Illinois

When Mayor Rahm Emanuel sought out his first transportation chief, he lured Gabe Klein from Washington D.C. This week it was announced that Klein's successor had been found much closer to home: the city's transit authority.

January 2, 2014 - Chi.Streetsblog

Petroleum coke or petcoke, similar to coal, is a nasty though salable byproduct of the oil refining process. Produced from refining tar sands crude in Indiana refineries, it is stored in huge piles in Chicago, blowing dust in the Southeast Side.

December 28, 2013 - NPR Morning Edition

When architecture enthusiasts lost their battle to preserve Bertrand Goldberg's iconic Prentice Women's Hospital in Chicago, many turned their hopes to the design of a fittingly stunning replacement. Will the new design fill the architectural void?

December 16, 2013 - ArchDaily

Is there a correlation between running red lights and more violent crime like robberies and homicide? Gabe Klein, Chicago's distinguished outgoing transportation commissioner, thinks so. It's been dubbed "the broken windows effect."

December 3, 2013 - Streetsblog

When it was launched by Mayor Emanuel and Bill Clinton, the Chicago Infrastructure Trust was promoted as an innovative model for how U.S. cities could fund improvements. But after a year and a half, the bank is struggling to fulfill its promise.

November 26, 2013 - Governing

Tell me if this sounds familiar: A city repaves a crumbling street only to dig it up again 9 months later to replace an aging water main. Chicago's new Project Coordination Office (PCO) is intended to prevent such unnecessary and costly headaches.

November 23, 2013 - Governing

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) has become the country's first transit agency to receive Federal Transit Administration (FTA) approval to apply for its new “core capacity” grants. The funds would be used to upgrade Red and Purple Line service.

November 20, 2013 - Next City

A nonprofit has converted a former Chicago city bus into a mobile grocery store to bring fresh food to the city's underserved neighborhoods. After stopping operations in August, the service will return with a sustainable business plan this month.

November 18, 2013 - Fast Company Co.Exist

Chicago is America's undisputed leader in using tax increment financing (TIF) to spur economic development. But what is the city getting in exchange for its efforts to fight blight? A new paper says: Not much.

November 15, 2013 - Chicago Magazine

Five years after Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood pioneered participatory budgeting in the United States, the bottom-up budgeting practice is gaining adherents across the country. Can Rogers Park's experiment find success citywide?

November 12, 2013 - Next City

Spire or antenna; what sits atop One World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan? The answer isn't just semantics, it will determine if the building is indeed taller than Chicago's Willis Tower. A decision by the official arbiter could come next week.

November 9, 2013 - NPR

Late last week, Chicago Department of Transportation head Gabe Klein announced that he would be resigning to return to the private sector. During his two and a half years on the job, the city made impressive gains in sustainable transportation.

November 7, 2013 - Chi.Streetsblog

With urban populations growing, an interesting phenomenon is spreading in cities across the U.S. - the rise of the (often congested) reverse commute. It brings with it new challenges, like how to provide transit riders with last mile connections.

October 30, 2013 - NPR

In desirable cities across America, home prices are well on their way back to pre-bust levels. But in areas like Chicago's southern suburbs, prices are down more than 40 percent from recent highs, and approaching were they were twenty years ago.

October 29, 2013 - Crain's Chicago Business

The opening of a "striking" new boathouse designed by noted architect Jeanne Gang along the Chicago River is a major milestone in the transformation of the city's "Ol’ Pisspot” into a public amenity.

October 23, 2013 - Grist

The approval of the Illiana Expressway by the CMAP Policy Committee rejects the recommendation of the organization's own planners and years of regional cooperation. Yonah Freemark says the decision will have an effect on regional planning nationwide.

October 19, 2013 - the transport politic

Aaron Renn asserts that Chicago mayor Rahm Emmanuel's misuse of tax-increment financing dollars is hurting the city's poor.

October 18, 2013 - City Journal

Over the first 40 days they've been in operation, Chicago's nine new speed enforcement cameras have issued warnings to 200,000 drivers. Politicians and reporters are skeptical about the city's motivation for installing the cameras.

October 17, 2013 - Chi.Streetsblog

Last week, the long saga over the preservation of Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice Hospital entered its nadir with the start of demolition. But could the intensity of the building's defense lead to a reinvigoration of preservation around Modernism?

October 16, 2013 - Next City

Amid heavy political pressure, a plan to build a new expressway between Chicago's suburbs and Indiana backed by Gov. Pat Quinn and the Illinois Department of Transportation was dealt a significant defeat by Chicago's regional MPO this week.

October 9, 2013 - Daily Herald