Uffer argues a “Cyber-Physical Social System”[1] within a city creates and distinguishes it as a smart city. For example, he believes “deploying sensors in buildings is relatively cheap and time effective.”[2]Sensors would be useful for a smart city because it would be effective feedback, and by controlling more information, society could live in a cost-effective way for monitoring costs like electricity. Housing would need to be innovated so it keeps track of these types of data. Algorithms would be able to run within one’s home to provide daily essentials more efficiently.

In order to promote the common good there needs to be housing that is least involved with financial capitalists. This means that major banks should not be allowed to monopolize the real estate market. Fields calls this “financialisation” which is due to the “global expansion of finance capital and favourable market conditions created through the roll-back of affordable housing regulations.”[3] The public state needs to implement more regulation in the housing market in order to promote housing for the common good. This is needed, because the housing market creates incentives to buy lower-value estates since it has lower prices. In order to maximize profits in a real estate investment, the firm could prevent owners from receiving loans. If the housing market is not regulated by the public sector, it incentivizes firms to “pocket the money that should have gone to repairs and upkeep…[which] effectively destroy[s] the building and establishe[s] a rent gap”[4] By doing so, the firms have been able to create an opportunity to capitalize on a new real estate investment. Thus creating new establishments for people that could afford it. The gentrification process is motivated by a deregulated real estate market, which needs to be shadowed more by the public sector. To serve the common good, there needs to be opportunities for all residents to be able to repair their homes. If residents are oppressed of home investments, their housing-value decreases creating investment opportunities for large firms.

Portland needs to be able to see what neighborhoods are investing toward their homes, and help the neighborhoods that are not in repairs. This way the city is limiting the incentive for financial firms to profit from low-income neighborhoods at the cost of their residents’ enjoyment. That’s a solution to serve the common-good, but if the city wants to tackle long-term sustainability issues, establishing homes with sensors would be ideal. They would be able to cut energy consumption and help create daily efficient improvements.

[1]Uffer

[2] Ibid

[3]Fields

[4] Smith