The Atlantic Cities
By David Lepeska
Chicago is set to transform a derelict elevated rail line that cuts across its North Side and an over-commercialized, showpiece tourist attraction on the lakefront into two of the city's most appealing public spaces.
The Bloomingdale Trail and Park and the makeover for Navy Pier, expected to cost a combined $185 million, both took major steps forward last week. After a year-long competition, a team led by New York-based James Corner Field Operations won the commission to redesign Navy Pier, the state's most popular tourist site, receiving unanimous approval from the pier's governing board.
The firm's most high-profile creation to date is New York City's High Line, an abandoned stretch of elevated railway transformed into a stunning park. In December, James Corner won the competition to design Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, alongside the primary venue for the 2012 Summer Games in London.
The challenge in Chicago is to shed the 3,000-foot-long pier's kitschy image without a wholesale reconstruction. Pier attendance has fallen slightly over the last decade, as visitors have flocked to Millennium Park, a half-mile away.
The 17-member team includes New York-based nArchitects, lighting artist Leo Villareal, and French botanist Patrick Blanc, known primarily for his vertical gardens. Of the remaining group of landscape architects, water and real estate consultants and graphic designers, four are from Chicago, including designer Bruce Mau, whose firm is based in Toronto but lives just north of the city.
The makeover, which is likely to undergo significant alterations before construction begins, is expected to cost about $85 million. Initial designs seek to create a sequence of appealing outdoor spaces along the promenade, including tilted lawns for recreation, a fountain that could spout jets, mist or a reflective sheet of water, and hanging gardens inside the pier's Crystal Gardens pavilion. The plan also adds a swimming pool with a sand beach and an amphitheater that would slope down to Lake Michigan level on the east end of the pier, with cantilevered overlooks offering views back to the city.
Navy Pier originally opened in 1916 and is expected to be remade in time for its centennial celebration. Chicago architect and urban planner Daniel Burnham devised the pier as part of his 1910 Plan of Chicago. His vision, according to Corner, was in part about "the creation of settings or stages, where people can come into close proximity with one another, interact with one another... in the context here of being out on the lake."
Corner's previous project, New York's High Line, cost $115 million, draws millions of annual visitors and has attracted more than $2 billion of private investment to the surrounding area, creating jobs and sparking economic activity.
That's what Rahm Emanuel is envisioning for the Bloomingdale Trail and Park. “We have all read about what the High Line has done for New York economically," he said at a press conference last week. "I hope this has the same impact.”
Emanuel said initial funding had come together for the $100 million project, which is expected to begin construction later this year and be completed by 2014. Designed by Arup, Ross Barney Architects and Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, the new park will have benches and foliage on either side of a two-way path.
It looks in renderings much like New York City's High Line, but will be nearly twice as long and with gentle curves and dips. It will also allow bike traffic and include several green space access points at ground level.
Besides offering expansive views across several Chicago neighborhoods, the new park will improve local transport links. The multi-use trail will connect the west side to areas near the lake and the Loop, and the anchor parks will link the trail to L train stations and major bus stops.
The Chicago & Pacific Railroad originally built this 2.65-mile stretch of rail line at ground level in 1872. After a series of accidents involving pedestrians, the tracks were elevated about a century ago, but have been out of use since the mid-1990s. Within a couple years, the determined and the curious will no longer be forced to slip through fences to use the space and enjoy the view.
-------------
Ran March 19, 2012:
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/design/2012/03/two-big-public-space-makeovers-chicago/1522/
Showing posts with label Rahm Emanuel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rahm Emanuel. Show all posts
3.19.2012
Speeding Tickets for Going 26 MPH
For Atlantic Cities
By David Lepeska
Last week, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn approved Chicago's new plan to monitor speeding via camera in safety zones near schools and parks. In advocating for the bill, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said, "My goal is only one thing: the safety of our kids."
Under the new system, drivers are fined $50 for going 6 to 10 mph over the speed limit and $100 for going 11 or more mph over. In most streets near schools, the daytime speed limit is 20 mph, meaning that a driver going 26 MPH is eligible for a fine. The plan would be in effect from early morning until 8:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and until 9 p.m. on Fridays.
A Chicago Department of Transportation study that reportedly inspired the bill found the cameras would generate about $56 million from seven locations alone in its first year. This is just slightly less than the annual revenue from the city's entire red light camera network.
The new system, which requires an upgrade of cameras already installed on red lights, will have a lot more than seven cameras. Nearly 80 of the city's 189 red light camera intersections are in safety zones, and the city is now authorized to install fixed and mobile speed cameras in any of more than 700 safety zones, defined as 1/8th mile buffers around schools and parks.
The cameras will go live July 1 and will start issuing citations after a 30-day warning period. The revenue is to be spent not just on public safety but also on all variety of infrastructure, from roads to sewers. Chicago's City Council took up the bill this week, with Alderwoman Leslie Hairston comparing it to George Orwell's "big brother."
The criticisms are not unique to Chicago. Some D.C. residents have accused the creators of a similar speed camera system there of manipulation, citing the difficulty of going only 25 miles per hour when driving downhill. The system generated over $43 million for the city in 2010. Similar cameras have been come under attack in England, France, and Poland, as well as in El Paso, Texas.
Yet most analyses of the effectiveness of speed cameras have found that they reduce speeding, which usually means fewer collisions. A 2007 study of speed cameras in Illinois highway work zones concluded that the percentage of speeders fell from 93 to 45 percent in one area. And a study of seven camera sites in the Washington, D.C., system found the number of vehicles speeding by more than 10 mph declined by 82 percent compared with similar sites without cameras in Baltimore.
Perhaps Chicago drivers can find some solace in the simple, relatively straightforward system – 5 mph or less over posted speed limit, from early morning to late evening. Drivers coming up on this impossibly complex sign, near a school in suburban Detroit, for example, are essentially forced to come to a full stop if they want to know the current speed limit.
-------------
Ran February 2012:
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2012/02/speeding-tickets-going-26-mph/1275/
By David Lepeska
Last week, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn approved Chicago's new plan to monitor speeding via camera in safety zones near schools and parks. In advocating for the bill, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said, "My goal is only one thing: the safety of our kids."
Under the new system, drivers are fined $50 for going 6 to 10 mph over the speed limit and $100 for going 11 or more mph over. In most streets near schools, the daytime speed limit is 20 mph, meaning that a driver going 26 MPH is eligible for a fine. The plan would be in effect from early morning until 8:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and until 9 p.m. on Fridays.
A Chicago Department of Transportation study that reportedly inspired the bill found the cameras would generate about $56 million from seven locations alone in its first year. This is just slightly less than the annual revenue from the city's entire red light camera network.
The new system, which requires an upgrade of cameras already installed on red lights, will have a lot more than seven cameras. Nearly 80 of the city's 189 red light camera intersections are in safety zones, and the city is now authorized to install fixed and mobile speed cameras in any of more than 700 safety zones, defined as 1/8th mile buffers around schools and parks.
The cameras will go live July 1 and will start issuing citations after a 30-day warning period. The revenue is to be spent not just on public safety but also on all variety of infrastructure, from roads to sewers. Chicago's City Council took up the bill this week, with Alderwoman Leslie Hairston comparing it to George Orwell's "big brother."
The criticisms are not unique to Chicago. Some D.C. residents have accused the creators of a similar speed camera system there of manipulation, citing the difficulty of going only 25 miles per hour when driving downhill. The system generated over $43 million for the city in 2010. Similar cameras have been come under attack in England, France, and Poland, as well as in El Paso, Texas.
Yet most analyses of the effectiveness of speed cameras have found that they reduce speeding, which usually means fewer collisions. A 2007 study of speed cameras in Illinois highway work zones concluded that the percentage of speeders fell from 93 to 45 percent in one area. And a study of seven camera sites in the Washington, D.C., system found the number of vehicles speeding by more than 10 mph declined by 82 percent compared with similar sites without cameras in Baltimore.
Perhaps Chicago drivers can find some solace in the simple, relatively straightforward system – 5 mph or less over posted speed limit, from early morning to late evening. Drivers coming up on this impossibly complex sign, near a school in suburban Detroit, for example, are essentially forced to come to a full stop if they want to know the current speed limit.
-------------
Ran February 2012:
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2012/02/speeding-tickets-going-26-mph/1275/
Why Your Water Bill Must Go Up
For Atlantic Cities
By David Lepeska
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel launched a $4.1 billion initiative to replace his city's dilapidated water infrastructure last month, spinning it as a plan to create 18,000 jobs over the next decade. The rub is that by 2015, most Chicagoans would pay more than double their current water usage fees. “The work here, in my view, is essential for Chicago’s economic future,” Emanuel said at a construction site where crews replaced piping dating to 1886.
Unsurprisingly, most Chicagoans are unhappy with the rate hike. But their city has at least a thousand miles of water line that's 100 years old or older, so the upgrade is a must. And Chicago's not alone. Built mostly during the late 19th and early 20th century, much of the country's water infrastructure—from wells to dams and reservoirs; from storage tanks, aqueducts, and treatment plants to pipes and valves—is rapidly failing.
The problem is most troubling in cities, where dense and increasing populations put greater demand on already-strained systems that municipal governments generally lack the funds to upgrade. Without robust, urgent action, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that nearly half the nation's pipes will fall into the “poor, very poor or elapsed” categories by 2020, risking widespread failures and a considerable threat to public health.
Failing water infrastructure has been making headlines for over a decade, to little effect. In 1998, a 128-year-old water main burst under Fifth Avenue in New York, flooding several streets, creating a 35-foot-crater and rupturing a gas line that shot flames 20 feet into the air. In 2001, the American Water Works Association published a report [PDF] about the "Replacement Era" that warned that our nation's pipes were reaching their expiration date.
In 2005, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave water infrastructure across the country a D-minus. Four years later it handed out the same grade. In 2007, an increase in giant sinkholes in cities and towns all over the country coincided with the EPA's launch of its Aging Water Infrastructure Research Program.
Now it's nearly 2012, yet water systems in Washington, Alaska and North Dakota still use wooden pipes. This past summer, pipelines burst across the country due to record heat. Oklahoma City's utilities department recorded 685 main breaks from July to early September.
The ASCE says leaks cost us seven billion gallons of water each day—nearly 2 trillion of gallons of water, worth nearly $3 billion, every year. The EPA estimates 700 water mains break every day, or nearly one every two minutes. And a study by UCLA and Stanford found that more than 1.5 million people in Southern California get sick every year because of bacteria from polluted water released by broken pipes.
Jeffrey K. Griffiths, professor of public health at Tufts University and chair of the drinking water committee on the EPA's Science Advisory Board, says that aging pipes should be replaced at a rate of 2 percent each year. But the current rate across the U.S. is less than half that. “We're going to have increasing numbers of breaking pipes; the infrastructure is not going to last much longer,” says Griffiths. “The longer we delay replacing the pipes, the cost will be higher. Plus there's the public health problem that contaminants in the ground get in the water and people get sick.”
The EPA estimates that adequately upgrading the nation’s water infrastructure would cost between $750 billion and $1 trillion over the next couple decades. Yet with the protracted recession, neither cities nor the federal government have funds to spare. And because water infrastructure is mainly underground and out of sight, political will in Washington remains low. Only about $10 billion of the $787 billion 2009 stimulus package was aimed at water infrastructure. What's more, the federal government's share of water infrastructure spending has plummeted from about 75 percent to about 3 percent in the past 35 years, according to Ken Kirk of the National Association of Clean Water Agencies.
• • • • •
The result is that state and municipal governments are often forced to shoulder an impossible expense. A $3 billion sewer system debt forced Jefferson County, Alabama, to declare bankruptcy earlier this month—the nation's largest-ever municipal bankruptcy filing.
Mayors and city officials are turning to taxpayers to foot the inflated water infrastructure bill. In many places—including Los Angeles, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Washington, D.C., Sacramento and now Chicago—residents have pushed back against proposed rate increases.
Chicago's water rates are among the country's lowest, so perhaps that city is due for a hike. But many urban residents are asking a reasonable question: isn't there another solution?
The American Water Works Association has called for federal funding for half the annual replacement costs, or about $15 billion each year, according to the AWWA's Tom Curtis. This seems reasonable, considering the U.S. government pays about 80 percent of the costs for replacing roads, bridges, and airports.
Alex Mattheissen, of New York-based clean water advocacy group Riverkeeper, supports legislation to establish a Clean Water Trust Fund or the creation of a National Development Infrastructure Bank that would combine public and private funding. Others are calling for the creation of a single office overseeing national water policy and supply, with a comprehensive national strategy to prioritize decision-making and expenditure. But considering the exorbitant replacement costs, any federal commitment is unlikely to be a game-changer.
“It would be great if the federal government got back into the funding game, but even if they did it wouldn't be at a level that would make that much of a difference,” says Kirk, head of NWACA. “Local governments are going to continue to bear the brunt of the cost of infrastructure improvements. So we have to put local governments and utilities in a position to spend those dollars more wisely, more cost-effectively. We're talking about green infrastructure, new technologies, more flexibility.”
In order to avoid another major overhaul down the line, our 19th century water infrastructure systems must be replaced with 21st century technologies. Scientists are working on pipes that sense when they are about to break and call for repairs, sensors that evaluate water quality and systems that adjust reservoirs in danger of flooding.
George Hawkins, head of DC Water, Washington, D.C.'s water and sewer authority, has installed leak-detecting sensors that immediately send data back to a central control room. This has enabled the city to identify and repair aging pipes and valves before they blow, which necessitates costly replacement. The technology is also credited with reducing leakage loss by more than a third.
An engineering professor at Virginia Tech University is working with the EPA and water utilities to develop a system called Sustainable Water Infrastructure Management, or SWIM. Some cities are unsure exactly where their pipes run, what they're made of or when they were first installed. SWIM offers electronic, Internet-based mapping and monitoring of buried water infrastructure, helping a water utility gauge the condition of its pipelines from above ground. The system is already in use in Las Vegas and Chicago, with Seattle, Atlanta, Miami and Dallas up next.
Engineers at the University of California, Irvine have developed prototype robots that can repair and retrofit aging water pipes by applying reinforcement material rather than excavating and replacing the entire pipeline, saving time and money.
Still, cities and their residents will continue to shoulder the majority of the expense. A recent NACWA report estimates that the costs of upgrading water infrastructure will in the coming years lead to increased debt and possibly economic contraction, which means rising water rates in many U.S. cities.
For decades we've paid very little for the most necessary of commodities. A survey last year by ITT, a leading provider of wastewater systems, found that two-thirds of Americans take their water for granted. Yet that same percentage would be willing to pay a little more to rebuild aging water systems.
A day after Mayor Emanuel held his news conference to announce Chicago's upgrade, a 91-year-old South Side water main burst as if on cue, closing streets, flooding nearby basements and curbing area water supply. To those poised to complain about pricier water: consider the possibility of a few days without it.
---------------
Ran November 2011:
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/technology/2011/11/why-your-water-bill-must-go-up/578/
By David Lepeska
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel launched a $4.1 billion initiative to replace his city's dilapidated water infrastructure last month, spinning it as a plan to create 18,000 jobs over the next decade. The rub is that by 2015, most Chicagoans would pay more than double their current water usage fees. “The work here, in my view, is essential for Chicago’s economic future,” Emanuel said at a construction site where crews replaced piping dating to 1886.
Unsurprisingly, most Chicagoans are unhappy with the rate hike. But their city has at least a thousand miles of water line that's 100 years old or older, so the upgrade is a must. And Chicago's not alone. Built mostly during the late 19th and early 20th century, much of the country's water infrastructure—from wells to dams and reservoirs; from storage tanks, aqueducts, and treatment plants to pipes and valves—is rapidly failing.
The problem is most troubling in cities, where dense and increasing populations put greater demand on already-strained systems that municipal governments generally lack the funds to upgrade. Without robust, urgent action, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that nearly half the nation's pipes will fall into the “poor, very poor or elapsed” categories by 2020, risking widespread failures and a considerable threat to public health.
Failing water infrastructure has been making headlines for over a decade, to little effect. In 1998, a 128-year-old water main burst under Fifth Avenue in New York, flooding several streets, creating a 35-foot-crater and rupturing a gas line that shot flames 20 feet into the air. In 2001, the American Water Works Association published a report [PDF] about the "Replacement Era" that warned that our nation's pipes were reaching their expiration date.
In 2005, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave water infrastructure across the country a D-minus. Four years later it handed out the same grade. In 2007, an increase in giant sinkholes in cities and towns all over the country coincided with the EPA's launch of its Aging Water Infrastructure Research Program.
Now it's nearly 2012, yet water systems in Washington, Alaska and North Dakota still use wooden pipes. This past summer, pipelines burst across the country due to record heat. Oklahoma City's utilities department recorded 685 main breaks from July to early September.
The ASCE says leaks cost us seven billion gallons of water each day—nearly 2 trillion of gallons of water, worth nearly $3 billion, every year. The EPA estimates 700 water mains break every day, or nearly one every two minutes. And a study by UCLA and Stanford found that more than 1.5 million people in Southern California get sick every year because of bacteria from polluted water released by broken pipes.
Jeffrey K. Griffiths, professor of public health at Tufts University and chair of the drinking water committee on the EPA's Science Advisory Board, says that aging pipes should be replaced at a rate of 2 percent each year. But the current rate across the U.S. is less than half that. “We're going to have increasing numbers of breaking pipes; the infrastructure is not going to last much longer,” says Griffiths. “The longer we delay replacing the pipes, the cost will be higher. Plus there's the public health problem that contaminants in the ground get in the water and people get sick.”
The EPA estimates that adequately upgrading the nation’s water infrastructure would cost between $750 billion and $1 trillion over the next couple decades. Yet with the protracted recession, neither cities nor the federal government have funds to spare. And because water infrastructure is mainly underground and out of sight, political will in Washington remains low. Only about $10 billion of the $787 billion 2009 stimulus package was aimed at water infrastructure. What's more, the federal government's share of water infrastructure spending has plummeted from about 75 percent to about 3 percent in the past 35 years, according to Ken Kirk of the National Association of Clean Water Agencies.
• • • • •
The result is that state and municipal governments are often forced to shoulder an impossible expense. A $3 billion sewer system debt forced Jefferson County, Alabama, to declare bankruptcy earlier this month—the nation's largest-ever municipal bankruptcy filing.
Mayors and city officials are turning to taxpayers to foot the inflated water infrastructure bill. In many places—including Los Angeles, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Washington, D.C., Sacramento and now Chicago—residents have pushed back against proposed rate increases.
Chicago's water rates are among the country's lowest, so perhaps that city is due for a hike. But many urban residents are asking a reasonable question: isn't there another solution?
The American Water Works Association has called for federal funding for half the annual replacement costs, or about $15 billion each year, according to the AWWA's Tom Curtis. This seems reasonable, considering the U.S. government pays about 80 percent of the costs for replacing roads, bridges, and airports.
Alex Mattheissen, of New York-based clean water advocacy group Riverkeeper, supports legislation to establish a Clean Water Trust Fund or the creation of a National Development Infrastructure Bank that would combine public and private funding. Others are calling for the creation of a single office overseeing national water policy and supply, with a comprehensive national strategy to prioritize decision-making and expenditure. But considering the exorbitant replacement costs, any federal commitment is unlikely to be a game-changer.
“It would be great if the federal government got back into the funding game, but even if they did it wouldn't be at a level that would make that much of a difference,” says Kirk, head of NWACA. “Local governments are going to continue to bear the brunt of the cost of infrastructure improvements. So we have to put local governments and utilities in a position to spend those dollars more wisely, more cost-effectively. We're talking about green infrastructure, new technologies, more flexibility.”
In order to avoid another major overhaul down the line, our 19th century water infrastructure systems must be replaced with 21st century technologies. Scientists are working on pipes that sense when they are about to break and call for repairs, sensors that evaluate water quality and systems that adjust reservoirs in danger of flooding.
George Hawkins, head of DC Water, Washington, D.C.'s water and sewer authority, has installed leak-detecting sensors that immediately send data back to a central control room. This has enabled the city to identify and repair aging pipes and valves before they blow, which necessitates costly replacement. The technology is also credited with reducing leakage loss by more than a third.
An engineering professor at Virginia Tech University is working with the EPA and water utilities to develop a system called Sustainable Water Infrastructure Management, or SWIM. Some cities are unsure exactly where their pipes run, what they're made of or when they were first installed. SWIM offers electronic, Internet-based mapping and monitoring of buried water infrastructure, helping a water utility gauge the condition of its pipelines from above ground. The system is already in use in Las Vegas and Chicago, with Seattle, Atlanta, Miami and Dallas up next.
Engineers at the University of California, Irvine have developed prototype robots that can repair and retrofit aging water pipes by applying reinforcement material rather than excavating and replacing the entire pipeline, saving time and money.
Still, cities and their residents will continue to shoulder the majority of the expense. A recent NACWA report estimates that the costs of upgrading water infrastructure will in the coming years lead to increased debt and possibly economic contraction, which means rising water rates in many U.S. cities.
For decades we've paid very little for the most necessary of commodities. A survey last year by ITT, a leading provider of wastewater systems, found that two-thirds of Americans take their water for granted. Yet that same percentage would be willing to pay a little more to rebuild aging water systems.
A day after Mayor Emanuel held his news conference to announce Chicago's upgrade, a 91-year-old South Side water main burst as if on cue, closing streets, flooding nearby basements and curbing area water supply. To those poised to complain about pricier water: consider the possibility of a few days without it.
---------------
Ran November 2011:
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/technology/2011/11/why-your-water-bill-must-go-up/578/
Looking to Boost Transparency, Chicago Turns to Students
For Atlantic Cities
By David Lepeska
A new course at Northwestern University presents an ingenious cost-cutting move for cities staring at mountains of debt: bring in a team of undergrads to do your work for free.
Starting in January, students enrolled in Poli Sci 395 are set to work directly with officials in Chicago's Inspector General's office to improve transparency and accountability within the government of the country's third largest city.
"I wanted to give students an opportunity to experience real civic engagement," says Northwestern political science professor Don Gordon, who created the course. "I wanted to give them a sense that they can make an impact by engaging in their community."
Urban studies programs around the country often include a stint of public service, an internship with local government or a close examination of the development and execution of urban policy. But this is next-level engagement, not to mention a rare opportunity for undergrads.
Gordon, who worked as a community activist in Chicago for decades and ran for alderman four years ago, first proposed the course during a December 2010 lunch with Chicago's Inspector General, Joseph Ferguson, who had guest lectured in Gordon's earlier courses. Ferguson was receptive, as were Northwestern's higher-ups, and by March it was a done deal.
That same month the Inspector General's office launched Open Chicago, a project to enhance transparency in city government as a means to improve efficiency, integrity and accountability. The initiative aims to provide Chicagoans, the media, and elected officials greater access to key documents and data, and allow them to make recommendations.
"[The Northwestern] course is designed to further the work of our Open Chicago initiative, so the students will be conducting analysis and research that we have wanted to do with our own staff but haven’t yet done, so that’s a tremendous benefit,” says Aaron Feinstein, IGO Director of Program and Policy Review.
Due to funding shortfalls across the municipal government, the Inspector General's office is woefully under-staffed. The office is budgeted for 69 positions, yet has just 50 employees on staff. "While the students get fantastic, hands-on experience, the IGO gets free labor,” says Gordon.
Longtime Mayor Richard M. Daley often stressed transparency, but his successor made it a keystone of his campaign, promising "the most open, accountable and transparent government that the city of Chicago has ever seen." Since taking office in May, Mayor Emanuel has made a wealth of information on crime, lobbyist clients and city contracts available for the first time.
Yet he has also been taken to task for withholding information about his daily schedule, interoffice communications and the development of major policy initiatives like a recent water rate hike, the addition of more traffic cameras and plans for a downtown casino.
Feinstein has seen positive changes, but he's hoping for more. "The city has not made as meaningful strides in disclosing data and information that inform the public about the decision-making process," he says. For example, the IGO has asked Emanuel's office to release documents provided to the city council – but not made available to the public – during the recent budget debate.
The course, which may help bring such documents to light, has been a hot commodity on campus. Its 15 available spots filled up within 24 hours of the opening of registration last month. Gordon now plans to add a few more seats.
Early in the course, the students will scour the country for innovative examples of transparency in local governance, such as New Mexico's Sunshine Portal or Manor, Texas's, Manor Labs, and pass them on to their colleagues at Open Chicago.
The students will then examine transparency within the city department of their choice: the police department, the fire department, emergency management services, the department of procurement – or just about any other city body. They'll pore over available data, look at how it's made available, its accessibility, its utility, and also consider what information is not available. Each student's final project will be put on the IGO website, available for scrutiny by city officials and the general public.
Ferguson is slated for a guest lecture, and the students will pay at least one visit to the downtown offices of the Inspector General. "Getting people who do not work on the city day-to-day we think will bring a fresh perspective to the analysis of the city's transparency and accountability efforts,” says Feinstein. "I think the students are likely to ask and then attempt to answer fundamental questions that those of us who work on this every day may occasionally lose sight of."
Be careful what you wish for, Mr. Feinstein. Gordon might urge his charges toward aggressive critiques of their city-employed colleagues. He recently wrote a book on civic engagement entitled, Piss Em All Off: And Other Practices of the Effective Citizen.
-----------
From December 2011:
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/politics/2011/12/chicago-asks-students-help-it-be-more-transparent/628/
By David Lepeska
A new course at Northwestern University presents an ingenious cost-cutting move for cities staring at mountains of debt: bring in a team of undergrads to do your work for free.
Starting in January, students enrolled in Poli Sci 395 are set to work directly with officials in Chicago's Inspector General's office to improve transparency and accountability within the government of the country's third largest city.
"I wanted to give students an opportunity to experience real civic engagement," says Northwestern political science professor Don Gordon, who created the course. "I wanted to give them a sense that they can make an impact by engaging in their community."
Urban studies programs around the country often include a stint of public service, an internship with local government or a close examination of the development and execution of urban policy. But this is next-level engagement, not to mention a rare opportunity for undergrads.
Gordon, who worked as a community activist in Chicago for decades and ran for alderman four years ago, first proposed the course during a December 2010 lunch with Chicago's Inspector General, Joseph Ferguson, who had guest lectured in Gordon's earlier courses. Ferguson was receptive, as were Northwestern's higher-ups, and by March it was a done deal.
That same month the Inspector General's office launched Open Chicago, a project to enhance transparency in city government as a means to improve efficiency, integrity and accountability. The initiative aims to provide Chicagoans, the media, and elected officials greater access to key documents and data, and allow them to make recommendations.
"[The Northwestern] course is designed to further the work of our Open Chicago initiative, so the students will be conducting analysis and research that we have wanted to do with our own staff but haven’t yet done, so that’s a tremendous benefit,” says Aaron Feinstein, IGO Director of Program and Policy Review.
Due to funding shortfalls across the municipal government, the Inspector General's office is woefully under-staffed. The office is budgeted for 69 positions, yet has just 50 employees on staff. "While the students get fantastic, hands-on experience, the IGO gets free labor,” says Gordon.
Longtime Mayor Richard M. Daley often stressed transparency, but his successor made it a keystone of his campaign, promising "the most open, accountable and transparent government that the city of Chicago has ever seen." Since taking office in May, Mayor Emanuel has made a wealth of information on crime, lobbyist clients and city contracts available for the first time.
Yet he has also been taken to task for withholding information about his daily schedule, interoffice communications and the development of major policy initiatives like a recent water rate hike, the addition of more traffic cameras and plans for a downtown casino.
Feinstein has seen positive changes, but he's hoping for more. "The city has not made as meaningful strides in disclosing data and information that inform the public about the decision-making process," he says. For example, the IGO has asked Emanuel's office to release documents provided to the city council – but not made available to the public – during the recent budget debate.
The course, which may help bring such documents to light, has been a hot commodity on campus. Its 15 available spots filled up within 24 hours of the opening of registration last month. Gordon now plans to add a few more seats.
Early in the course, the students will scour the country for innovative examples of transparency in local governance, such as New Mexico's Sunshine Portal or Manor, Texas's, Manor Labs, and pass them on to their colleagues at Open Chicago.
The students will then examine transparency within the city department of their choice: the police department, the fire department, emergency management services, the department of procurement – or just about any other city body. They'll pore over available data, look at how it's made available, its accessibility, its utility, and also consider what information is not available. Each student's final project will be put on the IGO website, available for scrutiny by city officials and the general public.
Ferguson is slated for a guest lecture, and the students will pay at least one visit to the downtown offices of the Inspector General. "Getting people who do not work on the city day-to-day we think will bring a fresh perspective to the analysis of the city's transparency and accountability efforts,” says Feinstein. "I think the students are likely to ask and then attempt to answer fundamental questions that those of us who work on this every day may occasionally lose sight of."
Be careful what you wish for, Mr. Feinstein. Gordon might urge his charges toward aggressive critiques of their city-employed colleagues. He recently wrote a book on civic engagement entitled, Piss Em All Off: And Other Practices of the Effective Citizen.
-----------
From December 2011:
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/politics/2011/12/chicago-asks-students-help-it-be-more-transparent/628/
10.16.2011
City Bike Plan Is Accused of a Neighborhood Bias
By DAVID LEPESKA
nytimes.com
Mayor Rahm Emanuel plans to spend nearly $150 million to make Chicago “the bike-friendliest city” in the United States. That challenge is considerable, given Chicago’s slow start compared with Portland, Ore., and other bike-centered cities, and Mr. Emanuel’s initial plan is drawing complaints about an inequitable distribution of the investment.
The Chicago Department of Transportation’s $18 million bike-share program is expected to begin next summer with 3,000 bicycles and 300 rental stations, to be located in areas with dense employment, residential development and retail. The Bloomingdale Trail, to be built in an unused two-and-a-half-mile rail line that runs from Wicker Park to Humboldt Park on the North Side, is expected to cost around $50 million over several years. The city planning commission recently approved designs for a $50 million flyover bridge at Navy Pier, the busiest section of the 15-mile lakefront trail.
But so far, the city’s lower-income areas include just one project: a protected bike lane on 18th Street in the 25th Ward, though more such lanes could be added in the spring as part of a four-year, $28 million construction plan. The alderman for the 25th Ward, Daniel Solis, is also the chairman of the City Council’s zoning committee, and he is traveling to Amsterdam this month at the expense of Bikes Belong, an advocacy group based in Boulder, Colo.
Oboi Reed, a lifelong Chatham resident and founder of the Pioneers Bicycle Club, said Mr. Emanuel is pursuing a good objective, but is on the wrong path.
“I definitely support getting more people on bikes because a lot of the common health problems African-Americans face are a result of not getting enough exercise,” Mr. Reed said. “My concern is that the lion’s share of the resources are going to go downtown and to the North Side — the South and West will only see a sprinkling.”
With the city facing a budget deficit of nearly $640 million and a double-digit unemployment rate, Mr. Emanuel may find it difficult to justify spending large amounts on bike facilities.
“It probably isn’t going to help many low-income and out-of-work folks,” said Mark Rank, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis who analyzes poverty and inequality. “You can’t spend all your money on a single priority, ignoring transportation or anything else. Given the situation in Chicago, this much spending seems a bit out of whack.”
From 2000 to 2009, the percentage of Chicagoans commuting by bike increased from about 0.5 percent to 1.1 percent. The growth is similar to that seen in other industrial cities like Milwaukee, Detroit and Oakland, Calif., but still lags behind Portland, which tops the United States with 6 percent commuting by bike.
Mr. Emanuel has set a goal of installing 100 miles of protected bike lanes — at a cost of $28 million — by the end of his term in 2015. Protected bike lanes are separated from car traffic by cones, curbs or other impediments. Chicago’s first protected bike lane opened in July on Kinzie Street. The second lane is to be installed this month, on Jackson Street, with another 20 to be built in the spring — all in locations chosen by the city.
Sam Schwartz Engineering, a firm based in New York that was hired by Chicago to design a 150- to 250-mile bike lane network, will hold a series of meetings over the next eight months to help determine the best locations for all future bike lanes.
“There’s been zero public outreach on where the bike lanes should go,” said Steven Vance, a former transportation department consultant on bike planning issues and co-founder of GridChicago.com. Mr. Vance said he approved of the city’s efforts to increase ridership but questioned the first few bike lane locations.
The lack of outreach could be a concern, according to Alan Berube, research director of the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program. “If it’s done without public education and public input, there could be some real resistance,” he said.
Ben Gomberg, the Transportation Department’s bike program coordinator, said the city chooses wide streets that either see a lot of bike traffic or connect main arteries. To save money, the department also tries to piggyback on current roadway projects. The city has applied for state support and for federal clean-air financing that could total $50 million.
Mr. Berube said the bike initiatives could help in a city where the unemployment rate is more than 10 percent and nearly one in four residents live in poverty. “It can connect people to services, to work, and improve their health,” he said. “We need more jobs, but we need accessible jobs, too.”
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ran in Oct 16, 2011, NYTimes, www.nytimes.com
nytimes.com
Mayor Rahm Emanuel plans to spend nearly $150 million to make Chicago “the bike-friendliest city” in the United States. That challenge is considerable, given Chicago’s slow start compared with Portland, Ore., and other bike-centered cities, and Mr. Emanuel’s initial plan is drawing complaints about an inequitable distribution of the investment.
The Chicago Department of Transportation’s $18 million bike-share program is expected to begin next summer with 3,000 bicycles and 300 rental stations, to be located in areas with dense employment, residential development and retail. The Bloomingdale Trail, to be built in an unused two-and-a-half-mile rail line that runs from Wicker Park to Humboldt Park on the North Side, is expected to cost around $50 million over several years. The city planning commission recently approved designs for a $50 million flyover bridge at Navy Pier, the busiest section of the 15-mile lakefront trail.
But so far, the city’s lower-income areas include just one project: a protected bike lane on 18th Street in the 25th Ward, though more such lanes could be added in the spring as part of a four-year, $28 million construction plan. The alderman for the 25th Ward, Daniel Solis, is also the chairman of the City Council’s zoning committee, and he is traveling to Amsterdam this month at the expense of Bikes Belong, an advocacy group based in Boulder, Colo.
Oboi Reed, a lifelong Chatham resident and founder of the Pioneers Bicycle Club, said Mr. Emanuel is pursuing a good objective, but is on the wrong path.
“I definitely support getting more people on bikes because a lot of the common health problems African-Americans face are a result of not getting enough exercise,” Mr. Reed said. “My concern is that the lion’s share of the resources are going to go downtown and to the North Side — the South and West will only see a sprinkling.”
With the city facing a budget deficit of nearly $640 million and a double-digit unemployment rate, Mr. Emanuel may find it difficult to justify spending large amounts on bike facilities.
“It probably isn’t going to help many low-income and out-of-work folks,” said Mark Rank, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis who analyzes poverty and inequality. “You can’t spend all your money on a single priority, ignoring transportation or anything else. Given the situation in Chicago, this much spending seems a bit out of whack.”
From 2000 to 2009, the percentage of Chicagoans commuting by bike increased from about 0.5 percent to 1.1 percent. The growth is similar to that seen in other industrial cities like Milwaukee, Detroit and Oakland, Calif., but still lags behind Portland, which tops the United States with 6 percent commuting by bike.
Mr. Emanuel has set a goal of installing 100 miles of protected bike lanes — at a cost of $28 million — by the end of his term in 2015. Protected bike lanes are separated from car traffic by cones, curbs or other impediments. Chicago’s first protected bike lane opened in July on Kinzie Street. The second lane is to be installed this month, on Jackson Street, with another 20 to be built in the spring — all in locations chosen by the city.
Sam Schwartz Engineering, a firm based in New York that was hired by Chicago to design a 150- to 250-mile bike lane network, will hold a series of meetings over the next eight months to help determine the best locations for all future bike lanes.
“There’s been zero public outreach on where the bike lanes should go,” said Steven Vance, a former transportation department consultant on bike planning issues and co-founder of GridChicago.com. Mr. Vance said he approved of the city’s efforts to increase ridership but questioned the first few bike lane locations.
The lack of outreach could be a concern, according to Alan Berube, research director of the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program. “If it’s done without public education and public input, there could be some real resistance,” he said.
Ben Gomberg, the Transportation Department’s bike program coordinator, said the city chooses wide streets that either see a lot of bike traffic or connect main arteries. To save money, the department also tries to piggyback on current roadway projects. The city has applied for state support and for federal clean-air financing that could total $50 million.
Mr. Berube said the bike initiatives could help in a city where the unemployment rate is more than 10 percent and nearly one in four residents live in poverty. “It can connect people to services, to work, and improve their health,” he said. “We need more jobs, but we need accessible jobs, too.”
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ran in Oct 16, 2011, NYTimes, www.nytimes.com
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