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Not sure if anyone else follows this. I've been following it for a while and am a big fan and very supportive of it.
Cliffs:
- Alphabet - Google's parent co, thru their 'Sidewalk Labs' initiative wants to undertake one of the most ambitious projects I have ever seen
- Sidewalks is an initiative to create 'connected cities' or 'connected areas' within cities that are communities that rely heavily on technology and being self sufficient and self sustaining
- Generally SideWalks has focused on smaller projects but the Toronto project is interesting because of its massive size and reach
- They choose this Toronto piece of land as it is Prime water front land that has been abandoned for decades due to the prior owners being heavy industrial and the rumours the land below is badly contaminated. If a company sits on land and contaminates and goes broke the new buyer, before being able to develop it will have to have the land pass ecological assessments and remediate the land back to acceptable standards. This often causes land (often under gas stations) to sit for decades with no developer willing to touch it. Once you buy it, if you find out the cost of remediating it is higher than your development pay back you can still be sued as the new owner of the land to fix it regardless.
- Alphabet wants this land as it is a chance to build a true 'from the ground up', ...NO, 'from the UNDER ground up' connected community with a completely closed loop vision.
- some misguided (IMO) leftist activists are complaining about corporate over reach but I like it as gov't has long given up on any grand advancements or investments. So even if you think gov't should, they won't.
- of course Google is looking at the "data collection' that would come with an entirely connected city and the value of that and arguments over who should own that data are being engaged
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Google’s Sidewalk Labs plans massive expansion to waterfront vision
...To finance this vision, Sidewalk Labs wants a share of the property taxes, development fees and increased value of city land that would normally go to city coffers.
...In an interview, Sidewalk Labs CEO Dan Doctoroff told the Star that Quayside will demonstrate what’s possible, but the company aspires to far greater “urban innovation.”...
...
“We’re going to be spending a lot of money in advancing the infrastructure. And where we do that and there are new property tax revenues or developer charges, we only want to get paid back a reasonable return for our investment in that infrastructure.”
“This land is stubbornly resistant to development,” Doctoroff said, and Sidewalk will be financing “mass transit and affordable housing in an era in which there is not enough money.”
“We’re prepared to take the risk up front of developing a model to help make that happen, and we’re prepared to essentially get paid back when we’ve demonstrated that it can be successful,” he said. To encourage development, Sidewalk will finance an LRT expansion through the area and fund the construction of “horizontal infrastructure” such as “the power and thermal grid, and waste removal.”...
...
What started out as excitement when Google was selected to develop a master plan for the former industrial lands erupted into controversy last fall, when a slew of consultants and advisory board members resigned in quick succession, citing concerns over how personal data would be collected and used, as well as the secrecy surrounding the project.
Sidewalk then pledged that it would not take ownership of all the data collected in the high-tech development, and proposed a public data trust to manage privacy concerns.
/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/city_hall/2017/10/17/google-firm-wins-competition-to-build-high-tech-quayside-neighbourhood-in-toronto/_3_sidewalk_toronto_eastern_waterfront_map.jpg)
/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/city_hall/2017/10/17/google-firm-wins-competition-to-build-high-tech-quayside-neighbourhood-in-toronto/_4_sidewalk_labs.jpg)
An artist's rendering of what Quayside will look like. The high-tech neighbourhood in Toronto's eastern waterfront will be built by Sidewalk Labs, a sister company of Google.
/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/city_hall/2017/10/17/google-firm-wins-competition-to-build-high-tech-quayside-neighbourhood-in-toronto/_1_main_art_for_gt1.jpg)
Toronto's eastern waterfront will be home to Quayside, a high-tech community that will be people-centred and designed to achieve higher levels of sustainability, affordability, mobility, and economic opportunity.
/arc-anglerfish-tgam-prod-tgam.s3.amazonaws.com/public/G2C4DUIZYFDCDDELPKCM6H3YM4.jpg)
Googles plan is for no cars within the community boundaries at all. It would transit to a point of access to a fleet of self driving car share that could take you to your car or throughout the community. All deliveries would be to set locations and self driving robots, traveling under ground would bring them to the home or business. (think of an amazon warehouse robot).
Politicians react with shock, anger to Google’s sweeping vision for Port Lands
The Technology Behind Sidewalk Toronto's Concept Images
Cliffs:
- Alphabet - Google's parent co, thru their 'Sidewalk Labs' initiative wants to undertake one of the most ambitious projects I have ever seen
- Sidewalks is an initiative to create 'connected cities' or 'connected areas' within cities that are communities that rely heavily on technology and being self sufficient and self sustaining
- Generally SideWalks has focused on smaller projects but the Toronto project is interesting because of its massive size and reach
- They choose this Toronto piece of land as it is Prime water front land that has been abandoned for decades due to the prior owners being heavy industrial and the rumours the land below is badly contaminated. If a company sits on land and contaminates and goes broke the new buyer, before being able to develop it will have to have the land pass ecological assessments and remediate the land back to acceptable standards. This often causes land (often under gas stations) to sit for decades with no developer willing to touch it. Once you buy it, if you find out the cost of remediating it is higher than your development pay back you can still be sued as the new owner of the land to fix it regardless.
- Alphabet wants this land as it is a chance to build a true 'from the ground up', ...NO, 'from the UNDER ground up' connected community with a completely closed loop vision.
- some misguided (IMO) leftist activists are complaining about corporate over reach but I like it as gov't has long given up on any grand advancements or investments. So even if you think gov't should, they won't.
- of course Google is looking at the "data collection' that would come with an entirely connected city and the value of that and arguments over who should own that data are being engaged
----------------------
Google’s Sidewalk Labs plans massive expansion to waterfront vision
...To finance this vision, Sidewalk Labs wants a share of the property taxes, development fees and increased value of city land that would normally go to city coffers.
...In an interview, Sidewalk Labs CEO Dan Doctoroff told the Star that Quayside will demonstrate what’s possible, but the company aspires to far greater “urban innovation.”...
...
“We’re going to be spending a lot of money in advancing the infrastructure. And where we do that and there are new property tax revenues or developer charges, we only want to get paid back a reasonable return for our investment in that infrastructure.”
“This land is stubbornly resistant to development,” Doctoroff said, and Sidewalk will be financing “mass transit and affordable housing in an era in which there is not enough money.”
“We’re prepared to take the risk up front of developing a model to help make that happen, and we’re prepared to essentially get paid back when we’ve demonstrated that it can be successful,” he said. To encourage development, Sidewalk will finance an LRT expansion through the area and fund the construction of “horizontal infrastructure” such as “the power and thermal grid, and waste removal.”...
...
What started out as excitement when Google was selected to develop a master plan for the former industrial lands erupted into controversy last fall, when a slew of consultants and advisory board members resigned in quick succession, citing concerns over how personal data would be collected and used, as well as the secrecy surrounding the project.
Sidewalk then pledged that it would not take ownership of all the data collected in the high-tech development, and proposed a public data trust to manage privacy concerns.
An artist's rendering of what Quayside will look like. The high-tech neighbourhood in Toronto's eastern waterfront will be built by Sidewalk Labs, a sister company of Google.
Toronto's eastern waterfront will be home to Quayside, a high-tech community that will be people-centred and designed to achieve higher levels of sustainability, affordability, mobility, and economic opportunity.
Googles plan is for no cars within the community boundaries at all. It would transit to a point of access to a fleet of self driving car share that could take you to your car or throughout the community. All deliveries would be to set locations and self driving robots, traveling under ground would bring them to the home or business. (think of an amazon warehouse robot).
Politicians react with shock, anger to Google’s sweeping vision for Port Lands
The Technology Behind Sidewalk Toronto's Concept Images
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