The Future of Smarter Cities: People + How Much Technology? Wednesday, November 17, 2021

The Buzz 1: “Smart cities are the intelligent cities of positivity and happy-energy, not the junkyards of technologies but cities of diversity, love, life, beauty, dignity, freedom, tolerance, and equality.” (Amit Ray, author: Peace Bliss Beauty and Truth: Living with Positivity) The Buzz 2: “The banning of bullfighting in Catalonia was controversial and hard won and has now been replaced by the vacuous global consumption of the mall. I'm sure that is an advance for the bulls but I'm not sure how well it bodes for the serious business of being a city." (Edwin Heathcote, The Financial Times architecture and design critic) The Buzz 3: “The second mode [to deal with unsafe cities] is to take refuge in vehicles. This is the technique practiced in the big wild-animal reservations of Africa, where tourists are warned to leave their cars under no circumstances until they reach a lodge. It is also the technique practiced in Los Angeles.” (Jane Jacobs, author: The Death and Life of Great American Cities) The Buzz 4: “Urbanization has lured more people to bustling metropolises, but precious little thought has been given to what happens when these cities fail…For all the famed cities with thousands of years of continuity – Paris, London, Cairo, Athens, Rome, Istanbul – most cities just stop.” (Ben Paynter, Fast Company senior writer) We’ll ask Don DeLoach at Rocket Wagon Venture Studios, Brenna Berman at City Tech, John Robbins at Turner & Townsend, and Peter Torrellas at Parsons for their take on The Future of Smarter Cities: People + How Much Technology?