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The infuriating quirks of local-government procurement :: Fascinating too, the mixed feelings like of training a puppy

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If you must ask why “smart cities” are more interesting than “data driven” business, just ponder the quirks of city procurement. Though infuriating to tech vendors, they are a mix of infuriating and fascinating to those with a wider view. It’s the kind of mix you feel when your puppy poops on the rug.

Transportation consultant Bob McQueen tells of one case in which “smart” takes a messy path. It starts with freeways in dense fog, common in the California Central Valley. The almond, apricot, cherry, peach and pistachio orchards thrive, but drivers sometimes die. For one driver after another, a car or semi trailer they didn’t know was there appears just a few feet ahead.… Read the rest “The infuriating quirks of local-government procurement :: Fascinating too, the mixed feelings like of training a puppy”

How New Orleans the “banana republic” may thrive again :: There’s a visionary path ahead from a fading oil-based economy to a burgeoning blue economy

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How do you bring a once-proud city back to life? In the last 100 years, New Orleans’s natural resources have been sucked out and taken away, and the profit almost entirely taken by outsiders.

The jewel of a city that New Orleans once was became colonized by Big Oil, which deposited wages and warped the local economy while it extracted wealth.

But one person in particular has looked closer. Veteran architect, urban planner, and economic development specialist Greg Delaune sees a better story ahead. He says the banana republic-like economy contains seeds for revival of the Gulf region’s “blue economy” — already worth an annual $3.8 billion and growing fast.… Read the rest “How New Orleans the “banana republic” may thrive again :: There’s a visionary path ahead from a fading oil-based economy to a burgeoning blue economy”

Real cities don’t start at “ping” Smart City Diaries has gone on the road to find a new definition for smart cities

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What do diaries have to do with smart cities? And who do two women think they’re doing trying to reset the agenda for smart cities? Doesn’t everyone know that smart cities are about data technology that goes “ping”?

“Ping” is the notion satirized by Monty Python in its sketch about a team of doctors more concerned with fancy machines than with the patient. The Acostas are part of nascent trend to supplant that notion.

Late last year, this mother-daughter duo set off on a trek from city to city across the U.S. to answer the fundamental question of what smart cities are.… Read the rest “Real cities don’t start at “ping” Smart City Diaries has gone on the road to find a new definition for smart cities”