1. Create an app for tourists with walking tour routes that feature historic sites/buildings, parks, and public events that day/week
2. Install free wifi in public parks/squares and track the number of people who use each place
3. Place tracking devices on furniture in public spaces so it does not need to be locked up or removed every day
4. Create an app that features outdoor events/festivals and highlights places with outdoor dining options
5. Commission college art students to create modern solar powered light-art installations that automatically turn on when it becomes dark
The top smart initiatives to improve Portland’s public spaces from this initial list are: installing free Wi-Fi in public parks/squares, creating an app for outdoor events and dining options, and installing illuminated public art powered by solar. By making Wi-Fi accessible in public spaces, it attracts people to the place and gives people the freedom of performing activities normally done indoors, outside. When Wi-Fi is combined with good seating options, people have the ability to bring their laptop and do work outside, have meetings, or watch a TV show. The majority of people have smartphones that are set to automatically connect to open Wi-Fi networks. Wi-Fi can also be leveraged as a means for tracking the usage of public spaces by recording how many people are connected to the Wi-Fi and how long they stay. Portland is home to many start-ups, and people in creative industries often have the freedom to work remotely at home or in cafes — why not use Wi-Fi to bring these people outdoors and enjoy their public spaces?
Portland hosts a monthly art walk as well as several outdoor festivals during the summer months, but it needs to increase the frequency of events/festivals, and transform its streets and parks from an occasional tourist attraction to a place for regular enjoyment for locals. Events can include street food festivals, outdoor movie screenings in the park, or free art for kids on the weekend in a square. Once events are planned, they need to be publicized. The best way to do this is through an app that will inform Portland residents, as well as visitors, of upcoming outdoor events/festivals. These should be year-round. The app can also feature outdoor dining options, which are a growing trend in Portland, as indicated by the multiple applications for outdoor dining licenses in July (1). Another example of an event is closing down streets on certain evenings throughout the warmer months and setting out tables so all the diners can eat outdoors as pedestrians wander through.
Finally, public spaces will be much better utilized if there is better lighting. Well-lit places not only create a more inviting atmosphere at night, but also improves safety since people cannot hide amongst the shadows. Lighting is especially important in places in Maine where the sun sets very early during the fall and winter months. Portland has such great potential for commissioning MECA, Bowdoin, Bates, Colby, and U Maine students to create great public art installations in the form of lighting. These art installations can inject places with interest and culture during the day and then illuminate automatically once the sun goes down, thanks to solar-powered technologies. The installations can change according to the season and illumination can even be displayed in various colors. If passed by the Portland City Council, $63,000 of future bond funds will be dedicated to public art (1) — lighting initiatives would be a great way of allocating of funds.
Unlike Smart Cities like Songdo (2), Portland is not starting from scratch. Therefore, it needs to integrate technology with current systems and the history of its place in a way that best benefits people’s daily lives. Portland has so much potential to create dynamic public spaces that will energize its city life. Technology should be infused into the development of these places so they not only function well for people, but also informs people about them via apps, etc..
(1) The Portland City Council, “Agenda: Regular City Council Meeting July 21, 2014,” City of Portland, July 21, 2014, http://portlandmaine.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/07212014-479
(2) Adam Greenfield, “Against the Smart City,” Do Projects, 1.3 Edition, October 1, 2013.
I really like the idea of creating a universal city app that will have all the information one can possibly need, be it a tourist or a local resident. I think this kind of app will really bolster city life as people will be more aware of events going on everywhere around them. This app would also rise the influx of tourists because it would make visiting the city so much easier: giving routes and walking directions, providing information about events and etc. I think this app would make anyone feel like the resident of Portland because of all the information it will hold.
I also really liked the approach of integrating technology into the existing infrastructure; I like that the author acknowledges that existing cities can never be like Songdo because they are not starting from scratch.
Emma,
I really like the idea of crowd-sourcing the lighting design question to college students. I agree that thoughtful and effective lighting is among the most important factors in creating a good space. Crowd-sourcing in this scenario would be good for a few reasons. The solutions would likely come from many different minds, and therefore be varied and cover different aspects of good lighting. Even if one was not totally optimal, it might have an excellent design component that could be utilized. Additionally, since the best solution would combine good aesthetics and green design, it would be gather ideas from students in multiple departments.
Portland has many small and scattered public spaces, and lighting would be a simple and effective way not only to further designate those spaces as public and usable, but to make them inviting and pleasant to occupy.
I also see the importance of the app for events in Portland. I suggested a similar app but I see your suggestions which can combine many features of the city into one app as being extremely beneficial, not only to tourists but also residents. Increasing the frequency of guests at such events as the Art Walk or making museums and historical areas more well-known and more easily accessible, can help improve the efficiency of Portland as well as highlight the smaller events. Portland has so much to offer and what a better way to enhance this knowledge than through a smart phone or computer app, something that most everyone spends too much time on as it is.
I really like both your walking tour and your events app ideas. It is an innovative way to integrate technology into a historic city that may have limited infrastructure or money to do so otherwise. It also is sensitive to the ideas we read concerning the “democratization” of the city — everyone (with a phone) is able to use the technology and contribute content. At the same time, it has the potential to limit access to those who cannot afford a phone. That being said, it is still a very useful, convenient and inexpensive suggestion of how to engage both tourists and residents more actively in the local culture. I also think the public art lighting is a very creative and easily implemented suggestion. It is multi-faceted, simultaneously promoting safety, aesthetics, and local culture.
I think all your ideas are interesting, innovative ways to incorporate “smarter” aspects into public spaces. Free public Wi-Fi is an idea that has been mentioned several times and I agree that it would be very beneficial in Portland. I also agree that Portland should host more events and festivals, especially if they appeal to a wide range of people. They would help create a more lively, community oriented feel. A suggestion would be adding festivals not only outdoors (such as street fairs, public events in parks, etc), but also creating events indoors that would be easily accessible in the winter.
I found your idea of tracking devices on furniture in public spaces really interesting. Though, I think that it could be a problem if say, a chair was found very far away from its original location. Whose responsibility would it be to find it? The tracking devices are a good way to keep track of the furniture but I think they also need an additional system to uphold it. Maybe the public spaces could be surrounded with an invisible border, so if a piece of furniture left the area, an alarm would go off (kind of like an electric fence).
Emma,
Your street dining idea has a great magic to it; there is a town near where I live that does it every Wednesday in the summertime! It allows people to reclaim street space as community space, and it really does have a unique energy to it. The fact that you are sitting out in the streets, where there could be cars rushing by, eating food in a relaxed environment at the center of everything, is quite something. Art Walk may close down Congress, but food has historically been the for-all force for bringing humans together. Congress Street is undoubtedly the heart of Old Port, and would be incredible for outdoor dining, but I also think that events should be mindfully inclusive in their purpose as well. While there is festivity and cheer on top of the hill, on the parallel street right behind there is hunger and exclusion. There are a variety of different restaurants on that strip, affordable options should be invited and provided. Perhaps those who cannot afford to be part of this can be granted something similar to “foodstamps” to attend, while everyone else pays for their ticket. Rather than something like restaurants agreeing collectively to donate a certain fraction of their proceeds towards local food kitchens (good effort, but heavily ironic), this solution allows for inclusivity.
Now that you are returning to the waterfront, will you nix the app or the lighting? Or perhaps bring both into it? These are both solid and exciting ideas. Annie got particularly excited about the latter and is integrating it into her work now so that if you want to do more with that, chat with her too.