{"id":770,"date":"2014-10-08T15:23:01","date_gmt":"2014-10-08T20:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/digital-computational-studies-2430-fall-2014\/?p=770"},"modified":"2014-10-08T15:23:01","modified_gmt":"2014-10-08T20:23:01","slug":"smart-infrastructure-for-the-common-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/digital-computational-studies-2430-fall-2014\/post-5-infrastructure-reflections\/smart-infrastructure-for-the-common-good\/","title":{"rendered":"Smart Infrastructure for the Common Good"},"content":{"rendered":"

Throughout history there have been many shifts in technology, which have subsequently shifted the social sphere within cities. Even just looking at Times Square in New York City, it has transformed from a \u201cpornucopia<\/em>\u201d as Professor Gieseking so cleverly called it, to an area of Broadway filled with cars, to a pedestrian square with huge sky scrapers filled with advertisements. This is just one instance of the worldwide transformation, which was especially prevalent in the United States. With the advent of the car, cities became much more centered on vehicles, something that Mayor Giuliani was particularly fond of. In 1999, Mayor Giuliani shut down the 50th<\/sup> Street crosswalks at Fifth and Madison as a way to convenience cars at the inconvenience of pedestrians. [1] Cities began to construct freeways out to the suburbs, which were means of enabling people to \u201cunderstand the city from the position of the car\u201d. [1, 414] By seeking to enhance the \u2018flow\u2019 a conflict between modes<\/em> emerged. [1] Which mode sat at the top of the hierarchy? Pedestrians or cars? As soon as the shift to cars\u00a0gained momentum, Giuliani decided that Times Square and all of New York could benefit from an increase in tourism. He gave corporations tax-reductions to build huge skyscrapers under the promise of putting big ads on the building. Streets were shut down and increased number of public tables and chairs were put out in the street to encourage people to use this public safe. This image of Times Square coincides with AbdouMaliq Simone\u2019s idea of \u201cpeople as infrastructure\u201d [2].<\/p>\n

Simone discusses the expansion of infrastructure<\/em> beyond its traditional definition of physical structure and into people<\/em>. The dichotomy of people producing infrastructure and infrastructure producing the people, is a big concept gathered into the right to infrastructure<\/em>, coined by Jim\u00e9nez in response to Lefebvre\u2019s idea the right to the city<\/em>. [3] In terms of infrastructure for the common good, this idea seems accurate. As I discussed in my previous post, the common good is about equal accessibility to all. With the people producing infrastructure and infrastructure simultaneously producing the people, the common good<\/em> seems like a reasonable and achievable quality in public life. Johannesburg provides a powerful example of a place of collision between underdeveloped, half-built environments, and the strong influence of the US. [2] It is more difficult to promote the common good through infrastructure in this kind of environment that has drastically different segments and no area for these different areas to unite.<\/p>\n

In this way, Johannesburg is similar to Portland. With Old Port filled with wealthy, affluent families in large houses on the water, and the Bayside Area filled with people who regularly eat meals at Preble Street. Here, infrastructure differs between areas and is something that needs to be changed in order to promote the common good<\/em>. One way this can be accomplished is through the restructuring of public roadways and sidewalks. For me it seems as though Portland is very conducive to both pedestrians and vehicles at the same time, but those who do not have access to vehicles may feel differently. An increase in public transportation is a way to make these people feel like they have easier access to portions of the city and can use infrastructure to their advantage. If people have equal access to all regions of the city through accessible transportation infrastructure, Portland could become more united.<\/p>\n

Jim\u00e9nez directs our attention to infrastructure for the smart city discussing mainly free and open source software (F\/OSS). The transition from technology existing in a silo, to people \u201cwiring the landscape of their communities with the devices, networks, or architectures\u201d represents the collision of these worlds. [3, 342] Most of what Jim\u00e9nez discusses and in relation particularly to the project in Madrid, seem to be too advanced for Portland. However, the simple fact that cities are becoming smarter as technology and computing systems are driving society can relate. Smart infrastructure can include anything from public wifi to designing public parks from publicly available data \u2013 more of the direction that Portland is headed. Portland needs to focus on equally accessible smart infrastructure such as public wifi or public buildings without limitations before it can move to making parts of the city in 3D printers or an architectural intelligence structures. Portland could also benefit from open-access data so that everyone can contribute ideas or information of the city in order to create a more collaborative effort focused around the city. This idea also promotes the common good<\/em> through more accessibility to all segments of the population. All three of these readings bring about important aspects of infrastructure, especially in a smart city, and provide useful suggestions of how Portland can begin to develop in this way.<\/p>\n

[1] Sorkin, Michael. 2014 [1999]. \u201cTraffic in Democracy.\u201d In The People, Place, and Space Reader<\/em>, edited by Jen Jack Gieseking, et al, 411-415. New York: Routledge, 2014.<\/p>\n

[2] Simone, AbdulMaliq. 2014 [2004]. \u201cPeople as Infrastructure: Intersecting Fragments in Johannesburg.\u201d In The People, Place, and Space Reader<\/em>, edited by Jen Jack Gieseking, et al, 241-246. New York: Routledge.<\/p>\n

[3] Jim\u00e9nez, Alberto Cors\u00edn. 2014. \u201cThe Right to Infrastructure: a Prototype for Open Source Urbanism.\u201d Environment and Planning D: Society and Space<\/em> 32 (2): 342-362.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Throughout history there have been many shifts in technology, which have subsequently shifted the social sphere within cities. Even just looking at Times Square in New York City, it has transformed from a \u201cpornucopia\u201d as Professor Gieseking so cleverly called it, to an area of Broadway filled with cars, to a pedestrian square with huge … Continue reading Smart Infrastructure for the Common Good<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":154,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-post-5-infrastructure-reflections"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p50q0U-cq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/digital-computational-studies-2430-fall-2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/digital-computational-studies-2430-fall-2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/digital-computational-studies-2430-fall-2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/digital-computational-studies-2430-fall-2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/154"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/digital-computational-studies-2430-fall-2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/digital-computational-studies-2430-fall-2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/digital-computational-studies-2430-fall-2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/digital-computational-studies-2430-fall-2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/digital-computational-studies-2430-fall-2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}