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 green stormwater infrastructure tour in Chicago – a reunion for many who had not been together since before the pandemic – from an idea to reality on Tuesday, April 11. Even the weather and... Continue reading »

In the wake of centuries of top-down urban planning practices, there is a great need to re-think the way cities are planned and invested in. I have always been interested in how cities’ public transportation systems work and how to be part of bottom-up planning practices that emphasize building decision-making power within communities. My studies in UIC’s Urban Planning & Policy graduate program allowed me to engage with transportation planning and civic engagement principles, and I found... Continue reading »

Climate change impacts are felt by individuals and communities all over the world through intense or frequent storms, floods, and increased exposure to air and water pollutants. Who is most impacted by this? Unfortunately, those who are lower-income and have non-white racial or ethnic identities. Chicago’s Southeast Side is one of these communities. Here, residents experience health inequities from their proximity to industrial pollution, like higher rates of heart disease and respiratory... Continue reading »

The Climate and Economic Justice Screening tool, or CEJST for short, is a simple map, with big implications. CEJST identifies disadvantaged census tracts for prioritizing federal funding and informing Justice40, which aims to send “40 percent of the overall benefits of certain Federal investments… [to] disadvantaged communities that are marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution. Over the next five years, federal and state agency staff are charged with doling out billions of... Continue reading »

Transportation is more than the movement of people and goods from place to place. It is a basic need and a vital component of a healthy community. However,  countless urban communities lack access to affordable and sustainable transit infrastructure. Such instances cause adverse impacts on BIPOC, low- and moderate-income households, often in tandem, deepening economic and racial inequities. Growing up in Chicago, I was privileged to live in a transit-rich area. Public transit was more... Continue reading »

Working toward change is difficult – in ourselves, in our relationships, within organizations, and certainly across institutions and geographies that have a strong hold on our daily lives. Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of working alongside many communities in a diverse mix of places and contexts, each confronted with unique histories and a shifting landscape of challenges and opportunities. Within those experiences, I’ve consistently seen how exploring communities’ ideas about what... Continue reading »

Like many college graduates, I was unsure of what to do after graduation. I had a lot of customer service experience from my part time jobs in high school and in college, as well as experience volunteering with organizations such as Planned Parenthood. I fell into a receptionist position where I learned that I liked working on the administration side of an organization. While I enjoyed my previous role at Radio Flyer, I knew I wanted to work in the non-profit field from my experience co-... Continue reading »

I had the pleasure of attending the annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board (TRB), which was held from January 8 through 12 in Washington D.C. A particularly poignant moment for me was during the Standing Committee on Equity in Transportation, when Irene Marion, Director of the Office of Civil Rights, and Ariel Gold, Senior Advisor at the Policy Office, presented the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) Strategic Plan and the Equity Action Plan. The Strategic Plan includes... Continue reading »

CNT’s exploration of urban flooding CNT has worked on urban flooding for several years, focusing specifically on urban flooding because of the realities in Chicago and Illinois more broadly. FEMA's Flood Insurance Rate Maps create floodplains based on flooding from bodies of water. But based on personal experiences and relationships with residents and local professionals, CNT knew that many homes in the Chicagoland area are impacted by flooding despite being outside of flood plains. CNT... Continue reading »

Dear friends and colleagues of CNT, We are writing to share some important news about the future of CNT. In late November 2022, Bob Dean informed the CNT Board that after five years as CNT’s CEO, he wants to take on new challenges in the field of equitable transportation by assuming a different role within CNT. Bob believes that billions of dollars in new federal funding through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to... Continue reading »