“The impact of CNT is tremendous. The data and research, coupled with the leadership, the vision of the folks on the ground engaging with community, it's exactly what we need where communities that have been most marginalized have not been brought to the table.”
~ Sendy Soto, The Chicago Community Trust
Nature Near Transit
Equitable and Resilient Placekeeping with Nature-Based Solutions and Public Art
Our Work
Project
topics: Environmental Justice, Green Stormwater Infrastructure, Urban Flooding, Water
The Calumet Region is a region in which infrastructure solutions are planned and built with resident and community leadership.
Tool
topics: Climate, Data Analysis, Environmental Justice, Green Stormwater Infrastructure, Housing, Urban Flooding, Water
A quantitative and qualitative look at urban flooding that visualizes flooding indicators and urban flooding locations in the Calumet Region of Cook County.
Story
topics: Climate, Green Stormwater Infrastructure, Housing, Urban Flooding, Water
“We always think it’s going to be a big movement, a big force, something that’s beyond ourselves that’s going to be our solution when in fact, it’s us– the moms, the grandmoms, the kids,” Lorée Washington, a Riverdale community leader, said during a recent virtual workshop for residents of South...
Publication
topics: Climate, Green Stormwater Infrastructure, Water
Today’s environment and public health concerns in Chicago’s Southeast side are a result of deliberate urban planning and policy decisions made since the early 20th century. Shedding light on these decisions brings context to the land use, industrial, and environmental differences that exist today...
Story
topics: Green Stormwater Infrastructure, Housing, Urban Flooding, Water
If you had a chance to press pause, reflect, and bask for a moment in the great work you and your team, partners, and funders achieved, what would that carefully curated day look like? Inspired by a request from Kresge Foundation Environment Program Officer Yeou-Rong Jih, we took an equitable...
Publication
topics: Climate, Green Stormwater Infrastructure, Urban Flooding, Water
This report examines changing rainfall amounts across five cities in the Great Lakes region and seeks to understand whether the regulatory permits and community planning efforts are aligned with robust and current rainfall estimates. Rainfall amount is a key factor considered in stormwater and...
Project
topics: Data Analysis, Environmental Justice, Green Stormwater Infrastructure, Urban Flooding, Water
Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) and CNT have partnered together to explore the cumulative burden of COVID-19, lack of access to drinking water, and urban flooding, in the Little Village neighborhood, an environmental justice community.
Publication
topics: Data Analysis, Environmental Justice, Green Stormwater Infrastructure, Urban Flooding, Water
Updated May, 2022 This study compares health and water-related conditions in Little Village to the Near North Side, and to Chicago city-wide. Chicago neighborhood data is reported by “community area”: 77 areas with defined boundaries that can include one or more neighborhoods. Little Village is...
Story
topics: Green Stormwater Infrastructure
Green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) is an important tool to build resilience to climate change but needs community support to be effective. In late February, as part of CNT’s continued work to examine the effect of GSI on property values, I joined Leslé Honoré, Managing Director of Strategy and...
Publication
topics: Climate, Equitable Transit Oriented Development, Green Stormwater Infrastructure, Housing, Policy, Sustainable Economic Development
Homes are built to keep us safe and healthy. Climate change threatens this stability. CNT— in partnership with Elevate and the City of Evanston— aims to increase the climate resiliency of affordable housing in the name of human welfare. This will be possible through an innovative pilot program to...
Strengthening Transit Through Community Partnerships
