Smarter Cities

"I don’t like New York. I just think it’s the best place for my business."

Tue, 29 May 2012 08:49:20 -0400

“I don’t like New York. I just think it’s the best place for my business.”

- Josh Miller, describing why he moved Branch to NYC after a brief time in San Francisco, cited by Joshua Brustein, in For Tech Start-Ups, New York Has Increasing Allure via NYTimes.com

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Cities | Sustainable Cities...

Fri, 25 May 2012 16:29:31 -0400

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Cities | Sustainable Cities Collective

Be Proactive. There’s much any city can do today. Even without sufficient budget or authorization from ‘senior levels’ of government, every city has a full menu of things that can be carried out immediately, generating positive momentum and goodwill. Business rewards the active entrepreneur, and the public desperately wants active cities. The rewards are great.
Plan – Plan Right. All cities carry out master plans for their key services, long-term infrastructure needs, and land use planning. Before starting these plans, the end needs to be clear. They are guidance documents, aspirational, and ways to rally supporters and give fair hearing to opponents. But a plan, no matter how good, can never be seen as a finished product. Before starting the plan an agreement is needed that the city is moving forward on this issue: the plan is the vehicle to bring along as many supporters as possible and identify potential potholes and trouble en route. Like a city, good plans are living documents.
Put First Things First. How many cities have we visited where they are building a new grand City Hall, yet much of the garbage still isn’t being collected or the water isn’t flowing? A city’s priorities should be basic services, professionalism and quality of staff, clear metrics, a reliable ongoing base budget, and nurturing a respectful two-way conversation with its residents. All great buildings need a solid foundation.

"New data highlight that bicyclists in the United States save at least $4.6 billion a year by riding..."

Wed, 23 May 2012 16:07:57 -0400

“

New data highlight that bicyclists in the United States save at least $4.6 billion a year by riding instead of driving…

The average annual operating cost of a bicycle is $308, compared to $8,220 for the average car, and if American drivers replaced just one four-mile car trip with a bike each week for the entire year, it would save more than two billion gallons of gas, for a total savings of $7.3 billion a year, based on $4 a gallon for gas.

”

-

A quote from the Forbes article, ‘Pedaling to Prosperity: Biking Saves U.S. Riders Billions A Year’.

Related:

~ Bicycling Magazine’s new ranking of ‘America’s Top 50 Bike-Friendly Cities’.

(Photo credit: Bicycling Magazine)

good: Fold My Ride: The Bike That Could Change Transit Folding...

Wed, 23 May 2012 14:41:22 -0400

good:

Fold My Ride: The Bike That Could Change Transit

Folding bikes are the black sheep of the bike community, neither respected by hard-core cyclists nor frequently used by the average citizen. But a new global company called Tern Bikes is out to change that perception—and, in the process, change transit.

Read this story (and this week’s Bike Nation series)

thenextweb: To celebrate its 6th global event this September,...

Tue, 15 May 2012 09:04:53 -0400

thenextweb:

To celebrate its 6th global event this September, Crowdcentric, the company behind the event, unveiled the Instagram Your City contest, which began on May 1st and runs until June 29th at 11:59pm ET. The contest calls upon citizens of Social Media Week’s 14 hubs – London, Glasgow, Torino, Barcelona, Berlin, Doha, Jeddah, Hong Kong, Seoul, São Paulo, Bogotá, Chicago, Los Angeles and Vancouver — to photograph their cities, and show off each town’s natural and filtered charm. (via Social Media Week Launches its Photo Contest: Instagram Your City)

Hong Kong by @sambhojwani

CITY BREATHS: The Science of Cities: Today's Urbanists are the Wright Brothers

Mon, 14 May 2012 13:24:17 -0400

CITY BREATHS: The Science of Cities: Today's Urbanists are the Wright Brothers:

citybreaths:

Geoffrey West, educating us about how cities work.

According to Geoffrey West, distinguished professor at Santa Fe Institute, we need to develop a “science of cities”. West compares contemporary urbanists to the Wright brothers, who are credited with inventing and building the world’s…

Cape Town Without The Freeways | Sustainable Cities...

Tue, 08 May 2012 11:23:43 -0400

Cape Town Without The Freeways | Sustainable Cities Collective

Cape Town’s Foreshore freeway strangles the city and cuts it (and its people) off from the Port and water’s edge. With a comparison to San Francisco’s Embarcadero, Gareth Pearsonquestions what would happen if we did away with the Foreshore section of Nelson Mandela Boulevard altogether.

When Capetonians talk about the freeway along the Foreshore, there’s a good chance it involves a joke about the mysterious unfinished sections. It’s not the unfinished sections that I care about, it’s the entire thing.

The footprint of the freeway as well as the land in between each section is wasted, restricting the development of this lifeless area of the city. There have been a number of interventions proposed, as mentioned some time back in a post by Andrew Boraine. More recently, the City of Cape Town, is proposing a 3 storey parking building to sit between the freeways, to support a new tower, as part of the Convention Centre expansion.

There is often talk of sinking the freeway below ground, a monstrous project not disimilar to Boston’s Big Dig. Sure, this is an option, as with any project it has its advantages and disadvantages. But what if the freeway was removed entirely? What if it was replaced with a tree-lined boulevard that accommodates public transport, bicycling, and walking?

Why Has New York Become a Paradise for Tech Startups?

Sat, 05 May 2012 09:08:11 -0400

Why Has New York Become a Paradise for Tech Startups?

Christopher Butler: Networked Cities and Crumbling Infrastructure

Wed, 02 May 2012 09:01:28 -0400

Christopher Butler: Networked Cities and Crumbling Infrastructure:

chrbutler:

I’ve been following the ongoing conversation around the internet of things and the networked city and have enjoyed it very much.

(To follow along, check out—in no particular order—Really Interesting Group, mammoth, City of Sound, frog, The Infrastructurist, Berg, Dentsu, …

laughingsquid: TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2012, A Technology...

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 14:39:26 -0400

laughingsquid:

TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2012, A Technology Conference & Hackathon

Who Can Solve London's Great Challenges? | Planetizen

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 11:54:45 -0400

Who Can Solve London's Great Challenges? | Planetizen:

Against the backdrop of a made-for-tv mayoral election, Richard Florida looks at the litany of issues afflicting London as the city struggles with the deepest challenges it has faced since the Great Depression and post-war years.

As Ken Livingstone, the former mayor and “fiery socialist with a penchant for dropping explosive sound bites”, faces off against Boris Johnson, “the tousled-haired, bike-riding conservative incumbent”, in an election run-up resembling “a reality TV show,” the reality of the pressing challenges facing the city could make for some rather dramatic television themselves.

“The city has been buffeted by the financial crisis, suffering more severe blows than most cities, from which it is still suffering.” With the city’s economic, media, and entertainment power weakening, and forecasted to decline further, “the next mayor will have to spearhead a plan to stave off growing competition from a host of global cities.”

Florida describes a laundry list of additional challenges that the city’s next mayor will have to address: from bolstering its high-tech economy to better connecting its educational institutions to the private sector and bridging the growing class divide.

“Whether Boris or Ken, London’s next mayor is going to have to thread this needle — to make the city even more attractive to global talent and business while at the same time improving its livability and affordability for ordinary people. It’s a daunting challenge — one that the city’s future prosperity turns on.”

Full Story: London’s Next Top Mayor

New York Turns to Wikis to Encourage Transparency, Engagement –...

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 09:06:30 -0400

New York Turns to Wikis to Encourage Transparency, Engagement – Next American City

Credit: Flickr user justgrimes

VIA THE NEW YORK WORLD

Last Tuesday, New York City took a double leap into the future of open government. TheDepartment of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) released preliminary policies, technical standards and guidelines under the new Local Law 11, which requires city agencies to publish all public data in one online portal in a machine-readable format.

And it did so in the form of a wiki, an interactive document that enables any registered user to add to or amend the draft policies, so the public and city agencies can literally write in their own version of what they think the new rules should be. All revisions are saved under a page’s “history” tab so changes are recorded.

Think of it as Wikipedia for government. As far as anyone can recall, the wiki is the first of its kind for a city administration.

The wiki format, said, DoITT’s director of research and development Andrew Nicklin, “is an attempt to drive things in an interactive and iterative manner. Why pass a Word doc around when we can all make changes collaboratively?” The process also lets the agencies that will be answerable to the new law be a part of the conversation, he said.

The wiki will be open for comments for the next couple of months, at which point DoITT staff will compile the input, review it internally and issue final data standards in September.

landscapearchitecture: The Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI)...

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 08:56:06 -0400

landscapearchitecture:

The Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) brings together artists, architects, scientists, landscape architects, engineers, and others in a first of its kind collaboration (via New York’s Land Art Generator competition funds Public Artworks that produce renewable energy « Artabase Editorial)

humanscalecities: Urban growth, Nevada (1984-2007)

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 10:38:00 -0400

humanscalecities:

Urban growth, Nevada (1984-2007)

Children who live in walkable areas, with a child-friendly park...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 10:09:36 -0400

Children who live in walkable areas, with a child-friendly park nearby and access to healthy food have 59% lower odds of being obese. More on This Big City.

兒童若居住在適合步行的環境，住家附近又有兒童公園，亦有商家販售健康食品，肥胖機率會下降59%。更多內容請見《城事》。

thisbigcity:

“Why the Federal Government Should Give More Power to...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 10:06:28 -0400

“Why the Federal Government Should Give More Power to Mayors

Sarah Goodyear. April 18. 2012

“We’re being strangled by the lack of action at the federal level. That’s why mayors are where the action is.”

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed uttered these words during a panel discussion titled “Cities 2012: Are Cities the New Global Building Blocks?” at the New York Ideas forum Tuesday, co-presented by The Atlantic, the Aspen Institute, and the New-York Historical Society.

Reed and his fellow panelists, Houston Mayor Annise Parker and New York Deputy Mayor Robert Steel, talked a lot aboutthe new report from the McKinsey Global Institute, which shows that 259 of the largest cities in the United States are responsible for 10 percent of global GDP. That economic significance, they argued, means that American cities merit way more clout than they get in the current political environment.

The mayors talked about the multitude of challenges facing American cities today – unemployment, pension and health care costs, outdated infrastructure, education, social inequity. All three emphasized that municipal government is more accountable, more innovative, and more responsive than federal government.

“I hope for the good of the country, cities continue to lead on these issues,” said Reed, whose hard-nosed pension reform deal attracted national attention last year. “Because if we wait for the federal government to move on issues like immigration and real job creation, then I think we’re going to be waiting for some time.”

Reed pointed out that a huge proportion of the nation’s GDP is generated in cities, but that mayors still have a hard time getting the feds to pump money back into them. “If you look at the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, less than 10 percent of those dollars went into cities, where 80 percent of GDP occurs,” he said. “We’re going to have to shift national politics, and we’re going to have to shift state politics. Governors have a better lobby than mayors do. That’s why they got 90 percent of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, when that money should have gone to cities. Because we deploy it faster, we’re more creative, and we’re more representative of the majority of the United States of America.”

Via: The Atlantic Cities

Photo: Elena Olivo

via massurban:

Last night, Mayor Bloomberg announced the winners of NYC BigApps...

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 11:01:36 -0400

Last night, Mayor Bloomberg announced the winners of NYC BigApps 3.0, the third annual competition for software developers and members of the public to create web or mobile applications using official City data. A total of 11 winning applications were selected from a record 96 eligible applications that were submitted for this year’s contest. The NYC BigApps 3.0 winners are:

Best Overall Application

Grand Prize: NYCFacets - seeks to streamline and simplify the process for accessing, understanding, and utilizing the tremendous amount of data available in City’s NYC Open Data site.
Second Prize: Work+ - helps New Yorkers who traditionally work from home find nearby locations to work in their communities.

Popular Choice Award

Grand Prize: New York Trip Builder - a travel site that helps users personalize a trip in just a few quick steps.
Second Prize: Scene Near Me - provides alerts when users are near legendary New York City movie scenes.

Investor’s Choice Award

The Funday Genie - an application designed to help users plan a free day in New York City.

Best Mobility App

Embark NYC - an application designed to make taking the subway simple.

Best Green App

596 Acres - a public education project aimed at making communities in Brooklyn aware of the land resources around them.

Best Education App

Sage: Pre-K and Elementary Schools Search - a mobile application that enables parents to search by location for nearby NYC public Pre-K and elementary schools.

Best Health & Safety App

TestFlip.com Personal Safety App (Lite) for NYC - a personal emergency web mobile application which helps alert the nearest Police Precinct, provides a custom emergency phone number by SMS or provides a pre-scripted voice message or a custom email by simply pressing one Emergency Button.

Best NYC Mashup

Work+

Best Student Award

ParkAlly - an application which simplifies the search for available parking spots and eliminates the inconveniences associated with parking in heavily populated areas.

City Talent Award

Uhpartments - provides building maintenance reports for those users seeking apartments.

First launched in 2009 as part of the City’s ongoing efforts to increase transparency in government, as well as to improve the quality of life for New Yorkers and visitors, BigApps has grown each year and this year included more than 230 new datasets from more than 60 City agencies, commissions, and Business Improvement Districts, for a total of nearly 750 available data sets for developers.

Check out all the winning apps and read much more in the official press release. Congratulations to all who participated in this year’s competition!

via nycedc:

New research quantifies the economic benefits of urban trees:

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:59:32 -0400

New research quantifies the economic benefits of urban trees: :

“Every tree in urban Tennessee provides an estimated $2.25 worth of measurable economic benefits every year. Might not seem like a lot, but with 284 million urban trees in the state, the payoff’s pretty big.

Through energy savings, air and water filtering and carbon storage, the urban trees of Tennessee account for more than $638 million in benefits, according to a report [PDF] conducted by the Forest Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and released earlier this year.”

The Atlantic

via climateadaptation:

The Top Three Reasons Rio+20 Will Change the World

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 11:23:49 -0400

The Top Three Reasons Rio+20 Will Change the World

Walkable Neighborhoods

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 09:56:01 -0400

Walkable Neighborhoods:

I find that I am walking more and hardly ever driving — except for a weekly shopping trip, or buying lumber. But it’s not just about decreasing gas use: walking is good for us, healthwise, and at a neighborhood level, financially.

A Data-Driven Case for Walkability - Kaid Benfeild via The…

via underpaidgenius: