Google ends plans for smart city in Toronto

Post by matchbok » Thu, May 07, 2020, 9:11 PM UTC

sudosysgen wrote: post #83

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> construction of new condos is focused on the luxury kind Supply is supply. Harlem is largely former luxury units. Anecdotally, the luxury building opening down the street let me negotiate down my rent. It sucked the highest earners out of my building (and renter pool), which reduced my landlord's leverage. And it let me compare perks ( e.g. included gym offsetting a membership), which increased mine. End result was…

Sure, and in most cities incredible amounts of condos have been built and prices of rent for low-income individuals have increased massively. It does not work in the real world. Supply is not supply. For one, these condos being built can essentially not be rented, and that means that they are not supply for low and middle income individuals.

Post by matchbok » Thu, May 07, 2020, 9:16 PM UTC

sudosysgen wrote: post #46

cactus2093 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But... condo neighborhoods are exactly that medium density housing. Every city does need more condos in their existing neighborhoods if populations are able to grow. (Unless Covid-19 will reshape the trajectory of urbanization, and major cities will mostly shrink for the next several decades. That actually seems somewhat plausible). But writing off all the sidewalk labs ideas as gimmicky smartphone integrations is pr…

Condos are too expensive in general to fulfill the needs of most cities. In general construction of new condos is focused on the luxury kind of condos Google was undoubtedly looking at, which are absolutely not what cities need right now. We need affordable housing.

Post by andrekandre » Thu, May 07, 2020, 9:23 PM UTC

marris wrote: post #251

CPLX wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Democratically elected governments exist to make the world a better place, at least in the views of those who vote in their leaders. Businesses exist to make money. That's the distinction being drawn. Pretending there's not a fundamental distinction between the two types of entities is disingenuous.

If you start from "democratically elected governments exist to make the world a better place," then you're going to end up somewhere wrong. Even in the best of times, democratically elected governments exist to give the majority power over the minority. This is considered an improvement over other forms of government, where often a minority had power over a majority and treated them poorly. There are actually some "f…

Post by Analemma_ » Thu, May 07, 2020, 9:26 PM UTC

marris wrote: post #251

CPLX wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Democratically elected governments exist to make the world a better place, at least in the views of those who vote in their leaders. Businesses exist to make money. That's the distinction being drawn. Pretending there's not a fundamental distinction between the two types of entities is disingenuous.

If you start from "democratically elected governments exist to make the world a better place," then you're going to end up somewhere wrong. Even in the best of times, democratically elected governments exist to give the majority power over the minority. This is considered an improvement over other forms of government, where often a minority had power over a majority and treated them poorly. There are actually some "f…

Post by kinkrtyavimoodh » Thu, May 07, 2020, 9:27 PM UTC

nostromo wrote: post #168

drusepth wrote: post #118

I know there's gonna be a lot of people here that are happy about this for various reasons (anti-Google, anti-"smart cities", etc), but this is really disappointing for me. It's true that the concept of "cities" (or even just "gatherings of people") predates the Internet by thousands of years, and that cities themselves haven't adapted much to the Internet and what it enables in the 40ish years it's been around. This…

> got shut down by the locals That's not what happened though. Google was free to continue the project but decided not too, using Covid-19 as a fig leaf. I agree with the thrust of your comment (we need more experimentation with cities, not less) but this is Google doing what Google does: changing it's mind and abandoning projects.