Serving UIC's Great Cities Commitment: Solutions for Today's Urban Challenges
Executive Summary: The present moment entails a new set of challenges to water management: A formidable challenge to water management is the growing imbalance between flooding and water scarcity. Flooding and scarcity can wildly alternate in the same place or transpire in proximity to each other. This uneven water geography […]
Great Cities Institute participated in the advisory committee for Metropolitan Planning Council's Reconnecting Communities: Mitigating Community Harms of Transportation Infrastructure Report. The goal of the committee was to identify the historic impact that expressways have had on Chicago, and to begin conversations on how to reconnect fractured communities.
Executive Summary: Through the concerted focus of the Puerto Rican Agenda, on August 27, 2021, Senate Bill 1833 was signed into law by Governor J.B. Pritzker. The bill, introduced by Senator Cristina Pacione-Zayas, not only made such a cultural district possible for Puerto Rican Town, but also for other communities […]
On February 8, 2023, Director Teresa Córdova, Ph.D, gave a presentation on "Mayoral Forum on a New Industrial Vision in Chicago."
Rob Paral, senior research specialist at the Great Cities Institute, commented in the Economist in its story, "Chicago's Woes Are Over-Hyped."
Associate Director, Matthew Wilson, assisted with a research report on the fight to raise minimum wage. Authors Juliana Kaplan and Madison Hoff write about the report in their Business Insider article: “The biggest finding is the equity impact of the fight for 15 raises,” Yannet Lathrop, a senior researcher and policy analyst […]
Great Cities is featured in another Block Club Chicago article! The project has its roots in a community revitalization plan led by Special Service Area No. 5 and the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Great Cities Institute, Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza (10th) said. Neighbors identified a need for “a more pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly […]
Associate Director Thea Crum is interviewed by ABC 7 on Great Cities Institute’s work on participatory budgeting. Through participatory budgeting, community members get a voice. They can propose neighborhood infrastructure projects in their wards, such as road or park improvements, and those projects then go up for a vote in […]
Authors Shruti Singh and Isis Almeida discuss issues caused by historical segregation in their Bloomberg article. Great Cities Institute’s Matt Wilson is interviewed and highlights the economic inequalities in Chicago. Many of these same neighborhoods continue to face the highest levels of joblessness, poverty and inadequate housing, according to a study by […]
On October 3, 2022 Mayor Lori Lightfoot delivered her $16.4 billion budget for the City of Chicago to City Council. In July, the City conducted a community engagement process and partnered with UIC’s Neighborhoods Initiative (UICNI) at the Great Cities Institute to design and engagement activities around the City’s 2023 […]