Changing of the Seasons

On the final day of summer and with autumn at our doorstep, it is apropos that Cityfi congratulates Partner Gabe Klein for embarking on his own next venture. Gabe has been tapped by the Biden Administration to serve as Executive Director of the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation! This new office created through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, is between the U.S. Departments of Energy and Transportation and will transition our country to an electric vehicle (EV) future. We wish Gabe the very best of luck in his new role and look forward to working alongside him and other bold, visionary leaders to design a more equitable, sustainable, profitable, and electrified future.

The Cityfi team has been on the road at ITS World Congress, Smart City Expo USA, NACTO, and leadership workshops engaging with clients, partners, and colleagues on the topics of emerging mobility technologies, digital infrastructure, strategic planning, and so much more. From Los Angeles to Albany and to Boston, we are thrilled to be collaborating, presenting, and learning with you in person and cannot wait to continue doing so in the upcoming months.

Whether you are in the public sector looking to advance key policy and strategic initiatives or working to scale and grow your company, Cityfi would love to partner with you to achieve your objectives. Our talented team is driving impact for clients and the communities they serve every day. So, what are you waiting for?

Cityfi Partner Gabe Klein Tapped by the Biden Administration to Lead the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation

Once again, one of Cityfi’s partners has been tapped for a senior leadership position in the Biden Administration. Gabe Klein will serve as Executive Director of the new Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, created through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to transition our country to an EV future. Gabe joins former Chattanooga Mayor and Cityfi Partner Andy Berke, who serves as Special Representative for Broadband at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) within the U.S. Department of Commerce. Likewise, Cityfi’s national thought leadership is reflected in our firm’s attraction of senior officials such as Karina Ricks, former Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Associate Administrator for Research, Demonstration, and Innovation, who recently joined our team. Karina, Gabe and Andy each showcase Cityfi’s leadership in transformations of both physical and digital infrastructure.

Between the U.S. Departments of Energy and Transportation, the Joint Office has an important mandate and serves as an influential catalyst, linking programs across agencies and deploying $7.5 billion in funding toward developing a national EV charging infrastructure and zero-emission transportation system. Cityfi’s deep bench of talented partners, principals and staff are eager to carry on this work developing transportation electrification strategies and pilots, building public-private partnerships, and preparing city curbs and mobility hubs for an electrified future.

While Cityfi’s roots are in cities and the firm continues to be an industry leader in transportation and mobility, urban planning, and sustainability, we’ve also become a launchpad for clients looking to drive change for the common good across local, state, federal, and global levels. We pride ourselves on being a flywheel that connects, convenes, and produces outcomes for key stakeholders and clients.

While we’ll miss his energy (pun intended) and antics, the full Cityfi team is thrilled for Gabe’s selection for this critical role and wishes him the very best as he implements new programs designed to make 21st century infrastructure and transportation more equitable, sustainable, and safe for every citizen.

To learn more, check out our blog and these press releases:

● Department of Energy

● Department of Transportation

● CNN

● Streetsblog

Cityfi and Knight Foundation Partner at Smart City Expo USA

On September 14 and 15, Cityfi was proud to be a Supporting Institution Partner for the Smart City Expo USA in Miami, Florida. We teamed up with our partners Knight Foundation and Urbanism Next Center at the University of Oregon for dynamic panels and programming for a cohort of city government leaders part of the Knight AV Initiative project team.

Cityfi’s Partner Story Bellows moderated the “Moonshots in Mobility: Tomorrow’s Transportation Today” panel with participants from the private and public sector including Ellie Casson from Waymo, Miami-Dade County Chief Innovation Officer Carlos Cruz-Casas, and Urbanism Next Executive Director Nico Larco, sharing key takeaways from the freshly published Knight Autonomous Vehicle Initiative report and valuable insights on navigating public-private partnerships.

Cityfi Partner Karina Ricks delivered an introduction to the Knight AV initiative in a Pecha Kucha style presentation.

Team Cityfi Joins NACTO Designing Cities Conference

Last week, our team attended NACTO Designing Cities Conference in Boston. Cityfi Partner Karina Ricks was a speaker at the session “Designing Digital Infrastructure to Meet Policy Goals,” which focused on how digital infrastructure and standardization support policy outcomes. We also hosted a happy hour with Waymo - it was great catching up with friends, colleagues, clients and city partners after a long pandemic-driven pause.

New York State Office of General Services and Cityfi Launch Strategic Planning Initiative

Cityfi and New York State Office of General Services (OGS) have joined forces to develop a five-year, agencywide strategic plan. The engagement will define the mission and strategic goals of OGS, articulate a vision for the agency’s future, and help coordinate efforts and stakeholders around key priorities. To kick off this partnership, the Cityfi team and OGS Commissioner’s Office convened a participatory leadership workshop with about forty agency senior staff members in Albany last week. In the workshop, Cityfi introduced the strategic planning effort and facilitated breakout sessions to explore key themes, objectives, opportunities, and challenges agencywide and across business lines. The input and feedback from leadership early in the strategic planning process was valuable, and we look forward to using these learnings to craft a visionary and implementable plan for OGS.

Move PGH Reaches Mid-Pilot Milestone

In July 2021, the City of Pittsburgh Department of Mobility and Infrastructure (DOMI), with advisory support from Cityfi, launched the landmark MovePGH program alongside the City’s first fleet of dockless e-scooters. By coordinating the city’s transportation services with mobility hubs, trip planning app technology, and various equitable offerings, the Pittsburgh Mobility Collective (PMC) showed how Pittsburghers can move about life in a sustainable, affordable, and enjoyable way. A year later, and halfway through the two-year pilot, Pittsburgh released a mid-pilot report, reflecting on the program's successes and lessons learned, and strategies for the future. Cityfi had the opportunity to ask Tosh Chambers, Move PGH Senior Program Director, his thoughts on this milestone juncture and the significance of Move PGH.

What do you feel are Move PGH’s key successes and challenges so far? In other words, what is most notable as you reflect at this mid-pilot point?

“An encouraging outcome that's emerged from the data is the diverse amount of utilization we're seeing in our different services. This has helped to confirm that Move PGH's services are reaching some of the most disadvantaged populations in the city. The types and amounts of utilization of Spin's scooter service has also been exciting, as we see scooter making inroads on replacing vehicle trips without significantly affecting transit or bike share ridership. Pittsburgh's utilization of the Transit App has also continued to rise after the launch of Move PGH, further establishing it as the most helpful transit tool in the city. As for challenges, we need to expand car sharing services to more regions of our city for more equitable access to this valuable resource. We're also intent on improving payment options for the unbanked, as lack of access to credit or bank cards can prove to be a barrier for all of Move PGH's services.”

2. Now that the mid-pilot report is completed, what pivots are necessary, if any, for Move PGH?
“In the coming months, we will be coordinating planning efforts to understand more about what modes, levels of service, and other resources are needed in Pittsburgh to create an equitable access to shared transportation for all. This will inform how we continue our efforts around shared transportation past Move PGH's two-year pilot term. In addition, we'll be looking for additional ways to simplify digital payment of these services in the Transit App.”

3. As a pioneering program in the nation, what is the impact of Move PGH now and in the long-term for Pittsburghers? How is Move PGH influencing or informing other communities looking to expand transportation accessibility?

“We're hoping this program can reduce any physical or mental barriers for Pittsburghers who may want to transition to a less car-centric lifestyle. Beyond coordinating the available services both digitally and physically, we hope this program creates a simplified one-stop-shop for shared mobility, complete with information and enticing benefits. We hope this model helps other communities simplify and organize their own transportation paradigm, customized to their own unique opportunities and challenges.”

SMART Grants Notice Of Funding Opportunity

The Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) Notice of Funding Opportunity is published. The scope of the SMART Grants Program is to carry out demonstration projects centered on advanced smart city or community technologies and systems in a variety of communities to improve transportation efficiency and safety.

The SMART Grants Program is structured in two stages: Stage 1 focuses on Planning and Prototyping Grants and Stage 2 on Implementation Grants. USDOT expects that only recipients of Stage 1 Grants will be eligible for Stage 2. Funds for the fiscal year 2022 SMART Grants Program are to be awarded on a competitive basis and applications must be submitted by 5:00 PM EST on Friday, November 18, 2022.

President Biden on Rebuilding American Manufacturing Through the CHIPS and Science Act

President Biden was at the Intel Groundbreaking Site in New Albany, Ohio in September, and made remarks about how American manufacturing will be rebuilt through the CHIPS and Science Act. A law that is more about building chips and ensuring thousands of new construction and high-paying jobs. The president mentioned how decades ago, the United States of America used to invest 2 percent of its gross domestic product in research and development which made America rank number one in the world in research and development (currently America ranks number nine), the CHIPS act authorizes funding to boost research and development investment back closer to 1 percent of America’s GDP and with this pursues to make America the lead in the world in the industries of the future, from quantum computing, to artificial intelligence, to advanced biotechnology.