Google ends plans for smart city in Toronto
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Re: Google ends plans for smart city in Toronto
#2And collectively, Torontonians breath a sigh relief
Re: Google ends plans for smart city in Toronto
#3‘I’ve met thousands of Torontonians from all over the city, excited by the possibility of making urban life better for everyone.’
This is simply not true, in my experience as a Torontonian. The overall opinion of this project was incredibly low, from at least dozens of people it’s come up with - at work, at events, with friends - if anything, there’ll be a lot of people happy to hear this. There were even questions as to why our tax dollars would even support this when we’ve got issues like homelessness, etc. As Forbes said, it was ‘tech for tech’s sake’.
Forbes: ‘In June of 2019, Sidewalk’s master plan was released, eliciting a barrage of controversy around privacy and participation.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association initiated a lawsuit against local, provincial and federal government over data privacy concerns. Vice called the proposal a “democracy grenade“.‘
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ellistalton/2019/09/26/why-side...
Edit: I’m shocked at the number of downvotes for similar comments - I guess backing up your points counts. If you don’t think this closure is good for Toronto, especially if you live here, I’d like to know why.
Re: Google ends plans for smart city in Toronto
#4This is great news. As a Torontonian I found their plan to be nothing more than a money grab on public space and the public in general. They also massively overreached in all their applications to the city.
Re: Google ends plans for smart city in Toronto
#5This is great news. As a Torontonian I found their plan to be nothing more than a money grab on public space and the public in general. They also massively overreached in all their applications to the city.
Just a big tech company hyping up a project they were never really up to. Hopefully the city didn't spend a fortune on this. The fizzling out will come to no one's surprise.
Re: Google ends plans for smart city in Toronto
#6$50M and two years later - where are the conclusions? The results? A blog post of what happened? Two years seems like enough time to say we tried some amazing things and this is how it did or did not work.
Re: Google ends plans for smart city in Toronto
#7‘I’ve met thousands of Torontonians from all over the city, excited by the possibility of making urban life better for everyone.’ This is simply not true, in my experience as a Torontonian. The overall opinion of this project was incredibly low, from at least dozens of people it’s come up with - at work, at events, with friends - if anything, there’ll be a lot of people happy to hear this. There were even questions a…
Couldn't agree more as a Torontonian. It didn't help that they conducted most of the discussions in bad faith with the whole "trust us with your data" approach when these were geniune concerns due to the amount of oversight and control they were provided.
Re: Google ends plans for smart city in Toronto
#8I know the average Torontonian wasn't into this, but I live nearby and was really excited about what it could have been, even though it was fraught with missteps.
This area is a concrete wasteland–just car-parks and abandoned lots–that's now going to be portioned off to more giant, glass condo buildings, and while Sidewalk's proposal had problems, it was focused on building something very different, community-oriented, without prioritizing roads.
Sidewalk really pushed the technology angle way too hard, and it was a clear overstep– most of it wasn't necessary for any sort of quality of life improvements, but many of the ideas like wooden 'skyscrapers' and de-prioritizing roads were exciting, now lost.
Re: Google ends plans for smart city in Toronto
#9Sidewalk labs has a LOT of good ideas but, even putting aside privacy concerns related to Google ownership, the simple fact is that these good ideas are nearly intractable even when planned by trusted organizations with the best of intentions. Western cities just don't move very fast nowadays, for better and for worse.
Maybe this would work better in a country where cities develop faster and with less protest from citizens, but a lot of sidewalk labs best ideas boil down to "more affordable housing and less cars" which are mainly Western problems that derive from a lack of good urban development in the first place.
Re: Google ends plans for smart city in Toronto
#10‘I’ve met thousands of Torontonians from all over the city, excited by the possibility of making urban life better for everyone.’ This is simply not true, in my experience as a Torontonian. The overall opinion of this project was incredibly low, from at least dozens of people it’s come up with - at work, at events, with friends - if anything, there’ll be a lot of people happy to hear this. There were even questions a…
I think lots of people were interested in the idea of such a project.
I don't know anyone with real experience in development, city planning, etc. who took it seriously though as anything other than a source of a few ideas. None of them thought google had the skills, experience, or even commitment to do the project - probably correctly.