It was not just a mess, but an obvious mess.
On May 7, the Google company Sidewalk Labs announced that it was withdrawing from its partnership with Waterfront Toronto, and its plans to create a smart-city neighbourhood called Quayside.
The surprise announcement — attributed by Sidewalk Labs CEO Daniel L. Doctoroff to “unprecedented economic uncertainty” produced by the current COVID-19 pandemic — brings to a close one of the most bizarre and ill-conceived policy debacles we’ve ever come across.
Read more: What Can We Learn From the Failed Smart-City Development Project in Canada?
Alphabet Inc.’s ambitious dream to create a city of the future on Toronto’s waterfront is over. Millions of dollars and years of lobbying weren’t enough, and the tech giant’s urban planning unit, Sidewalk Labs, officially shuttered the project on Thursday.
The stated reason was the coronavirus pandemic’s effect on real estate prices. Without the ability to profitably sell office space and homes in the development, the project wasn’t viable, Sidewalk Labs Chief Executive Officer Dan Doctoroff said in a blog post.
Read more: CA: Ontario: Alphabet’s Dream of a Smart City in Toronto Is Over
Google's sister firm Sidewalk Labs has scrapped a plan to build a smart city in Canada, citing complications caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
For several years it had pursued ambitions to build a digital-first city in Toronto "from the internet up".
Chief executive Dan Doctoroff blamed "unprecedented economic uncertainty" for abandoning the plan.
Read more: CA: Ontario: Coronavirus: Google ends plans for smart city in Toronto
It's no longer financially viable, says the urban design business.
The Alphabet-owned urban design business Sidewalk Labs on Friday revealed that it would no longer be pursuing its smart city plans to transform Toronto's eastern waterfront into what it had dubbed as a "global model for combining cutting-edge technology and great urban design to dramatically improve quality of life".
Read more: CA: Ontario: Alphabet's Sidewalk Labs cans Toronto smart city project
Google affiliate Sidewalk Labs is walking away from building a smart-city development in Toronto after two and a half years of controversy over its origins, overreach, and privacy and financial implications.
The Alphabet Inc. subsidiary won the right to plan a community called Quayside on the downtown Toronto lakeshore in 2017, hoping to build a 12-acre neighbourhood “from the internet up.” In partnership with the tripartite government agency Waterfront Toronto, the New York urban-planning firm imagined a place filled with new technologies such as heated sidewalks, robotic garbage systems, and, crucially, sensors to learn about how people move about cities in ways that could inspire even more innovations.
Read more: CA: Ontario: Google affiliate Sidewalk Labs abandons Toronto smart-city project