As cities across the country attempt to integrate smart technology into their\u00a0infrastructure, some communities are\u00a0starting\u00a0from scratch. Developments near Toronto, Boston and Phoenix will create neighborhoods\u00a0laden with smart technology \u2014\u00a0like micro-grids for electricity and all-in-one\u00a0sensors for noise, light and air quality\u00a0\u2014\u00a0from the ground\u00a0up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the process,\u00a0local governments\u00a0are reckoning with familiar issues,\u00a0including\u00a0data collection, civic inclusion and bureaucratic hangups,\u00a0in ways that\u00a0contemporary “dumb” cities haven’t experienced. These planned developments, which typically\u00a0incorporate public-private partnerships and rely on\u00a0big\u00a0data for key decisions,\u00a0demand careful\u00a0attention on\u00a0issues that might\u00a0arise as the core technologies are\u00a0introduced to the world.<\/p>\n
In Toronto, secretive planning\u00a0agreements have cast public\u00a0doubt tied to\u00a0widespread data collection. In Boston, developers are considering the best ways to put people \u2014 not technology \u2014 first. And an ambitious, tech-heavy\u00a0community in Phoenix has experts considering what it takes to build\u00a0an entire\u00a0city,\u00a0much\u00a0less\u00a0a\u00a0smart\u00a0one,\u00a0from\u00a0scratch.\u00a0Despite such\u00a0challenges,\u00a0these municipal\u00a0Internet-of-Things laboratories of the future are moving ahead.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Toronto<\/strong><\/p>\n Sidewalk Labs, Alphabet’s<\/a> urban technology and planning company, established a partnership in October of last year<\/a> with Waterfront Toronto<\/a>, a tri-governmental public corporation charged with overseeing the revitalization of the city\u2019s eastern shore.<\/p>\n Waterfront Toronto had put out a request for proposals seven months earlier looking for an “Innovation and Funding Partner” for a 12-acre space, called Quayside, which is just a fraction of the 2,000-acre space<\/a> Waterfront Toronto has been mandated with reviving within 25 years.<\/p>\n The agreement was signed on October 16, 2017, and the deal was publicly\u00a0announced the following day. When the deal was\u00a0signed, however, Waterfront Toronto and Sidewalk Labs did not share the details\u00a0with\u00a0federal, provincial or city governments.\u00a0According to a January 2017 report<\/a> from the office of former\u00a0deputy city manager John Livey,\u00a0“the Framework Agreement between Waterfront Toronto and Sidewalk Labs was not shared with governments prior to the Sidewalk Toronto announcement.”<\/p>\n The details of the project’s\u00a0framework\u00a0are still confidential.<\/p>\n The public\u00a0has no way of knowing what the actual arrangements of the partnership are, which is a huge concern, said\u00a0City Councillor Paula Fletcher, who has not seen the framework herself. Fletcher said she is only allowed to\u00a0review the framework if\u00a0she signs\u00a0a nondisclosure agreement immediately after, which she has declined to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n An equal concern is that Sidewalk Labs \u2014 a sibling company of Google under the Alphabet Inc. umbrella \u2014 has already devoted $50 million to\u00a0the project. With that allocation, Sidewalk Labs is effectively funding a secret planning process,\u00a0and “one that has citizens unsettled with the whole affair,” Fletcher said. <\/p>\n \u201cThe question is,\u201d Fletcher said, \u201chow all the data will be collected, will be used, who will own the data, and especially after the exposure\u00a0of Cambridge Analytica and all of the data that was used in the [2016 U.S. presidential] election \u2014 people are very uncomfortable. It\u2019s all in secret and it\u2019s all about data that people realize is being traded and used in ways that they hadn\u2019t anticipated.\u201d<\/p>\n Toronto city government\u00a0says it’s aiming for\u00a0the community to be an environmentally\u00a0friendly, mixed-use, mid-density development. Sidewalk Labs will supply the tech to be included in construction from the very beginning, including autonomous vehicle-friendly roadways, affordable modular living, working and recreational spaces, robotic waste management systems and \u2014\u00a0of course \u2014\u00a0data-collecting sensors on virtually every surface.<\/p>\n Sidewalk Toronto<\/a> is located on public land, and\u00a0Torontonians have made it clear that the constant surveillance of smart sensors to be placed in Quayside should not\u00a0taken lightly.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are far fewer concerns or conversations taking place around the built-form recommendations or suggestions that were identified in the original proposal,\u201d Brail said, \u201cand the real greatest areas of concern are around data governance, data access, the data privacy piece, and highlighting flaws in our own governing systems around data strategies.\u201d<\/p>\n Following a report issued to city council in January, Doctoroff said last month that Sidewalk would destroy nonessential information collected by sensors, only retain data that would improve the quality of life for citizens and not sell data to advertisers.<\/p>\n Doctoroff’s interviews and Sidewalk’s public meetings,\u00a0though, aren’t\u00a0immediate resolutions for residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAs welcoming as Canadians are and as welcoming as Torontonians are, in order to work in Toronto and understand the complexities of our political system and planning system and our neighborhoods and communities, there really needs to be on-the-ground engagement and involvement and embeddedness,\u201d Brail said.<\/p>\n The\u00a0challenge for Sidewalk Labs, Brail said, has been finding its place within the political and social spectrum\u00a0of Toronto.<\/p>\n “We\u2019re probably behind many U.S. cities in this regard, but we have a number of strong community organizations as well as a number of civic leadership organizations and a number of non-profit organizations that have played a really tremendous role in all aspects of urban development,” Brail said.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s this civic space that they need to be able to embrace and embody more than the specific physical form.”<\/p>\n Boston<\/strong><\/p>\n The origin of Union Point, a smart community development 12 miles south of Boston, bears similarities to Quayside. LStar Ventures, the lead developer of the project, was approached in 2015 to redevelop an out-of-commission naval air station sitting on portions of land owned by Abington, Rockland\u00a0and Weymouth, three suburbs of the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kyle\u00a0Corkum, CEO of LStar Ventures, told StateScoop that he had to google the definition of \u201csmart city\u201d 18 months ago. Since then, Corkum said,\u00a0more than $200 million has been invested in the\u00a02,000-person\u00a0community’s\u00a0infrastructure \u2014 with another $100 million scheduled this year. Corkum and LStar own all of the buildings at Union Point, but\u00a0work with a planning board composed of representatives from the three towns to approve new infrastructure and technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n Most of the technology will come from General Electric, LStar’s primary partner for the project. While the space will always be a “lab environment” for new technology, Corkum said,\u00a0GE\u00a0is expected to initially\u00a0experiment with smart street\u00a0lighting, micro-grids, solar and carbon power and other sensor technologies, according to GE Power’s Strategic Growth Leader Alex Klein.\u00a0<\/p>\n Corkum, though, is adamant that the 1,550-acre property won’t implement technology for technology’s sake.\u00a0<\/p>\n “We\u2019re not trying to create a utopian city,” he said.\u00a0What we\u2019re trying to do is create something that\u2019s relevant to the people of Boston.\u00a0The goal is that we come up with a real society in a real community that governs itself and sets its own goals in the coming years. It\u2019s an organism that evolves and changes. What we specifically asked for from the towns was the freedom to let that happen.”<\/p>\n A data storage and collection plan\u00a0is still in being worked out with law firms and analysts, Corkum said. He intends all data collected by sensors to be open-sourced, or available to the public and to other companies working\u00a0in Union Point or on similar projects around the world.<\/p>\n “We’re feeling a tremendous amount of responsibility as stewards. This stopped being a real\u00a0estate deal a very long time ago. This is a mission and a purpose now,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Social missions can be as\u00a0challenging as the technology itself, though. When considering how to design\u00a0autonomous-vehicle-friendly roadways, for example,\u00a0LStar had to prioritize \u2014\u00a0should it build something recognizable to Bostonians or something optimal for machine learning software? Corkum considered building sensor-embedded streets that would immediately tie into current autonomous-vehicle\u00a0software.<\/p>\n “<\/strong>You could do that, or do you build real city streets that mimic the quirky streets we have in Boston and then look for new ideas and innovations that could work in that environment?” Corkum said.\u00a0 Residents can expect a similar approach to other quandaries that improvements in civic tech might bring.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cTechnology changes so quickly. It\u2019s not realistic to try to predetermine how everything is going to play out,” Corkum said. “What we were really dogged about was saying listen, we want to be a living laboratory for everything; social, health, creative arts, inclusivity and technology.”<\/p>\n Phoenix<\/strong><\/p>\n Union Point and Quayside, while early in their development, will undoubtedly\u00a0benefit economically from their proximity to robust, already-innovative cities.\u00a0Belmont, Arizona, an undeveloped,\u00a024,800-acre plot roughly\u00a040 miles west of Phoenix, doesn’t have that\u00a0luxury \u2014 but is still being hailed as Arizona’s best opportunity at a community constructed with “future infrastructure,”\u00a0according to\u00a0Grady Gammage, Jr.,\u00a0an Arizona-based lawyer and representative\u00a0for the development.<\/p>\n
So even though the streets would be new, they\u2019re replicating some older street patterns. We opted for the older model.”<\/p>\n