Throughout our study of the smart city, it has become evident that smart technology can and should be applicable to all aspects of modern urban life, from how we navigate our sidewalks to when our window shades close. Urbanized and thickly settled cities like New York lend themselves well to smart changes, as do cities such as Songdo which are being built from the ground up without any preexisting society to contend with. Portland, with one foot marching into the modern city and the other firmly planted in its traditional fishing harbor, challenges us to intermingle smart technology while preserving the city’s character and industry. As it undergoes a housing revolution with increased demand and new, hip neighborhoods, the ideal housing in Portland is one that capitalizes on the charm and beauty of the city while also helping the city advance through the implantation of smart technology.

In all cities, both smart and not-so-smart, sustainability is a key component of housing. Appliances and windows are high efficiency, building materials are recyclable, and much of a housing unit’s energy comes from solar panels mounted on its roof. The ideal housing is an “intelligently managed space that maximizes the requirement of the users…while minimizing resources required.” [1] In other words, modern housing seeks to provide all that homeowners need using as little energy and as few resources as possible.

The study completed in the Crowley reading analyzes the effects of citizen actuation on energy reduction in an office space. This idea can be translated to housing where smart technology tracks the average consumption by room in a house and sends alerts to homeowners with abnormalities or energy saving recommendations. As we discussed in class, Twitter may not be the most appropriate media to send these alerts; energy consumption data can instead be displayed in small monitors in houses (think thermostat sized) or could even be sent to the landlord or board of a co-op housing unit. As the Crowley reading mentions, “while embedding sensors into an environment can be relatively cost-effective, the cost of installing actuation systems can be prohibitive.” [2] For this reason, it could be more efficient to install monitors to track energy consumption rather than smart technology that automatically closes your shades or dims lights in a room.

Another way to increase sustainability and promote interaction within a housing complex is through the use of garden terraces. In this new Portland complex, rooftop terraces provide a location for solar panels and seating with bay views. Rooftop terraces also serve as a substitute for Portland’s lacking public spaces. Residents can share a communal space with a vegetable garden, for example, a perfect promotion of the common good.

Portland’s high homeless population and the turnover and construction of new housing creates a housing disparity. With the continuous gentrification of neighborhoods in Portland, mixed income housing would benefit the common good of Portland. Exploring the Munjoy Hill neighborhood on Zillow (http://www.zillow.com/homes/Munjoy-Hill-Portland-ME_rb/), you can see the real estate gaps; new housing in the $900,000 range abuts housing in the neighborhood’s average of around $200,000-$400,000. Of course, while many houses and apartments on the market can be found within the neighborhood’s average, swanky new complexes tend to be much higher. A solution to this problem could be public policy that mandates that a certain quota of new housing serve low-income families or individuals. Thus we could begin to reverse “the frontier ideology [that] rationalizes social differentiation and exclusion as natural, inevitable,” [5] the mentality that gentrification leads to a natural social division, instead promoting the common good and integrating the city’s socioeconomic classes.

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[1] Crowley, David N., Edward  Curry, and John G. Breslin. 2014. “Leveraging Social Media and IoT to Bootstrap Smart Environments.” In Big Data and Internet of Things: A Roadmap for Smart Environments, edited by Nik Bessis and Ciprian Dobre, 379-380. Springer.

[2] Crowley, David N., Edward  Curry, and John G. Breslin. 2014. “Leveraging Social Media and IoT to Bootstrap Smart Environments.” In Big Data and Internet of Things: A Roadmap for Smart Environments, edited by Nik Bessis and Ciprian Dobre, 383. Springer.

[3] Simon Firth, “Building the Energy-Smart Home,” Hewlett Packard Development Co, accessed October 6, 2014, http://www.hpl.hp.com/news/2011/apr-jun/home_energy_manager.html.

[4] “152-156 Sheridan St #1B, Portland, ME 04101,” Zillow, accessed October 6, 2014, http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/152-156-Sheridan-St-1B-Portland-ME-04101/2105266144_zpid/.

[5] Smith, Neil. 2014 [1996]. “‘Class Struggle on Avenue B’: The Lower East Side as the Wild Wild West.” In The People, Place and Space Reader, edited by Jen Jack Gieseking, et al, 316. New York: Routledge, 2014.