Infrastructure is most useful in the smart city when is meets the ever-changing needs imposed by urbanization. As Simone writes, urbanization increases the complexity of cities by increasing the density of heterogeneous elements. [1] As more people move from rural to urban environments, cities need to increase their infrastructure’s capacity to accommodate the needs of growing populations. This means establishing hospitals, police stations, fire departments, and schools in specific locations to meet the needs of incoming residents. Infrastructure in the smart city is useful when it employs technology to provide residents open access to information about the city. With open data, residents gain an interactive experience with their city and realize their right to produce infrastructure. [2] For instance, a single individual, when given open access to data about bike share hub locations, can create an app for everyone to use. Technology can be leveraged to create solutions that improve infrastructure’s usage and efficiency. Open data, such as the plans featured in Jimenez for building shelter/seating structures and bike accessories [2], allow people to share information at no cost and realize the infrastructure they want to see in their city.
Infrastructure for the common good ensures access to healthcare, protection from environmental damages (curbs for water run off, etc.), and public safety. Infrastructure for walking, biking, and public transportation not only reduce emissions and damaging environmental and human health impacts, but also increases opportunities for low-cost methods of transportation throughout the city. As Sorkin highlights, prioritizing pedestrians over cars develops infrastructure that encourages people to walk and engage in “low energy travel”. [3] Being able to walk and bike places enables low-income people to experience the city in a more robust way and better access infrastructure such as hospitals, schools, and libraries.
Portland should further develop its infrastructure by improving its transportation network. The city is small, so people should be able to safely bike and walk as means of transport. This requires building and maintaining sidewalks, installing streetlights so people feel safe at night, shoveling the sidewalks during the winter, and installing bike lanes along busy traffic streets. Planting trees along roads with lots of pedestrian and bike traffic would help slow traffic and improve safety, as well. [3] Portland should increase its bus routes and frequency of services. Closing down certain streets to be pedestrian-only for certain nights, such as First Friday Art Walk, would help the city become more pedestrian friendly. The city also needs to address flooding issues in the Old Port by building a drainage system to cope with heavy summer downpour. Portland should also build infrastructure to meet its changing demographics by providing the social services and English language development services its immigrant population needs. Immigrants and refugees need basic care and English skills to secure economic opportunities and also to engage in the social infrastructure. [1]
[1] Michael Sorkin, “Traffic in Democracy,” in The People and Space Reader, ed. Jen Jack Gieseking, et al (New York: Routledge), 2014, 411-415.
[2] Alberto Cosin Jimenez, “The Right to Infrastructure: a Prototype for Open Source Urbanism,” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 32 (2): 342-62, 2014.
[3] Abdul Maliq Simone, “People as Infrastructure: Intersecting Fragments in Johannesburg,” in People and Space Reader, ed. Jen Jack Gieseking, et al (New York: Routledge), 2014 (2004), 241-246.