(Part of a series of articles prepared by Barbara Thornton for the Smart Cities Council. Â 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. Â 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. Â In the movie, Kevin Costner built a baseball diamond in a cornfield and his dreams came true. Â 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
Oregon Mayor Speaks on Trump, Cities, Climate Change
(from article by Carey L. Biron) WASHINGTON — Donald Drumpf’s surprise victory in the U. S. presidential election this week scrambled domestic and international calculations, with particularly notable questions looming about the potential impact on global action around climate change. The news broke just as the international community is gathering to discuss global warming for the… Read More
Planning for Open Space in an Urbanizing World
Cities around the world are exploding with new inhabitants and newly built structures. The world population is growing at about 750 million people per decade.  That is the equivalent of adding 88 new New York Citys in 10 years. By far the fastest growth, 80% of the growth, is happening on the edges of current… Read More
Sachs Defines Essential Infrastructure “Long Game”
Jeffrey Sachs recommends:  Rather than trying to deploy construction workers within the next 60 days, I propose that we envision the kind of built environment we want for the next 60 years. With a shared vision of America’s infrastructure goals, actually designing and building the new transport, energy, communications, and water systems will surely require… 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 While that might sound slightly outdated, these are actually the most up-to-date figures Europe has… Read More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.â€Â 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
California High Speed Rail Moves Forward
Lucky California! They get the High Speed Rail AND the Hyperloop “bullet train†too! …. or not. As Jeff Morales, CEO, California High Speed Rail Authority, recently said at the CityAge SF conference, “$3 billion in investment so far and people still deny it is happening!”  He’s referring to the construction on the initial section… 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
Flint Not Alone In “Municipal Trifecta of Doom”
Flint Michigan’s water problem will be repeated around the country. Race may be an issue. Low income residents are definitely an issue. But the cause is the “municipal trifecta of doomâ€: aging infrastructure, declining revenue base and higher costs for municipal bonds. “About two thirds of all infrastructure in the United States is financed by… 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. Â 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. Â 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
Creating a Facilities Maintenance Department: Arlington Case Study
In Spring 2015, Arlington’s legislative body voted to approve the establishment of a new department to oversee Facilities Maintenance. Â Ruth Bennett, Architect, was hired in August, 2015 to head the new department. Â The process of establishing the department was the result of recommendations from the Capital Planning Committee to the Board of Selectman who established… Read More
Antiquated Procurement Process Blocks Cities from Digital Age
From the perspective of a city trying to move operations into the digital age, software often seems overpriced, inflexible, and more complicated than flying a jet, with no clear measurable return on investment either in cost savings or improved service delivery. Â From the perspective of the software provider who is big enough and smart enough… Read More
Drinking Water Infrastructure Choice: Infrastructure and Policy vs Mad Max
Hundreds of millions of people around the world depend on polluted water sources for their daily drinking water. Over half of the planet’s population lives in cities. Large cities, alone, represent  $21.8 trillion (US$) in economic activity, or 48 percent of global GDP *.  As the population in cities continues to grow, without… Read More
Infrastructure: John Oliver Explains it All (HBO)
So you don’t think infrastructure can be fun? Watch comedian John Oliver explain its intricate, critically important, hilarious fascinations in this video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpzvaqypav8 Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Infrastructure (HBO) Infrastructure investment will save lives. Also, from: Â CEO FORUM GROUP: “Infrastructure refers to the large-scale public systems, services, and facilities of a country… Read More
Global City Challenge 2016 Registration
Initial teambuilding workshops for the next round of the Global City Teams Challenge (GCTC) will take place November 12-13, 2015, at NIST’s Gaithersburg, Md., campus. Registration for the workshop is open. Please use this link to register:http://www.nist.gov/cps/global-cities-team-challenge-2015.cfm. An agenda and additional materials related to the November teambuilding workshop are forthcoming. The U.S. Department of Commerce’s… Read More