This month Chicago will have visitors from a cohort of Australian public works professionals stopping by the city before heading onto the American Public Works Association 2017 Congress, the annual conference for members of the public works industry. The group of Australian professionals will participate in a series of tours throughout the city visiting government agencies, public works and non-profits to garner an understanding of Public Works in the Chicago region. Included in their tour... Continue reading »

The City of Chicago saw record rainfall in the Spring of 2017, and April ranked in the top ten warmest and wettest Aprils since records began in 1872.  Between January and July of this year, Cook County waterways saw nearly twice the number of combined sewer overflows that occurred between January and July of 2016. These rainfall records bear out the 2014 U.S National Climate Assessment  projection that the Midwest will face increasingly frequent and severe storms resulting in... Continue reading »

CNT's work in equipping communities to be resilient in the face of climate change has involved various approaches, including utilizing urban data and analytics, creating tools, pushing policy work, and working on the ground with communities and their members. CNT's latest tool, My RainReady, has incorporated a number of those methods to help communities and individuals become more climate resilient.  A virtual home assessment tool, My RainReady allows homeowners to learn about... Continue reading »

There are over 950,000 more manufacturing jobs in the U.S. today than in 2010. This resurgence presents a major opportunity for communities. As a segment of manufacturers turns away from the inefficiencies of sprawling suburban industrial parks and re-onshores production from overseas locations there is growing demand for urban locations. But cities that want to take advantage of manufacturing’s return need to be fully prepared. An EcoDistrict approach to industrial revitalization can help keep... Continue reading »

We’re delighted to announce that on June 13, 2017, CNT received the Green Ribbon Award presented by the Friends of the Chicago River for the RainReady Calumet Corridor Plan. The Friends of the Chicago River host the annual Chicago River Blue Awards to recognize the leading contributions in development, design, and implementation of programs that best exemplify efforts towards building healthier and more sustainable communities through clean water programs. CNT RainReady director Dawn... Continue reading »

President Trump’s recent announcement that the U.S. will withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change was a disappointing step backward for the nation on one of the greatest global challenges of our era.  The impacts of climate change are already happening today—we are seeing flooding communities, droughts, and an increasing frequency of so-called “100 year storms.” Turning a blind eye in the hopes of resurrecting an antiquated, outdated carbon-based economy is not going to make the... Continue reading »

It will cost about $4.6 trillion to bring U.S. infrastructure to a state of good repair, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers Infrastructure Report Card released last week.  If by some miracle our civic leadership raised all that money and hired the engineering and construction firms to do the work, we'd end up with thousands of examples of state-of-the-art 1950s investments. Let's not do that. Instead, let's acknowledge the costs of outdated approaches that wasted... Continue reading »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Chicago, IL – CNT is releasing six RainReady plans for the Calumet Corridor communities of Blue Island, Calumet City, Calumet Park, Dolton, Riverdale, and Robbins. The plans establish a distinct path forward in each town to reduce systemic flooding issues while creating more beautiful, economically vibrant communities.  “In 2013, CNT‘s ‘The Prevalence and Cost of Urban Flooding’ report found that between 2007-2011, a majority of Cook County, Illinois ZIP codes... Continue reading »

In cities across the United States today, infrastructure professionals find themselves at “ground zero,” contending with swelling urban populations that strain aging systems (energy, water, transportation & built environment). Even in Chicago, where the city’s overall population has been shrinking, concentrations of growth in the downtown area continue to expand. The South Loop population more than doubled in the last decade and the city center has taken on more than 40K new residents in... Continue reading »

When I took over as CEO this fall, I reflected on the journey some of my longest-serving colleagues have been on for many years: associating responsible economic development in cities with needs for social justice, climate protection, and resilience. While support in the United States for this way of thinking has clearly ebbed and flowed in modern history, it is clear that CNT has been at the forefront of understanding infrastructure development in ways that have been quite unpopular, and often... Continue reading »