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PAN Discussion Group Wednesday March 30th  2005
Subject: Chicago and the Environment

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Location:  RSVP 

Time : 7pm to 10pm ish

RSVP for directions

Here are the articles for this month's discussion. Thanks to everyone who passed on suggestions. These followed the environmental angle so I stuck with that. As usual it’s been hard to edit it all down to something manageable.  One of the problems is that there is so much good stuff going down environmentally in Chicago that it is difficult for muckrakers like us to get a grip on anything. I’ve used a longer article that covers the various aspects of Chicago’s environmental performance and covers. Then I’ve put in some stuff on the areas where Chicago could be doing better: recycling, air quality and public transportation. I would have liked to cover more of the budget and funding for the various eco projects as compared to education, crime etc. What is the return to Chicago’s citizens from these initiatives? But time is a ticking so if you have anything bring it along on the night.

The documents are also available at the PAN web site:

https://www.angelfire.com/ult/pan/

General:
The articles are the basis for the discussion and reading them helps give us some common ground and focus for the discussion, especially where we would otherwise be ignorant of the issues. The discussions are not intended as debates or arguments, rather they should be a chance to explore ideas and issues in a constructive forum Feel free to bring along other stuff you've read on this, related subjects or on topics the group might be interested in for future meetings.

GROUND RULES:
* Temper the urge to speak with the discipline to listen and leave space for others
* Balance the desire to teach with a passion to learn
* Hear what is said and listen for what is meant
* Marry your certainties with others' possibilities
* Reserve judgment until you can claim the understanding we seek


Well I guess that's all for now.
Colin
Any problems let me know..
847-963-1254
tysoe2@yahoo.com

The Articles: 

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First a good overview of ‘Green Chicago’

http://www.newtopiamagazine.net/content/issue17/features/greencity.php

SPECIAL REPORT - "Building the Greenest City in America" by Charles Shaw

Chicago is sprinting into the 21st Century as the model urban habitat. With an Administration full of Green Initiatives, including a Department of the Environment and the city's first "Green Czars", the city has ceased its long standing war with nature and embraced the concepts of sustainability.

Because of its hog-squeal Industrial childhood, the great American city of Chicago has never been considered one of the nation's most beautiful places. The city's hardscrabble, top-down Capitalist ethos of profit before protections built this city on a swamp, turned the river into an open sewer, and built the mighty factory god that belched black death into the skies above Lake Michigan for a hundred years. By the 1990s, whole sections of the city had devolved into an industrial wasteland populated by ghettos, projects, and thousands of industrial environmental clean up sites. It was dirty and decrepit, the paradigm of vice and crime, and people wondered aloud if would become the new Detroit.

But then something unexpected happened. Instead of following the same path as other decaying rust-belt cities, Chicago began to experience what has shaped up to be one of the most spectacular urban renaissances in modern history. Today, Chicago is reborn, with a beautiful, revitalized Downtown that is booming, and many completely redeveloped (not necessarily gentrified) neighborhoods. The population is growing at a steady rate of 7-8% a year, one of the few places in America where both the city and suburban/metro area are adding people.

There are varied reasons for this success, including a diverse economy, jobs, immigration, a lower relative cost of living in comparison to other large metro areas, and, of no lesser significance, a spectacular urban habitat rimmed by one of the most environmentally pleasant of the suburban sprawls that have infested the American landscape over the last fifty years.

Chicago was always at least partially beautiful, even amongst the slaughterhouses and steel mills. Unlike most cities, almost all of Chicago's waterfront property is beach and public park. There are almost 600 inland parks within the city limits, and in the neighborhoods the city blocks were designed to have a strip of grass and trees in-between the sidewalk and the street. These thousands upon thousands of trees act as a canopy over the city, sheltering the dense populace living below. Inspired by sister-city Paris, there is a vast forest preserve that rings much of the city, buffering it from the suburbs.

Back in 1989 newly elected Mayor Richard M. Daley was plagued with how to lift Chicago out of the post-industrial slag heap. He had a simple yet brilliant idea: plant more trees. This turned into a wholesale reformation of the city's crumbling 100+ year old infrastructure. Since 1989, the city has spent $5.2 billion improving Chicago's walkways, streets, parks and neighborhood communities. Most impressive amongst a list of admirable achievements was facing the great white elephant that was the Chicago River. Buildings once faced away from the river to avoid the stench, and the extent of damage was reminiscent of the Lake Erie chemical fires of the 1970s. Today large sections along both branches have reemerged as residential districts full of townhomes, high-rises and converted loft communities with a meticulously landscaped riverwalk stretching for miles.

Chicago met federal clean air standards faster than any other large metro, six years ahead of schedule. It cleaned up more than 1,000 acres of polluted industrial land, built the stunning $450 Million neo-modernist Millennium Park over a rail yard that was doubling as an open air parking lot, and created more than 100 miles of bike paths.

That Chicago surmounted a particularly daunting physical challenge should come as no surprise to anyone, least of all Chicagoans. This is a city with an impressive history of innovation that reaches far beyond the hot dog and the skyscraper, albeit with a notoriously feckless relationship to its natural habitat. Is it any wonder the term "ecology" was coined at the University of Chicago in large part because of Chicago's historical feud with nature?

A QUICK REFRESHER

Chicago has had a few major natural catastrophes beyond the Great Chicago Fire. Long before that, in the middle of the 19th Century, against all known logic, Chicago was built on a stinking bog by eastern speculators who were looking to open up the great American heartland for commerce. They broke ground in a place the Native Americans said only the white man was crazy enough to live, and somehow the city managed to persevere. Yet it was not without what appeared to be impossible obstacles to surmount.

Human and animal waste poured into the muddy city streets and down to the river and eventually backed up into Lake Michigan, where the city drew its drinking water. An outbreak of cholera forced civic planners to literally jack the city up 12 feet out of the mud one building at time while a sewer was built underneath, using a hundred-odd individual jacks turned one-quarter turn at a time by a hundred men cowering under the creaking structures. A few years later, realizing the problem had not been solved, these same innovators told the Chicago River to go where nature had not intended it by reversing the flow so that the waste ran through a natural continental divide south to the Mississippi River instead of back east into Lake Michigan.

These unbelievable tales have become a living metaphor for Chicago's innovation and persistence against the odds. It has been said that when you dump as much money and human capital into a city as had been invested in Chicago, you find amazing motivation to make the city work at any cost. This ethos has remained as Chicago reinvents itself in the post-industrial era as a 21st Century sustainable "Green City".

But being a Green city isn't just about how many parks you have. It's about the relationship of the environment to the city and the people, about interconnected social and environmental policies, and leadership from designers, planners, scientists, politicians, civic organizations, and cultural figures, who are all helping Chicago move from a wasteful industrial model, to one of sustainability.

PRESENT DAY GREEN ASSETS

Jim Slama is an editor-at-large for Conscious Choice magazine and president of Sustain, one of the country's leading social and environmental advocacy organizations working with the public, media and policymakers to be active in creating a sustainable planet. One year ago in April of 2003, Slama published "A Green Report Card: Chicago wants to be the 'Greenest city in America.' So, how's it doing?" In it, Slama rated Chicago's progress in a number of ecological benchmarks including cleaning up the Chicago River, making Chicago the organic food capital of the Midwest, Greening communities, deepening the commitment to Green energy and energy efficiency, and making Chicago the nation's hub of Green manufacturing and design.

The results are varied. The city has spent a decade cleaning up the Chicago River, and water quality continues to improve, but the biggest threat to the river is storm water runoff that is dumped into the river when the water system is overwhelmed, which causes high bacterial counts and the release of other hazardous pollution. Chicago is still built up on that swap. More importantly, Chicago is rimmed by suburban sprawl in an almost 50 mile radius that greatly hinders ground water absorption. A generation long deep tunnel project to protect storm runoff is still inching ahead, but is nowhere near completion. 2017 is the projected completion date.

Organic food is a more promising development. Farmer's markets sprang up all over high-density commercial neighborhoods in the 1990's. A study held last fall by developers of the conservation community Prairie Crossing determined that Chicago-area retailers currently sell $60 to $80 million of organic produce a year, with only 3 percent being grown locally (most organic produce is grown out of state and shipped to Chicago). The study states "The demand for organic food is 30 times greater than the local supply."

Slama reports that the city "is already walking its talk by turning over vacant lots to community members who are converting them into urban farms. There are over 500 community managed parks and gardens in the city, and the numbers continue to grow. The city is actively promoting these projects with hands-on support from the Department of the Environment's GreenCorps program, which is a community greening and job training effort geared towards horticultural education and landscaping. Working in partnership with community gardeners, the program provides plant materials, technical assistance, and some of the "heavy labor" at community garden sites. The city has also begun to use "open space impact fees" to help mitigate the loss of open space caused when builders create new developments. The funds are then used to purchase land to be preserved as parks or other public uses."

Chicago's City Parks are some of the most expansive in the nation with 7300 acres of parkland, 552 parks, 33 beaches, nine museums, two world-class conservatories, 16 historic lagoons, 10 bird and wildlife gardens, and an active special events department that provides thousands of year-round programs that engage Chicagoans with their environment. Chicago spends more per person on its parks than any other city ($114.48) and spends- more than twice as much per acre of parkland ($26,797.49) than its closest competitor, Boston.

And in keeping with Chicago's market-driven ethos, the Environment is big business here too. With America's most diversified economy, Chicago boasts an environmental technology industry that is #2 in the U.S., employs 36,117 people, and produces $852 million in exports that bring in revenues of $5.2 billion a year.

In April of this year Chicago lawyer, writer, and activist Dan Johnson-Weinberger penned "How Green is Our Mayor?", the follow up to Slama's article of a year ago. Johnson-Weinberger was the first to respond in depth to the Daley Administration's newly launched "Greenest City in America" campaign, and he was one of the first to interview Daley's new Green Czar, more commonly known as Sadhu Johnston, the Mayor's Assistant for Green Initiatives.

"How Green is our Mayor" pointed out a lot of the apparent contradictions of trying to perform any large-scale reformation project in a city this size, but more importantly, it's fresh, editorial style helped put a lot of the recent Green rhetoric in perspective:

"The contrasts [in Chicago] are stunning: the lakefront ranks among the best parks in the world, while the Chicago River is still essentially an industrial channel where swimming is verboten. The city touts a nationally renowned Center for Green Technology on the West Side but also is home to two carcinogen-spewing coal-burning power plants in residential neighborhoods. And, of course, we've yet to enact a smoking ban that allows us to take deep breaths in public places."

Johnson-Weinberger goes on to chronicle some of the cities most amazing (and perplexing) developments in Lakefront and Riverfront improvement projects. Some of them are of a truly stunning scale. The former Meigs Field municipal airport is to be transformed back into Northerly Island. Located approximately a mile southeast of Chicago's downtown Loop and just south of its famed museum campus, this publicly accessible green space designed by the Openlands Project will enhance the already amazing lakefront by providing an entirely eco-scaped habitat. Northerly Island was originally conceived as part of the 1909 Burnham plan and came to fruition as part of the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition. Afterwards it was turned into a private airport that mainly served the recreational interests of the more well-to-do, as the field was too small for anything but expensive personal aircraft and corporate shuttles. Mayor Daley enraged private pilots and advocates of democratic process by closing the airport and tearing up the field in the middle of the night, but by and large most agree this will be an incredible addition to the city.

Just opposite Northerly Island on the far eastern shore of the lakefront there has been an expansion of the "city's museum campus, where the Field Museum, the Adler Planetarium, the Shedd Aquarium, and the newly rebuilt Soldier Field are located just east of Grant Park on the lakefront. As part of the stadium renovation, the campus added a bike trail, a sledding hill, and almost 13 new acres of parkland. The Neo-Modernist stadium is best characterized as provocative, garnering polemically mixed reviews. Most say it looks like a UFO landed on the colonnades of the old Soldier Field, and the consortium who built the stadium with $400 million in public funds, which included the Chicago City Council, Chicago Park District and Illinois General Assembly, has been assailed for building what is essentially a private football stadium in lieu of "schools, libraries, transit lines or hundreds of other far-more-worthy projects."

Clean water is going to become a central concern in the next 20 years. The city has developed a detailed water quality/conservation agenda that includes making residents of all single-family homes accountable for their water use. Currently, only 15 percent of these homes have a water meter. And as regards the Chicago River, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says the river is the cleanest it's been in over a century. Still, 60 percent of the river's flow is treated human and industrial-waste water.

"The Green Roof" rooftop garden on City Hall has been a hallmark of Mayor Daley's "Green City" evolution, which the city has been advocating for other buildings. This natural urban oasis saves on cooling costs by covering rooftops with landscaped parks rather than tar and stone which reduces the "urban heat island" effect caused by dark colored paving and roofing materials. These Green Roofs improve air quality and reduce storm water, help clean the air of exhaust pollution, and provide a stunning place to lunch, socialize, or simply gather one's head. The 20,000 square foot compost, mulch, and clay garden atop City Hall contains 20,000 native plants.

The city is also issuing grants for "urban heat island" projects in private homes. These initiatives call for installing rooftop gardens, median planters, and using light roofing materials and solar panels to provide clean energy. The green roof project is so appealing that I brought it to the other five residents in my six unit building and proposed we add one to our roof. You will be able to chart the progress of this project in our new section, "Creative Sustainability", debuting in issue 18.

TRANSPORTATION & ENERGY

Even though Chicago has one of the most developed rapid transit systems in the nation, there are significant portions of the city and metro area not served by El or a regional commuter train. Rail lines currently branch out from Downtown Chicago, but there are few connecting lines that go north-south across these radiating spoke lines. There have been plans in development for a new "Circle Line", which would be Chicago's equivalent of Manhattan's cross-town line, connecting all the current lines (Red, Brown, Green, Blue, and Orange) with one north-south line. An even larger Mid-City line is planned that would run north-south along the Far West Side connecting O'Hare to Midway. In suburbia, the Regional Transit Authority METRA is attempting to develop a suburban north-south line to connect the existing regional commuter rail lines.

There is also an express train planned for both O'Hare and Midway Airports that would originate beneath the planned super-development for Block 37 located across from Daley Plaza in the heart of the Loop. This would all but eliminate the (conservatively) 30-60 minute trip spent driving to the airports, or riding the traditional EL lines.

Add to this the addition of 93 out of a planned 200 miles of bicycle lanes, and the city's message is clear. Drive less! Please!

This is of course because the biggest concern facing all American cities is not green spaces but their prodigious consumption of energy, and Chicago is no exception. At present, only 10 percent of Chicago's electricity is renewable, and although the city promises that by 2006 20% of the City's power will come from renewable sources and by 2010 they will buy 1/5 of their power from green sources. Still, that leaves us today with 80 percent of Chicago's electricity produced by coal and nuclear power. This absolutely will have to change as soon as is feasible if anyone is to take Chicago's "Green" claims at face value.

To decrease petroleum use, Chicago has begun adding natural gas and hybrid vehicles to their fleet, and they have built 3 natural gas filling stations. A gradual shift to a complete hybrid and gas fleet would definitely save the city millions in fuel bills, but this may still only be a stopgap measure. In development is the Illinois Coalition's Hydrogen Highway, the first step towards a renewable-hydrogen energy economy. The project calls for the building of a series of hydrogen filling stations along a commercial interstate route that slices right through northeast Illinois. (You can read all about the Hydrogen Highway and the hydrogen economy in "The Hydrogen Highway: The Road to Renewable Energy", in this issue)

A LEADER IN GREEN DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION

Because of its spectacular location in the middle of the country on the shores of a massive freshwater lake, early on Chicago developed into the nation's main water and rail hub. When highways replaced railroads as the primary mode of ground travel, the U.S. interstates all converged just west of the city. As commercial aviation grew into a global enterprise, Chicago laid claim to the world's busiest airport. With the advent of the information age, Chicago became a thriving telecommunications hub.

Now, Chicago is emerging as a hub of green manufacturing and design. It has constructed a "green corridor" devoted to companies that are engaged in green businesses such as organic food, renewable energy, and native landscaping.

Opened to the public in May of 2002, Chicago's Center for Green Technology ("Chicago Green Tech") is a model of sustainable design. It is only the third building in the United States to be designed using these high standards of green technology. The buildings, grounds, and programs at Chicago Green Tech help architects, builders, and homeowners learn how green technology is both cost effective and good for the environment and for the people. It is the only one of the existing three that is an adaptive-reuse renovation of a pre-existing building. The cleanup of the old site took 18 months and cost about $9 million, and over 600,000 tons of concrete were hauled away in some 45,000 truck loads. The city recouped some of the clean up cost by selling the concrete and other materials to recycling firms and to other city departments for re-use in their projects.

The building was designed using a set of guidelines established by the US Green Building Council called LEED (Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design). LEED is a voluntary, consensus-based national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings. Chicago Green Tech is the proud winner of their coveted "Platinum" rating.

The structure features rooftop solar panels and photovoltaic awnings, a geothermal heat pump, a shaded, reflective parking lot, green roof, storm water retention, high performance windows, low-polluting paints and sealants, and elevators that use canola oil. Bicycle parking and shower facilities are available for employees who wish to bike instead of drive to reduce air pollution.

The Center's three anchor tenants were selected the Chicago Department of Environment specifically for their contribution to the Green industry. Greencorps Chicago, l the city's community landscaping and job training program, Spire Solar, a manufacturer of photovoltaic panels, and WRD Environmental, an urban landscape design/build firm.

The culture of Green design has been warmly received by the Chicago community. Beginning June 1 and running through September 12 is "Big & Green: Toward Sustainable Architecture in the 21st Century" at the Chicago Architecture Foundation. This exhibit of the world's major green projects, the first of its kind in this city, builds on the growing recognition of the relationship between architecture and the environment by showing how large-scale green architecture can be both healthful and practical, approaching energy, light and air, greenery, water, and waste, construction, and urbanism, in new and innovative ways. "Chicago Green" will showcase 15 of the city's flagship green projects.

The Foresight Design Initiative

The Foresight Design Initiative is a Chicago-based non-profit that works towards improving and sustaining the quality of life in the urban environment through intelligent design, without sacrificing the needs of future generations. They plan to achieve this by fostering sustainability in the practices of industry and design, and altering existing patterns of consumption.

"Sustainability is ultimately about improving quality of life for everyone" says Peter Nicholson, Executive Director of the organization. "Better, smarter design, of all sorts, is integral to this enterprise and yet, so often, it's taken for granted or omitted from the process."

Serving as the Chicago chapter of the Global o2 Network (www.o2.org), Foresight has brought hundreds of local professionals, leaders, students, and community members together for events addressing a breadth of local issues, including energy efficiency, renewable energy (wind, solar, biomass), municipal recycling, green economics, affordable green homes, local green businesses, design education, and corporate social responsibility. These events have led to active collaborations, increased integration of sustainability into business practices, more sustainable consumer behavior, and the empowerment of community members to effect change.

To extend this impact, Foresight created the Chicago Sustainability Action Guide , an online directory of local resources to assist individuals in applying sustainability concerns to their professional and personal lives. Designed by a collaboration of environmental and design professionals, the Action Guide is the first of its kind in Chicago.

In order to raise awareness and begin to foster greater engagement with the myriad of issues that come under the sustainability umbrella, Foresight produced the 1st Annual Chicago Sustainable Design Challenge last year. The event brought together over 50 designers, students and related professionals who collaborated to develop 11 compelling proposals to make Chicago a more sustainable, livable city. Plans for a bigger and better second Design Challenge are in the works.

Foresight also organizes Chicago Green Drinks, a monthly socializing, networking and educational gathering for people interested in sustainability issues. An idea that got its start in London more than 10 years ago , and can now be found in more than 40 cities worldwide, Green Drinks in Chicago tends to draw a diverse crowd of more than 60 people each month. Unlike in other cities, the Chicago event also includes an hour-long panel discussion on topics that change each month.

Additionally, all office activities and events in 2004 are 100% powered by renewable energy sources (i.e. solar and wind), thanks to a generous donation of Green Tags, renewable energy purchasing credits, by Mainstay Energy.

THE "GREEN CORRIDOR"

When the interstate expressways were built the 1950's, then Mayor Richard J. Daley demolished miles of neighborhoods to build the massive eight lane highways that snaked in and out of the city. They were also constructed in part to serve as natural barriers between neighborhoods that were divided along racial lines. One of the most glaring was the Kennedy Expressway, which cut a swath right through the Near West Side, just west of the River and the Loop. Today, the Near West Side is connected by a series of bridges, and the canyon itself is ugly, congested, and full of trapped exhaust.

The Architecture firm of Perkins & Will studied the capping of the Kennedy Expressway and came up with a pioneering solution, the "Green Corridor" in Downtown Chicago, based on a series of ideas proposed in the new Central Area Plan and the new reforms in the city's 50 year old zoning code. This concept solves two pressing problems for the West Loop: the disconnection from the Near West Side, and the lack of abundant public green space.

In this prototypical "Green" community, each cross expressway block forms a mixed-use neighborhood externally connected at the roof and internally connected by public circulation paths through the bridges. The inhabited bridges contain retail and public amenities that connect office structures on the east with residential to the west. These linked communities act as ideal transit spaces which link Loop related office development with residential neighborhoods to the west.

The big curved structures adorning the crests of the buildings are wind shields or scoops that harness wind and direct it downward to "flush" the expressway cavity of CO2 and circulate fresh air into the new park spaces. Green "Network Park" bridges and sky gardens provide a network of open air public green spaces inside the towers.

Blair Kamin, the Pulitzer-Prize winning Architecture critic of the Chicago Tribune called the Green Corridor, "a fantastic vision" that "offers a stinging critique of the city's rapidly expanding West loop office and residential district, which is all about public buildings and hardly at all about public space." When the design first debuted last year as an installation by the Chicago Architecture Foundation, it received the awestruck raves that haven't been heard in this town in a long time when it comes to architectural design. But with this, we were all reassured that the unique, pioneering spirit that designed the first skyscrapers was still alive and well.

NEW URBANISM

Chicago is the epicenter of New Urbanism, an urban design movement that emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s. New Urbanists aim to reform real estate development and support regional planning for open space, place-appropriate architecture and planning, and the balanced development of jobs and housing. They believe these strategies are the best way to reduce commuting, increase the supply of affordable housing, and rein in urban sprawl. Many other issues, such as historic restoration, safe streets, and green building are also covered in the Charter of the New Urbanism, the movement's seminal document.

The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) is a Chicago and San Francisco-based non-profit organization that was founded in 1993. CNU works with architects, developers, planners, and others involved in the creation of cities and towns, teaching them how to implement the principles of the New Urbanism. These principles include coherent, interconnected "smart" regional planning, walkable neighborhoods, and attractive, accommodating civic spaces, including parks and "green spaces". CNU has over 2,000 members throughout the United States and around the world.

"With its history of design innovation and convenient air and rail connections, Chicago is a great base from which to advance CNU's ideas for restoring urban centers, replacing sprawl with real communities and adding value to the economy," says John Norquist, the former Mayor of Milwaukee and current President and CEO of the CNU. Norquist is the author of The Wealth of Cities, and has taught courses in urban policy and urban planning at the University of Chicago, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Architecture and Urban Planning and at Marquette University. While in his tenure as Mayor of Milwaukee, among other successes, Norquist presided over a Downtown housing boom that led him to become the nation's foremost advocate of New Urbanism.

At the end of the month Chicago will host the twelfth annual Congress for the New Urbanism. This year's Congress will focus on the smallest scale addressed by the Charter of the New Urbanism, defining principles and methods for restoring, infilling, and creating places in ways that satisfy not just aesthetic ideals but environmental and social goals as well. There will also be a special session on "The Sustainable City". This is one of three major urban design conferences taking place in Chicago the month of June.

You can hear more about New Urbanism in an interview with John Norquist on Chicago NPR's "Eight Forty-Eight" program.

GREEN HOMES FOR CHICAGO

39 states now require new homes to meet energy efficiency standards for the climate zone in which they are located. In "Green' Home Building in Chicago" (Conscious Choice, March 2003) Nancy Wagner writes, "A handful of homebuilders in the Chicago area have begun building energy efficient homes to take part in the Department of Energy's 'Building America Initiative.' The program requires new homes to use at least 30 percent less energy for heating, cooling, and water heating than conventional homes of the same size. The ideal green home would be energy-efficient, built to last, use local materials, take full advantage of natural surroundings and have products designed to "be actively positive" for one's health."

America's first "single-family home" was the Chicago Bungalow. The word bungalow comes from bungla, a type of housing that was first built in India for British subjects. Built between 1910 and 1940, there are more than 80,000 of them ringing the outer neighborhoods of the city in what is affectionately known as the "Bungalow Belt", which accounts for about a third of Chicago's single-family homes.

Most of these squat, solid, rectangular, one-and-a-half story homes were built from standardized fixtures, and were the first affordable homes for the middle classes, as well as the first to incorporate central heating, electricity and modern plumbing.

The City's Green Bungalow initiative provides owners of historic bungalows with financial and architectural assistance to transform the houses into environmentally friendly, energy efficient homes. Chicagoans who rehab bungalows are eligible for up to $3,000 in energy conservation grants, vouchers for energy efficient appliances and units.

Under the "Green Homes for Chicago" program, the Departments of Environment and Housing held a single-family home design competition for the purpose of generating creative and resourceful applications of green technology that were also affordable. After the winning entries were selected, five homes were built to these specifications. The homes were showcased for a time and then sold as affordable housing.

GREEN POLITICS AND POLICIES

Despite widespread popular misconception, being "Green" is not just a political decision, it's a lifestyle change. You don't become "Green" by voting for Ralph Nader or by becoming an environmentalist, you become "Green" by making a conscious decision to advocate for a different approach to lifestyle, politics, and society.

Unlike a corporate controlled "Consumer" society that exhausts resources and cultures and favors profit over the well being of the consumer base, Green politics and policies work to create a fair, independently-owned, progressive, "Sustainer" society which is built on entirely different principles: sustainable development, sustainable economics, sustainable foreign policy, and sustainable labor practices. Green politics use a grassroots democratic approach to government in which people are actively engaged in what goes on in their communities. Green policies make sure that the fundamental pillars of a sustainable society are included in public policy: Ecological stewardship, Social Justice, Grassroots Democracy and Non-Violence.

Chicago is a city that is awash in Green policies, but it is virtually without Green politics. The Green Party presence is small, and there are no elected Green officials. Chicago is a Democrat city through and through. For many, it is the very archetype of the Democratic Party.

This is ironic because the original "Green Party" (GPUSA)-there are two, this is the smaller and lesser known)-has its headquarters in Chicago. But the old Green party never really amounted to much and has rapidly dwindled to a few hardcore members, and the new Green Party, although organized and active, is too new and small to make a dent in the mighty Chicago machine. Still, more and more people go "Green" every day, and Chicago is one of those places where this type of evolution, notwithstanding the political, is a natural by-product of its global diversity and environmental challenges.

Chicago is challenged with a citizenry that has strong leadership from the top down, which is the opposite of how the Green Party approaches politics, from the "roots upward". This has created an interesting dichotomy. The now infamous "midnight raid" to close Meigs Field and turn it into Northerly Island Park was only possible because of the power structure that presently exists. It is very doubtful the situation would have been resolved using grassroots process. Greens are up in arms about this violation of democratic process, but are conflicted by the results, which is at its core that a private airfield for the affluent was turned into a public park for all, a very Green sentiment indeed.

It is important to note that with the current population growth and economic shift, the political base in Chicago is shifting too. There is an entirely new citizenry making this city their home, "knowledge workers", the lifeblood of the exploding creative and business service economies. For cities to compete in the Information Age, they need to be attractive to these new urban dwellers who want diverse, tolerant, and vibrant cultural environments that are practically and aesthetically engaging. This includes having a tolerant political system. The net effect in Chicago, like in San Francisco and New York, is that the presence of Green policies, camping out firmly to the left of mainstream Democrats, has held the Democratic power structures to task. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom never would have issued same-sex marriage licenses had Green challenger Matt Gonzales not made that part of his platform. Likewise in Chicago, the tireless work over the last 20 years of a small group of environmental activists, most of whom belong to the GPUSA, has kept the Daley Administration in a Green frame of mind. If nothing else, they should always be proud of that.

GREEN CITY GOVERNMENT

To create an unparalleled urban habitat, the city has created a Department of the Environment, has a vanguard Department of Cultural Affairs, and has the nation's first "Green Czars", who are charged with helping the Mayor and these flagship departments create a new model of urban sustainability. Chicago proves that it can be done in an aging industrial city.

The Chicago Department of Environment was formed by Mayor Daley in 1992 and is staffed by 100 people, including field personnel, engineers, scientists, attorneys and administrators. Their mission is threefold: protect human health and the environment; improve the urban quality of life; and, of course, promote economic development. Their function is to develop environmental policy and enforce the City's various environmental regulations, promote natural resource conservation, pollution prevention, energy efficiency, and public outreach through environmental services, projects, and programs for the citizenry.

"Mayor Daley's vision of making Chicago the greenest city in the nation is about providing healthy air and water, being wise in our energy use, and conserving resources. But it's also about increasing Chicago's competitive edge: making the city a place where people want to come live, visit and start their businesses", said First Deputy Commissioner David Reynolds, who has been with the department since 1996.

Reynolds works closely with fellow-Green Czar Sadhu Johnston, the Mayor's Special Assistant for Green Initiatives, a custom-made position on the mayor's executive staff. Johnston is a Green pioneer who came to Chicago from Cleveland, another great industrial city that is scrambling to survive, where he founded the Cleveland Green Building Coalition. Johnston's specific role is to make sure all City departments toe the Green line by taking into account the environmental consequences of policy decisions.

"We aren't just about greening from the environmental perspective," says Johnston, "we're really about making the city healthy, smart and green all the way around."

Chicago is one of many cities in the post-Richard Florida world that realizes vibrant, cultural, artistic communities are key to civic revitalization and draw in all sorts of new residents, even non-artists seeking a fun place to live that bears no resemblance to their office park in the suburbs. Chicago's vibrant arts community has always encouraged residents to stay in the city while spurring relocation from others.

The function of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs is to promote the arts as a vital component of urban life. The Department's website quotes a community economic impact study of the nonprofit arts community, called Jobs, the Arts and the Economy which concludes:

"When our communities invest in the arts they are not opting for cultural benefits at the expense of economic benefits. Careful research shows that in addition to being a vital means of social enrichment, the arts are also an economically sound investment for communities of all sizes. Quite simply, the arts are an industry that generates jobs."

Sustainable economic growth is the purview of World Business Chicago (WBC), a public-private economic development corporation co-chaired by Mayor Daley. WBC aggressively markets the competitive advantages of Chicago as the world's best metropolitan area in which to live, work, and play to retain and attract businesses.

Directed at local, community-based economics, Jim Slama's Sustain has opened a Chicago chapter to train and assist local business owners on how to build a "local living economy". Living economies are those that offer long term economic prosperity through independent business ownership, living wage jobs, cultural diversity, and a healthy natural environment. "Sustainable Chicago" will educate consumers and policy makers on how to build and support sustainable communities.

As Chicago is a city of dynamic neighborhoods with bustling commercial strips surrounding dense residential streets, it is the perfect model for a diverse, independent ownership base. Eclectic art and culture districts like Wicker Park, Andersonville, River North, Lincoln Square, and Pilsen have all formed organized groups to try and steer economic growth and curb or eliminate the proliferation of chains and big box retail stores. Unfortunately the ability of these neighborhood economies to attract and retain a steady customer base is dependent upon a diversity of businesses along the strips. One major chain store-a Border's Books, Starbuck's, or (perish the thought) a Wal Mart-can have devastating effects. It's no wonder this has moved into the political arena, with community groups warring over whether or not to let a Wal-Mart in the city. As of press time, the first one has been passed through the city council and will soon rise in the Austin district on the city's Far West Side. It is estimated that the presence of this one Wal-Mart will impact over 300 businesses in the area and lead to a net loss of about 216 jobs, and that's afterWal-Mart has done their hiring.

Case study: Uptown, a neighborhood made famous by the gangsters in the 1930's for its night clubs and ballrooms, has seen blight for the last thirty years, and is a haven for drugs, crime and the homeless. But within the last year both a Starbucks and a Border's Books have opened on the main intersection in Uptown on Broadway and Lawrence sparking a renaissance. But these threaten to shut down such venerable Chicago institutions as the last Coffee Chicago, a once-powerful local chain with true ambience that was squashed by Starbucks, Seattle's Best, and Caribou Coffee, to name a few, and noted feminist bookstore Women and Children First Books just north of Uptown in Andersonville.

Someone always benefits, someone always loses. It's a quandary that has no immediate solution for sure.

CONCLUSION

But of course the Greenest thing about Chicago has always been money, and nowhere is that more evident these days than in the luxury high rise building boom that has been going on for six years now and shows no sign of stopping. The flagship of this boom is Trump International Hotel and Tower Chicago, a 90-story stainless steel and glass new Modernist masterpiece. Trump claims that no luxury was spared in the design.

In its quest to be the greenest city in America, Chicago has an opportunity to make its new flagship skyscraper a model of Green design," said Stacy Malkan, Editor of the Green Pages, the news publication of the Green Party of the US. "That would be the best contribution Donald Trump can make to the city of Chicago, to have it lead by example. The Trump Tower should be LEED certified, and should be free of PVC, mercury, brominated flame retardants and other materials linked to disease. Otherwise their claim lacks credibility if the city isn't willing to push developers to go above and beyond business as usual."

At least from the outside, this is not business-as-usual. The Donald was held to a higher standard here in Chicago than he ever was in New York, and the building's lead design architect Adrian Smith of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill is a hallowed figure in the world of Supertall architecture. Their design went through a series of revisions and extra requirements required of any structure that will occupy such a prominent location and status in the city that invented the skyscraper. Trump's tower is distinguished by one significant contribution: the plans call for a completely landscaped river walk, where there is now only a sheer concrete wall. This project will anchor the Downtown river-revitalization plan that the Mayor has envisioned, where someday rather than the concrete channel that now exists, the Chicago River will bend through the loop with a terrace full of cafes and shops and trees and fountains.

But Mayor Daley isn't going to be around forever. And if Chicago wants to lay claim to "The Greenest City in America", it will need to sustain this level of innovation and initiative for years to come. Being Green means holding oneself to an even higher standard than that of plain Consumer society. It means giving something back every day so that there is always something for tomorrow. Chicago has always overcome the greatest of challenges, and its post-industrial renaissance is truly one for the books. If Chicago keeps this up, it won't be the Greenest City in America for long, the envy of other cities will throw a much more resonant hue of Green across the American landscape.

The author would like to acknowledge the generous assistance of the Mayor's Office, Sadhu Johnston and David Reynolds, Carl Wasielewski and Meghan Risch of World Business Chicago, Ralph Johnson and the Architecture Firm of Perkins & Will, and the entire gang at Conscious Choice magazine.

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Recycling is an area where citizens get to make a contribution directly. Unfortunately Chicago’s choice of the blue bag scheme has drawn criticism for its inefficiency.

FYI The official line is here:

Blue bag recycling data 2003

http://egov.cityofchicago.org/webportal/COCWebPortal/COC_EDITORIAL/StateOfRecyclingReport2003.pdf

The Chicago recycling Coalition is pushing for improvements:

http://www.chicagorecycling.org/bluebag.html

Chicago Sings the Blue Bag Blues:

Problems and solutions for the Blue Bag recycling program

Chicago residents are now over four years into City Hall's controversial Blue Bag recycling program. What did we get for the millions we've spent on the program so far?

Low participation: Blue Bag recycling programs have failed in other communities because citizens did not trust the system and did not participate in the program. The same thing has happened in Chicago, since many Chicago residents either do not purchase Blue Bags or do not have faith in a recycling program that collects recyclables in a regular garbage truck. Chicago Recycling Coalition surveyed the city's alleys to see who was and wasn't using Blue Bags. We found that only 20% of eligible households were using the program! This 20% participation figure is much smaller than those in the suburbs and other major cities, where participation rates are 80% and higher.

A numbers game: City Hall and Waste Management (the Blue Bag contractor) use skewed accounting methods to pad their recycling numbers. For example, they account for the natural process of evaporation to boost the recovery figure. And about 40% of the landfill diversion figure is "sifted" waste consisting of anything smaller than a quarter of an inch. Much of this waste is mixed with contaminated soil, and the resulting material is piled on top of a landfill on Chicago's Southeast Side. So while the City talks about a 25% diversion rate, the Blue Bag's real recycling figure has averaged just 8%.

"Downcycling" through inferior design: The Blue Bag program doesn't recycle material so much as it "downcycles" by lowering the quality of these recyclables. Under the current design of the program, blue-bagged recyclables, garbage and yard waste all go into the same garbage trucks. Trucks then dump their loads at one of four Blue Bag sorting centers where the bagged recyclables, regular trash and yard waste are separated and sorted.

Worker safety: The 650 people employed in the Blue Bag sorting centers are paid a starting wage of $6.50 per hour to sort through hazardous raw garbage. Waste Management and the temp agency that hires the workers in the sorting centers have been fined nearly $100,000 for health and safety violations. Turnover rates at the sorting centers have run as high as 30% within three months, and former workers have complained about poor working conditions. While Waste Management states that it has imposed changes to make the work less objectionable, the jury is still out on the long-term health effects of direct exposure to sorting raw garbage. The few studies done on the subject list respiratory and muscular problems associated with sorting raw waste.

Yard waste disgrace: The City is heavily promoting the use of Blue Bags for yard waste. They are counting on the widespread collection of yard waste to drive up the diversion rate. However, Waste Management has sent much of this yard waste to a farm (owned by former state senator Jerome Joyce) in Kankakee County, which has generated vigorous local opposition because of the rancid smells and high truck traffic heading associated with the facility.

Common-sense alternatives:

Given the variety of problems with the Blue Bag, which alternatives should the City pursue?

Separate collection: As the City's old compactor trucks are retired, the City should invest in new recycling trucks or trucks with separate compartments that include a conventional compacting unit for trash, and an open compartment for Blue Bags. Such trucks are designed to not mix and crush recyclables with other trash. These trucks would bring about a cleaner, more marketable stream of recyclables, and higher participation, since many city residents don't trust a recycling program that swallows a bag of recyclables along with other trash.

Yard waste solutions: The City should promote backyard composting and encourage citizens to leave grass clippings on their lawns. This solution is more fiscally responsible, since the City won't have to pay for more processing of yard waste. In addition, the City should ensure that the Blue Bag yard waste is sent to a composting facility that produces a useful product.

Complimentary recycling: By now, it is obvious that the Blue Bag can't serve as a one-size-fits-all solution to recycling for Chicago. Successful programs like drop boxes and the innovative CHA buy-back recycling program should be expanded to offer all citizens effective recycling choices.

Increased local economic development: City Hall should ensure that more of the Blue Bag recyclables are sold in Chicago. The Blue Bag is exporting valuable "urban ore" than could fuel local industries and jobs.

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Chicago’s performance on air quality is mixed:

Illinois EPA says Chicago's air is better

February 5, 2004 - The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency says air quality in the Chicago area improved last year.

The state E-P-A says the metro area experienced 355 "good" or "moderate" outdoor air quality days last year. That compares to 342 such days in 2002 and 332 in 2001.

"Good" and "moderate" are the two best air-quality levels.

Illinois E-P-A Director Renee Cipriano credits both residents for reducing activities that cause pollution and industry for reducing harmful emissions.

BUT

http://www.calasthma.org/news/show_story/314/

(ENN-AP) Clean Air Task Force Report: 20,000 deaths a Year on diesel exhaust, based on 1999 government data

Study Blames 20,000 Deaths a Year on Diesel Exhaust

February 23, 2005 - By Devlin Barrett, Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Emissions from old diesel engines cause more than 20,000 Americans a year to die sooner than they would have otherwise, an environmental group estimated Tuesday.

An industry group criticized the findings as outdated and misleading.

The metropolitan areas with the highest number of early deaths from diesel engines were New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, according to the Boston-based Clean Air Task Force. The study included the surrounding suburbs, so New York's estimated total of 2,729 deaths included parts of New Jersey and Connecticut.

The states with the most deaths were New York with 2,332, California with 1,784, and Pennsylvania with 1,170, according to the group.

The group said it based its figures on the most recent government emissions data -- from 1999 -- and from public health studies of the effects of various types of air pollutants.

Conrad Schneider, co-author of the report, said regulations designed to make new diesel engines cleaner don't affect millions of older trucks, buses and construction engines.

"Those are great rules, they will hold new engines to higher standards. ... In the meantime, we're stuck with a legacy of dirty diesel engines," said Schneider, advocacy director for the Clean Air Task Force, a coalition of regional and local groups.

The Environmental Protection Agency last year required new diesel engines on trucks and buses to cut in half the amount of nitrogen oxides produced. In 2007 emissions are to be cut further.

Since many older diesel engines can run for 30 years, more action is needed by federal, state, and local governments to retrofit existing diesel engines to run more cleanly, the group said.

Retrofits for a typical transit bus can cost about $5,000 to $7,000.

The head of a Washington-based industry group criticized the report's assumptions and conclusions.

"I think they have overstated the risk here using data that's six years old," said Allan Schaeffer, executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum.

Schaeffer said it takes eight modern tractor trailer engines to produce the same amount of pollution generated by one such engine made twelve years ago, and that diesel exhaust comprises just 4.4 percent of fine particle pollution.

"Our industry is getting cleaner faster than most other industries out there," Schaeffer said.

Diesel pollution is blamed for contributing to asthma, respiratory diseases, and heart attacks. The study estimates the risk of health complications from diesel exhaust for people living in cities is three times higher than the risk for those in rural areas.

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Some background info on diesel emissions:

http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_vehicles/trucks_and_buses/page.cfm?pageID=238

backgrounder

Diesel Engines and Public Health

Diesel engines power most of the nation's trucks, buses, trains, ships, and off-road machinery. But each diesel engine can produce tons of air pollutants over its lifetime. With mounting evidence that diesel exhaust poses major health hazards, reducing diesel pollution has become a public priority.

Diesel Pollution

Transportation Sources of Nitrogen Oxide Emissions

Passenger Vehicles 50%

Diesel trucks and buses 19%

Nonroad, marine and rail diesel 25%

Other 6%

Transportation = 49% US Total

Transportation Sources of Particulate Emissions

Passenger Vehicles 15%

Diesel trucks and buses 27%

Nonroad, marine and rail diesel 42%

Other 16%

Transportation = 2% US Total

Most diesel engines used today power heavy vehicles such as freight trucks, buses, construction and agricultural equipment, trains, and barges. Diesel passenger vehicles make up only a small share of the current US market, but automakers are working to reintroduce diesel engines into sport utility vehicles, pickups, and passenger cars. While diesel cars are more efficient than their gasoline counterparts, regulations permit them to emit far more pollutants. Such a tradeoff between efficiency and clean air is both unwise and unnecessary.

Diesel engines emit large quantities of particulate matter (called PM) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), the latter a precursor to particulates and smog. Collectively, diesel-powered vehicles account for nearly half of all nitrogen oxides and more than two-thirds of all particulates from US transportation.

Health Impacts

Particulates irritate the eyes and nose and aggravate respiratory problems, including asthma, which afflicts 13 million Americans. Very small particles, called fine particulates, have also been directly associated with an increased risk of premature death. One recent landmark study found that the risk of premature death in areas with high levels of fine particulates was 26 percent greater than in areas with lower levels. Researchers estimate that, nationwide, tens of thousands of people die prematurely each year as a result of particulate pollution. Diesel engines contribute to the problem by releasing particulates directly into the air and by emitting nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides, which transform into "secondary" particulates in the atmosphere.

Diesel-related emissions of nitrogen oxides also contribute to ozone, the major ingredient in the smog engulfing major cities. High up in the stratosphere, ozone shields the earth from harmful ultraviolet rays. But at ground level, ozone--formed when nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbon emissions combine in the presence of sunlight--irritates the respiratory system, causing coughing, choking, and reduced lung capacity. Urban ozone pollution has been linked to increased hospital admissions for respiratory problems such as asthma, even at levels below the current standard. Ozone presents hazards for healthy adults as well: one study of nonsmoking adults in the ozone-heavy Los Angeles area found that their breathing capacity was reduced as much as that of pack-a-day smokers.

In addition to contributing to mainstream air pollution problems, public health agencies consider diesel exhaust a potential human carcinogen. Exposure to high levels of diesel exhaust causes lung tumors in rats, and studies of humans routinely exposed to diesel fumes indicate a greater risk of lung cancer. For example, occupational health studies of railroad, dock, trucking, and bus garage workers exposed to high levels of diesel exhaust over many years consistently demonstrate a 20 to 50 percent increase in the risk of lung cancer or mortality. The International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies diesel exhaust as a probable human carcinogen, and the US Environmental Protection Agency has proposed the same classification. The California EPA estimates that 450 out of every million Californians are at risk of developing cancer due to diesel exhaust exposure.

Solutions

The public-health problems associated with diesel emissions have intensified efforts to develop viable solutions. But while improvements to existing diesel engines and fuels are necessary, they are not a long-term solution. Alternative fuels and advanced engines can provide larger gains. Fortunately, these new low- or no-pollution technologies are winning acceptance as alternatives to major new investments in diesel-based solutions.

Heavy vehicles. In the heavy-vehicle market, where most diesel is used today, transit buses have led the way toward nondiesel solutions. One in five buses currently on order will run on an alternative, less-polluting fuel such as natural gas. And advanced technologies, like fuel cells, are now entering transit fleets and eliminating polluting emissions altogether. In addition to providing a quieter, cleaner ride for transit passengers, advanced buses provide a springboard to using these improved technologies and fuels to clean up all heavy vehicles. Development of advanced heavy-vehicle options is progressing rapidly, but requires more public funding for research, development, and demonstration. Policymakers must also help develop stronger regulatory and market incentive programs to develop the necessary fueling infrastructure and move these technologies onto the road.

Light vehicles. While diesel powers relatively few automobiles or light trucks today, industry and government are currently working to reintroduce this technology into passenger vehicles to meet fuel economy and climate change goals. But advanced technologies such as battery, hybrid, and fuel cell electric vehicles powered by alternative fuels provide better solutions to air quality, climate change, and energy security problems. Research into advanced vehicles should therefore focus on these inherently cleaner choices. At a minimum, regulators should close historic loopholes that permit diesel cars to pollute more than those powered by gasoline. Government policy should also target the largely untapped potential for improving gasoline vehicles while working to help bring truly clean and efficient vehicles to market.

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A typical EPA sponsored program. Nationally, EPA grants for this type of project are heavily oversubscribed and underfunded.

Illinois Environmental Protection Agency

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) received a grant for the "Retrofit of Diesel School Buses for Bellwood, IL School District #88(BSD88)". With this grant of $20,800, IEPA will assist a small, urban school district in Chicago's west suburbs, in retrofitting 14 of its 15 buses with diesel oxidation catalysts (DOCs) and in doing so, launch a Chicago area clean school bus initiative.  The DOCs will be installed by the school district with oversight being provided by the vendor and IEPA. BSD88 will serve as a model project to enable IEPA to generate interest and to expand the retrofit of diesel school buses in the Chicago area.

BSD88 has eight schools with a student population of 3,199, and is in a location that does not meet the federal air quality standards for ozone and often has elevated levels of particulate matter.  The entire school district is located in an environmental justice area.  Due to budget constraints, BSD88 does not purchase new buses very often, and tries to keep up the maintenance on the buses for longer service life.  Thus, except for one bus, the district's buses will remain in the fleet for several years.  This model project, once implemented, will include significant reductions in particulate matter, along with reductions in carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbons.  In addition, through an educational program conducted by IEPA, American Lung Association of Metropolitan Chicago (ALAMC) and its other partners, improved idling practices will result in additional emission reductions and a healthier school environment above and beyond the reductions experienced by the actual bus retrofits.

BSD88 has its own diesel fuel station, and typically consumes 12,000 gallons of diesel fuel each year.  The current plan is for the district to continue to use diesel fuel until its current fuel contract expires in the upcoming year.  At that time, IEPA and its partners, including ALAMC will look to obtain funding to implement ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) in BSD88's fleet for additional emissions reductions.

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FYI This site has more =background on zone issues, bus retrofit options etc

http://www.lungchicago.org

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At he risk of opening up something that is another subject in itself.. public transportation is an important part of an environmental strategy but with the recent budget discussions Chicago’s system is facing challenges. Heres a primer on how the system developed and is funded

http://www.bettertransit.com/primer.htm

Basic Facts about Public Transportation In the Chicago Metropolitan Area

The Regional Transportation Authority

RTA was created by the Illinois General Assembly in 1973 and ratified by the voters of the 6-county northeastern Illinois region in a referendum ion 1974. The RTA was proposed as a way to better coordinate transit services in the metropolitan region and ease the CTA's chronic struggles with financial problems. (The six counties comprising the RTA Region are: Cook, Will, DuPage, Kane, Lake, and McHenry.) The initial funding agreement set aside a portion of the State's gasoline tax and sales tax revenues to subsidize mass transit. The City of Chicago and Cook County were required by State law to contribute a minimum of $5 million per year toward the support of public transportation. RTA could set CTA fares, and contracted directly with commuter rail lines and bus companies to provide service to the public.

But by 1982, the RTA itself was near collapse. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, mass transit lost money and ridership. Several suburban bus companies went bankrupt in the 1970s, and in the early1980s two commuter rail lines also collapsed. By 1982, the crisis was extreme. CTA's fare had increased by 50%, and commuter rail fares had doubled. RTA suspended suburban bus service because it could no longer provide subsidies to fund its operation.

In 1983, the Illinois General Assembly restructured the RTA. RTA's mission was redefined, and a revision to the mass transit funding formula intended to prevent future financial woes was put in place. (See Appendix B, "Sales Tax Revenue and Public Subsidy for CTA: Q&A"). RTA became a "financial oversight" board and no longer participated directly in delivering transit services. Three separate transit service boards, CTA, Metra and Pace would now have that responsibility. Metra consolidated the operation of several previously distinct commuter rail lines. Pace became a centralized bus operations agency for the 6-county northeastern Illinois region.. CTA's service responsibilities remained unchanged. But the funding formula would now require that regionally, RTA generate enough revenue from fares to cover at least half of the combined operating costs of the three transit service boards.

Since 1983, the following financing arrangement has supported public transportation in the RTA region:

* RTA receives the proceeds of a 1% sales tax in Cook County and a 0.25% sales tax in the five "collar" counties(DuPage, Will, Lake, Kane, and McHenry). The RTA keeps 15% of all sales tax collected under this formula. The State of Illinois provides RTA with an allotment of state funds equal to 25% of all the sales tax revenue it collects in a given month. This state funded "Public Transportation Fund" is distributed at RTA's discretion to its three service boards.

* RTA distributes 85% of the formula sales tax funds (the 1% + 0.25%) to the three service boards, and keeps 15% for its central administrative operations and regional planning functions. CTA receives all of the sales tax RTA collects in Chicago, and a portion of what it collects from suburban Cook County. CTA does not receive any of the sales tax collected on RTA's behalf from the collar counties.

* By September 15th of every year, RTA informs the three service boards of the forecast of sales tax revenue that they can expect to receive in the coming year. Each service board is responsible for producing a balanced budget by December 31st of each year, which is subject to RTA approval.

After 1983, RTA did not exercise controlling influence over fares, service levels, or routes. RTA's stance toward the service boards has been decidedly "hands off": There is no unified fare structure for the region. CTA, Metra, and PACE make independent decisions about scope of services, time schedules, capital improvement priorities, and fares. The only parameters set for the region are those in the State law, requiring the balanced budget and the 50% "fare box recovery ratio." RTA is authorized to invoke some very general budgeting guidelines, but does not evaluate the service boards' quality or frequency of service, nor does it impose any other potential performance measures.

Thus, the RTA is not a coordinating body in the sense that citizens might expect or hope. It has not imposed a seamless public transportation in the region. It reflects and lives by the political and fiscal compromises developed in the early 1980s.

The changes in the structure of transit funding which the Illinois General Assembly enacted in the early 1980s reflected the growing racial and political divide between city and suburbs. The current sales tax arrangement relieved the collar counties of any financial commitment to help support Chicago's public transportation system. While CTA serves 38 suburban communities in the metropolitan area directly, and certainly collar county residents use the CTA regularly, it does not benefit from the growth in sales tax revenue in the collar counties, and only marginally benefits from the growth of sales tax in suburban Cook County. The rapid growth of the suburbs in the 1970s and 1980s meant that sales tax growth was greater in this period in the suburban areas of Cook County than in the City, and even greater in the collar counties. In the 1970s-80s, the City's production of sales tax revenue declined.

Now, at the end of the 1990s, suburban growth is slowing somewhat, while redevelopment is occurring in many parts of the City of Chicago. Over the course of the last decade, many more African Americans, Latinos and other minority groups have moved beyond the City's limits to suburban communities in several of the collar counties. (See Tables ___, showing changes in population in the 6-county RTA region.) Given these changes and the growing concern about traffic and parking congestion, access to jobs, clean air, limits to ex-urban growth and our overall quality of life in metropolitan Chicago, it may be time to re-examine the political and financial relationships that underlie the RTA.

The CTA

The Chicago Transit Authority was formed by the Illinois General Assembly in 1945 and began to operate transit services in 1947. Between 1945 and 1953, CTA acquired several failed private enterprises that had previously owned and operated bus, trolley, or elevated rapid transit lines (including Chicago's celebrated Loop "L" system). After World War II, these companies went into bankruptcy, one after the other. The citizens of Chicago and Illinois bought the capital assets of these companies, since taxpayers approved the issuance of bonds to acquire the facilities and equipment the private operators had previously owned. Thus the concept of "public" transit is rooted not only in the universal need of the general public for transportation, but also in the historical act of public acquisition and ownership.

CTA operates seven rail lines (140 stations) and 129 bus routes, over a service area of 220 square miles. The area served by CTA includes the entire City of Chicago and 38 suburbs. CTA serves an area-wide population of nearly 3.7 million people, or, 51 percent of the RTA area's total population of 7.3 million. CTA's annual operating budget is approximately $800 million per year. (By comparison, Metra's annual operating budget is around $380 million per year, while PACE's operating budget is around $109 million annually.)

Who uses the system?

CTA reports that in 1997 it carried an annual ridership of 418 million. Translated into non-technical terms, this means that during the twelve month period January - December 1997, residents and/or visitors to the metropolitan area took 418 million transit trips on the CTA's combined bus and rail system. People riding buses accounted for 69 percent of CTA's ridership, while rail users accounted for the remaining 31 percent of those trips. RTA estimates that CTA provided 79% of all public transit trips in the region in 1997.

Who uses public transportation?

The most current available "snapshot" of the region's transit riding public is offered in a December 1996 Report to the RTA entitled Transit Rider/Non-Rider Survey by the Northwest Research Group (see results in accompanying chart). The survey provides data for what the researchers define as a "primary rider."[ Note: a "Primary Rider" is defined in the RTA study as "a person 16 or older who rode CTA, Metra, and/or Pace 5 or more times" in the 30 days preceding the survey). Sixty-four percent of regular riders are commuting to their place of work, 11% are going to school, and 17% are using transit for other kinds of trips (to access services, recreation, shopping, etc.]

The RTA Transit Rider/Non-Rider Survey reports that region-wide, 77% of the people who regularly use transit have access to a car. In other words, the stereotype that "no one uses transit unless they have to," is just that, a stereotype. Three-fourths of the people who are using transit regularly in metropolitan Chicago choose to use it rather than drive. As will be discussed later, however, the number of households who do not have access to a car, and thus will have few or no transportation alternatives when transit service is cut, is greatest in minority and low income communities.

CTA compiles race, age, and income statistics on its bus and rail riders based upon the U.S. Census. CTA uses census data that describe the racial make up of the communities surrounding public transit routes and rail corridors, as an indirect measure of who is likely to use nearby transit, and thus to plan routes and to inform the CTA's marketing efforts. People need and want easy, safe access to public transportation. CTA and other transportation planners have learned that people prefer to walk no farther than 3/8 of a mile to catch a bus, and no farther than 1/2 mile to board rapid transit. In its 1997 Rider/Non-Rider Survey RTA found that 86% of CTA's riders walk to catch their bus or train. Thus, we can assume that the vast majority of transit riders will closely reflect the demographics of the nearby communities from which they walk to make their CTA boarding. Senior citizens report heavy reliance upon public transportation, and are much less likely to own a car than younger segments of the population. Students in high school and college are a significant and growing "market segment" for CTA as well.

Ridership Trends

As demonstrated through the attached graphs representing RTA, CTA, PACE and Metra ridership trends, public transit ridership dropped significantly during the late 1980s to mid-1990s. Regionally, as of 1998, ridership is beginning to creep upwards. While CTA's ridership continued to fall in 1997, early indicators are that minor increases occurred in 1998, and will continue in 1999.

RTA estimates that the 1997 CTA service cuts were responsible for a nearly 5% drop in its bus ridership, causing an overall ridership decline of 2%, which was not offset by a 4.8% increase in rail ridership. CTA estimates that between 1987 and 1996, it lost 30% of its ridership. This is nearly three times the decline in city population and jobs during a comparable period. Between 1980 and 1990, the population of the City of Chicago declined by only 9%, from 3 million to 2.7 million. Similarly, the number of jobs in the City fell from 1.583 million to 1.482 million.

For years, CTA resisted reform of its marketing and routing, arguing that ridership loss was a phenomenon beyond its control due to larger economic forces. While the region has certainly changed since CTA and RTA were created, such drastic ridership losses cannot be attributed just to the changing economics of the region. CTA now acknowledges that "customer dissatisfaction and service cuts" exacerbated its loss of riders (RTA Fact Book, 1998).

Transit and community activists have long argued that the combined effect of poor quality service, and service cutbacks along with fare increases have driven ridership away from public transportation. They have criticized CTA for being inattentive and unresponsive to their "customers," the riding public. Community and transit advocates have urged CTA to improve service, roll back the price of fares and innovate other pricing incentives to win riders back to public transit. NCBG and other public interest organizations have also called for more strategic capital investment, flexible routing, and improved coordination with Metra and PACE as means of attracting the public to transit. In the past year, CTA has responded by implementing a reduced fare for college students (the "U-PASS"), lowering the price of the monthly pass, and is considering some of the other ridership attraction recommendations that have been offered by the public for the past decade.

For the time being, however, ridership on CTA's bus system continues to decline, while ridership on the Green Line, Orange Line, and Brown Line have increased modestly, with the Brown Line showing the greatest increase.

A section of the “CBT Testimony to the Illinois State Assembly: Revenue Alternatives to Fund Mass Transit” on funding options

http://www.bettertransit.com/testimony1104.htm

* Establish "Congestion Impact Fees":  There are models across the country of working with the real estate development industry to establish reasonable fee systems.  When new development contributes to greater density, increased parking and traffic congestion, developers should "pay to play," and contribute toward a Mass Transit fund for Northeastern Illinois.  We've asked Mayor Daley to take the leadership and establish such a system in Chicago, to increase the City's annual contribution to CTA's operating budget.  But it is a model that would serve the entire RTA region well.

* Collect uncollected revenue:  A grassroots transit activist from Chicago pointed out to our organization that the State of Illinois and our municipalities forego tens of millions of dollars in revenue by not systematically collecting motor-vehicle-related fees and fines.  We urge our state officials to work with our regional transit system and our municipal leaders in the region to move quickly to collect such uncollected revenue.

* Raise revenue by increasing taxes on parking in congested, transit accessible areas, and modestly increasing municipal motor vehicle sticker fees across the RTA region.  While the General Assembly cannot infringe on local government decision making, this is a moment when leaders in our region need to lead by example.  If in fact we all agree that Northeastern Illinois cannot afford or tolerate gridlock and massive job losses, then we need to develop alternatives to gutting public transportation.  If we truly believe that everyone benefits from public transportation, even those who do not regularly use it, then we need to spread the cost of providing public transportation across the Board.  Our leaders need to help build the public understanding and political will that such fees are well worth the modest cost to individuals.

* Audit our transit agencies regularly:  As the General Assembly considers how best to fund public transportation, the public is looking for visible signs of good faith that the system is being well managed.  Requiring regular financial and performance audits of CTA and our other transit agencies would go a long way to reassuring the public that transit's money woes are real, and not just another case of brinksmanship.  Case in point:  Over the last several months, the media and the riding public have expressed doubt, if not open cynicism, about the extent of the public transit funding "crisis."  CTA's estimates of its 2005 budget deficit have been challenged by RTA and Metra, and have varied from $100 million to $55 million.  CTA has not been audited by the State for over a decade.  Last year, just as CTA was proposing fare increases, top CTA management sought increases in their own pension plans.  Most recently, questions have been raised about the number and level of compensation of top-level management at CTA.  Many riders simply ask, "What did they (CTA) do with last year's fare increase?"  There is another crisis brewing in Northeastern Illinois, and that is a crisis of confidence in the leadership of our regional transit system.

* Finally, we propose a wide ranging package of budgetary and planning reforms.  Attached  to our testimony are policy memos that we have given to both the RTA and the CTA, calling for performance-based budgeting to help the public understand and measure how well our transit agencies are managing the funds we give them, and the use of performance measures to help everyone understand and assess how well our transit agencies are performing and whether their performance is improving over time.  These proposals are aimed at creating greater budget discipline, greater transparency in government, and greater accountability to us all.  If implemented, we are confident that such measures would affirmatively help our transit system do a better job across the Northeastern Illinois region of prioritizing the transit services and improvements that the public most needs and wants, allocating resources in a more efficient and equitable way, and creating the public confidence to encourage further growth in public investment and support for public transportation.

That’s all, Folks!

Colin