New York City's "Smart" Initiatives

As the US's most populated city and one of the most diverse, NYC is also one of the smartest. In 2016, at the Global Smart City Awards, NYC was recognized as the best smart city and it has only increased its efforts to become a leader in urban technology since. This award was announced at the Smart City Expo World Congress, an exhibition for standout smart city initiatives. NYC was awarded this title based on the NYC Strategy for Building to Smart + Equitable City initiative backed by New York’s Mayor De Blasio and his team. Some of the most well-known and creative projects from the city of New York include LinkNYC (replaces payphones with communication tools that allow for wifi use, phone calling & charging, etc.), LED street lights, and NYC Open Data. Since 2015, they have launched Call for Innovations to encourage citizens to submit proposals of potential solutions to NYC’s urban challenges, with the help of government resources. Currently, they are seeking assistance with projects like bringing high-speed internet access to all New Yorkers and new models to predict and measure data for student population trends in public schools.New York has also created online platforms, such as Marketplace.nyc and UrbanTech NYC. Marketplace.nyc is a website that connects smart city companies and their products with the city government. UrbanTech NYC supports entrepreneurs who are developing products and services that work to make cities smarter, through programs, working spaces, partnerships, etc.A lot of companies have created innovative solutions to contribute to the transformation of cities. For example, as described in an article on ArchDaily by Sabrina Syed, in order to improve the quality of life in Manhattan and lower pollution levels, New York architecture company, Edg has developed “Loop NYC,” an ambitious plan to create driverless expressways and add green corridors throughout the city. They plan to combine the busiest city streets with the major highways circling the whole city. The driverless expressways would “work in a series of ‘loops,’” which would decrease the amount of time it takes to loop from Grand Central Station to Lower Manhattan from 40 minutes to 11 minutes. They also plan to create pedestrian bridges as well as massive spaces of greenery such as a 13-mile park and replace Park Avenue and Broadway with “green corridors” for bike riders and pedestrians.To learn more about New York’s smart city initiatives, visit these links: Marketplace.NYC, UrbanTech NYC, NYC Mayor's Office of Tech & Innovation, and ArchDaily.By Jenna Watson,Researcher at NY Intl.