Planning By Whose Design – Data or People or Both?
Get ready for this. Tech companies are vying to build cities.
As described in CityLab’s, article’s, When a Tech Giant Plays Waterfront Developer and Alphabet Announces Plan to Turn Toronto Neighborhood Into a Living Laboratory, Google’s …”Sidewalk Labs” is working with Waterfront Toronto (land owners), and have partnered with government officials and developers in Canada, to build on, to start, 12 of 750/800 acres of Toronto’s waterfront. It will sustain and transfer digital data and surveillance power to build futuristic technological communities.
The concern here and in general is that data rich platforms may dictate outcomes, not the people it is meant to serve. The continuous, delicate, high integration of data and people is what’s at risk.
Developing “Quayside,” the new digital technology community, is feared, as stated in The Conversation’s article, “The Controversy over Google’s Futuristic Plans for Toronto” it would compromise the Jane Jacob’s era, kind of citizen’s based informed city planning (see YouTube’s trailer for the movie Citizen Jane: Battle for the City – Official Trailer) in Canada, and the U.S., (see The Guardians: “How Jane Jacobs Changed the Way We Look at Cities), that has been at work for years (see full info. about the film, information regarding Jacob’s book “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” and direct access to the documentary from AltimeterFilms). This as written in The Conversation’s article is the same type of development that has affected Southeast Asia, and London including Canary Wharf, London Docklands.
As per CityLab’s article, Sidewalk Labs and partnerships are “Finding innovative ways to create affordable housing, improve transportation, and live in harmony with the environment were among the other goals articulated by the project’s representatives.” Also noted is there is a plan for Sidewalk Labs to speak with officials, residents and businesses. Time again to check on the future to know what to work on now… 🙂