When communities can clearly show the value of transit, they are better positioned to secure the investment needed to expand and improve it. That is the impact of CNT’s recent work in St. Louis, and it is the same framework we are bringing to transit and housing conversations here at home. As the St. Louis region considers the potential installation of their first Bus Rapid Transit line, Citizens for Modern Transit, AARP, and the Saint Louis REALTORS® wanted to answer an important... Continue reading »

For decades, many transportation and land use decisions were shaped by how easily cars could move through a place. In California, and across the country, roadway planning often considered “level of service,” a measure of how well a roadway moves cars and how congested it is for drivers. In practice, this often-encouraged more sparse development to keep congestion was lower, contributing to more roadbuilding, longer commutes, and expanded sprawl. In 2013, California began moving away from... Continue reading »

Transportation planning works best when the people most affected by infrastructure decisions have a meaningful role in shaping them. That belief is central to the Transportation Equity Network coalition, known as TEN, which is stewarded by the Center for Neighborhood Technology. Through TEN, community-based organizations have been working with planners at the Chicago Transit Authority and the Chicago Department of Transportation to bring deeper, more meaningful engagement into the heart of... Continue reading »

I did not come to this work from the outside looking in. I grew up in Detroit. East Side. I know what it looks like when the systems around you do not work — and when the people responsible for them have information, resources, and answers that never quite reach you. That gap is part of why I became a planner. Not because I saw community as something to serve from a distance, but because I am part of community. That lived experience is the lens I bring to everything I do, including my role... Continue reading »

    Visionary Voices — gatherings we started in 2024 to share collective efforts to create resilient communities — is going online to produce more generative conversations with community, planning, government, academic and business leaders, moderated by Nina Idemudia, AICP. “You’ve got to speak up. You can’t sit back and fuss and complain, you’ve got to make your concerns known.” That’s wisdom from Jacky Grimshaw, CNT’s senior director who has led the charge on policy... Continue reading »

  Chief Strategy and Program Officer Miriam Savad, above (at a CNT planning retreat) led our recently-completed theory of change, impact framework and strategic plan process.  By Miriam Savad 2025 was by all accounts a disruptive year, ushering in a wave of instability. Yet amid this challenging time, CNT still carved out time to reflect on the purpose and direction of our work: our work is to equitably change systems to support more just, resilient, sustainable and... Continue reading »

    Planning, transit, and other agencies often work with Center for Neighborhood Technology to facilitate or develop processes to gather feedback or solicit input for infrastructure and other projects. One way we're sharing this work is through the recently released Community Accountability Framework tool to evaluate the success of such efforts. This builds on past work, such as our 2024 publication Equity in Practice: Strengthening Transit through Community... Continue reading »

Since 2019, members of the Transportation Equity Network (TEN) coalition have stayed true to its mission to increase interaction between BIPOC-led community-based organizations (CBOs) in historically disinvested communities with transportation decision-makers. Based in part on our experience coordinating TEN, this fall Center for Neighborhood Technology released two new tools, the Community Engagement Evaluation Framework and Our Voice, Our Budget, A guide to participatory budgeting in... Continue reading »

Last year we made news by simply counting the number of trucks and buses that go through our neighborhoods. We’ve continued counting and we’re working now to use truck count data to model diesel exhaust pollution. We’re also continuing to share the data in community and to make the data more accessible to all.  In a sense, these data are nothing new: they merely validate the lived experience of people in hyper-industrialized communities across the city. But the need to... Continue reading »

  A room full of constituents from Brighton Park, Pilsen, McKinley Park, Rogers Park, La Villita, and other neighboring communities gathered in the McKinley Park Fieldhouse May 29 to discuss the future of Western Avenue public transit – a kick off in a spring and summer of work to advocate for improvements along the corridor.   Frustration and hope at town hall Presenters explained the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) and the Chicago Transit Authority’s (... Continue reading »