The Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children (CLOCC) has been partnering with community-based organizations (CBOs) for more than a decade to identify and address barriers to walkability in their neighborhoods.  To do this, CLOCC developed their Neighborhood Walkability & Accessibility Assessment Tool (NWAAT), first as a paper and later as an on-line survey tool, providing CBOs with an instrument to gather data used to support their requests to the City of Chicago for local... Read the rest of this entry »

On December 10, 2019, CNT’s tech challenge participants presented their final project results. Students from UIC and IIT partnered with three community groups – Austin Coming Together (ACT), Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI), and Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School – to answer one guiding question: Is there a high cost to being poor? To answer this question community groups picked a topic most pressing to their community members. Are absentee landlords a problem in Austin... Read the rest of this entry »

Building on past years’ success, the Young Innovators fifth annual summer fundraiser welcomed a diverse group of participants and experts. We had 40 guests attend a splendid afternoon with the weather on our side as we enjoyed locally- and ethically-sourced treats and insightful conversations. We kicked off the event with an overview of actions planned  by CNT stakeholders for improving current climate and transportation challenges. Special guests included staff from organizations such... Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, I had a chance to introduce the Center for Neighborhood Technology to two new groups of potential friends and partners. First, we were visited by a group of Google product managers from across the nation. Many of CNT’s online interactive tools are based on Google Maps, and our conversation quickly focused on how we use these tools to identify and address urban issues. We had innumerable questions for each other: how can we partner to better calculate local transportation-related... Read the rest of this entry »

A big thank you to all the friends, donors, sponsors and partners who attended the Sustain-a-City Celebration on September 28th, CNT’s biggest event of the year. The Celebration highlighted CNT’s work, and raised nearly $100,000 for our efforts to help cities operate more sustainably and efficiently. Featured at the Celebration was CNT’s Urban Sustainability Tech Challenge, a five-month program that unlocks talent in our communities to connect entrepreneurs and community members to each... Read the rest of this entry »

By Adam Hecktman, Microsoft You don’t have to be a technology expert, or even more than a casual observer of technology, to know that data is everywhere, impacting every field, every industry, and just about every aspect of life. The recent advances in cloud computing power and the proliferation of sensor technology have incredible potential to help humans in terms of what they are capable of. With the acceleration of the collection, storage, and analysis of data at unprecedented scale,... Read the rest of this entry »

The Chicago economy is continually launching new companies. Some spin off from older firms; others are start-ups nurtured by business incubators. One notable incubator is the Industrial Council of Nearwest Chicago (ICNC), which has incubated thousands of new companies. Founded in 1967 ICNC is home to over 110 small companies at a time which are supported to grow, and then outgrow their ICNC space. ICNC is also launching The Hatchery, an incubator focused on food start-ups. The Hatchery will... Read the rest of this entry »

For almost 40 years, CNT has been a national leader in sustainable urban development. CNT’s signature efforts have advanced its commitment to improving urban communities and the quality of life of all their residents. CNT friends, partners and supporters plan to gather and celebrate CNT’s innovations in urban development on September 28th at our Sustain-a-City Celebration. A truly unique evening, this event  will showcase our Urban Sustainability Tech Challenge. CNT’s Tech Challenge... Read the rest of this entry »

Update 6/17/16: Last night at the Sustain-a-City Celebration, our panel of judges chose the winners of the 2016 Apps Competition. Congratulations to all of our finalists! The winning teams are: 1st place: Stop Crime App 2nd place: Chi Safe Path 3rd place: Neighbors Creating Neighborhoods People's Choice: Schedule Scout A big thank you as well to our judges: Shelley Stern Grach | Director – Civic Engagement for the Technology and Civic Engagement (TCE) group at Microsoft... Read the rest of this entry »

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... Read the rest of this entry »