Smart cities stall on who owns the data and who walks the street
Hook
Alphabet cancelled its Toronto smart city in 2020 after years of fights over who owns the data. Songdo in South Korea has no garbage trucks, and critics say it has too many cars.
Claim
Smart-city projects stall on governance questions before technology ones, especially who owns the data. A city designed from above for smart sensors can still fail the human test.
Story
Toronto: Alphabet announced on 7 May 2020 that Sidewalk Labs was cancelling its Quayside project, citing pandemic uncertainty, after privacy criticism. The site was 4.9 hectares, with 500 to 800 affordable rental units required and 50 million dollars of Sidewalk Labs money committed. More than 21,000 residents were consulted for the 2019 plan, with 160 innovation proposals, 144 of which Waterfront Toronto endorsed. In October 2018 Sidewalk offered to give up data ownership and propose a civic data trust; by November 2019 authority moved to Waterfront Toronto. Open-government advocate Bianca Wylie argues the model lets corporations shape democratic governance, and that vendor lock-in makes government contracts valuable. Songdo, near Seoul: construction began in 2003, about 86 percent complete with completion expected in 2030, 167,346 residents in 2020, 106 LEED-certified buildings and a pneumatic waste system with no street bins and no garbage trucks. Critics call it car-centric and poorly walkable.
Sources
- Sidewalk Toronto, Wikipedia (7 May 2020 cancellation, 4.9 ha, $50m, 21,000 consulted, 160 and 144 proposals, data trust)
- Songdo International Business District, Wikipedia (2003 start, 86 percent complete, 167,346 residents in 2020, 106 LEED buildings)
Check before posting
- Toronto: the stated reason was COVID, not the data fight. It is not clear which mattered more. The page also flags a 2015 Science finding that anonymised credit-card data can be re-identified.
- Songdo: no construction cost, planned population or vacancy rate was found. Do not say “ghost city” without a vacancy number. The greenwashing source is partly a weak video.
- Needs a named person for each case (Bianca Wylie for Toronto is the only one so far).
Counterargument
Defenders of Toronto say the plan offered public benefit the city could not fund itself. Songdo is a fair counterexample to smart-city optimism, not a verdict.
Post angles
Facebook (Croatian)
- Googleov “pametni kvart” u Torontu otkazan je u svibnju 2020. Službeni razlog bio je korona, a godinama prije toga raspravljalo se o tome tko je vlasnik podataka. Kad dobavljač drži sustav, grad ga ne može lako zamijeniti.
- Songdo u Južnoj Koreji ima cijevi za otpad i 106 zgrada s LEED certifikatom, a kritičari kažu da ima previše automobila, a premalo pješaka. Pametno nije isto što i živo.
LinkedIn (English)
- Sidewalk Toronto was cancelled on 7 May 2020, officially because of COVID. The years before it were mostly a fight over who owns urban data. If exit is hard, the vendor has the power.
- Songdo: about 86% built after two decades, no garbage trucks, criticised as car-first. “Smart” described the plumbing, not the street life.
Links
- Pontevedra took cars out of its centre, kept growing, and cut fossil CO2 by 67 percent
- Ukrainian volunteers built Prozorro with 35,000 dollars from six platforms
- Governments that cannot build are often blocked by process, not money
- Technology does not share its gains automatically because power decides who benefits