Smart cities series: Letter from New York

In this series, three Primafila Correspondents report on what makes Singapore, New York, and Amsterdam smart. Read the second personal letter from New York here.

Last year, 55 percent of all people worldwide lived in cities, and it is estimated that this figure will rise to 70 percent by 2050, as the summer issue of the American Express member magazines Platinum and Centurion reveal. Intelligent solutions are needed in order to deal with this growth along with the challenges global climate change presents. Enter the “smart city”, which combines the highest possible quality of life with the least possible resource consumption by using the latest technologies.

In this series of letters, first published in Platinum and Centurion, three Primafila Correspondents report on their smart cities from Singapore, New York, and Amsterdam.

Sorry, Superman!

The days when you used to be able to get changed in a phone box in Gotham City, New York are over: “Goodbye pay phone – hello free Wi-Fi!”

7,500 public pay phones are being replaced by new pillars called links in all of New York’s five districts this year. Each link provides ultrafast, free public Wi-Fi, free phone calls, charging stations for personal digital devices and touchscreen access to city services, maps and directions.

This is just one example of how New York is embarking on becoming the smartest major city in the world. Another one can be found on the rooftops of idyllic terraced houses in Park Slope in Brooklyn: Solar systems that store electricity in microgrids. These microgrids are integrated into the traditional grid and therefore help distribute electricity evenly, during peak loads too. They are managed using state-of-the-art blockchain technology, which makes any changes in accounting impossible. A regulatory framework had to be created first to enable these kinds of technologies to be used successfully. The state of New York’s Public Service Commission tackled this objective under the title “Reforming the Energy Vision” (NY REV). Decentralization and the increased use of renewable energy sources are to reduce the vulnerability of the energy supply, which became all too obvious during Hurricane Sandy. NY REV promises that the new system would revolutionize energy trading, turning electricity into a solid currency.

Modesty is not a New York virtue, neither is patience. Those who used to complain about having to wait fifteen minutes for a train, complain about a waiting time of five minutes today. Smart is not going to be defined by machines in the end but by the people using it. And by the mutual respect people show each other.

Roman Elsener has been living in New York for more than 20 years as a reporter for German-language media like Neue Zürcher Zeitung NZZ and the Swiss news agency SDA. He is a singer and guitarist in the band The Roman Games.