This July, Elevated Chicago celebrated its second birthday with an event hosted by the Foundation for Homan Square on the top floor of Nichols Tower. Elevated Chicago was initially organized in response to the Strong, Prosperous, And Resilient Communities Challenge (SPARCC), and it uses collaborative, community-led solutions to fight neighborhood displacement and inequities around seven CTA stations. CNT has been part of this collaboration since its birth in 2017. Elevated applies... Continue reading »

New technologies are changing how people get around. In cities around the world, cars, bikes, scooters, and even pogo sticks can be only a few taps on a smartphone screen away.  Of all these modes, Transportation Network Companies (TNCs) like Uber, Lyft, and Via are the most prominent. Here in Chicago, the number of active TNC drivers has grown from 15,000 in March 2015 to nearly 68,000 in 2019. In March 2019, over 10 million TNC trips took place in Chicago, with pickups and drop-offs in... Continue reading »

CNT’s mission to make cities work for everyone is realized in small part through the buy-in and support of local communities we serve alongside. With collaboration and support from individuals in the RainReady Robbins Steering Committee, CNT recently published a report on the pricing of residential drinking water in Robbins, Illinois. The primarily African-American residents of this community pay a higher rate for water than 80% of all municipalities in the region. The Village of Robbins is... Continue reading »

Since its inception, CNT has pioneered sustainable, equitable, and growth-oriented solutions that reimagine how cities think about transportation and land use. One area of work is equitable transit-oriented development (eTOD), which helps underserved communities tackle affordability, meet transportation needs, and decrease climate change impacts. In light of increased community interest in walkable, connected environments, CNT recently hosted a series of workshops addressing pertinent eTOD... Continue reading »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Chicago, IL, May 21, 2019) The Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) announces that its founder and long-time visionary leader, Scott Bernstein, is stepping down from the organization effective September 30, 2019. “Scott has had tremendous influence in making cities more equitable and more sustainable,” said CNT Board Chair Robert Henderson. “From his innovative ideas for handling water, energy, transportation, and other critical urban systems, to his... Continue reading »

Toward the end of March, CNT presented at Flint’s 3rd annual Environmental Justice and Resiliency summit. The summit featured four days’ worth of panels, interactive sessions, and trainings on topics ranging from trauma-informed art therapy to creating a blue-green economy in Flint. CNT was pleased to share the stage with Amy Hovey of the C.S. Mott Foundation, Leah Wiste of Michigan Interfaith Power and Light, and the City of Flint’s former CFO Hughey Newsome and Water Superintendent Rob... Continue reading »

The transportation sector is changing rapidly: growth in rideshare services (e.g. Uber, Lyft, and bikeshare), vehicle electrification, and introduction of autonomous vehicles will together lead to a complete re-imagining of our transportation system. New mobility options create new opportunities, but also the potential to widen disparities by income and race – unless we explicitly plan for equity. For that reason, the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) participated on Chicago’s New... Continue reading »

Last week, I had a chance to introduce the Center for Neighborhood Technology to two new groups of potential friends and partners. First, we were visited by a group of Google product managers from across the nation. Many of CNT’s online interactive tools are based on Google Maps, and our conversation quickly focused on how we use these tools to identify and address urban issues. We had innumerable questions for each other: how can we partner to better calculate local transportation-related... Continue reading »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Wilmette, February 21, 2019) Residents interested in making their yards eco-friendly can benefit from a new program being offered by the Village and qualify for a grant to pay for half the cost of the sustainable landscaping. The Village is pleased to announce the new program, RainReady Wilmette, which aims to reduce the amount of rain that enters the Village’s sewers, improve yard drainage at homes, and benefit the environment by using less resources like water and... Continue reading »

  Buffalo’s aging infrastructure poses a lead problem. But a one-stop-shop model could unite previously siloed agencies toward a solution. Like many old industrial cities in the Great Lakes region, Buffalo, New York—located on the shores of Lake Erie—has a lead poisoning problem. Children in Erie County, many living within the City of Buffalo’s limits, test positive for lead poisoning at rates much higher than New York State average. Given Buffalo’s old housing stock—the city has... Continue reading »