Future of cities: The view from the Microsoft Technology Center
Future of cities: The view from the Microsoft Technology Center
Future of cities: The view from the Microsoft Technology Center
In this video, Kathie Topel, a Director with Protiviti’s Business Performance Improvement practice, interviews Charles Drayton, the Chief Technical Architect and Healthcare and Life Sciences Lead at the Microsoft Technology Center in Chicago where he helps customers transform the way they engage their patients, employees and partners. Charles shares his views on healthcare, real estate and demographic shifts spurred by COVID, and introduces his special guest Pria, a healthcare robot. Watch above.
FUTURE OF CITIES: THE VIEW FROM THE MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY CENTER - Video transcript
Joe Kornik: [Music] Welcome to the VISION by Protiviti interview. I’m Joe Kornik, Director of Brand Publishing and Editor-in-Chief of VISION by Protiviti, our new quarterly content initiative where we put megatrends under the microscope and look far into the future to examine the strategic implications of big topics that will impact the C-suite and executive boardrooms worldwide. In this, our first topic, The Futures of Cities, we’re exploring the evolution urban areas are undergoing post-COVID and how those changes will alter cities over the next decade and beyond. Today, I’m joined by Kathie Topel, a Director in Protiviti’s Business Performance Improvement Practice, and Charles Drayton, the Chief Technical Architect and Healthcare and Life Sciences Lead at the Microsoft Technology Center in Chicago where he helps customers transform the way they engage their patients, employees, and partners. Kathie is going to be doing the interviewing today, so I’m going to turn it over to her to begin. Kathie, it’s all yours.
Kathie Topel: Thanks, Joe. Welcome, Charles. I’m so glad that you could join us here today. I will just start off by saying if you could tell us a little bit about the Microsoft Technology Center and what your actual role is there.
Charles Drayton: Yes. At the Microsoft Technology Center, I am the Chief Technical Architect in the Chicago Office. I’m also the Worldwide Healthcare Experience Lead for all of the MTCs. So, what the MTC is, as a Microsoft Technology Center, think of it as a people, place, and process. So, when it comes to people, we have an entire team of technical architects who cover the entire breadth of Microsoft technology. When it comes to places, there are places like the MTCs, and we have about 40 of them, or more than 40 of them, worldwide. In each place, we have a number of replica facilities. In Chicago, for example, we have a replica healthcare space that looks just like a hospital and that is designed to showcase not just the future of technology, but some of the technology innovations that we’re doing today that customers can take advantage of. When it comes to process, we can help organizations with a wide variety of subjects. We manage hackathons. We can do architecture design sessions. We can do strategy briefings. We can give you demonstrations of brand-new technology or existing technology. So, there’s quite a bit that we do at the MTCs.
Kathie Topel: Charles, when you hear the topic “Future of Cities in 2030 and Beyond,” what’s the first thing that comes to mind for you?
Charles Drayton: I think there are probably two things that come to mind to me. First is sustainability and the second is connectiveness. So, sustainability, I think anyone who’s been following the news, you understand that one of the big challenges of our time is on sustainability, green energy, the environmental crisis that we have right now. I think we’ve taken our eye off the ball a little bit with what’s happening with the pandemic, but I think very soon, it’s coming back to the forefront. So, in 2030, I think there’s going to be the end result of a significant push towards building the future city in a way that can be energy efficient, that can be self-sustaining. Things that can be green in nature that not only are designed to be zero emissions but to be negative emissions, and it’s actually one of the things that we’ve committed to doing at Microsoft with our Microsoft campus in many of the offices that we own.
The second thing is connectiveness. I think increasingly, you’re starting to see the end of the office as we know it, and in place of that, we’re going to see more people who are permanently working from home. So, the question then becomes, “How is it that you can have the same experience at home that you would in the office?” We’ve already seen a trend towards that in the past several years, and I think by 2030, that’s going to be further accelerated to the point where a vast majority of people are most likely going to be primarily working out of their homes. So, I think having a connected hybrid virtual sort of space is going to be a major trend that you’re going to see by 2030.
Kathie Topel: We all know that the pandemic has impacted our thoughts of the future. What pandemic outcomes do you believe have altered the current view of the future of cities and beyond versus, let’s say, a pre-pandemic view?
Charles Drayton: Yes. I hinted at this with my previous answer a little bit, and I’m not going to say the office concept is fatally wounded. I think the office is never going to go away, but I think there’s going to be a significant shift in how people work. We’re going to see more of a shift towards a hybrid workplace where you have some people who are working in the office and some people who are working from home. That’s definitely going to be something that has proven to be successful during the pandemic when people were forced to do it that I think it’s here to stay. The other thing you’re going to see is as a result of that, you're going to see a fundamental shift in urbanization.
So, I think the trend — it’s funny how this works, where there’s always this migration path that goes from cities to suburb, suburbs to cities, cities to suburb, and it seemed to vary from generation to generation. I think what we were seeing, up until the pandemic, was a move away from the suburbs back to the cities. You started seeing these revitalizations of urban areas and downtown areas, and now, I think it’s trying to see the reverse of that again. The pandemic, I think, has forced people or compelled people to start thinking, “Hmm, maybe I need more space. If I’m going to be stuck with you, [Laughter] in that limited square feet all day every day, maybe we get a bigger bedroom,” right? So, I think we’re starting to see a move now towards more suburban areas, more rural areas. You’re seeing people now who have vacation homes. You just think, “My lake house might not be a bad place to live permanently.” I think you’re going to see something about permanent, or at least for this generation, shift towards that, but I think with that is going to come more demands for better infrastructure to support high speed internet in some of these places to support more services in some of these places because increasingly, they’re going to find that becomes a permanent location for a lot of people to do their business out of.
Then, finally, it’s going to quicken the development in general of rural areas. I think with some of the demographic shifts that are taking place where you see millennials and Generation Z people now moving out of places like San Francisco and moving more to rural areas, you’re going to see a quickening of the development of those areas than I think they had originally had planned because of the fact that they’re going to bring their job demands with them and there’s going to be a shift in labor force and labor demands that match that as well.
Kathie Topel: I know infrastructure has been in the news a lot lately. Multiple bills are being debated around making investments in infrastructure and modernizing large parts of our country. What do you see as a relationship between the future of infrastructure and the impact it will have on cities of the future?
Charles Drayton: Yes. I think there’s going to be kind of three things that we’re looking at. The first one is going to be, as I mentioned before, sustainability, connectiveness, so I talked a bit about that initially, but I think those are going to be key pillars of infrastructure. I think any investment in infrastructure, regardless of what happens with the bill currently being debated right now, it’s all going to come back to how it is that we’re able to narrow the gap between urban areas and rural areas. I think for a long time, the development in technology and development in the infrastructure in these urban [areas] has caused the development of that to outstrip the development of rural areas. I think in many respects, they’ve been left behind, but I think if this infrastructure thing works out, you're going to see a lot of investments in rural areas to really bring them more in line with what urban areas developed or with what urban areas have to offer now.
So, it’s going to be appealing to younger generations who, I think, are already starting to move to areas like that, and it’s also going to, I think, narrow everything from the education gap to the development gap, and this is something that is particularly powerful for minority communities or for poor communities who typically are over-represented in rural areas. I think it’s going to create more opportunities for them. I think it’s going to create a somewhat more equitable future if this is pulled off the way I think everyone is hoping for it to be. I think part of that, part of the end results of that is going to be things like the dispersing of the workforce.
So, once you have infrastructure available, that you have high speed internet in both urban areas, suburban areas and rural areas, I think it’s now going to make for a, I think, safer and more comfortable environment for generations of knowledge workers, and you’ll find that knowledge workers are increasingly outstripping a lot of the former blue-collar workers as those jobs start to shrink and you’re going to see that replaced with more of a knowledge-based workforce. The third, I think, is going to be finally starting to look at the internet as a commoditized utility.
I think for a long time, we saw that as luxury, and because we saw it as a luxury, it was difficult to think of it as something that was a driving force behind things like income inequality or performance differences within different communities. Like, why is it certain neighborhoods tend to have students perform better than others, and I think we’re starting to see research now that says the internet as a universal human right, is something that, when commoditized, can really go a long way towards levelling the playing field. So, I think a lot of the investments in infrastructure are really designed to help start closing some of these income and performance gaps that you see in a lot of these areas.
Kathie Topel: Charles, you shared at the beginning with us that the healthcare exhibit at the MTC is an amazing view into what can be possible. What influence will the possibilities for healthcare organizations have on the future of our cities?
Charles Drayton: Yes. I think we’ve already started seeing this. It’s funny, I’ve been in healthcare for a long time, and for many years, we had telehealth technology that we would try and sell to hospitals, and they will always, “No, it’s not really necessary. We don’t see ourselves as people who would ever really see patients outside the hospital or outside of the doctor’s office.” Obviously, that all changed with the pandemic, and similar to how people who had previously never really done online shopping, who are sort of resistant to it, suddenly discovers the joys of amazon.com for the first time, and they never go back because they’ve realized how easy it is. Sort of like my mother. My mother was sort of a person who would always go to the store no matter what. I’d say, “Amazon Prime.” She’s like, “But you can’t look at your groceries. Why would you do something like that?” Then, she realized she had no choice. She realized how convenient it is, and now, she can go back to the store anytime she wants; she’s not doing it.
I think it’s a very similar thing now where hospitals are beginning to realize that actually virtual care isn’t so bad. Actually, there are great opportunities to create a continuum of care that takes place. So, not only can we care for the patient when the patient is within our four walls, but we can continue the dialogue and we can continue the monitoring of the patient even after the patient is discharged or even after the patient leaves the doctor’s office, because many things that happen with the patient that will lead to complications, that will lead to readmission takes place after their discharge. Did they refill their prescription? Did they take their medication? Are they following through on post-discharge instructions? You had no real way of verifying that traditionally, but now with virtual care and ability to combine that with things like continuous vitals monitoring and having that sort of connected ecosystem of health makes it much easier to start getting a lot of these early signals from patients. So, is a patient taking 45 days to refill a 30-day prescription? If so, I want to know about that so I can do an outreach with them. If we have rehab, some sort of physical rehab for the patient and they have some sort of connected watch, are they taking the requisite number of steps? If they’re not, I want to know about that because it may mean that they’re not really following through on the post-discharge instructions. Are they weighing themselves regularly because they have to get their weight down to a certain level in order to qualify for a specific type of surgery? Are they on track to do that? A lot of these things take place at home, and increasingly, hospitals and healthcare organizations are realizing that and they’re starting to make more investments into it.
So, going back to this idea of future cities, when we start looking at the commoditization of the internet as a whole, and now, making internet available at little or no charge in all kinds of rural communities. Now, when you look at these underrepresented communities in terms of the number of hospitals that are there or the number of stores that are there that sell fresh foods, we’re now able to extend our ability to care even out to them. I think that’s another way of beginning to close the gap that has historically existed between vulnerable communities that are often rural communities, or even urban communities that aren’t close to hospitals or to fresh food sources and how do we bring that care to them to create a more equitable environment for wellness overall.
Kathie Topel: With the virtualization of collaboration, it’s changed the way we socialize, work, and live our lives. The ability to collaborate and share from anywhere allows each of us to make different choices now. How will these different choices impact real estate and what role might technology play a new trend to emerge for cities?
Charles Drayton: [Laughter] So, I’m glad you… it’s a very timely question you asked. I’ve been looking for some income property for a while. I believe, to diversify a little bit, and so I’ve been looking for these sort of multi-unit places and I’ve been consistently outbid anywhere in the south. Like, I cannot buy a home in Dallas. I cannot buy a home anywhere in Georgia. Every time I try, I’m sort of outbid by these all cash offers that are like 10% over asking, and I say that to say, from a real estate standpoint, people understand the fact there are some significant demographic shifts that are going on in terms of where people are moving and how people are living. I think some of the things that you’re seeing now are being manifested in this kind of rush for purchasing real estate in warmer climates or in more suburban areas and rural areas, and I’m definitely feeling the results of that. I think it’s going to lead to more demand for better infrastructure. Similar to some things I have been talking about throughout our conversation here, the demand for high-speed internet everywhere. So, not just in downtown Chicago do we get gig internet, but how do we get it everywhere and where does it show up everywhere because you’re going to see more of these virtual calls. So, I think you’re going to see increased support and demand for investment in infrastructure as we start seeing, from a real estate standpoint, more and more families moving to areas where, traditionally, they haven’t been. Those are some of the things from a residential standpoint that you’re going to see as a change or a shift when it comes to real estate. From a commercial standpoint, I think one of the things that you’re going to see is, I’m going to call it an urbanization of the suburbs.
So, as people start moving out into rural areas more and they start moving out to suburban areas more, you’re going to see a move away from urban areas of commercial offerings and bringing them more into suburban and rural areas. So, as Generation Z-ers and Generation Y, people tend to go, you’re going to see more restaurants and shops open up around them. So, you’re going to see a decrease in demand for commercial real estate perhaps in urban areas, but if you’re going to see an increase in demand for commercial real estate in some of these suburban areas as you start providing some of the comforts of the urban environment that they moved from into suburban environment. So, you’re going to start seeing perhaps — these are all of the guess that I have — the shrinking of major cities, and instead, the growth of these many metropolises in some of the satellite areas. I think that’s where a lot of commercial real estate opportunity is going to be. I think you’re also going to see a fundamental shift in retail as you’ve been seeing already, and this is just sort of exacerbated things a little bit more, but in really interesting ways.
So, I’ve worked with a couple of commercial of real estate companies and one of the things that they were sort of excited about with this is this shift away from malls as being places where you go and shop to malls as being centers of recreation, particularly around many of the suburban and rural areas where it’s not simply a place where you have these stores, but it’s kind of your work/play area. I think you’re going to see a resurgence of that in some of these rural places as organizations start creating these kind of satellite metropolis cities out of what were formerly fairly barren rural areas.
Kathie Topel: Charles, if you can leave our viewers with just one thought of “The Future of Cities for 2030 and Beyond,” what would that be?
Charles Drayton: I want to show you a little something here. I like to introduce you to Pria. Pria is a robot and Pria is something that was initially designed by a company that was acquired by Stanley Black & Decker. What Pria does is she’s a pill dispensing robot, and a pill-dispensing robot can do everything from having virtual meetings with the physician to dispensing pills, to monitoring your vitals. So, if there is a spike in something, if you have AFib, she’s able to give you an early intervention and say, “Hey, this might be something that is potentially a medical emergency.” I think Pria, and things like Pria, are going to be increasingly key components of the future, and that’s from the healthcare standpoint. I did something recently that talked about this idea of senior isolation. The fact that senior homes couldn’t get visitors for a full year, I mean that lead to a mental health crisis within senior homes, and one of the ways that we talked about addressing that was through senior gaming.
So, there are gaming leagues that are formed in places like Pennsylvania that create this virtual community among seniors where they can be connected to each other and to their loved ones, and to everyone else, even if they can’t physically be there. So, increasingly, you’re going to see this idea of community emoji and technology starting to be merged in a way where even if we are remote, we’re going to be closer together than ever. I think those are really good examples of that. So, my thinking is in the future, you’re going to see a stronger sense of community, but you’re also going to see more virtualization. So, you’re going to see the combination of the two of them in very unexpected ways, or since it’s 2030, I can be entirely wrong about all of it because technology moves that fast.
Kathie Topel: Thanks so much, Charles, for your insights here today and your participation. We truly appreciate it, and you brough us so many ideas for the future and we’re very, very excited for it. Thank you.
Joe Kornik: Thanks, Kathie, and thanks, Charles. Charles, a real rock star, brings his own visual aids with him, some real estate advice, and a little couple of jokes thrown in there for good measures. So, we always appreciate that levity, Charles. Thank you so much for your time today. We appreciate it.
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How to build safer and more sustainable smart cities of the future
How to build safer and more sustainable smart cities of the future
How to build safer and more sustainable smart cities of the future
Smart cities will create some $2.5 trillion of opportunity by 2025. The convergence of technology, such as AI, machine learning, and big data are disrupting how people move around cities and how cities interact with those people. In this video, VISION by Protiviti's Editor-in-Chief Joe Kornik discusses this and other smart city opportunities with three expert panelists: Vaibhav Ghadiok, Co-Founder and Vice President of Engineering at Hayden AI; Renee Autumn Ray, Strategy and Innovation leader at Conduent; and Jonathan Reichental, professor, bestselling author and smart cities expert.
HOW TO BUILD SAFER AND MORE SUSTAINABLE SMART CITIES OF THE FUTURE - Video transcript
Joe Kornik: Welcome to the VISION by Protiviti interview. I’m Joe Kornik, Director of Brand Publishing and Editor-in-Chief of VISION by Protiviti, our content initiative where we look into the future to examine the strategic implications of big topics that will impact the C-Suite and executive board rooms worldwide. This, our first topic, “The Future of Cities,” we’re exploring the evolution of urban areas that are undergoing post-COVID and how those changes will alter cities over the next decade and beyond. Today, we’re joined by a panel of smart cities experts, particularly when it comes to transportation, mobility, and sustainability, and how they all impact both the public and private sector. The disruption is already underway, of course, and changes are happening so fast that it’s often difficult to keep up. Fortunately, we’ve got three people here to help us make sense of it all.
Today, I’m joined by Vaibhav Ghadiok, Co-Founder and Vice President of Engineering at Hayden AI, developers of the first ever autonomous traffic management platform for cities. I’m also joined by Renee Autumn Ray, Strategy and Innovation leader at Conduent, where she leads partnerships for Conduent transportation, a technology company which includes payment processing enforcement and data analytics for public safety and transit. Finally, we have Jonathan Reichental, Ph.D., professor, bestselling author and smart cities expert. Thanks so much for joining me today. Jonathan, let’s start there with the study that I know you like to cite. It’s from Frost & Sullivan, which suggests, “Smart cities will create some $2.5 trillion of opportunity by 2025. The convergence of technology, such as AI, machine learning, and big data are disrupting how people move around cities and how cities interact with those people.
Let’s start where we are today, and then discuss what’s coming down the road. Where are the opportunities and how can we make sure that we’re building better, safer, and more sustainable cities of the future? I’ll open that question up to all three of our panelists.
Jonathan Reichental: Great to be here, Joe. This looks like it’s going to be the century of cities. We are now a majority urban planet, and over the next few decades, millions more will move into cities. Our cities have served us well generally. We identify with some big challenges, but they are now under considerable duress, whether it’s the ability to tap into clean, abundant energy, protect the environment, offer up transportation services, have a safe and healthy environment. These are all things that now we need to focus on, and we are beginning to focus on as the issues and challenges arise. The good news is, leaders around the world are embracing an urban future, recognize the needs of cities, and they’re beginning to invest and they’re beginning to look at technology in particular, things like artificial intelligence, internet of things, data in a very big way. We see amazing solutions, whether it’s in dynamic traffic signal systems to make traffic move more smoothly or sensors that detect whether water is healthy and air is healthy. We are in this incredible inflexion point, I believe, becoming really clear in my travels around the world where cities are becoming the focus of the human experience. The good news is, we get technology to meet it, but the challenges are big, and certainly, the opportunities are sizeable too.
Kornik: Renee, why don’t you share some thoughts around that same question?
Renee Autumn Ray: Sure. There are a couple of things that I think are really important opportunities for cities. One is that we know that travel behavior is something that is very much engrained and is very hard to change. Certainly with COVID, we’ve seen people are changing the way that they work, the way that they go to school, the kinds of errands they’re running. We’re still trying to understand how much of travel is going to go back to normal and how much of it is going to stay different. When we think about where we have spent a lot of our effort in dollars, it has been on commute trips, which are actually just under a fifth of all trips taken. I think this gives us an opportunity to focus on what should the entire mobility system look like for all kinds of trips and for all kinds of people. Something else, I think, is really important, is there are big economic shifts that are happening in the aftermath of COVID and they’re going to change what the tax base for a city looks like, is the way that they have been gathering revenue and spending money something that’s going to be able to continue in the future, or they’re going to have to think differently about what financial sustainability looks like and where they are drawing resources from, and how they are spending their budget in ways that are more equitable for the folks that live there.
Kornik: Interesting. Vaibhav?
Vaibhav Ghadiok: Sure. My perspective is more transportation related, so let’s look at where we are today. Bus speeds in pre-COVID Manhattan were less than five miles per hour. A typical job today is only accessible by about 27% of its metropolitan population in 90 minutes or less. Really, the transportation today, not very equitable for those people depending on public transportation as their primary means of transportation. It is not working. The system is not working for them. Lastly, we have an overburdened transportation system. Now, when you start thinking about fixing these problems, we are often thinking big, big infrastructure project, big capital expenditure, projects taking decades maybe. In the same breadth, we also talk about Smart Cities, so why not talk about smart expenditure and think small? What can be achieved with the technology today where we can deploy, say, mobile sensors, much like Hayden AI does, that are AI enabled and spatially aware. We have these sensors that we can mount on city fleet vehicles. As the vehicle goes through the city, it has a full understanding of what it has seen. It can observe things, report things. What impact can that have without large expenditure? That is where I think we have to go next or think next.
Kornik: I know both Hayden AI and Conduent are focused on the public aspect of this in terms of public transport and mobility, as well as other areas. Renee, if you could, talk to me a little bit about how public spaces could be different in cities of the future and why that’s so important that we get it right.
Ray: Yes, absolutely. Streets are, often times, a very significant portion of the total land available in the city. Virtually all of them are going to be public. They’re public spaces and they’re spaces for people to travel, but also to congregate and to gather. I think certainly, what we see in a number of cities implementing in terms of parklets or in terms of making a few blocks pedestrian only, either for certain days or even permanently, is something that is likely to continue and expand in the future. So, when you think about the role of a city as an economic engine but also a place where people want to have quality of life, they’re increasingly able to choose where they live and where they work based on those quality of life factors, you can see how challenging it is for city government to balance the needs of those mobility needs, the quality of life needs of their residents, along with just the prosaic things like can groceries get the freight they need to have delivered by trucks. There is a lot of pressure on this public resource, and I think that also creates opportunities for cities to say, if we’re going to change the balance of how much of our street network is given over to private vehicles, to private loading zones for deliveries, we have to balance that with being able to capture revenue from the spaces that we leave available and make sure that if we open up spaces for residents to be walking, to be sitting, to be congregating, that we’re capturing the value of that in creating a better place for people to live in. Those are going to be really hard questions. They’re going to be very politically challenging questions, but there are places where we need government to be a leader in terms of helping us come to those decisions and make sure that cities are places that people want to live and are not just forced to live in order to have a good job.
Kornik: Vaibhav, I know this is a big part of Hayden AI’s VISION, of what’s possible in the future. If you could, share with me some of those possibilities and what their overall impact could be on the future of cities.
Ghadiok: Absolutely. Let’s talk about a few use cases and what is the impact, what is the potential impact for that. One of the first use cases we said is what’s called automated bus lane and crosswalk. There are cities with dedicated bus lane, people come in, park their cars, slowing down the buses, increasing ridership, increasing cost for the MTA. Now, what we’ve seen with limited pilots is bus speeds. We’ve been able to increase bus speeds almost by 55%, for instance, in the M14 Manhattan route. This impacts almost 44,000 people who use this bus route daily. So, massive impact, think small. It’s a small little mobile sensor, look at the impact it could have. Let’s look at another use case, bike lanes. If we enforce using the same technology, we enforce bike lanes, make sure it’s clear, give people an opportunity to ride their bikes in cities, increase the throughput of our streets, we can make this a lot safer. Parking, with our spatially aware sensors, we are able to see if there are parking spots that are empty. We can redirect people to those empty parking spots. What we have learned from survey after survey, that up to about 30% congestion in urban downtowns is caused by people circling, trying to find parkings. Again, massive impact with this technology. Lastly, what I can tell you is traffic signaling. We have outdated traffic signaling timing that causes more than 10% of traffic delays in most urban routes. Again, with more data, et cetera, we can make these traffic signals a lot more dynamic, again, have a massive impact on this without a lot of capital expenditure.
Kornik: We focused a lot so far on the public sector’s aspect of this. Jonathan, if you could, let’s talk a little bit about the private sector’s role in the future of Smart Cities in terms of both opportunity and what’s possible. Your perspective here is really valuable. One, there is so much potential for investment in this sector and two, smarter, more connected, and ultimately better cities are really a smart business, aren’t they?
Reichental: Yes, that’s very, very true. Everybody has a different sense of what a city is, but when you catalog it, you see that it’s a place that focuses on health, that focuses on buildings, on energy, on public safety, on telecommunications. It’s a very, very long list. In every one of those areas, there’s opportunity today. Each one is catching up with the private sector to deliver what communities expect, so there’s a catch-up period, but then there’s just these gaps of how can cities and governments deliver experiences that people are so used to in the private sector but don’t get in the public sector. Then, public sector is very much motivated to deliver better solutions because it reduces cost, which can be passed on to communities. It can create a better experience. It can get more people engaged in democracy and in the conversation. If you’re a private sector organization, this is a really wide open space for entering, bringing to the attention of mayors and city managers, incredible new ways of thinking about solving big, intractable issues, like transportation and congestion, and everything that goes with how you move people and goods around. This is remarkably open.
Lastly, I suppose, for the private sector and as a benefactor of the public sector, there are more tools in the tool kit. There are more ways now to deliver solutions. In the public sector, the digital transformation is just beginning, and if we can combine new thinking about the future, focusing on people and quality of life, I think there’s a very healthy future for private organizations to participate. The data certainly reflects that. I just say finally, here’s an amazing industry, the public sector industry for start-ups and new companies to enter where they didn’t enter before. This is an area of the economy that I’m actually quite bullish on. I think if we do a series of the right things, incorporating the right technologies, we’re looking at multi-trillions of new opportunity over the next decade and beyond.
Kornik: Yes, Jonathan, that’s a really good point and a really good segue way into my last question. Before I let you all go, we call this program “VISION by Protiviti” because we like to get really smart people with innovative ideas to talk about their vision of the future. Smart cities and transportation in 2030, what’s possible when you think about the next decade, and even beyond when we talk about the future of cities? Renee, why don’t you start us off?
Ray: Sure. When I think about what I want the future of cities to be like, I think of it more as an experience than something that I’m going to see. I think about feeling less stressed when I’m travelling through a city, whatever kind of errands I’m running. I think about if I’m driving in a city, having a more seamless experience to get in my car, map my route, reserve a parking space, pay for it, and have that be something that’s really easy and seamless for me to do. I think that one of the ways that we can get there, besides just technology, is by having measurable outcomes so that we can hold cities to a standard of ensuring that they are improving mobility options across different modes for different people, whether we’re talking about how easy is it to get to work, how many jobs can you access from your home, how easy it is for you to get to the grocery store, take your kids to drop them off at daycare; and being able to collect and evaluate data with technology is going to be a big part of how we’re able to do that.
Reichental: I’d like to actually build on what Renee is saying. A lot of what will happen over the next decade, some of it will be invisible as we build out the digital infrastructure to support a lot of the experiences that community members will have, the improved experiences. If you want to know about what we’ll see, how it will look differently, I want to point to two big areas. I think these will resonate with people. The first one is the introduction of autonomous vehicles at scale. I believe that we are a looking at a driverless feature because I’ve experienced driverless cars and I’m absolutely convinced that our roads will be populated by an assortment of new innovation that has been driven by computers, not humans. That allows us to change how we design and plan cities, it’s a really big deal. The second visible area that I think we’ll all notice, and it will happen faster I think than we anticipate, will be the introduction of drones, both on the street and also in the skies. It’s a space where the evidence is so clear now that this is coming, I would encourage not only the private sector but the public sector to begin the preparation for that. We need the legislation and the regulation. We got to be ready for it.
Finally, my final point would be, we can’t look out to the future without thinking about resilience and the particular changes in the climate, which over the next 10 years will be increasingly more visible. Cities will be making steps and taking steps, in fact, to mitigate a whole range of natural issues and the human made issues. By the way, I have one more, sorry, which is, it goes back to something Renee said very early on in our conversation. I think based on what I’m seeing in many major metropolitan areas around the world is more focused on place making. I like to think about this as we built cities in the 20th century largely around the automobile. The 21st century is about building cities around people. I think visibly, you’ll see cities start to make sort of central areas, more pedestrian and more friendly to humans. Smart cities are ultimately about people experiences. We shouldn’t get distracted by the technology. If it works well, it’s invisible.
Ghadiok: Let me give a technologist point of view. [Laughter] There were some remarkable points made by both Renee and Jonathan. Let’s first talk about maybe autonomous driving. I think there have been massive advances in machine learning, especially applied to computer vision in the past decade, which has enabled various applications. However, safety critical applications that require, say, six nines reliability, such as autonomous driving, remain elusive. I do believe somewhat guided autonomous driving or under supervision is going to happen in the next few years on highways, however city centers remain a challenge. One way to solve that problem is to use the kind of AI sensors, AI innate sensors to provide data to these semi-autonomous, autonomous vehicles so they know what to expect at an intersection 300 meters before they even approach it, especially in areas where there’s conflicts. There are a lot of, again, playlists for having these intelligent sensors spread across the city. Another idea to build upon what Renee said a little earlier in this segment was about cities and how cities — the way I would think about is how they can be made programmable so to speak. Can we change a certain area from a loading zone to a fair to maybe a soccer field on Sundays? Now, what’s going to enable this change is a geospatial capability. Now, everybody in their hands is going to have localization capability of about 50 centimeters of beta by the end of this decade or potentially sooner. Now, as my vehicle goes down the road, it can point to me, here is a vacant parking spot even though there is no marking or anything. We can visually change the nature of cities from one hour to the next, almost program them so to speak. I think that is a future that we can definitely expect before 2030. The autonomy, I would say let’s give it a decade or more. [Laughter]
Kornik: Thank you so much for all of those futuristic outlooks. It’s an exciting time, the technology moves very fast. We’re trying to keep up with it. Thank you so much for allowing us to get a better sense of how it’s moving and what’s coming. Vaibhav, Renee and Jonathan, thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate you participating in our program and thanks again.
Renee Autumn Ray is a Strategy and Innovation leader at Conduent.
Vaibhav Ghadiok is Co-Founder and Vice President of Engineering at Hayden AI.
Jonathan Reichental is a professor, bestselling author and smart cities expert.
For Rent: San Francisco’s empty offices and the future of central business districts
For Rent: San Francisco’s empty offices and the future of central business districts
For Rent: San Francisco’s empty offices and the future of central business districts
Saving the City: Remaking the American Metropolis is a multi-part documentary series focused on finding a better future for American cities and the people who live in them. VISION by Protiviti partnered with Saving the City to create exclusive videos for our Future of Cities topic. Ron Blatman, Executive Producer of Saving the City, also created and produced the acclaimed Saving the Bay, a four-part PBS series on the history of the San Francisco Bay, which continues to air. The series, narrated by Robert Redford, received four regional Emmy awards, including Best Documentary. For VISION by Protiviti, Blatman produced the video above on the future of central business districts post-pandemic and empty offices in San Francisco in particular. Blatman sat down with VISION by Protiviti’s executive editor Joe Kornik to discuss those issues, which are the subject of the exclusive video. Read the interview below.
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Big Data or Big Brother? Streetlights versus surveillance in San Diego's smart city quest
Big Data or Big Brother? Streetlights versus surveillance in San Diego's smart city quest
Big Data or Big Brother? Streetlights versus surveillance in San Diego's smart city quest
Saving the City: Remaking the American Metropolis is a multi-part documentary series focused on finding a better future for American cities and the people who live in them. VISION by Protiviti partnered with Saving the City to create an exclusive video for our Future of Cities topic. Ron Blatman, Executive Producer of Saving the City, also created and produced the acclaimed Saving the Bay, the four-part PBS series on the history of the San Francisco Bay, which continues to air. The series, narrated by Robert Redford, received four regional Emmy awards, including Best Documentary. For VISION by Protiviti, Blatman produced the video above on how San Diego’s smart streetlights unintentionally became a major privacy concern for citizens. Blatman sat down with VISION by Protiviti’s executive editor Joe Kornik to discuss the issues presented in the exclusive video. Read the interview below.
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MRT Jakarta CEO: Massive metro project will make the city more mobile, modern and sustainable
MRT Jakarta CEO: Massive metro project will make the city more mobile, modern and sustainable
MRT Jakarta CEO: Massive metro project will make the city more mobile, modern and sustainable
There’s a lot happening in Jakarta, Indonesia’s most populous and—for the time being, at least—capital city. Jakarta, the city of nearly 11 million people on the island of Java, is sinking as much as ten inches per year due to the excessive extraction of groundwater because piped water is not readily available. The World Economic Forum says nearly all of North Jakarta could be under water by 2050. In 2019, Indonesian officials announced an ambitious plan to relocate the capital to Borneo, but that plan is on hold due to COVID-19. What’s not on hold is another ambitious plan: building the country’s first underground transit system to combat Jakarta’s notorious pollution and traffic congestion problems, which cost the city some 67.5 trillion IDR ($4.9 billion USD) annually, according to the Indonesian Ministry of National Development Planning. Construction of Jakarta’s Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system began in 2013, but the first concept of a metro in Jakarta dates back to the 1980s. The first phase of the project finished in 2019 and has already exceeded its target of serving 65,000 passengers per day, says William Sabandar, Jakarta MRT’s CEO. VISION by Protiviti’s Editor-in-Chief Joe Kornik caught up with Sabandar to discuss the ambitious project that’s been nearly 45 years in the making and how it will impact Jakarta’s future.
Kornik: I know this has been a very long-term project with lots of planning and multiple phases. Can you update us on where the project stands right now, what the timetables are and what’s next for the project?
Sabandar: The idea started back in 1985; then the first feasibility study came in the 1990s, we started the work in 2013 and completed the first phase in 2019. That phase consists of 16 kilometers in South Jakarta and opened in March 2019. Now we are in the second phase where we continue with another 12 kilometers in North Jakarta, with a plan to complete it some time in 2027. By 2027, Jakarta will consist of a north-south network of 28 kilometers. We are also preparing the implementation of the third phase, which runs 31 kilometers east to west. Construction on that phase is scheduled to launch next year and be completed sometime in 2029 or 2030. At the same time, we are preparing for the fourth phase: This is also in South Jakarta and is about 12 kilometers and scheduled to be completed in 2029. We have also begun planning the fifth phase, as well. So, that’s where we are right now.
Kornik: This is a very ambitious project. I wasn’t even aware there was a fifth phase scheduled…
Sabandar: Well, we haven't announced the fifth phase just yet, but we will soon. And then there’s also a sixth phase. After the north-south and east-west lines are complete, we will have the circle, the inner line and the outer loop line. Once completed, the metro will consist of 325 kilometers covering 10 lines serving some 30 million people in the Jakarta region by 2030. This is how the MRT will become the backbone of Jakarta. One of the things the MRT will bring to the city is a new landscape. Jakarta will move from a very centralized city to one that is serving entire areas being developed along the metro line. In Jakarta, the development has always followed the roads, but the MRT master plan is to develop new towns along the rail stations. We call this “transit-oriented development,” and it will change the landscape of Jakarta in the future.
Kornik: I know there are more than 2.5 million daily commuters in central Jakarta. Most rely on private vehicles, making Jakarta one of the most congested—and polluted—cities on the planet. Is this why this project is so crucial to not only the city of Jakarta but the entire region?
Sabandar: Before 2019, Jakarta was one of the most congested cities in the world, ranked No. 3 by the TomTom Traffic Index. After 2019, Jakarta moved to No. 10. And just last year, it moved all the way to No. 31. And, of course, congestion is related to pollution, which also has improved, although we are aware some of that could be due to COVID. But those congestion numbers demonstrate how the arrival of MRT and people starting to move to public transport have already had an impact. But this is not just because of the MRT alone; since 2019, we’ve started to integrate the MRT into existing public transport, including the bus rapid transport, the commuter rail lines and all the feeder systems. When we’re through, nearly all residents of Jakarta will be within 500 meters from public transport. I believe that if you want to create a good city, a modern city, you must create a good public transport system. If you create a reliable system, a clean system and a safe system, people will use it. And when you integrate it with the feeding systems, it creates almost an entirely new city.
Once completed, the metro will consist of 325 kilometers covering 10 lines serving some 30 million people in the Jakarta region by 2030.
Kornik: As you say, this is an entirely new concept for Jakarta. Do you think it's enough to just build it or do you think there has to be some education to convince people to use it?
Sabandar: Very interesting that you ask that because yes, that was among our concerns: How do we change the culture of how people travel? We had some public transport and people just weren’t using it. But when we launched the first MRT line in 2019, we had many people riding it right from the start and it exceeded our initial ridership goals. I think people were happy that Indonesia finally had its own metro. For years, if we wanted to see this kind of modern transport, we’d have to go to Singapore. Also, the MRT in Jakarta set a new standard of service. We knew our on-time performance, for example, must be 100%. I told the team that you must give the extra mile of service to all the people; every single passenger gets treated with respect. There’s no rubbish on the trains or in the stations. And we have a very dedicated staff; they do not sit. Even I stand while on the train to set an example. We are creating a new culture of public transport that we never had before. You educate the community by showing evidence that public transport can lead to a more civilized life; this is how a modern city works.
Kornik: You touched on pollution briefly, and Jakarta’s track record has not always been great when it comes to the environment. I've heard you talk about how sustainability is key for all future projects. So, tell me a little bit about what the MRT can deliver in terms of sustainability and the environment?
Sabandar: It’s a big part of our mission; we changed our motto recently to highlight how the MRT is promoting mobility and ensuring sustainability, and we defined it as core to our long-term strategy for 2030. We have a sustainability committee that screens all the projects we do, and we started to also produce a sustainability report for the work that we do. We can already see from the evidence that Jakarta has less traffic. You can see blue skies now, and we used to only see smoke in Jakarta. Again, part of that is due to less travel during the pandemic, of course, but it started even before that. Sustainability, for me, is a practice that we do now for future generations to reduce congestion, to reduce emissions, and to reduce pollution.
Sustainability, for me, is a practice that we do now for future generations to reduce congestion, to reduce emissions, and to reduce pollution.
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Skyscrapers circa 2030: What’s their place in the future city?
Skyscrapers circa 2030: What’s their place in the future city?
Skyscrapers circa 2030: What’s their place in the future city?
Verticality has always been a part of ancient, old and modern cities. The urban fabric of cities like London, New York and Shanghai has evolved with a different vertical form dominating the cityscape over time. The modern-day skyscraper shadows over cathedral spires and civic monuments that once took the crown in the cityscape. The skyscraper is a unique aspect of cities. And it is more than just a means to extract maximum profit, high density and efficiency from a small parcel of land in the city. The skyscraper has an inevitable cultural significance as a shaper of a city’s image, a landmark for urban dwellers and a marker of a specific era.
Over the last two decades, there has been a global boom in skyscraper construction. Eighty-seven of the world’s 100 tallest buildings today were all completed and opened since 2000, according to The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. Of the top 10 tallest buildings, seven are located in Asia, two in the Middle East and one in New York City. Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, completed in 2010, is the world’s tallest building.
And even beyond this ranking of the world’s 100 supertalls, skyscraper construction has also been booming since the early 2000s in typically low-rise European cities including London, Barcelona, Paris and Milan. London has seen a crop of new skyscrapers being constructed over the last two decades which has included new, tall buildings known as much for their design as their unique names such as The Shard, The Gherkin and The Cheesegrater (Leadenhall Building). London’s context is specifically what my research is responding to and where this piece is launching from in thinking about the future of cities in 2030 and how skyscrapers are an important part of the conversation.
Before thinking about the end of this decade, it is worth thinking about where we are right now. Over the last 18 months, every realm of our lives as we once knew it has been dramatically transformed due to COVID-19. The year 2020 was like no other. We remained at home in line with government-led or self-imposed lockdowns. We abandoned our daily commutes, offices and coffee runs for working from home, video conference calls, and adjusting to a new “normal.” Skyscrapers, now mostly empty spaces sitting in and towering above the deserted city, were the least of our concerns.
But the pause enforced on our lives also provided moments for those in academia and the real estate industry to think about the future of the skyscraper. In many virtual conferences and talks, the future of the city has been discussed. I’ve had multiple conversations with key figures in and of the world of London property and skyscrapers. It is from these conversations and events that I am drawing on to present a series of possibilities for the future cultural significance of the skyscraper: a look at the end of this decade based on the tumultuous beginning, 2020. Skyscrapers, old and new, have a long life span. Their resilience and adaptability to change is not so much a question as it is a necessity. So, what will the cultural significance of the skyscraper be in 2030?
London has seen a crop of new skyscrapers being constructed over the last two decades which has included new, tall buildings known as much for their design as their unique names such as The Shard, The Gherkin and The Cheesegrater (Leadenhall Building).
Healthy
Health will be embedded in people’s behavior as much as it will be in the skyscraper’s infrastructure. The daunting portrayal of the skyscraper in 2020 as unsafe because it is a high-density space that could enable mass infection transmission is simply not true. But that perception has kickstarted the conversation about future skyscraper construction. Future skyscraper design and architecture will need to incorporate amenities that help prioritize health. This will include increased ventilation, breakout spaces that bring in fresh air, and green spaces like sky parks or gardens. The Spiral, New York’s skyscraper set to debut next year, will have vertical gardens wrapping around it.
Enhanced cleaning and hygiene practices will be part and parcel of skyscraper life whether that is through technology or individual behavior. Entering the skyscraper, calling an elevator, getting to your floor and into your workspace may be a touchless and safe experience thanks to new engineering innovations. Schindler, a global engineering firm for elevators and escalators, is currently developing new technologies such as an ElevateMe app, where building users operate elevators from their phones or with touchless call buttons. Automatic UV air purifying systems will be used for the elevator itself.
Contentious
Despite these optimistic projections about the cultural significance of the skyscraper, issues of sustainability and climate change will continue to be attached to its image. On the upside, the 2030 skyscraper is likely to be on its way to becoming carbon neutral. New York’s Climate Mobilization Act will have likely reached its goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions. As of 2019, 70% of New York City’s emissions were created by the built environment. By 2030, the Act aims for New York City’s 50,000 largest buildings to cut emissions down by 40%. Existing skyscrapers will undergo retrofitting to achieve energy efficiency as well as, to reflect my previous words, to be more attractive and “healthier” places to work.
The City of London’s 22 Bishopsgate has also championed the achievement of carbon reductions. The building has already met its embodied carbon (i.e., the building’s carbon footprint during construction) target reduction recommended by the London Energy Transformation Initiative (LETI) for a net zero building. 22 Bishopsgate will also install intelligent software systems where building users can see their energy consumption and be empowered to adopt sustainable behaviours. I have talked about the new skyscrapers that will be emerging over this decade and focused on their cultural significance, not on why they are emerging or whether they should be. But this topic of sustainability is an unchanged point of contention that will continue to be present in wider conversations beyond the skyscraper’s cultural value.
The skyscraper is one type of urban space that is home to offices, restaurants, retail, viewing galleries, lifts, lobbies, rooftops and shared spaces. Through the lens of the skyscraper, think about how urban spaces will change by 2030. New constructions will be emblematic of this decade that dealt with a pandemic and their visual significance will mark a time not just in the media or marketing but our personal memories. The future skyscraper will embody new ways of working and new ways of managing workspaces in the city. And it will continue to be contentious—admired for its presence in the urban fabric by some and simultaneously criticized for that presence by others.
40%↓
As of 2019, 70% of New York City’s emissions were created by the built environment. By 2030, the Act aims for New York City’s 50,000 largest buildings to cut emissions down by 40%.
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Australian mayors map out a post-COVID plan for the future of their cities
Australian mayors map out a post-COVID plan for the future of their cities
Australian mayors map out a post-COVID plan for the future of their cities
The way forward for Australia’s capital cities was on the docket at the Committee for Economic Development of Australia’s (CEDA) Lord Mayors’ Panel—The Future of Australian Cities, a virtual roundtable panel discussion among four Australian mayors, held earlier this year. The leaders of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Hobart focused on the future of their cities, and to some extent, all of Australia, post pandemic and beyond. The Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) hosted the panel earlier this year.
During the discussion, the mayors talked about emerging from COVID-19, lessons learned, and how their cities could forever be impacted. They also contemplated the way forward and the greatest challenges ahead for Australia’s capital cities.
“I know there's been a lot of talk about the demise of the city and the return to the suburbs because of the lockdown, but I think the demise of cities due to the pandemic has been greatly overstated,” says Clover Moore, Lord Mayor of Sydney. “I strongly believe that cities are going to remain the engine rooms of our economy, the centers of government, education, culture and entertainment.”
Moore is confident tourists will return and people will continue to come to Sydney and the other capital cities. “The reasons that Sydney was an attractive destination before the pandemic remain in place; Sydney continues to be a beautiful harbor city with a great climate and is a cultural and educational center. It is today and will continue to be well into the future.”
More than anything, Moore says, COVID-19 accelerated trends that were already occurring naturally in Sydney, including technological changes and changes to the nature of how and where people work. COVID sort of reinforced what was happening in the city already—people want to live near their jobs in neighborhoods that have a high level of amenities; they don’t want to be commuters traveling in from far-flung suburbs, she adds.
“We started to see these trends pre-pandemic, and we’ve been addressing them since way back in 2008 with our city and villages policy. We've invested in the quality of the parks and playgrounds, the recreation, the community facilities. We have leafy pedestrianized streets and people can walk or cycle to most local services and local employment and, of course, use public transport to connect to other parts of the metropolitan area,” Moore says. “We think it’s going to reinforce the policies we've been developing to make Sydney a place where people not only want to live but want to work.”
In Melbourne, Lord Mayor Sally Capp is bullish on the future but says the shakeout from COVID-19 in terms of the future of the city and the future of work is still to be determined. “We’ve certainly had a net fall in migration with more people moving into regional cities and choosing their lifestyle given that technology gives them the flexibility to do that.”
The rules have changed… and quickly. But even though Capp says she’s quite sure Melbourne will emerge from the pandemic in good shape, she’s not taking anything for granted and will stay laser focused on keeping the talent the city currently has as well as attracting new talent. Even at the height of COVID-19, Melbourne was busy approving some 800 planning applications worth some $2.3 billion (Australian) in both commercial and residential real estate. And Capp says city officials can play a significant role in what employment and economic opportunities will look like to help build sustainable communities going forward.
“Let's face it, it's not easy to replicate what we have in the capital cities, and particularly Melbourne,” Capp says. “So, building on those strong foundations is really important for the future of Melbourne, and working collaboratively with our regions, as we have done, will make sure that we all get the best benefit from the investments we’re making.”
CEDA, or the Committee for Economic Development of Australia, is an independent, membership-based think tank designed to identify policy issues that matter for Australia’s future and pursue solutions that deliver better economic and social outcomes for the greater good.
More than anything, COVID-19 accelerated trends that were already occurring naturally in Sydney, including technological changes and changes to the nature of how and where people work.
– Clover Moore, Lord Mayor of Sydney
Investment
Investment, whether pre-, during or post-COVID-19, was a key theme that emerged during the discussion. The mayors were keenly aware of the power of the purse strings.
Adelaide Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor says the city set up an economic development agency that’s led to a $500 million development in the Central Market, which is the city’s food district, and a $250 million development in North Adelaide intended to bring more businesses and more residents into the city itself. The North Adelaide development, she says, is designed to highlight the unique features of the city, specifically its 730 hectares of parklands—everything from forests and wetlands to heritage sites, sporting fields and playgrounds—that she says were so crucial during the darkest days of the pandemic.
“It was extraordinary to see how people connected with those open spaces,” Verschoor says. “And Australian cities offer lifestyles that other parts of the world just can't offer. We are incredibly livable cities, we are creative cities, and we are focused on the well-being of our citizens as something that we need to support.”
For all future development, Verschoor says Adelaide will continue to keep an eye on the overall well-being and lifestyle of its residents. “People are really rethinking what they want their lives to be, and I think that there's a lot of good reasons for people to both live in, and invest in, our capital cities.”
And that focus on lifestyle could provide an advantage for a smaller city like Hobart, says Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds. Recent data showed that Hobart had the lowest office vacancy of any Australian capital city in 2021. And it's still difficult to get commercial property because there is interest from a range of organizations to be based in Hobart.
“The pandemic, and its acceleration of technology adoption, has provided the opportunity for people to essentially be based anywhere… and maybe a smaller capital city becomes more attractive because of the lifestyle it provides,” Reynolds says. “As a city, we just have to make sure we’re ready for it.”
Housing
Another aspect all four mayors say they need to be focused on as they eye the future is affordable housing. “This really could turn out to be the burning-platform legacy and hopefully positive outcome story from the pandemic—that we finally, as a nation, come to terms with our housing crisis, and also the disparate needs of people looking for affordable housing in our cities,” Sydney’s Moore says.
“Sydney has had a very long-term plan of increasing affordable housing, and we have taken many actions to do that. But because Sydney residential real estate prices have become so expensive this is a big challenge for us,” Moore says. “But it's a high priority for us to continue to have people of all incomes being able to live and work in our city.”
In Melbourne, affordable housing is one of the key elements to the recovery and is central to how city officials plan for success in the future. “We are looking at how existing surplus accommodation can be made available for affordable housing, even social housing and subsidized housing,” Capp says. “One thing that could help bring Melbourne back is a plan around how we convert what might be empty commercial spaces to affordable housing. And we are also working on ways to accelerate affordable housing across our inner cities. So, these are all good examples of planks in the recovery and finding a way forward.”
Verschoor says all the mayors have been working—both individually and collectively—on housing and homelessness strategies for quite some time, lobbying at both the federal and state levels. But the pandemic put the issue on the front burner like never before.
“In terms of our own city, again, we had an extraordinary number of development applications and approvals that have gone through for a lot of those mixed-use developments,” Verschoor days. “And where there is mixed use, we have ensured, particularly of the things that we are investing in, that we have affordable housing.”
It's also important to be able to keep essential workers—hospital staff, university employees and students, police officers and firefighters—in the city. “These are the people we want to be able to continue to live in our city; and they want to live in the city, so we’re trying to make it as easy as possible for them to do so.”
Australian cities offer lifestyles that other parts of the world just can't offer. We are incredibly livable cities, we are creative cities, and we are focused on the well-being of our citizens as something that we need to support.
– Sandy Verschoor, Lord Mayor of Adelaide
Climate
The learnings from COVID-19, particularly the coordinated and rapid response that was often required across federal, state and local governments, could serve as a catalyst for another huge challenge that’s facing not only Australia but the planet. Sydney’s Moore says for many years, Australia’s state and federal governments failed to address what she considers Australia’s biggest challenge—climate change.
“I think we can take the learnings from COVID and apply them to addressing climate change, which is overwhelmingly our biggest challenge we have to face for the future,” says Moore. “And I think the learning we took away is that collaboration had to happen; we simply had no choice. We can take those lessons from COVID and start to address climate, too. I think that's what we should all be putting our minds to right now.”
The biggest environmental threat in Hobart, Reynolds says, are the catastrophic bushfires, so it’s quite different from the pandemic in one sense. However, the rapid response, and the need for financial resilience, is very much the same. “Cash flow is a challenge for smaller capital cities. I think the financial sustainability of cities and making sure we're ready for shocks and extreme circumstances is the biggest lesson we can take out of this,” Reynolds says. “As we've seen with this pandemic, there are things that will happen that you just can't predict. So, I think making sure that there is enough support available for people to be able to cope in unpredictable and uncertain times is key.”
Echoing Reynolds comments, Adelaide’s Verschoor says: “I think one of the big lessons for us was that our business continuity plans were for emergency events, which are contained within a timeframe; a fire or flood or losing power, but they weren't designed to be ongoing for months and months,” she says. “There's been a really big rethink about how everything works together, and what we need to put in place if we're going to be facing ongoing and maybe even global interruptions that will inevitably come with climate change.”
Moore says Sydney’s biggest priority has been addressing climate as part of its Sustainable Sydney 2030 strategy. “We made a commitment to get our emissions down by 70% by 2030. And just last year, we partnered with three regional areas to purchase renewable energy from them,” Moore says. “Sydney is now powered by 100% renewable electricity, and it's based on energy coming from those wind and solar farms in regional areas.”
Given the accelerating climate change that’s happening across Australia, Moore says that the “COVID collaboration” will continue to be a key strategy in Australia’s future. The interaction with regional areas that were devastated by bushfires was an opportunity for Sydney to be able to support those regional communities by sending emergency workers and others to assist.
“I think what we will see in the future is greater collaboration, not only from different levels of government, but also that interaction between city and regional local governments,” Moore says. “I don’t think there’s any question that we realize we’re all in this together.”
100%
Sydney is now powered by 100% renewable electricity, and it's based on energy coming from those wind and solar farms in regional areas.
– Clover Moore, Lord Mayor of Sydney
Clover Moore is an Australian politician. She has been the Lord Mayor of the City of Sydney since 2004 and is currently the longest serving Lord Mayor of Sydney since the creation of the City of Sydney in 1842.
Sally Anne Capp is the 104th lord mayor of Melbourne, elected on 18 May 2018 and sworn in on 24 May 2018. Sally is the first directly-elected female Lord Mayor of the City of Melbourne. She was the first woman to hold the post of Agent-General for Victoria in the UK, Europe and Israel. She has also served as the CEO for the Committee for Melbourne.
Sandra Maaike Jayne Verschoor is the Lord Mayor of Adelaide in South Australia since 12 November 2018. Prior to this, she was Deputy Lord Mayor and a General Manager at the City of Adelaide.
Anna Reynolds was elected Lord Mayor of Hobart in November 2018, the third woman to be elected into the role. First elected as an Alderman to the City of Hobart in 2014, she was Chairperson of the Parks and Recreation Committee during her first term.
Flying taxis and digital twin cities
Flying taxis and digital twin cities
Flying taxis and digital twin cities
Petra Hurtado is the Research Director at the American Planning Association (APA), heading APA’s research programs and foresight practice, where she’s responsible for expanding a future-focused research agenda and advancing planning practices that assist communities in navigating change. Her areas of expertise and research include urban sustainability, smart cities, emerging technologies, nature-based solutions, and environmental psychology. Hurtado sat down with VISION by Protiviti’s Editor-in-Chief Joe Kornik to discuss where she sees cities heading in 2030 and beyond.
Kornik: I’ve read quite bit about how the pandemic was maybe the beginning of the end of cities. Are cities in real trouble?
Hurtado: I know there’s been a lot of talk about that how this is the end of the city, because now people can just move wherever they want, and work remotely, and how cities haven’t been able to adjust quickly enough. But, you know, there’s more to cities than just work and job availability. Cities have been around for a long time, and they’ve gone through many pandemics, and many changes because of pandemics, and they’ve survived—and thrived. There’s a reason people like to live in cities: They want a sense of community; and they want to be a part of the experience of a city. Often, it’s an experience you can’t find elsewhere. So, I think cities will adjust and will be just fine post-COVID.
Kornik: Do you view COVID as a reset? Do you think they will be vastly different places when we get back to “normal”?
Hurtado: You know, to be honest, I hope they are different. It would be stupid, frankly, if we went back to the way they used to be because we’ve became aware of deficiencies in cities because of COVID. We have an opportunity to make some big changes. COVID highlighted many of the inequalities not everyone might have been aware of—people of color, for instance, were more negatively impacted by the pandemic. Their neighborhoods are often close to heavy industry and highways where the air is already polluted, which leads to conditions like asthma. Obesity rates tend to be higher because of the lack of healthy food options; and these are all planning issues that became more in focus because of COVID. We also saw how transportation behavior changed, especially during the lockdowns. We saw that it’s possible to mitigate climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. For the longest time, there was the assumption that behavior could never change, but COVID showed us it could. That’s one bright spot from the pandemic.
Kornik: Has COVID helped open planners’ eyes or have planners known these things all along?
Hurtado: It’s probably a mix of both. I think we’ve tried to resolve a lot of the challenges with the same tools that created them, which is never a good approach. One of the APA’s roles is to research emerging trends and try to verify them with data to make sure some aspect is not just the latest fad or just something the media is talking about, but really verifying which trends will have high impacts in the future, which will result in disruption.
Kornik: What are some of those trends and disruptors you’re seeing right now?
Hurtado: One is drone technology and what that could mean for moving things—and people—around cities. Amazon and other delivery services are already piloting drone deliveries, but now we’re also talking about passenger transportation—flying taxis. This is a topic that has been discussed since the 1960s, and there was always this momentum where we thought it was going to happen and then it didn’t. OK, with the drone technology we currently have, this time it’s going to happen, for sure. We’re confident it’ll be here by 2028. Asia and Europe are far along on this; the UK is currently building its first “verti port” (vertical port) for flying taxis and Germany is going to roll one out next year. The U.S. is also trying to figure this out. The World Economic Forum is currently working on a blueprint with the city of Los Angeles on urban air mobility, and they have created the first set of policy recommendations, where things like safety, costs, noise pollution and verti port locations are being assessed. Planners need to be ahead of the policy. We need to embrace that disruption—use it to our advantage even. The emergence of Uber and Lyft disrupted cities to some extent and that’s not even a big innovation. Well, how much will air taxis disrupt cities? Probably a great deal. And speaking of Uber and Lyft, they are both in this air taxi space, as well.
I know there’s been a lot of talk about that how this is the end of the city, because now people can just move wherever they want, and work remotely, and how cities haven’t been able to adjust quickly enough.
Kornik: What are some other ways planners can use big data?
Hurtado: We can measure how people move around cities, for example. That data is being used to make decisions about urban planning. There’s this whole idea around what we call “digital twin” cities. Planners can work with real-time data, create a twin of a city and then use that to experiment and try things out before it would ever get implemented. There are some big tech companies developing this technology and the conventional wisdom is that by 2025, lots of communities will be working with digital twins. Creating a digital version of Chicago with all the relevant data, for instance, would give planners access to information and the ability to experiment on the impacts of policy changes. If we build this road, how will that impact our greenhouse gas emissions. That level of experimentation hasn’t been available to planners before now and it will drastically alter the way city planning is done, and cities themselves, over the next several years.
Kornik: Will cities be better places to live in 2030 and beyond?
Hurtado: All the developments we’ve just talked about becoming a reality are going to disrupt cities tremendously… things like autonomous vehicles and flying taxis and digital twins, you name it. But I also think there are so many dynamic things happening right now that you don’t even have to go that far out to envision the changes coming. Look at all the discussions we’re having around people and equity right now; well, urban planning contributed to these inequalities that we’re seeing today in cities. It would be great if we learned from some of those mistakes. So, if I could make one wish it would be that planning would lead to more equitable cities in 2030 and beyond.
There’s this whole idea around what we call “digital twin” cities. Planners can work with real-time data, create a twin of a city and then use that to experiment and try things out before it would ever get implemented.
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Global cities desperately need new leadership models
Global cities desperately need new leadership models
Global cities desperately need new leadership models
The choice is ours: Will we have successful cities or human extinction?
The world’s population centres are the critical places in the future of our planet. Where people settle, and how they live with the planet, will define the ultimate endgame in the story of human life. Will we spoil our habitat or remake it?
Whether we think of such cities as consumption markets, infrastructure hubs, innovation ecosystems, decision-making centres, sharing platforms or visitor destinations does not really matter. They are all these things—and much more. We have come to call them “cities” because they serve and seek to empower citizens, but this word is now so overused, and sometimes so contentious, that it may just be better to think of them as population centres: places where people are concentrated. In the quest to avoid human extinction, such places are ontologically important.
On this planet, there are some 10,000 cities where we humans make our home, according to Cities in the World, European Commission and OECD. Meanwhile, the United Nations World Population Projection says we are on the road to 9 billion city dwellers by 2080. Currently, about 600 cities drive our global economy and fuel our national treasuries, 200 cities are the centres of national policy and law making, and 100 cities are the hubs of corporate enterprise.
Anyone who wants to argue against the idea of an urban world needs to articulate the alternative. How would you distribute and service 9 billion souls without using cities as the primary platforms? What are the environmental and social consequences of alternative models?
We know, from all the amassed science of success, that leadership is critical to how countries and companies survive and thrive. We read books about national heroes and about great corporate leaders. But less frequently do we focus on how population centres are led and guided by wise people and what the leadership imperative is for a place that is not a nation and not a business venture. The leadership of cities is a niche discussion.
In our post-pandemic, climate-alarmed world, city leadership is just about to become the most important job on the planet. The next 50 years will be a great reckoning, and it has already started. Can we equip our cities to avoid the extinction of our species?
Three ideas should drive our quest:
Cities are seriously underpowered
Most of our cities are subjected to an inadequate version of democratic government that leaves them with the wrong municipal geographies, insufficient financial resources, weak policy frameworks, short-term mandates and overly dominant national governments that do not understand the interactions of different forces locally, in a given place. National governments recognize the opportunity of a century of urbanization but are largely unwilling to couple it with the decentralisation of power it requires. So, cities are orphaned by nation states.
Place leadership is a collective task
Public bodies, civic groups, asset owners, investors and businesses must work together with citizens to shape choices and frame change together. Cities are both a means to optimise the interplay of different changes such as in energy, transport, environment and public health, and also a platform for collective behaviour change amongst citizens and businesses. Cities can motivate and inspire the changes we need because they enable and require sharing of the same place for multiple purposes by large numbers. Place-based leadership can induce innovation.
Soft power is therefore essential for cities to succeed
Cities need to be convening platforms for innovation and joint endeavour. They cannot achieve the changes required without building and driving coalitions. The more collaboration, the easier the big reforms that build greater formal competence are acquired. Well-orchestrated soft power leads to reforms that generate hard power.
National governments recognize the opportunity of a century of urbanization but are largely unwilling to couple it with the decentralisation of power it requires. So, cities are orphaned by nation states.
We can already see a new generation of city leadership platform types beginning to emerge in multiple locations:
Over the past 20 years, Manchester, UK, has steadily built a grand coalition of nine neighbouring municipalities working together with universities, investors and businesses committed to a place-leadership agenda that has enabled delegation of new authority, the acquisition of new financial powers, and creation of a new leadership structures in a “combined authority” for the city region.
The Greater Sydney Commission is a new kind of city regional leadership platform where civic leaders are selected for their expertise to shape a long-term agenda beyond the short-term mandates and political cycles but accountable to, and influential upon, them.
Barcelona Global has been established as a coalition of corporations, institutions, entrepreneurs, academics, skilled migrants and investors who want to help shape the Barcelona of 2050. The coalition is working at the spaces within and between the formal levels of government: municipal, state, national, and EU levels of formal governance.
In China, the emergence of the great city clusters in the megaregions of The Greater Bay Area, Yangtze River Delta and Jing-Jin-Ji regions shows a new scale for subnational leadership to oversee and coordinate networks of interdependent cities.
In Colombia, we observe proactive citizen leadership in Medellín and civic-minded business leadership in Bogotá fostering new tools and platforms for place leadership to emerge.
As we emerge from a global pandemic, the quest for effective city leadership is more important than ever. New models of shared leadership are finally arriving, but is it too late? We need these models, as well as other innovative ideas and approaches, to become the fabric of our global urban infrastructure to have successful cities. Our collective future depends on it.
As we emerge from a global pandemic, the quest for effective city leadership is more important than ever.