Public investment in local projects plus coaching and support proves a winning combination From the grand opening of a grocery cooperative in Rogers Park this July to a trade school and art hub project in Lawndale still on the drawing board, equitable transit-oriented development (ETOD) is inspiring some $350 million in new development projects across Chicago. Community-based organizations have the vision and local knowledge of what their neighborhoods need. Policy and planning... Continue reading »

During our recent Chicago Truck Data Portal project, cameras counted 5,159 trucks and buses, 129 pedestrians, and 53 bicyclists in 24 hours at West 41st Street and South Pulaski Road in Archer Heights. Truck count researcher and Urban Resilience Associate Paulina Vaca reflects on how supply chains, as currently configured, cause high truck concentrations. She also writes how supply chain operations harm communities and their residents and what we might do next to make supply chains... Continue reading »

Our 2024 “Visionary Voices” open house events bring people together for conversations focused on the built environment. Here are highlights from the first event, which took place at the Center for Neighborhood Technology office on Wednesday, July 10.   Diverse perspectives are critical in shaping urban environmental decisions – and they’re driving policy change, panelists at our first of three open house events agreed.   At Visionary Voices: Women to the Front,... Continue reading »

Continuing our series digging into the H+T Index, today we highlight what we learned about who uses our most popular tool from a recent user survey. We received 117 survey responses. While that represents just a fraction of the H+T Index’s regular monthly user base — the tool is accessed more than 2,000 times per month— responses were informative. Before sharing a quantitative snapshot of what we learned, a few stories based on interviews with four sets of users. Measuring progress &... Continue reading »

While travel decisions can be deeply personal, decades of (often racist) land use and transportation policies and practices help determine them. Exhibit A is policies and practices that have prioritized car-centric designs that among other harms escalate greenhouse gas emissions and traffic fatalities. Worse, our road networks have destroyed the social, cultural, and economic fabric of communities and have disproportionately affected the health of marginalized groups, especially those in low... Continue reading »

Imagine tomorrow, all vehicles in the world suddenly became battery powered. Would that achieve all our climate and environmental justice goals? Not exactly. What will help close the gap between equity and climate goals is an electrification transition that follows the principles of the Towards Equitable Eletric Mobility (TEEM) platform. Or, as one TEEM leader stated, “If you aren’t looking for the intersection, you aren’t going to find the solution.” Learn More at the Chicago... Continue reading »

The main purpose of the H+T Index is to help users identify the most “location efficient” places across the United States by calculating the cost of housing as well as the cost of transportation to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the affordability of place. We learned through surveys and a series of interviews that the Housing, Transportation, and combined Housing + Transportation Cost metrics are regularly used to inform urban planning, governance, and policy decision making... Continue reading »

Transit agencies should continually interact with their riders and community members to ensure services meet their needs. Community engagement can take many forms, from agency staff hearing public comments on a finished project to working with constituents to design a plan or policy. Transit agencies often outsource this work to third-party consultants, who can be unfamiliar with the communities they are tasked to engage with.  Since the mid-2010s, LA Metro has been refining a... Continue reading »

  Please join us as we gather to celebrate the life of Lew Kreinberg, leader, mentor, friend, and inspiration to generations of Chicagoans working to make this city a better place for all. Come share your memories of Lew’s life full of energy, commitment, imagination, and joy. 3 to 5 pm, Saturday May 11 at Friendship Baptist Church, 5200 W Jackson Blvd, Chicago Program includes speakers, music and refreshments. Parking is available at the church. Please RSVP here... Continue reading »

The H+T® Affordability Index highlights location efficiency by using an “apples to apples” comparison of housing costs. What’s the Question? Users often ask why we use the median-income household in every block group in a metro area, pointing out that this misrepresents the actual costs for the households living there. The question goes to the heart of how our tool shows that living in compact and convenient area helps people stretch their budget. In a nutshell, the H+T Index is a... Continue reading »