John Hennessy III,
P.E.
Today, cash-strapped U.S. cities and states are selling or leasing government assets, particularly transportation infrastructure. The sale or lease of such assets can be beneficial to the public; but the long-term nature of these deals makes them potentially far more risky than contracts to run bus service or repair city-owned vehicles.
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Cook County’s transportation system is one of its greatest assets, having a central—even dominant—role in the national and international movement of people and goods. As this plan Connecting Cook County will outline, this competitive advantage is being threatened by the actions other regions are taking, as well as the Chicago region’s own limits in confronting significant challenges.
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CENTER FOR NEIGHBORHOOD TECHNOLOGY
Late at night, when Chicago sleeps, apartment parking lots are at their peak usage. When CNT visited those lots and garages at 4:00 a.m., though, we found one third of the parking spaces sitting empty…This may not seem like a huge problem, but each indoor, underground parking space – one individual space – costs $37,300 to build. Multiply that by all of the spaces in the lot, and the price tag is huge. We think that wasted money and space should be allocated to housing instead.
MCGILL UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF URBAN PLANNING
Bicycles have great potential to be an equitable, healthy and sustainable mode of transportation. Cycling infrastructure, including lanes, parking, or bicycle share programs, can help foster a safe and inviting environment where users of all abilities have high access to opportunities and services. Yet cycling advocacy is increasingly being critiqued from an ethical perspective.
During a recent trip to Chicago, I captured some beautiful time lapses of the very very busy Chicago airport. This airport has a massive traffic jam of plans going all over the place. I tried to capture some of the insane amount of planes in the time lapse.
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CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN
The environmental benefits include conserving water, reducing interior noise pollution, mitigating stormwater runoff, reducing the urban heat-island effect, improving urban air quality through carbon dioxide-oxygen exchange, and creating habitats for a diversity of birds, insects, and animals. Along with extending the life of the roof by two to three times over a conventional roof, economic benefits include reducing energy costs—both heating and cooling—increasing property values, and meeting requirements for stormwater management.
Take a ride on the Bloomingdale Trail from the western trailhead at Ridgeway Avenue in Humboldt Park to the eastern trailhead at Walsh Park in Bucktown.
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LAKEVIEW CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Lakeview is historically a dense community that developed around its CTA stations, and demographic trends since 2000 continue to reinforce the central role of transit in the neighborhood. CTA stations serve as hubs for the community, providing significant foot traffic from visitors and local commuters to fuel the neighborhood’s business corridors. Lakeview has the highest rate of transit commuting of any neighborhood in the city. Transit is critical to the neighborhood’s economic success and quality of life.
The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (reporting marks CRIP, RI, ROCK) was a prominent (Class I) railroad in the midwestern United States, commonly known as the “Rock Island.” In 1854 when the line connected the Mississippi to Chicago and the East Coast, the event was marked by a large promotional voyage called the Grand Excursion. In 1856, the line crossed the Government Bridge, the first railroad bridge across the Mississippi, connecting farms in Iowa and beyond to Chicago.
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CENTER FOR NEIGHBORHOOD TECHNOLOGY
OPEN COMMUNITIES
TRANSIT DEFINES THE VIBRANCY OF DOWNTOWNS IN CHICAGO’S NORTHERN SUBURBS. Metra and CTA stations, and the development they support, help commuters get to jobs and run errands on their way home, all with little or no driving. Residents come together in these downtown station areas to eat, drink, socialize, borrow library books, shop, and see their neighbors. These activity centers are the brand, lifeblood, and drivers of economic development in these communities.
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