Talk:Sidewalk Labs

Problems, Complaints

According to https://medium.com/s/story/tech-companies-want-to-run-our-cities-d6c2482bf228, the project is controversial, with people complaining about secrecy. The article also says conflicts and other factors have caused delays: " ... a stranglehold on information. There have been a series of delays with the release of important documents, including the master innovation and development plan, which will finally provide a comprehensive blueprint." It also mentions resignations within management. Another article raises similar issues: Valverde, Mariana, and Alexandra Flynn. "'MORE BUZZWORDS THAN ANSWERS' - TO SIDEWALK LABS IN TORONTO." Landscape Architecture Frontiers, vol. 6, no. 2, 2018, p. 115+. Academic OneFile, [summary] Accessed 24 Apr. 2019. Another critical take: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3353846. See also Promise and Peril in the Smart City: Local Government in the Age of Digital Urbanism, https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/handle/1807/88263, a 2018 book from U. of Toronto . Kdammers (talk) 04:15, 24 April 2019 (UTC)

Suggestion to add a new section

Add an “Urban Innovations” section under the third paragraph of the “Projects” section and add this text:

The MIDP includes a variety of proposed urban innovations, including:

• Mobility: Mobility proposals incorporate light rail expansion, robust pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, strong accessibility measures, new mobility services, and other innovations, such as heated bike lanes and traffic signals that adapt to real-time use for safety.

• Public Realm: Focused on “people-first” public spaces, Sidewalk Labs proposes innovations like building "Raincoats" and free-standing "Fanshells" to provide shelter during harsh weather, adaptable ground-floor "stoas” that can support stores, restaurants, community spaces, pop-ups and small businesses, and a modular pavement system that could make it easier to repurpose street space into public space.

• Buildings and Housing: The district would consist of new mixed-use buildings that would be built using modular components and an emerging, sustainable building material called mass timber. 40% of the development would be designated as affordable housing.

• Sustainability: An integrated set of environmental innovations would include sustainable building materials and designs, an advanced power grid for electricity, a clean thermal grid for heating and cooling, a smart disposal chain designed to increase recycling, and active stormwater management.

• Data Governance: The project has faced criticism over data collection and fears about privacy in public space. In response, Sidewalk Labs proposed an independent, government-sanctioned "Urban Data Trust" that will approve and manage data collected in public spaces. Sidewalk Labs also proposed a set of Responsible Data Use Guidelines for collection practices. In response to critics, Sidewalk Labs pledged it will not sell personal information, use personal information for advertising or disclose personal information to third parties without explicit consent.

References

KeerthanaRang (talk) 17:10, 28 February 2020 (UTC)

Edit Requests to update the "Projects" section

Hi. My name is Eric, and I work for Sidewalk Labs. The following edit requests will update the "Projects" section as well as correct some mistakes found there. I hope when we are done you will be able to remove the tag which identifies this article as one in need of updates.

1. Please add the following content and sources to the beginning of the "Projects" section, above the sub-header "Project Sidewalk":

   Development Advisory Services

   Sidewalk Labs offers advisory services for real estate developers to use technology to meet environmental, affordability, and equity goals. Sidewalk Labs has advised on the following four projects:

   • Mana Wynwood—23.5-acre project in Miami that will serve as a trade center between Latin America and China and an arts and entertainment center.
   • Downtown Summerlin—300-acre mixed-use development with minimalized parking in Las Vegas
   • The Power Station—29-acre mixed-use residential community on the waterfront in San Francisco at the site of a former electrical plant.
   • Vancouver Innovation Center—conversion of a 180-acre industrial manufacturing site into a mixed-use residential and commercial community in the Portland/Vancouver area.

2. Please change the sub-heading "Project Sidewalk" which is incorrect, to "Sidewalk Toronto" which is the correct name of the project.
3. At the end of the second paragraph, please add the following sentence and source: The project progressed slowly with ongoing consultation from the public.
4. As a new paragraph, please add: In 2018, the company opened a new Toronto office and began holding weekend open houses in which visitors from the public contributed their ideas to the development of the Sidewalk Toronto project.
5. In the following paragraph "Traffic flow in the United States" change the inaccurate content that is there now with the following clarifying, correct, and sourced content: In early 2016, Sidewalk Labs began working with 10 cities which participated in the U.S. Department of Transportation's "Smart Cities Challenge" to help cities better understand daily street activity through the use of real-time data. The Challenge attracted dozens of medium-sized cities across the US to compete for $40 million in federal funding and an additional $10 million from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation to assess road data gathered from smartphones to analyze congestion and other traffic conditions, and develop a transportation coordination platform to improve the efficiency of road, parking, and transit use. The winner, Columbus, Ohio was announced in June 2016.

References

Thank you so much. Eric at Sidewalk Labs (talk) 13:30, 7 July 2021 (UTC)

 Done. InfiniteNexus (talk) 21:17, 12 July 2021 (UTC)

Add "Products" section and update "Investments" section

I would like to thank InfiniteNexus for so quickly and effectively jumping in and helping to implement my first set of edit requests. I hope they don't mind and will be able to continue helping with the following additional requests.

• Please add a new section, which I think should become the first section after the introduction, titled "Products". The content for that section is: Sidewalk Labs' products include

• Mesa, launched in September 2020, is a tool to help commercial buildings use energy more efficiently.
• Delve, a tool to help developers, architects and urban designers discover optimal design choices for neighborhood projects, was released in October 2020.
• Pebble, designed to manage parking in cities, was launched in May 2021.

• In the "Investments and portfolio companies" section please replace the first sentence with the following, which only makes some small grammar changes and one correction, changing "Sidewalk Toronto" to "Sidewalk Labs initiatives":

"Sidewalk Labs invests in and incubates companies which develop tools that can support Sidewalk Labs initiatives and scale to cities around the world."

• Please add the following content directly under the above introductory sentence:

Cityblock

Cityblock Health was spun-out of Sidewalk Labs in 2017. Its goal is to improve health care for low-income people with difficult medical needs. It employs over 500 people and has patients in three US states and Washington, DC.

Replica

Replica is an AI-powered data platform which helps cities make operational or infrastructural changes in response to changes in population behaviors. It began as a project at Sidewalk Labs in 2017 and was spun out as an independent company in 2019.

Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP)

Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners was spun-off from Sidewalk Labs in 2019 to develop technologies that modernize infrastructure such as recycling, waste disposal and transportation in communities throughout the US.

Ori

Sidewalk Labs invested in Boston-based robotic home interior design company Ori in 2019.

Nico

The Neighborhood Investment Company (Nico) allows local residents to make small, long-term real estate investments in their own neighborhoods. Sidewalk Labs invested in Nico at the end of 2019.

VoltServer

In late 2019 Sidewalk Labs invested in VoltServer, which strives to "make electricity safe" and overlays data on electricity distribution.

References

Thanks so much for all your help. Eric at Sidewalk Labs (talk) 16:03, 19 July 2021 (UTC)

You're welcome!, and  Done. InfiniteNexus (talk) 17:25, 19 July 2021 (UTC)

Edit Request to update the Yellow Book section

Thanks so much InfiniteNexus for so quickly responding to my recent edit requests! For my next request, I’d point out that the "Yellow Book" section needs some clarification, as the way it is written now is somewhat misleading based on the underlying sources. The below edits represent a more accurate and balanced description of what the sources say about the book. Can you please replace the current section’s content with the updated version below?

Sidewalk Labs provides a coffee table book to employees known as ''The Yellow Book'', which contains aspirational designs of a futurist city run on its technology. In the book, the company proposes expanding its scope to include the power to levy taxes, control public services such as schools, roads, and public transportation, collect data on the current and past locations of all members of the community, and to help redesign the local criminal justice system. The book also describes a social credit system to reward "good behavior", a system which one professor claimed was similar to the one used in China. Sidewalk's proposed system also included rewards for sharing personal data.

The book also includes the potential real estate profitability of such investments, containing theoretical proposals for communities in Detroit, Denver, and Alameda, California.

The company has described this book as a “wide-ranging brainstorming process”, and stated that most of its ideas were never considered for the Toronto project.

References

Thanks so much for all your help. Eric at Sidewalk Labs (talk) 20:35, 25 July 2021 (UTC)

No problem, and  Done. I'm actually shocked at how biased the original text was, so thanks for pointing this out. InfiniteNexus (talk) 20:57, 25 July 2021 (UTC)

Add a criticism section

I would like to see a section added that criticizes Sidewalk Labs, if reliable sourced criticisms exist. Does anyone know of any relevant criticisms that could be included about this company? After reading the article's description of The Yellow Book, and its dystopian visions for corporate social control, it seems plausible at least some criticisms would exist somewhere, related to some aspect of Sidewalk Labs. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:441:4C80:4EB0:E049:B458:F98:3784 (talk) 06:13, 12 May 2022 (UTC)