Data is the new oil of the 21st century. COVID-19 is providing the opportunity for city CIOs to implement massive new data collection and analysis systems at a time when other initiatives have no funding or support. Technocrats remain in control of the entire narrative.
Like a skilled magician who gets you to look at his right hand while the left hand is performing the “trick”, New York state is rolling out 500,000 smart streetlights that hook up to the Internet of Things (IoT).
Plagued with problems from the start, Sidewalk Labs has abandoned Quayside and Toronto but is not giving up on ‘reimagining cities’. Former CEO Eric Schmidt, has just been tapped by New York City to reimagine its future existence.
The Internet of Things, AI, machine learning and other Smart City Technology is proposed to be the catch-all solution for ‘winning the war’ against COVID-19. Likened to Superman, this article states, “This sounds like a job for data visualization and smart city tech.”
One man’s deadly virus is another man’s sledge hammer to drive smart city policies, including booting cars out of city centers to make way for foot traffic, scooters and public transit. Demand for this is falsely attributed to local urbanites rather than green urban planners.
Arizona State University is not a state agency nor a representative of surrounding cities, but it is instrumental in creating a regional scheme to force smart city tech on 4.2 million people and 22 cities in Arizona.
National and global buzz is increasing over the Smart Region concept dreamed up by Arizona State University where smart city technology will bypass individual cities by imposing regional policies directly.Â
Private Cities are the beginning of neo-Feudalism where citizens exist for the pleasure and convenience of the land barons. If the ‘owners’ don’t like you, you can be summarily expelled with no recourse.
The former Governor of Maryland and Mayor of Baltimore believes that Smart City technology is the wave of future ‘evidence-based’ governance. In short, cities should better model themselves after Silicon Valley ‘entrepreneurs’ and ‘innovators.’
Regional governance is the arch-enemy and destroyer of a “republican form of government” as guaranteed to the states by the U.S. Constitution. ASU started the “Smart Region Initiative” that will impose Smart City policies throughout the region.