Technology
Kansas City, Missouri, wants to be a smart cities leader, but it also needs to address concerns about data collection and privacy, say critics.
The New York Times
Penn IUR's Eugenie Birch, Richard Voith and Susan Wachter ask: Can rapidly urbanizing cities in low and moderate income countries become "smarter"?
Penn IUR Urban Link
Anthony Foxx, former Secretary of Transportation under President Obama, has accepted a job at Lyft. In a post, he discusses why.
Medium
In a new video game, the player is a no-good raccoon wreaking havoc on the world around him.
Los Angeles Magazine
Connecthings, a transit app for the blind, is undergoing a trial that will connect its information to the popular wayfinding App BlindSquare in an Austin trial.
Curbed
The MR-63 subway car is being retired but, rather than send them to the junk yard, STM is sending them to artists and engineers to repurpose them and put them to work.
Next City
Self-driving cars process a tremendous amount of data to pilot themselves through crowded streets. That computing power needs electricity, and lots of it.
Wired
Blog post
Students review municipal planning department websites in cities with more than 50,000 people to identify strengths and weaknesses. This post shares examples of the use of websites for information sharing and engagement.
Tony Hsieh laid out a grand ambition two create a more dynamic downtown in Las Vegas that would change cities all over the world. Now, after a series of setbacks and with dwindling funds, that vision seems unlikely to be realized.
Quartz
Blog post
A list of mobile apps that support planning, as part of an annual update. Learn about exciting new ways to explore cities and enhance planning via mobile apps. Please feel free to add your own favorites.
Services like Amazon Prime and other quick delivery online retailers are creating more demand for short trip delivery, the result is streets jammed with vans. Bikes may offer an alternative.
Quartz
The city of San Francisco and Airbnb may move their dispute from the courtroom to the negotiating table, as the company indicates willingness to find a "win-win" with the city.
San Francisco Chronicle
Blog post
Computer simulations show signs of a coming revolution with wide ranging impacts on many human endeavors, particularly cities and city planning.
Chief Innovative Technology Officer of Los Angeles, Peter Marx, recently stepped down. But first, he offers some lessons learned during his tenure, which included an L.A. mobility app and a successful open data initiative.
The Planning Report.
These 20 apps and services will help you engage with everything Chicago has to offer in a whole new way.
Netted
Alphabet's Sidewalk Labs announced the launch of Sidewalk Talk — a blog and forum for urbanists and technologists to converse and collaborate.
Medium
Blog post
Planners are increasingly using social media for public engagement. How can you analyze what people are saying? NodeXL is an easy to use free tool for scraping and analyzing social media. I use this tool to report from the APA National Conference.
In the traditional view, nature and digital technology clash. But for many people, tech can offer ways to better engage with parks.
KCET
Blog post
Researchers are examining technologies that can aid in understanding many aspects of our cities, from how citizens interact in plan making, where residents use social media, and how to understand our changing communities.
As companies like Uber, Lyft, and Bridj expand to small scale transit options, they are setting the stage for a new kind of small scale transit oriented development where the new station is the sidewalk.
Mobility Lab
