What you loved and loathed last month

Readers were enthusiastic about “The Sidewalk Wars,” our collection of essays for and against the proposed waterfront smart city. Ambivalent Torontonians, in particular, treated the package as a primer on Quayside, so they could figure out what to make of the project.

“This is a really interesting group of articles. At a glance, I sense my contribution might have been: Sidewalk Labs is a Rorschach test for our dreams and nightmares.”

—@daeaves, Twitter

“If you want to understand what’s happening with @sidewalklabs, read this exceptional package by @torontolife. I am in it, and for it. But it includes the most eloquent critics of the plan, including @biancawylie and Shoshana Zuboff, who literally wrote the book on surveillance capitalism, among many others, pro and con.”

—@Richard_Florida, Twitter

“I read with great interest the various comments in the article and enjoyed the wide-ranging points of view. I have practised real estate law for 40 years and realized from the outset that the Sidewalk Labs proposal is far from a standard real estate development. The problem with many of the criticisms has been to evaluate the benefits to the city very narrowly, using standard development approval criteria, and not through the lens of the long-term potential for high-tech enterprise in our city.

“We are not going to solve the affordable housing issue, nor how mass transit gets built, nor other long-term municipal issues, nor the impact of data privacy, from this 12-acre project. To paraphrase Jim Balsillie, the greatest potential of working with Sidewalk Labs on this project would be to ensure that the IP benefits from this development remain in Toronto and that the long-term commercialization of them is developed locally and not siphoned to Google headquarters.

“The public agencies negotiating the deal with Sidewalk Labs should be hiring the best advisors on how to capitalize on this unique opportunity to be an integral part of the development of smart-city technology.

“We have enough ‘dumb’ towers on the waterfront. Data collection by corporations and governments large and small will be an issue whether this land is developed by Google or by a local high-rise builder. A simple camera in a storefront window connected to an AI system can currently provide tons of data about who’s using the streets and how. That boat has sailed. Data collection and use issues are global and will have to be discussed and somehow dealt with. But it’s really too much in my opinion to expect the improvement of a derelict 12-acre piece of land to be the genesis of the solution.”

—Morris Sosnovitch, Toronto

“Brilliant and thought-provoking collection.” —@J_Savim, Twitter

“This series on Sidewalk Labs is incredible. The boosters sound like the mob backing the monorail in The Simpsons, while Shoshana Zuboff, Bianca Wylie, Ann Cavoukian, Jennifer Keesmaat et al. offer thoughtful critiques and challenge us to take control of our future.”

—@Dexterdocherty, Twitter

“Personally, I’m highly critical of the Quayside project, but it’s not so much what’s proposed. The framing of the whole development is so flawed in its approach. Innovation? Yes please. Massive innovation in infrastructure and affordable housing? Yes please. But it mustn’t be at the expense of giving up municipal space to privately owned and controlled organizations. To thrive in the 21st century, we need more public

space, more democratic oversight and better urban planning. We have the knowledge we need to build better cities; it’s politics and budgets that keep us from implementing it.”

—@peterbihr, Twitter

“A lot more could be said in opposition to the Sidewalk proposal for Quayside than you gave your contributors room for. On the privacy front, even if data from those who ventured onto the site were to be anonymized, Sidewalk could still use it as research material toward developing surveillance ‘products’ that it could sell to anyone with the wherewithal. Torontonians could find themselves complicit in providing tools to be used by unscrupulous corporations and tyrannical governments.

“Those who think Toronto isn’t able to develop superb new neighbourhoods on waterfront brownfields unless we give up democratic governance should take a look at the West Don Lands with its beautiful public realm and park, attractive architecture, and range of housing types including affordable buildings for a diverse clientele.”

—Julie Beddoes, Toronto