The US is entering a new wave of police reform intended to shape a police department that is responsible to the community it serves. But this in not the first time in America that municipal policing has undergone reform. Understanding the reasons for prior reforms and what went wrong, may help the country to get… 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
Cow Poop Gets Monetized
The “Green New Deal” proposed by Congresswoman Andrea Ocasio-Cortez, included methane gas expelled by cows as one of the potential contributors to climate change. But capitalists have a plan for solving this. An energy utility company, Dominion Energy Inc., has entered into a $200 million agreement with a renewable energy producer, Vanguard Renewables, of Wellesley,… Read More
What to the Slave is the 4th of July?
In theory, one of the greatest assets of the United States of America is the freedom, under the rule of law, provided to its citizens. But when asked to speak on the 4th of July, the celebration of our country’s Declaration of Independence”, famous orator, statesman and former slave Frederick Douglass delivered a speech, on… Read More
FIVE US Cities Could Run Out of Water
Cape Town, South Africa came close, saved by a rainfall, from running out of water in early 2018. Climate change brings water shortages to many areas in the Middle East and Africa. America is not immune from water shortages. Polluted water strikes closer to home with Flint, Michigan as an example. In America population growth… 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
Court Says Citizens Can Sue Feds for Clean Water
A federal judge ruled on Friday (April 19, 2019) that residents of Flint, Michigan, can move forward with a lawsuit against the federal government regarding the city’s lack of clean drinking water. The government is not immune from legal action, ruled Judge Linda Parker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. … Read More
Arlington Continues Master Plan Discussions
The citizens of Arlington engaged in an active and well publicized discussion about all the elements of a proposed new town Master Plan. These discussions took place in well attended public meetings held, primarily, at the Senior Center/ Central School’s main public meeting space. They were held in a series of meetings, each meeting considering… Read More
ClimateNet Offers Hope for Managing Climate Change Future
Massive computing power using mammoth databases combines with cutting edge approaches born from Artificial Intelligence (AI) research. In the capable hands of a team of scientists and mathematicians at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories, new approaches to forecasting and managing climate change and major weather events are in development. The ClimateNet project will bring the power of… Read More
Russia Revitalizes Urban Spaces
from Charlemagne: What a campaign to revive Russia’s urban spaces means for civil society, Economist, 8-11-18 SOVIET SQUARE in Voronezh no longer looks especially Soviet. Children dart through a dancing fountain. BMX bikers barrel across new tiles. Grassy groves play home to picnicking teens. “It’s practically Spain,” gushes a pensioner. The newly reconstructed square is one… Read More
San Francisco’s New Mayor
London Breed is set to become San Francisco’s first black female mayor. Breed now joins the ranks of the mayors of 15 largest cities in the United States; she’s the only woman currently in that group, and the fourth person of color. If you expand the selection to the top 20 cities, she’s got some company:… 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
Plan It and They Will Build
Urban planners can take a page from the “Field of Dreams” movie’s playbook. In the movie, Kevin Costner built a baseball diamond in a cornfield and his dreams came true. Planners around the world are finding that this technique can work for reshaping cities, too. In the old days of “master planning” lots of night… Read More