Center for Neighborhood Technology

In the Calumet region of southeast Chicagoland, we’re using a holistic approach to understand historic, environmental and economic factors that cause urban flooding and partnering with residents to find solutions

Permeable pavers and asphalt at 126th and Winchester was the first green stormwater infrastructure in the ground as part of our most recent RainReady Calumet Corridor initiative.

We broke ground on a community-centered urban flooding initiative in the Calumet Region

Climate change plus increased development is leading to heavier flooding in urban areas, causing basement disasters in Chicago and across the Midwest in summer 2023.

A Greater Chatham Initiative leader introduced staff member Cyatharine Alias at a fall event to address urban flooding at a September community meeting.

Our RainReady program has provided tools and tips to homeowners and communities for more than 10 years. RainReady’s current focus is on developing proof-of-concept green stormwater infrastructure projects that center residents’ voices and community planning.

We’re collaborating with Green Print Partners to design and implement green stormwater infrastructure projects in Calumet Park and five other nearby communities: Blue Island, Calumet City, Dolton, Riverdale and Robbins. In each community, we convened and supported local resident decision-making groups and worked with municipal and other officials as well. Resident groups have reviewed plans, discussed priorities, and made recommendations for the best way to spend $6 million to reduce urban flooding in their communities.

In December 2023 with investment from Cook County government, RainReady helped pay for a portion of such infrastructure: a flood-prone stretch of Winchester Avenue in Calumet Park received water-permeable asphalt, permeable pavers and puddle-absorbing bioswales. Additional installations are planned in 2024 to include green alleys, water-absorbing rain gardens in street bumpouts, and more.

Going deeper: Calumet residents study urban flooding with Civic Innovation Hub

Washington, who shared her comment at the opening meeting of our Civic Innovation Hub cohort in summer 2023, is both a Riverdale RainReady steering committee participant and member of our first Civic Innovation Hub cohort. This program provides RainReady steering committee members and other Calumet region residents with deeper knowledge of policy, organizing skills, and first-person experience with green stormwater infrastructure through field trips.

Field trips were an integral part of the Civic Innovation Hub experience.

Eighteen people participated in the first round of the Civic Innovation Hub. We will build on lessons learned from this program and continue developing new ways to educate the community about how to address urban flooding in 2024.

The Urban Resiience Team developed a bilingual “What Is Green Infrastructure” info sheet for use by our partners Little Village Environmental Justice Organization at several water justice events in summer and fall 2023.

download the flyer

New tool: Urban Flooding Baseline connects stormwater to race, income and cumulative impacts

A tool to address urban flooding in the Calumet region that we released in early 2023 involved a team of residents, a custom-built app, and a year’s worth of snapping thousands of photos of standing water after it rained in the region. Maps of 40 towns and Chicago community areas highlight stormwater flow with factors that cause flooding (like built-up areas).

The Urban Flooding Baseline tool also allows users to overlay potential flooding spots with population characteristics including race, income, population without health insurance and other factors. Community leaders and planners alike are using the tool to understand which areas are most prone to flooding and help prioritize green stormwater or other initiatives.

The Urban Flooding Baseline tool offers a quantitative and qualitative look at urban flooding in the Calumet Region of Cook County.

We’re advocating massive modernization of regional public transit.

Jacky Grimshaw served on a committee that sent the Legislature recommendations on how to address a fiscal cliff facing northern Illinois’ public transit system, including merging RTA, CTA, Metra and Pace. CMAP photo

"Big, bold solutions are needed to secure the financial viability of our region's transit system,” states the Plan of Action for Regional Transit forwarded from Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning to the Illinois Legislature in November 2023. “Through all the changes the system has experienced, one central fact remains true: A successful transit system is critical to the success of the region, its economy, health, and environment."

Northeastern Illinois’ transit system faces a $730 million annual fiscal cliff, which is the estimated annual budget gap by 2026 simply to return transit to pre-pandemic service levels. Merging CTA, Metra, PACE and RTA , new dedicated revenue, and targeted implementation of service changes are key recommendations in the Plan of Action.

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We’re pleased with how the Plan of Action for Regional Transit came out; it will build on investment in regional transit this year like the Red Line extension and highlight how important our buses, trains and other systems are to the regional economy for riders and non-riders alike.

Jacky Grimshaw, Transportation and Policy Senior Director and Plan of Action for Regional Transit steering committee member

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We participated in the year-long process to develop and advocate for the Plan of Action, with Jacky Grimshaw serving on the steering committee and Nina Idemudia voting to send the recommendations to the Legislature as Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning board member.

Going deeper: Elevated Works coaches commercial and residential developers building near Chicago transit

We inaugurated the Elevated Works technical assistance program to provide coaching support to developers of equitable transit-oriented development programs around Chicago with a meeting at the Hatchery. Rudd Resources photo

Chicago’s City Council passed the Connected Communities Ordinance in 2022, one of the largest reforms to the Chicago zoning code in decades, focused on promoting equitable development and thriving neighborhoods near transit.

Last year, we partnered with other civic organizations to create the Elevated Works technical assistance collective to support developers get these Equitable Transit-Oriented Development projects done.

Thanks to the steps taken in 2023, over 30 Equitable Transit Oriented developers are now receiving coaching on community engagement, communications, financing, zoning, design and other project essentials. This program is possible due to a $1 million investment from the City of Chicago and support from The Chicago Community Trust.

We are both providing technical assistance and coordinating the program, along with core partners Elevated Chicago, IFF, Metropolitan Planning Council and Rudd Resources. Another 15 firms and nonprofits are providing technical assistance, as well.

“This is part of our strategy to ensure resources go to the front lines where they can have the most impact,” says Emily Laflamme, project manager for Elevated Works.

After record summer rainfall, an NBC-TV reporter interviewed former Urban Analytics managing director Preeti Shankar about how the Urban Flooding Baseline tool merges local and expert knowledge to help community leaders make better decisions about green infrastructure.

Preeti Shankar demonstrates CNT's Urban Flooding Baseline tool during an NBC-TV interview.

We surveyed thousands of users of the Housing + Transportation Affordability Index to find out how they use the online mapping tool

By adding the two highest household costs -- housing and transportation -- the H+T Index changes the way we look at household affordability. In 2023, the H+T Index turned 18 and celebrated its first full year since a major data update in 2021.

We conducted a user survey of about 4,000 registered users in 2023 to learn how they are using the tool and improvements they would like to see. About 125 respondents told us that the four most useful aspects of the H+T Index were:

• Helping to measure progress toward affordability goals and sharing results with the public
• Validating local findings
• Equitable planning, and
• Helping to advance regional perspectives

For example, planners at the City of Denver Community Planning and Development department cite H+T in the city’s Comprehensive Plan 2040 to support their goal of reducing cost-burdened households to 35% by 2040, compared to about 40% in 2022 (down from 44% in 2017). In Wake County, North Carolina, planners include H+T in a dashboard shared with other county officials.

Based on the feedback received, periodic updates of the data to provide more longitudinal information is a top priority that we’re seeking support to implement.

Going deeper: We inaugurated a $1 million one-stop home improvement to increase Carbon Capture initiative in Evanston

When the program gets underway, home improvements like weatherization will reduce greenhouse gas emissions to help the city meet its 2050 carbon neutral goal. Photo by Rich Cahan for Center for Neighborhood Technology.

When the City of Evanston, Illinois, set a goal to be carbon neutral by 2050 several years ago, experts and city leaders knew improvements to residential and other properties would be essential since 80% of city’s greenhouse gases come from buildings.

We’ve partnered with Evanston and Elevate Energy to roll out a one-stop home improvement program that will upgrade affordable housing in the city to help reduce those emissions. By allocating $1 million in public funding (sourced from federal infrastructure funds), the program helps ensure improvements do not drive rent increases that could price residents out of the community.

A feature of the program is its focus on providing free home upgrades to sections of Evanston with the most affordable housing, which are also among the city’s historic Black and Latino areas. As part of the project, we created a mapping tool to help interested applicants determine if they are in the focus area.