These books on “Saving Democracy… One Day At A Time” help explain how we got into this ferocious division in the United States. Some of them suggest how to get beyond it. All of them suggest how vitally important it is that we do.
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Smart Cities Projects Launch
The Smart Cities Council has the following annual program rewarding cities that offer winning proposals for “smart city” improvements. The finalist projects, listed below, offer suggestions for possible “smart cities” technology improvements to local governments everywhere. Read More
Cities, MIT Test Corona Virus Tracking App
Municipal governments find themselves on the front line managing the space between policies protecting citizens’ health and policies generated at the state and federal level to promote often conflicting responses to the corona virus. Some municipalities are participating in an MIT led test to track the virus. This leadership role for municipalities is leading to… Read More
For Better or Worse, Algorithms Help Control Local Communities
Written by Beryl Lipton What is the chance you, or your neighbor, will commit a crime? Should the government change a child’s bus route? Add more police to a neighborhood or take some away? Governing bodies throughout the United States are turning to automated decision making systems in an attempt to make their operations more efficient,… Read More
What SMART Stuff Are Cities Buying Now?
The concept of “Smart Cities” has crossed the threshold of most US City and Town Halls. But there are many different interpretations of what “SMART” might mean. And there are more criteria for what is urgent, affordable and practical. For those municipalities who may be wondering what others are investing in, Nick Schiffler has put… Read More
Pittsburgh: Built on Public-Private Partnerships
In 1994 when Tom Murphy became Mayor of Pittsburgh the city had been in decline for 50 years. He looked at his assets: 300,000 residents (half of what it had been), thousands of acres of empty or underutilized land, a significantly below average cost of living index, Carnegie Mellon University, an entrepreneurial culture, a tradition… Read More
Elon Musk and the Boring Company
UPDATE (7/12/17): Elon Musk makes transportation news again. (Note: We don’t count Tesla under transportation. It is a demonstration of battery power for the future.) The Hyperloop lets us imagine true long distance rapid transit, moving sci fi to reality, letting us speed across the planet’s surface. According to a June 27 article by Nick Statt,… Read More
Procurement: Boston Story
Laura Melle, on the City of Boston Office of Technology team, was assigned to support the evolving departmental procurement process, provided the background information for this story. The Office of Technology “inbeds” data oriented staff in key line departments to build support for and overcome the challenges to bringing these departments into “smart cities” status.… Read More
Procurement: Town of Arlington MA Story
Arlington is a “town” in the New England parlance of local government. It has a Board of Selectmen instead of a city council and its chief legislative body, Town Meeting meets several days each spring, to address major town issues, warrants and to pass the town budget. The Town meeting opens each season with… Read More
Procurement: Kansas City MO Story
Kathy Garman and Cedric Rowan, KCMO employees working with procurement issues (11/15), provided most of the information and insights into new ways Kansas City is acquiring technology to enable it to develop into a leading 21st century smart city. City policy in Kansas City MO is very sensitive to the “digital divide” issue. The city… Read More
Procurement: Philadelphia PA Story
Nick Susi, provided the background information for this story. Nick previously worked in the Philadelphia Office of Information and Technology (OIT) and now works in the Procurement Dept., bringing with him to procurement a greater than usual appreciation for the complexities of buying 21st century ICT and digitally enhanced hardware and infrastructure using the traditional… Read More
Procurement: City’s Pre-Procurement Pathway
(Part of a series of articles prepared by Barbara Thornton for the Smart Cities Council. The articles are intended to provide an overview to city, private, nonprofit and community based stakeholders who hope to move city operations into the 21st century but run into 19th and early 20th century procurement processes. These are the processes… Read More
Map of Recent Urbanization Change in Europe
This new map was created by Germany’s BBSR, the country’s Federal Institute for Research onBuilding, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development. It is the first ever to collect data published by all of Europe’s municipalities. The BBSR collected data between 2001 and 2011. While that might sound slightly outdated, these are actually the most up-to-date figures Europe has… Read More
San Jose’s City Vision: Smartest City in US by 2020
According to Toronto Mayor John Tory, “more than half of the USA’s famous Unicorn companies (companies valued at over $1Billion) have been created by immigrants.” At a recent City Age conference in San Francisco, Tory described his effort to replicate that success by mixing immigrants in Canada and a strong urban corridor that explicitly supported… Read More
Tax Payer Money Helps Citizen Engagement Software Evolve Faster
If Boss Tweed could see us now! City living isn’t what it used to be thanks to new software in cities that is built to inform, engage and satisfy citizens. An explosion of new software for use by cities and by citizens will, where the software is used, eventually improve the efficiency of services and… Read More
Most City Officials Believe In But Don’t Understand Transformational Concept of ‘SMART CITY’
More than 90 percent of recently surveyed government and municipal respondents said they view smart city initiatives as transformational with the potential for long-term positive impacts on cities globally. Yet, more than half of respondents say their organization does not really understand the smart city concept. What makes a smart city, how are they planned,… Read More
Europe Moves Forward On Software Platform Idea To Make Cities Smart
Asset Stewardship has long advocated a basic “platform” approach for municipalities entering the digital age. A platform or framework approach allows data to be gathered across departments to do predictive analysis for the city’s needs and to work more effectively on behalf of the citizens shared by multiple city departments. According to a recent article… Read More
Needed: An “Academy Awards” for Cities
America needs a National Urban Policy Summit. Kevyn Orr is an inspiring fellow. And, as the Emergency Manager for the City of Detroit, overseeing the city’s bankruptcy process, he knows a thing or two about cities. In a recent forum at Harvard University, he suggested the country is way overdue for a close look at what… Read More
Data Privacy, Cybersecurity: What Do People Want From Government?
“The data collected, saved, utilized, and disseminated from public institutions is an essential part of government’s backbone. But at the same time, the government must be good stewards of the data. It’s government’s job to secure constituents’ data.” (from an article by Mariah Bastin, GovLoop, November 12, 2015) “But with great data collection comes even greater responsibility.… Read More
2015 Digital Cities: Winners Experiment with Forward-Thinking Tech Projects
“The 2015 Digital Cities Survey results are in. Dozens of cities were selected by a judging panel at the Center for Digital Government as the most strategic, efficient and innovative guardians of public-sector tech in the nation. The top-ranked cities will received an award in recognition of their achievements on Nov. 5 at the annual National… Read More