IT'S NOT EASY GOING GREEN

MUNICIPALITIES MUST GET CREATIVE TO FUND RESILIENCY IN A                TIME OF BOTH GREATER NEED AND REDUCED FEDERAL FUNDING

Tahne Corcutt is an expert in state revolving fund programs and public-private partnership funding at Jacobs, the top project management firm in the nation as ranked by Engineering News and Record.

She is creating a comprehensive multi-year funding strategy for Seattle Public Utilities’ Duwamish River Valley Resilience Program.

It will be funded by a combination of federal, state and local grants and loans to design and build $16 million in nature-based solutions and water resiliency.

IT'S NOT EASY GOING GREEN

MUNICIPALITIES MUST GET CREATIVE TO FUND RESILIENCY IN A                TIME OF BOTH GREATER NEED AND REDUCED FEDERAL FUNDING

The Resilience Authority of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County can work regionally to try to avoid gray, unattractive, single-use seawalls and bulkheads.

With the big picture in mind, it can create nature-based systems that provide habitat while enhancing a living shoreline and supporting natural ecosystems such as oyster beds that filter the bay’s water.

IT'S NOT EASY GOING GREEN

MUNICIPALITIES MUST GET CREATIVE TO FUND RESILIENCY IN A                TIME OF BOTH GREATER NEED AND REDUCED FEDERAL FUNDING

“People often talk about resilience in fatalistic terms.

But it can build on the strength of a community,” said Matthew Fleming, director of the Resilience Authority of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County. “[Resilient infrastructure] can create inclusive places where people want to come.”

“One of our first completed projects was an ecological restoration of a stream that was getting blown out with every storm.

We restored the floodplain, putting in habitat that allows water to soak in instead of flooding.

We are getting better water quality and flood protection plus a wetland complex with a walking trail in a natural area that abuts a state park,” Fleming said.

CREATE A CHIEF MOBILITY OFFICER

THE CITY OF MIAMI NEEDS A NEW OFFICIAL FOR PEDESTRIAN, TRANSIT, MOBILITY

My opinion piece was originally published in the Miami Today Newspaper. I have created a groundbreaking Universal Design college course and lectured on mobility around the world.

The city of Miami has new leadership.

In less than a year, three of its six elected positions have been filled with leaders focused on delivering a high quality of life for Miami’s diverse population.

Mayor Eileen Higgins and Commissioners Rolando Escalona and Ralph Rosado campaigned on a promise of making the city more consumer friendly and responsive to the needs of the everyday people.

With a new city manager and department heads under a new mayor, it’s an ideal time to create the essential mobility officer position.

The city of Miami has sidewalks, crosswalks, parks, paths and bike lanes – plus a portion of the wonderful Underline. It is served by Miami-Dade County buses, circulators, Metrorail and Metromover. Tri-Rail and the Brightline also figure into the transit mix.

It sounds like a wealth of services – but as anyone who has tried to get around in Miami, there are horrendous gaps in the mobility network. Add in haphazard construction (the city routinely allows developers to shut down essential sidewalks for years of construction – even in its most dense urban neighborhoods) and the system is not working for the well more than half a million people who live and work in the Magic City.

Cars perpetually illegally parked on sidewalks -- destroying pedestrian and wheelchair user access at an historic City of Miami Park. Safe pathways to transit are frequently destroyed by illegal parking.

Like many major cities, the people want mobility options – but we design, build and maintain a system that treats everyone who cannot drive a car as a second class citizen.

But research has shown that upwards of one third of people cannot afford to drive or cannot drive because of age (too young or too old) or disability.

Even for those who can drive, the AAA estimates the total (purchase, maintenance, fuel, insurance) cost of owning a car at $1,025 per month.

That is a staggering figure in a city where one in five people live below the poverty line.

It is a brutal number when one considers that Miami is one of the most rent challenged cities in America and studies have shown that more than half of its households live virtually paycheck to paycheck.

Think about the money that could go toward housing and other household needs– if a family could swap more than $1,000 per month per vehicle – for a tiny fraction of that spent on a transit pass and e-bike or scooter.

Of all marginalized groups, people with disabilities are by far the most under- and unemployed – but not because of their underlying disability.

The CDC says one in for people will experience a disability that impacts their daily living. Inclusive mobility is not an outlier for a special interest.

Sidewalks on both sides of the street closed for years of construction -- a violation of the ADA, a nightmare for wheelchair users and a living hell for all in the heart of Downtown Miam.

Every time: a sidewalk is blocked for six weeks when work could last a weekend, a curbramp is flooded, an elevator to elevated transit is out of order for ages, a safe pathway is blocked by a discarded e-scooter, a bus shelter is inaccessible – a pathway to work is destroyed.

Sadly, Miami often ranks as having some of the worst pedestrian death and series injury statistics in the U.S.

Things will only get worse. America is rapidly gaining. Soon, for the first time in our nation’s history, there will be more people older than age 60 than younger than 18. This means people with reduced mobility and reduced means will be dependent on a seamless network of multimodal mobility.

There are areas in Miami’s densely populated Central Business District where both sides of the sidewalk are closed for years of construction. Simple scaffolding would support both construction and safe sidewalks.

Miami’s mobility is impacted by nearly a dozen divergent city, county and state authorities, as well as redevelopment agencies, and private sector spanning from for profit rail to taxies, rideshare and jitneys.

If we are ever going to have humane, efficient, inclusive and equitable transportation networks with world class walkability – we must have a chief mobility officer.

Steve Wright is an award-winning author, planner, educator, keynote speaker and disability mobility advocate. He worked in public policy for the city of Miami from 2002-2009.

https://www.miamitodayepaper.com/Miami-Today-02052026-e-Edition/6/

IT'S NOT EASY GOING GREEN

MUNICIPALITIES MUST GET CREATIVE TO FUND RESILIENCY IN A                TIME OF BOTH GREATER NEED AND REDUCED FEDERAL FUNDING

To date, The Resilience Authority of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County has $50 million in capital assembled in a portfolio built around federal, state and local grants plus charitable donations.

The authority is governed by a local board of directors.

Authority Director Matthew Fleming said it also is looking at ways to manage community assets to provide green benefits.

This could include a solar energy field on government-owned land.

A municipal-owned parking garage could enter a public-private partnership to bond out the asset under a new operating agreement or possibly redevelop it for revenue to fund sustainability capital projects.

 

IT'S NOT EASY GOING GREEN

MUNICIPALITIES MUST GET CREATIVE TO FUND RESILIENCY IN A                TIME OF BOTH GREATER NEED AND REDUCED FEDERAL FUNDING

The Resilience Authority of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County’s financial tools include:

• The capability to receive state and federal grant funds.

• Receiving funds from a local government that transfers a portion of its revenue to fund a project.

• Bonding authority to establish revenue for major projects. This way, a regional project can be done without a local government having to market, sell and repay the bonds, which can impact bond ratings for those municipalities.

• Functioning as a nonprofit (but not as a traditional 501(c)(3) to receive charitable donations from local and national foundations and philanthropic organizations.

• The authority to enter into a public-private partnership to fund resiliency.

 

IT'S NOT EASY GOING GREEN

MUNICIPALITIES MUST GET CREATIVE TO FUND RESILIENCY IN A                TIME OF BOTH GREATER NEED AND REDUCED FEDERAL FUNDING

The Resilience Authority of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County was created as the first multi-jurisdictional organization of its kind in the country.

Matthew Fleming, the authority’s director and a 25-year veteran of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, said it very much aims to be a national model.

“We may not have the big high-impact storms like hurricanes, but the constant erosion, the sunny day flooding, the infrastructure being inundated — we’re 520 miles of shoreline, peninsulas and creeks and these communities were getting cut off by flooding,” Fleming said.

“Approaching things from a regional context makes sense.”

IT'S NOT EASY GOING GREEN

MUNICIPALITIES MUST GET CREATIVE TO FUND RESILIENCY IN A              TIME OF BOTH GREATER NEED AND REDUCED FEDERAL FUNDING

In Maryland, the Chesapeake Bay and waterways that connect to it are a pulsing heart of economic development, seafood harvesting, recreation, transportation and nature.

Maryland has been working for years on ways to deal with coastal erosion, flooding, environmental changes and high-impact weather events.

Future-proofing roads, stormwater, sewers and other infrastructure demands billions of dollars.

In 2020, the Maryland General Assembly passed a bill allowing every jurisdiction in the state to establish a resilience authority.

IT'S NOT EASY GOING GREEN

 MUNICIPALITIES MUST GET CREATIVE TO FUND RESILIENCY IN A             TIME OF BOTH GREATER NEED AND REDUCED FEDERAL FUNDING

“Damage from extreme weather will cost the South Florida region — Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties — more than $5.67 billion annually, per a new Urban Institute analysis using FEMA data,” reported news site Axios this August.

This perfect storm of greater need with lower federal funding is pressing cities, counties and other municipalities to explore bonds, revolving loan funds, public-private partnerships, nonprofit foundations, utility fees and other ways of footing the bill for very costly green infrastructure.

 

 

IT'S NOT EASY GOING GREEN

MUNICIPALITIES MUST GET CREATIVE TO FUND RESILIENCY IN A                TIME OF BOTH GREATER NEED AND REDUCED FEDERAL FUNDING

Natural disasters — destruction from wildfires, flooding, hurricanes and hail — are setting records for both frequency and severity according to the insurance, risk mitigation and emergency management industries.

But while municipalities are racing to harden systems while building and rebuilding for resiliency, post-Covid stimulus and infrastructure funds are drawing down.

On top of that, billions in federal funding are at risk and other programs are being put on hold, signaling that states and municipalities will be expected to foot more of the bill while becoming less reliant on federal grants and programs.

ABLEISTS ARE TOXIC

AND EVERY BIT AS LOATHSOMELY BIGOTED AS RACISTS

Why do ableists think it is the duty of people with disabilities, or their allies, to fix the built environment?

Every time I post a picture of neglected landscaping blocking sidewalk accessibility, I get "If it bothers you, why don't you trim it." snotty response.

Many find requests for the basic dignity/civil rights of wheelchair access so offensive, that they demonize the person requesting them.

No one would tell a burglarized person to become police and solve it.

But underscore a barrier and they scream at you to fix it yourself.

Diminishing the needs of people with disabilities is ableism.

Ableism is toxic.

MUNICIPAL FINANCE CHALLENGES

AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

Kristy Gore is a Charleston Area REALTOR® and Civic Leaders Academy alum who serves on the Berkeley County Planning and Zoning Commission.

She is running for South Carolina House District 99, gearing up for the primary.

“Most of my platform is tax reform and infrastructure.

We are in an infrastructure crisis, so we must reallocate money for roads and bridges,” she said, saying fiscally conservative policy can reduce tax burden while redirecting funds to pay for the basics.

Gore said she learned to navigate difficult decisions while reviewing controversial developments during her year and a half on the planning and zoning commission.

“A planning vote recently dealt with a medium-sized commercial parcel that backed up to residential.

I have become very familiar with wetlands in my real estate career. 

I have seen individual homeowners end up paying dearly for planning and zoning decisions done poorly.

I voted against a plan to change the zoning for that commercial plan,” Gore said, noting that the plan ultimately was approved.

A no vote can cause a developer to pay attention more to neighborhood flooding concerns.

She said a developer can revise a plan, creating less concrete lot coverage and more on-site ponds, before a council gives its final approval.

“We have to be responsible in our development. 

The leadership class was very eye opening.”

 

 

 

 

 

MUNICIPAL FINANCE CHALLENGES

AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

Greater Charleston is experiencing exponential growth. It also welcomes eight million visitors per year, a big driver of the economy. Academy participants learn how to balance both permanent resident and tourism growth.

“Healthy tourism keeps taxes low,” Dix noted. “Good schools, a fire and police presence and sustaining healthy communities are the things buyers and sellers focus on. 

We are teaching that the beauty of local government is paving roads, picking up trash, and maintaining and improving the quality of life.”

Because Charleston has one of the richest architectural histories in the nation, the academy also teaches about how to protect the skyline and how to evaluate redevelopment that is sensitive to historic districts.

Participants learn about accessory dwelling units, missing middle housing, other diverse, affordable housing types, and that higher density does not have to mean taller buildings.

Missing middle housing includes duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and bungalows as well as cluster homes and cottage courts.

The academy is very hands on about preparing people to run for election. 

Many of its graduates serve on boards and commissions as well as in elective office. 

MUNICIPAL FINANCE CHALLENGES

AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

Seasoned elected officials share their experience with The Civic Leaders Academy in South Carolina.

Experts from municipalities lecture on the flow of a zoning application from an advisory board to a board of appeals to a council for final vote.

“We try to teach you the nuts and bolts of running for office — polling data reading, putting a team together and strategy for campaigning,” Josh Dix, consulting advisor to CTAR’s CEO, said.

“We also explain how parliamentary procedure works. 

If you want to be on a board or commission, parliamentary is a key tool.”

 

 

MUNICIPAL FINANCE CHALLENGES

AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

The Civic Leaders Academy in greater Charleston features classes of about 15 to 20 professionals learning about land use and planning practices.

The first class graduated in 2021.

One course session is a trip to Columbia to meet with legislators and heads of key state departments.

Participants learn about financing, policy and how land-use decisions can sometimes wind up in the court system.

The class is educating land-use decision-makers to vote based on sound planning.

“We were having a hard time when projects came to the planning commission or council. There really wasn’t a REALTOR® voice in those projects.

Projects were approved or denied for reasons that were not justified,” said Josh Dix, consulting advisor to CTAR’s CEO.

MUNICIPAL FINANCE CHALLENGES

AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

In South Carolina, The Civic Leaders Academy teaches participants about the government’s role in community development, economic prosperity, transportation and infrastructure.

The Charleston Trident Association of REALTORS® (CTAR), the Charleston Home Builders Association and the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce partnered to create a knowledge base that prepares active community members for elected office, as well as appointments to planning and advisory boards.

 

 

 

 

MUNICIPAL FINANCE CHALLENGES

AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

Kim Rueben, formerly a senior advisor, Fiscal Systems at the Lincoln Institute,  said some cities will look to Tax Increment Financing (TIF) to build transit stops, capturing the increased value around the station and dedicating it to paying off bonds that funded the transit extension.

She said some areas are looking at a series of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) to fund some capital costs, but it may be difficult to convince property owners to the additional self-taxing that comes via a BID, as those may be downtown businesses already hurting from the shift to remote work and hybrid work from home.

MARK BOOKMAN’S DISABILITY ADVOCACY AND RESEARCH LIVES

DISABILITY PUBLICS-MAKING ACCESSIBILITY IN MODERN JAPAN

The late Mark Bookman's disability forward work will live forever.

Oxford University Press published his Disability Publics--Making Accessibility in Modern Japan.

I was honored to appear as a Universal Design expert in the documentary “Mark - A Call to Action"

Created by award-winning filmmaker Ron Small, the 90 minute feature film is both a lesson in progressive disability advocacy as well as an energizing father son love story.

Mark thrived in Japan because of an incredibly supportive and loving family.

I have met his wonderful family.

I hope they are comforted in the knowledge that though his life was short -- his brilliance will help people with disabilities for an eternity. 

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/disability-publics-9780198979739?cc=us&lang=en&

MUNICIPAL FINANCE CHALLENGES

AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

Kim Rueben, formerly a senior advisor, Fiscal Systems at the Lincoln Institute, said taxing the value of land independent of what is being built on top of it can provide a more stable flow of revenue.

She explained that many commercial buildings have lost value because they have vacancies due to the shift to remote work.

MUNICIPAL FINANCE CHALLENGES

AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy was founded to promote the Land value Return concept of public financing.

“Land value return is based on a simple core premise: public action should generate public benefit.

As challenges mount from rapid urbanization, deteriorating infrastructure, climate change, and more, this funding source has never been more important to the future of municipalities,”said the Germán-Bernstein brief titled “Land Value Return Tools to Finance Our Urban Future.”

 

 

 

MUNICIPAL FINANCE CHALLENGES

AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy was founded to promote the Land value Return concept of public financing.

“In an era of tight budgets and exploding need, cities around the world are funding infrastructure and other public improvements through land value return, also known as land value capture.

This policy approach offers an array of public finance tools that enable communities to recover and reinvest land value increases resulting from public investment and other government actions.

Notably, as new subway lines, roads and other public works raise the value of nearby land and real estate; developers and property owners share that publicly generated windfall to help local governments pay for new bridges, transit, parks, affordable housing and other infrastructure upgrades,” Lourdes Germán and Allison Ehrich Bernstein wrote in a policy brief published before deep federal funding cuts became a reality.

MUNICIPAL FINANCE CHALLENGES

AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

In Broward County, Fla., voters approved a new property tax and a special district to provide services for disadvantaged children.

The new district was the Broward County Children’s Services Council.

Shayne Kavanagh, senior manager of research for the 26,000-plus member Government Finance Officers Association, said local government must challenge itself to find ways of increasing economic activity without increasing operational costs.

He said better coordination of land-use policy to economic development could help.

Development that results in urban sprawl often costs as much or more than the new taxes generated by the development itself.

 

MUNICIPAL FINANCE CHALLENGES

AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

Shayne Kavanagh, senior manager of research for the 26,000-plus member Government Finance Officers Association, authored “New Taxes That Work: How Local Governments and Raise Revenue and “Rethinking Revenue”

He noted that even in an era of strong anti-tax sentiment, communities successfully gained voter approval when they associated the tax with a concrete purpose that citizens value.

“For Plant City, Fla., 50 percent of its 160 miles of streets were in poor condition.

Staff estimated that it would take up to 60 years to resurface or reconstruct all roads in the city, based on available resources at the time.

Street quality served as the foundation for a new tax,” Kavanagh reported.

MUNICIPAL FINANCE CHALLENGES

AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

Karen Tamley, president and CEO of Access Living, a Chicago-based disability rights and service organization, urged public officials to find a way of addressing a projected $771 million Chicagoland transit funding shortfall that would start in early 2026.

Projected transit service cuts of up to 40 percent, mass layoffs and fare increases “would have a devastating impact on our communities, including people with disabilities who live here.”

“For disabled residents, especially those who can’t drive or afford their own wheelchair-accessible vehicle, public transit is the foundation of daily life — a way to get to work, attend school, access medical care, visit family and be part of the community,” Tamley’s op-ed stated.

 

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.”