability, and our public health and safety. We can longer discuss the State of the Union without addressing the state of the nation’s climate.”

CNT contributed to the Presidential Climate Action Plan that contains more than 300 proposals for new federal policies and programs to address climate change. Our research on transportation and climate found that reducing motorized trips is as important as cleaner cars: a 1% annual reduction in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) reduces roughly as much carbon as a 4% annual improvement in fuel efficiency. When we reduce our carbon by VMT reduction, it results in large cost of living savings for America’s families.

While the Presidential Climate Action Plan frames the agenda for the first 100 days of the next Administration, it is a resource that the current Administration could use to move the federal government into leadership domestically, and the United States into leadership internationally, on this urgent issue.

To read the final statement and add you name to the current signature list, go to the PCAP web site at http://www.climateactionproject.com/soc.php.

For information about the Presidential Climate Action Plan, read the full report here.

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

The Governor and legislature have decided to fund the new plan, which will go into effect on April 1st, through a quarter-percent increase in Northeastern Illinois sales taxes as well as funds from a new property-transfer tax. In addition, the Regional Transit Authority (RTA), which oversees CTA, Metra, and Pace, will be restructured with more power to coordinate those agencies, with the goal of eliminating overlaps in service like those that occur in inner-ring suburbs serviced by multiple RTA systems. Pension reform is another part of the bill; the fund for CTA employees will be fully funded by the year 2050.

The Governor’s last-minute addition of an unexpected amendatory veto stipulating that all senior citizens who live in transit districts ride free troubled many people. Currently, there are about 20 million seniors using CTA reduced fare cards; many more do not currently hold reduced fare cards, and thus no one can conclusively estimate the potential revenue loss to the CTA. Disability advocates are also upset that Blagojevich did not extend free service to disabled people, many of whom are immobile without the help of transit and overloaded with medical expenses.

The Illinois House recently introduced a plan to override Blagojevich’s veto and replace it with a plan to extend free service to those seniors who qualify for a discount program called Circuit Breakers, which currently provides discounts on property taxes and medical care for the elderly. Under the House’s plan, which will be introduced to the Senate next week, seniors who meet the income requirements for the Circuit Breakers plan will receive free service. Pending approval by the Senate, the plan will go to Governor Blagojevich; if he approves it, it will go into effect July 1 of this year, but if he vetoes it, the legislature will have to go into a veto session.

CNT has long been an advocate for comprehensive transit funding as an investment to the vitality of the region. Since the 1970s, the CTA’s resources have been dwindling, and the need for funding has clashed with Illinois’ desire for a balanced budget. It was not until recent years, however, that the RTA was fully backed up against the wall with the elimination of Federal Transit Administration subsidies and the later service cuts and fare hikes. Since then, the CTA’s infrastructure has been declining along with its quality of service, resulting in the infamous “slow zones” on elevated tracks as well as the long wait times that plagued riders. Voices within the CTA and without are now saying that even though doomsday may no longer be upon us, the solution addresses only operating expenses, with the capital funding necessary to improve aging infrastructure still unaddressed.