(CityBridge) For centuries, cities have been hubs of innovation, attracting ambitious people who develop and deploy creative solutions to the world’s problems. Cities also expose our deepest inequities, as we have seen with public health and economic fallout resulting from COVID-19. Consequently, they are ideal platforms for addressing challenges and bringing people back together. Today, the increasing dominance of big tech in cities is a divisive issue. The backlash against the expansion of some tech companies in cities, from Amazon in Queens to Sidewalk Labs in Toronto, has divided us further between those who are optimistic about the better future that technology can deliver and those concerned about the dominance of a few big players and the encroachment of technology in our private lives. But this is not a zero-sum game. Urban technologies can bring us together as long as we balance people’s needs and innovation. Here are five ways. Defending density. In our post-COVID world, we are beginning to see a new challenge for cities: people’s fear of density. But density is not to blame for the spread of COVID-19 — cities like Hong Kong and Seoul were able to limit cases and deaths. The real issues are […]
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