Similar to housing and public spaces, infrastructure in a smart city should exist for the people. More specifically, infrastructure should reflect the purposes of the city. While Washington DC was designed to be a complicated city, New York’s Jeffersonian Grid efficiency allows for tourists to more easily find their way. AbdouMaliq Simone’s article, “People as Infrastructure,” discusses how Johannesburg’s “infrastructure is capable of facilitating the intersection of socialities so that expanded spaces of economic and cultural operation become available to residents of limited resources” [1]. Johannesburg is using infrastructure as a method to encourage economic and cultural growth and awareness. By extension, I believe infrastructure should help the residents and visitors navigate the city in such a way that encourages the ultimate goal of the city.

Alberto Jimenez’s ideas on the “right to infrastructure” are pertinent to the common good of a city. Jimenez supports the idea of open source technology and how open source can help develop different dimensions of urban governance [2]. The “right to infrastructure” and open source technology can be path to promoting the common good as it acts as a catalyst of innovation and benefits for all people and the city as a whole. Smart infrastructure should be available for all residents and visitors as a mean to raise their well being, which in turn helps the well being of the city. Additionally, open source often acts as an incentive for further innovations that hopefully create a snowball effect for the people.

Given my thoughts on the expansion of Portland, its infrastructure will be vital to such success. Should Portland choose to rejuvenate certain areas for housing and public space, it is also very important that the city integrates transportation systems, public schools, public facilities, and other infrastructure to ensure that new housing and public space becomes desirable. This creates a cycle of equity throughout Portland and ideally continues to spur growth and expansion. Another thought for Portland is the Jeffersonian Grid. Although relatively small now, Portland’s population and economy has been growing and the city is likely to experience urban sprawl in the upcoming years. Therefore, devising a new plan now to make Portland easily navigable would be useful in the long run.

[1] Simone, AbdulMaliq. 2014 [2004]. “People as Infrastructure: Intersecting Fragments in Johannesburg.” In The People, Place and Space Reader, edited by Jen Jack Gieseking, et al, 241–46. New York: Routledge.

[2] Jiménez, Alberto Corsín. 2014. “The Right to Infrastructure: a Prototype for Open Source Urbanism.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 32 (2): 342–62.