HAPPY NEW (BLOGGING) YEAR

CHARGING INTO 2026 WITH MORE THAN 1.7 MILLION READERS

My blog started humbly nearly 15 years ago.

I wanted to post about saving William Jennngs Bryan Park – the historic green space that I live on in Miami’s Shenandoah neighborhood – from being paved 100% with concrete for an out of scale regional tennis center.

I went on to post about my global travels.

Then shared my lifetime work on Universal Design.

Stories about urban policy, sustainability, mobility, town planning, architecture and transportation followed.

From being lucky to get 100 readers per week, I have grown to receiving more than 1.7 million unique visitors over the life of this blog.

I have posted nearly 5,000 stories – four out of five illustrated with my own fine art photography.

Here’s to passing the two million readers mark sometime in early 2026.

MUNICIPAL FINANCE CHALLENGES

AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

Karen Tamley, president and CEO of Access Living, a Chicago-based disability rights and service organization, points out that transit cuts have a disproportionately negative impact on people with disabilities.

“Public transportation for people with disabilities is the difference between a life of isolation and full independence. 

Right now, for those who live in the Chicago region, independence is on the line,” Tamley wrote in an August Chicago Tribune opinion piece.

MUNICIPAL FINANCE CHALLENGES

AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

“When states preempt what cities can do, it denies the fact that cities are individual and not uniform.

Cities need to be nimble and not be restricted from creating the kind of revenues they need to continue delivering services,” said Michael Pagano, dean emeritus, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs and former Brookings Metro non-resident fellow.

There is no such thing as a magic bullet that works in every city.

Having worked in the core of Chicago for two decades, Pagano also noted that commercial occupancy hovers around 70 percent downtown.

That has a huge negative impact on transit ridership and funding.

MUNICIPAL FINANCE CHALLENGES

AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

Michael Pagano, dean emeritus, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs and former Brookings Metro non-resident fellow, said the bigger impact is what Covid did with remote work and hybrid work. 

He said the lack of downtown workers, which also impacts downtown retail and restaurants, has impacted the commercial tax base.

Some cities have rebounded and repurposed, while others are still struggling.

“There is not any such thing as an average city, so there is no such thing as a magic bullet that works in every city,” he said.

“Another issue is that states ban city access to certain resources — a downtown may come roaring back, but if the city doesn’t have authority to levy taxes on that growth, it is not the boost it could be.

 

MUNICIPAL FINANCE CHALLENGES

AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

Michael Pagano, dean emeritus, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs and former Brookings Metro non-resident fellow, said states should loosen their grip on regulating what cities can do, so local government can be flexible to meet unique shifts in policy.

Pagano noted that Ohio is one of the very few states that allow cities to impose an income tax, which means cities continue to get income-tax revenue, whether an employee is remote most or part of the time.

However, in a city reliant on property taxes, if a downtown building is half empty, its value goes down and thus the city’s essential revenue is reduced.

MUNICIPAL FINANCE CHALLENGES

AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

Michael Pagano, dean emeritus, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs and former Brookings Metro non-resident fellow, has researched public finance for decades. 

He said federal funding typically accounts for only about five percent of a municipal operating budget, so federal cuts won’t hurt deeply.

The area that will see a drastic change is capital spending.

“With the surge of infrastructure and stimulus money, cities have been designing a city future that had federal support for electric charging stations, expansion of infrastructure and repairing old infrastructure,” Pagano said.

“This is especially true in older northern states that are not experiencing the demographic gains that southern states are.

The loss of federal dollars forces them to lower their expectations of what the future will be.”

MUNICIPAL FINANCE CHALLENGES

AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

Fatima Yousofi, senior officer, Infrastructure and Pensions, The Pew Charitable Trusts, said transit funding is suffering nationwide.

Remote work has reduced ridership, but dozens of cities have workers who still depend on commuter rail.

When it comes to finding new funding mechanisms, Yousofi praised California for being the first state to allow the creation of special Climate Resilience Districts.

The districts can finance projects that help communities adapt to the impacts of wildfires, sea-level rise and flooding.