City Tech Summer 2021 Update
After a Decade of ‘Smart Cities,’ the Movement is Growing Up
We live in a different world than the one in which IBM registered the first smarter cities trademark
in 2011. In many ways, the industry has generated notable wins, but continued progress, impact, and growth will require the movement to evolve.
We can do better. COVID cut through the fog of lofty aspirations, leaving cities and their partners no choice but to get serious about solutions. Facing immediate and long-term challenges of reopening, cities must deal with diminished revenue, beleaguered schools and public health systems, and issues of multi-generational racial inequity. Cities don’t have time or resources for interminable introspection – they need faster, focused, collaborative, outcome-oriented innovation.
The smart cities market is already embracing more targeted interventions that engage infrastructure owners and operators, service providers, and residents themselves. Cisco stopped sales and curtailed support for its Kinetic for City
products five years after launching that business in 2016. Facing COVID, as well as public and political resistance, Sidewalk Labs dropped the Quayside project
with Waterfront Toronto. In April, the Aspen Institute shuttered its Center for Urban Innovation
to concentrate on digital stewardship, transparency, and equity.
Even as City Tech continues to advocate for technology’s potential to improve urban life, we’re also sharpening our focus on tangible, targeted solutions and sectors. We’re applying our proven collaboration model to specific, urgent challenges of COVID reopening
, public transit infrastructure monitoring
, curbside management
, and electrification of multimodal transit hubs. We’re turning last-mile navigation into last-meter wayfinding
, and we’re engaging residents on block-level air quality
where they live, work, and play. And at the same time, we’re spinning out signature City Tech solutions like the Chicago Health Atlas
so they can grow, scale, and transform industries.
With a decade of experience and learning under its belt, the smart cities movement is ready to take tech-enabled problem solving to the next level. With our partners, City Tech is working to ensure that the next ten years make good on great expectations.
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