Director, Urban Analytics Emily LaFlamme shares a personal essay on our equitable transit-oriented development work: With the release of our Elevated Works 2025 Impact Report Bridging Visions, Accelerating Impact I’ve been reflecting on lessons learned about the state of equitable transit-oriented development (ETOD) and technical assistance. When we started Elevated Works in 2023 shortly after the Connected Communities Act passed, it felt more like a movement moment than a program... Continue reading »

  The risk of urban flooding is not one big wave, but thousands of ponds and puddles. Deep-water accumulations on streets and under viaducts, in parking lots, basements, and yards can make one street impassable while one street over is relatively dry. Urban flooding—when the local sewer system cannot cope with the amount of rain during a storm—will get worse due to climate change, causing more severe storms, and increased development, creating more impervious surfaces. ... Continue reading »

Urban planning shapes decisions about what gets built, where, and planner-driven policies and processes affect much of how we experience our neighborhoods. But typically, only professionals in the field, know much about urban planning principles and ideas or development processes. One way to change that: spread the knowledge. That’s just what the first Chicago Community Planning Academy that Chicago Architecture Center and Center for Neighborhood Technology, which wrapped in... Continue reading »

  For homeowner Adam Blough, the March 2025 all-electric, nearly $60,000 retrofit his house received through the Evanston Green Homes program to help owners of affordable homes reduce greenhouse gas emissions is one sign among many of the historically Black community’s renaissance.   “This is the best place to be in Evanston,” Blough said during a tour he led recenltly for Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, Fifth Ward Alderman Bobby Burns, journalists from the Evanston Roundtable... Continue reading »

By Ed Finkel In the closing days of the Biden Administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued rules banning all uses of trichloroethylene (TCE), as well as all consumer uses and many commercial uses of perchloroethylene (PCE), labeling these as cancer-causing chemicals under the 2016 bipartisan Toxic Substances Control Act. The decision intersects with decades-old work to make commercial clothes-cleaning operations more environmentally sustainable and less... Continue reading »

The United States spends more than $200 billion annually on transportation system operations, maintenance, and capital projects. Could feedback from people who live and help lead community-based organizations in the places where those funds are being spent help ensure better investment and funding decisions? We think the answer is yes.  This compensation isn't just about fairness. Staff at Center for Neighborhood Technology with input from partners like NRDC, ... Continue reading »

Jokes about zoning and how many parking spots it takes to get a building constructed in Chicago don't go over in every crowd — but they got knowing laughs from many at the Elevated Works end-of-year celebration for community-based developers and coaches at The Starling. Carlos, Karla and Rafa Robles, the siblings and principals of Duo Development, welcomed some 50 attendees from other Elevated Works projects and technical assistance organizations to the space, which is also home to... Continue reading »

  CNT is excited to announce a new partnership with the Chicago Architecture Center to develop the Chicago Community Planning Academy. The Chicago Community Planning Academy creates a thriving community of empowered participants who actively engage in formal planning and design processes to advocate for and create more equitable, healthy, and vibrant neighborhoods through continuous, equity-centered education and networking. Applications are now open – we and our... Continue reading »

Our housing as infrastructure conversation in mid-November brought together attorneys and advocates to talk about the intersection of housing justice and climate justice. Panelists Meleah Geertsma from Alliance for the Great Lakes and Kennedy Moehrs Gardner from Equity Legal Services shared experiences working with the people of Centreville, Illinois (now Cahokia Heights, IL) in southern Illinois, and highlighted parallels to flooding and sanitation issues in Northeast Illinois. They... Continue reading »

en español Communities like McKinley Park miss out on federal Justice40 benefits by a narrow margin. It doesn’t have to be that way. The Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST) aims to identify “disadvantaged census tracts” for prioritizing federal funding and informing the national Justice40 initiative, but we wondered – are there instances where the tool fails to identify communities that residents and organizers on the ground know are overburdened by pollution? When... Continue reading »