Looking Ahead And Looking Back

Written By Cityfi

By Vicki Fanibi and Ryan Parzick

As 2024 comes to a close, Cityfi wants to express our gratitude to all of our public and private sector clients, partners, collaborators, and followers.

This year, we’ve worked together to tackle some of the most complex challenges in mobility and the built environment—driving progress toward sustainable solutions, advancing equitable policymaking, and reimagining cities for the better. See below in our Cityfi Wrapped section the highlights of what we have shared this year! Your support and partnership made it all possible.

For our final newsletter of the year, we are sharing some more insights that will carry us into the New Year and beyond, while also recapping some of the more recent events and endeavors we have been a part of.

At Cityfi, we remain inspired by the opportunities to create smarter, more connected, and resilient communities. Cityfi excitedly looks to 2025 as an opportunity to continue building momentum and turning ideas into action. Here’s to another year of meaningful impact and shared successes. Wishing you and yours a joyful holiday season and a bright year ahead.

OMF X Cityfi Report: Transatlantic Exchange on Zero Emission Delivery, Microdelivery, and Curb Digitization

 
 

By Evan Costagliola

Without a doubt, 2024 was an exciting year for Cityfi in Europe. Yet, one week stood out amongst the rest. In October, Cityfi and our affiliate Gemma Schepers organized and facilitated a weeklong Open Mobility Foundation-led Zero Emissions Delivery and Urban Freight Logistics study tour. A subset of the SMART Curb Collaborative cohort (Miami-Dade County, Minneapolis, Portland, and San José) and our generous expert participants from Amsterdam, Antwerp, Brussels, Eindhoven, Nijmegen, Paris, Utrecht and dozens of private industry innovators (e.g., Amazon, DHL, CityQ, SOGARIS, CityHub, etc.) generated so many ideas, connections, and seeds of long-term knowledge exchange.

Read the summary report for the trip highlights, key takeaways, and a call to action. If you see yourself as a partner or contributor in the path toward advancing zero emission delivery, microdelivery, and digitizing the curb, we should connect. Cities and industry are moving fast!

It’s Still Happening:  EV Charging Funding in the New Administration

 
 

By Kyle Ragan

The results of the November election undoubtedly present potential threats to the progress made in transportation electrification over the past several years. While the incoming administration’s transition team has made significant noise about eliminating the 30D tax credit—which provides up to $7,500 for qualified electric vehicles (EVs)—history shows that eliminating popular programs is often easier said on the campaign trail than done in practice.

The tax credit’s widespread use for vehicle purchases is just one part of the equation. Major clean energy manufacturing investments spurred by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill (BIL), and CHIPS Act have disproportionately benefited Republican districts—nearly 80%, according to analyses by the Rhodium Group and MIT. Specifically for EVs, Bloomberg reports that 19 of 25 major automaker battery and EV assembly plants are located in districts that voted for Trump, with many of the others situated in blue districts within red states. While this dynamic does not eliminate the risk of repeal, it complicates such efforts due to the impact on domestic manufacturing and job creation.

On the charging infrastructure side, it’s important to remember that while tremendous progress has been made in deploying public EV chargers–now totaling over 11,000 nationwide–we are only beginning to see the impacts of BIL investments. Many of these programs required significant federal, state, and local planning, and some states only recently  released their first solicitations. Many of the first awarded projects are still moving through the contracting and construction phases. As the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program was structured as a formula program, these states will continue to push projects forward over the coming years. Meanwhile, the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) program has only completed rounds 1A and 1B solicitations. The round 2 awards will include funding for FY24 and FY25, while not all of this may be contracted before the administration change, it will initiate substantial funding flows that will continue for several years.

While NEVI and CFI have rightfully garnered much attention as flagship EV programs under BIL, the legislation also allows for EV charging infrastructure funding through other programs such as CMAQ, STBG, and CRP. If state and local governments want to continue supporting transportation electrification there are many pathways to fund these initiatives.

The infrastructure investments made over the past several years were designed to address complex, long-term challenges—not deliver quick wins. We are only beginning to see the benefits of these investments, and their impacts will continue as projects in the pipeline progress. This does not mean we should take our foot off the pedal, though. It will be critical to advocate for protecting existing programs—and the economic benefits they bring—while also looking ahead to the next transportation reauthorization. Despite the challenges, there are reasons to remain optimistic that the transportation electrification transition will continue to accelerate.

Under New Management: Adapting and Achieving

 
 

By Karina Ricks

2025 will usher in not only a new year but a new Administration, and that leaves some Cityfi clients with some degree of trepidation and uncertainty especially with regard to project funding flowing from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Shortly after the election, we shared thoughts and advice with our clients. As 2024 winds down, we thought this counsel would be valuable to others in the broader innovation ecosystem as well. Please see our analysis and advice here.

The bottom line:

  • Stay the course. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was indeed bipartisan. The programs funded through that law were specifically crafted to reflect those bipartisan values and priorities and those are codified in that law. The funding and investments will continue largely in the same form as issued to date.

  • Know where you are in the process. Awarded projects with fully executed agreements should focus on delivery. Announced, but as yet unexecuted awards, should focus on moving swiftly through the review and execution process.

  • Stay compliant. Know what is expected of you and keep good records.

  • Shift the narrative. As the new Administration issues new Executive Orders and priorities, previously submitted, highly recommended projects are still great candidates for funding, however might require a shift in storytelling to reflect new priorities and areas of executive focus.

  • Collaborate with states. Competitive, discretionary funding gets a lot of attention, but is a very small portion of total funding available. State DOTs, as always, are allocated the largest pool of funding. Good working relationships between localities and their states has been and will continue to be the most fruitful avenue for project funding.

As always, we are here to strategize and support you. The work continues!

Fiscal Challenges and Future Opportunities in Chicago

 
 

By Marla Westervelt

Looking towards 2025, I’ve been excited to spend more time investing in my hometown of Chicago. Over the past few weeks, I’ve begun a listening tour, meeting with Chicagoland policymakers, advocates, and thought leaders, discussing what opportunities they see for the City as we look to the new year.

While Chicago has many exciting transportation efforts in flight for 2025, it’s hard to have a conversation about transportation in Chicago without discussing funding. Like many cities post-pandemic, Chicago transportation has found itself with a looming fiscal cliff. Looking to 2026, Chicago’s transit system is facing a $730 Million deficit. This impending fiscal pressure has revived conversations exploring restructuring transit governance through combining the service boards (Chicago Transit Authority, Pace, Metra) under a reimagined Regional Transportation Authority.

This is not the first time Chicago has explored governance reform. In 2013, I supported the development of an RTA commissioned report which identified opportunities for improvement in the institutional and financial structures supporting Chicago transit. This work inspired a second report exploring transit governance and funding across the country. Through this work we found that while there isn’t a one size fits all solution, there are a suite of strategies to employ when developing an institutional and funding structure that serves any given region.

Through my Chicago listening tour, I found that advocates of reform say that a new governance structure will improve regional coordination and the customer experience, while streamlining budgetary decision making processes. Those opposed believe that governance is a distraction from the funding problem and also have deep skepticism about the actual mechanics of consolidating agencies from union contracts to actually operating the system.

While there are a myriad of options on the table for how to navigate through and resolve the impending fiscal cliff (with new options continuing to be explored), there is a clear opportunity for Chicago, and Illinois more broadly, in 2025 to reimagine and improve how transit services are delivered. By navigating through this challenging financial landscape, we are optimistic that Chicago transportation will develop a solution that will better serve the people who live, work, and play in Chicagoland.

Dispatch from POLIS: From Europe to the US, Hands Up for City Action

By Evan Costagliola

Cityfi enjoyed attending and speaking at the Annual POLIS Conference in Karlsruhe, Germany, joining forward-thinking cities and regions in the sustainable urban mobility and innovation space. During the conference mobility data session, Senior Principal Evan Costagliola and Vianova’s Alex Pazuchanics gave a rousing presentation on the role (and responsibilities) of cities in an increasingly AI-influenced transportation system.

The conference emphasized the urgency and fragility of bold city actions on sustainable mobility. Cities understand their central role advancing climate action for a more sustainable and just world. But even in Europe, ground zero for some of the most bold actions on climate and livability, cities are hungry for creative approaches to funding and messaging so that shifts toward more sustainable mobility has real staying power. To put an exclamation point on this challenge, the topic of an incoming Trump Administration was very present in the conference dialogue and it drew a clear parallel to friction and push back occurring across Europe. Eva Oosters, POLIS President and Deputy Mayor for Zero-Emission Mobility for the City of Utrecht, had an interesting take on recent political pushback on zero-emission zones at the national level:

“Our ambition to enforce zero-emission zones for urban logistics has been a ten-year journey. It's incumbent to do what you can, when you can, even when the [national] government does not necessarily share the city’s mission".

I cannot think of a better call to action in the lead up to a second Trump Administration. Make big plans, opportunistically implement, and work with your city peers to ensure big moves stick.

Building Resilient Communities: Insights from Our Climate Displacement Webinar

By Chrissy Anecito and Story Bellows
 
Yesterday, the Cityfi team hosted our second Climate Migration themed webinar - Ensuring Equitable Services in the Face of Climate Displacement. Partner Story Bellows moderated a wide ranging and exciting discussion with our passionate, knowledgeable, and engaging panelists - Dr. Grant Gutierrez (Senior Climate Justice Strategist at Carbon Direct, and former Senior Planner of the Duwamish Valley Program in Seattle), Dr. Missy Stults (Sustainability and Innovations Director at the City of Ann Arbor), and David Giles (Chief Strategy Officer at Brooklyn Public Library). Our panelists come from a wide range of backgrounds, and shared how they addressed challenges related to climate migration and displacement in their communities from each of their unique positions.

Our discussion touched on many nuanced issues - ranging from the impact of climate migration on housing affordability and gentrification, to the role of civic and physical infrastructure in climate resilience. Panelists emphasized that local governments have always led on this work, and remarked on the huge opportunity presented in this moment for the private sector to invest in preparing communities for climate impacts, especially in the face of potential disinvestment from the federal government as compared with the past four years.

Thank you to everyone who attended and contributed to this vital conversation! We look forward to continuing to explore the potential for partnerships to address the impacts of climate change and displacement. Please reach out to join our conversation and learn more about how we can fortify our communities to face these challenges.  In case you missed the live webinar, you can watch or just listen to a recorded version using the password: 9NPyN7?G

That's a Wrap! Cityfi Unwrapped - 2024 Edition

 
 

By Ryan Parzick

In our final newsletter of 2023, we put our own spin on Spotify’s Wrapped to highlight the most read and impactful newsletter articles and blog posts of the year. Having such a great response to it, we are bringing back the Cityfi Wrapped for 2024 - minus the disappointment that came with this year’s Spotify version (no, AI did not produce our version).

Enjoy revisiting some of our thoughts, accomplishments, expert analyses, exciting announcements, and standard-setting client deliverable overviews.

Interviews

Deep Dives

Thought Pieces

Cityfi Potpourri

 
 
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