is Chicago going Green? (Nashville, Mark: apartment, home, construction)

[Wild Style]

I am in the process of looking for jobs (currently living in Florida).

I am from NYC and my family is there so that is my place of choice. My wife however is from the Chi (this is my 2nd favorite city in America behind NYC).

Anyway we have narrowed our search to NYC, Chicago and Nashville (these are the places we have family).

I wanted to know if the City of Chicago has announced any plans for going green. I.E. alternative fuel sources for power ie renewables like wind, solar etc. Are they incorporating new urbanism into their development strategy moving forward? Will they be expanding the El to some of the fringe areas outside the city?

Appreciate any links or info you guys can provide.

for a example of what i am talking about check out Plan NYC

Also do they give tax breaks to home owners who have solar panels or wind turbines?

[Chicago60614]

Chicago's mayor is OBSESSED with going green. He wants the city to be the greenest large city in the country, and has established countless "initiatives" etc. to get that accomplished.

I know the city has more "green roofs" than any city in the world - well over 2 million square feet, and the mayor has planted over 500,000 trees in the city since 1989. You can google other stuff, but yes, Chicago is quite green. Especially for its rep. as being a gritty industrial place like it was in the 20th century. Obviously there is still a lot of pollution in Chicago, but at least the mayor is making it a top priority to clean the city up, and actually FOLLOWING through on his plans.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/arti...193833,00.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...080901625.html

http://www.earthportal.org/news/?p=648

http://www.citymayors.com/environmen...eencities.html

http://consciouschoice.com/2003/cc1604/reportcard1604.html (broken link)

[via chicago]

There are a lot of green initiatives, but other fundamental projects are sorely lacking (like a sensible recycling program).

New urbanism...hasnt that fallen out of favor? (I think now the preferred philosophy is "smart growth" lol). In any case, Chicago is a mature walkable city, so I dont see how any of those would come into play. If anything it would be the the new suburbs/exburbs which be integrating those design principles (which unfortunately they havent).

Chicago is better than a lot of cities and the mayor talks a big game, but we've still got a long way to go. Air quality is still worsening, very little energy comes from renewable sources despite an initiative to do just that, despite over 500,000 trees being planted theres still sorely less tree cover and less green space than NY+LA (yes, LA has more green space than us), etc...

[Wild Style]

via chicago

new urbanism is still used and in fact NYC is employing many aspects of this urban development strategy.

Thank you both for the info,

Any one else with info please keep it coming.

[NYrules]

Ya Daley is obsessed with going green. I think most of our power still comes from the nuclear plants out west of here, but over all the city is doing what it can to ensure it is going green. All over you see trees being planted and roof tops with plants, of which was a major step to mostly curb the urban heat island effect after the 1995 heat wave that killed some 800 people. Cars here are required once a year to pass an emmissions test of which I don't really know how accurate that thing is, but it seems like a good idea. Also many of the interstates are being widened to keep traffic flowing as cars stuck stopped in traffic will throw off greater emmisions than moving ones. I think you can find out much more about Daley's efforts to make Chicago green just by typing in Chicago green campaign in a google search. That should get you a lot of info on things the city is doing to become more eco friendly.

[Wild Style]

NYrules,

Thank you sir, have you heard anything about them widening the Els reach, expanding lines, adding new lines? What part of NY you original from?

[via chicago]

Originally Posted by Wild Style

have you heard anything about them widening the Els reach, expanding lines, adding new lines?

with the current budget crisis, expansion is unlikely in the short term. if the Olympics somehow get awarded though, there are a couple of long-range plans that can hopefully get fastracked. Namely the L's Circle Line
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago...27#Circle_Line

However, the majority of the lines have/are being rebuilt. Segments of the Red Line and Brown Line are in the process of being completely renovated, which will be complete in 2009. The Green Line was renovated in the early 90s, and the Blue Line is currently undergoing renovations. In some cases stations are being rebuilt, in others its just the track thats being replaced. The ultimate goal is to reduce "slow zones", which because of deteriorating track often forces trains to travel at as low as 5-10 mph, while they should be able to move at over 50. In the next couple years as these projects get completed things will progressively improve.

There are also plans for express service form State Street to both Midway and O'Hare. The State Street station itself is current being built due to the redevelopment taking place at Block 37 (if you're building the foundation for a building, mite as well put a subway stop in while you're at it), but when/if this will come online is anyones guess. It would most likely be managed by a private firm.

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by Wild Style

NYrules,

Thank you sir, have you heard anything about them widening the Els reach, expanding lines, adding new lines? What part of NY you original from?

It seems less likely the Blue or Orange Line will get extended any time soon. The Yellow and Red (on the south side) are most likely to get extended first. The Green (at least on the the Lake street branch) and Brown line extension would be unreal in capital costs to extend.

[Avengerfire]

Here are some interesting facts of Illinois Power:

As of January 1, 2005, Illinois ranked 1st among the 31 States with nuclear capacity

The origin of all of the commercial and military nuclear industries in the world can be traced back to December 2, 1942 at the University of Chicago. On that day, a team of scientists under Dr. Enrico Fermi initiated the first controlled nuclear chain reaction.

The experiment began Illinois' involvement in nuclear development, but did not end it. Sixty-four years later, Illinois remains the national leader in nuclear capacity. Illinois has almost as much nuclear capacity by itself as the United Kingdom. Twenty-one other countries with at least one nuclear plant have less capacity.

The growth of the State's nuclear industry is attributable, in large part, to the initiatives of the State government. The Boiler Safety Act of 1951 provided State supervision over future nuclear power generating operations. [1] In 1955, the State's General Assembly formed an Atomic Power Investigation Commission to assess the potential benefits of nuclear power. The eventual outgrowth of this very active interest in nuclear power was the construction of the first privately-built commercial power plant, Dresden 1, which received its operating permit on September 28, 1959. [2]

Electricity Market in Illinois
(Percent Generated by Fuel)
Year/ Coal / Natural Gas/ Hydro / Nuclear/ Other /
2005 /48 /3/ **/ 48/ ** /
2004*/ 49/ 2 / **/ 48 / 1 /
2003 / 47 / 2 / **/ 50/ 1 /
2002* /46/ 5 / ** / 48 / ** /

[Lookout Kid]

I am an architect, and the city is putting big pressure on developers to create LEED certified buildings. For example, I was working on an apartment tower downtown that required some zoning changes, so the city used that as a bargaining chip to push for LEED Silver. There are only a few LEED certified buidlings now, but there are several in the planning stages.