Albuquerque on a fast track to becoming a ‘smart city’
New York City chief technology officer Miguel Gamino Jr. envisions a future where data jacks are as common as light bulbs.
The Big Apple’s information technology guru compares the laying of broadband and construction of cyber capabilities in cities throughout the U.S. today with the Rural Electrification Act of 1936, which paved the way for electric lights and modern conveniences in all American homes.
Likewise, making high-speed internet and digital technologies “pervasive and ubiquitous” can change civilization the way electrification did in the 1930s, Gamino told public and private IT officers at a New Mexico Technology Council luncheon last week.
“We’re talking about a civilization fork in the road,” Gamino said. “When we built the electric grid, the light bulb was like the first killer app. Now, instead of putting a light bulb in every house, we’re putting a data jack in every home.”
That will lay the foundations for a new digital revolution in New York and other cities, including Albuquerque, Gamino said.
Such foundations include the wide-scale installation of broadband fiber to connect homes, businesses and government to a comprehensive network of high-speed internet, placing all government services online for easy public access, building mobile apps for every aspect of city life, and digitizing government operations to improve efficiency and cut costs. It also includes installation of sensors and cameras across urban landscapes to collect real-time data on things such as traffic conditions, crime, air quality and waste management.
Those foundations will pave the way for remote control of everything from home and building temperature, lighting and security functions to automated traffic operations once driverless vehicles start hitting city streets.
To speed that process, municipal governments across the country are reaching out to share information and new technology with one another in a nationwide Smart Cities Initiative.
Albuquerque is playing a leading role in that process, both in building the broadband and digital infrastructure needed for the future, and in collaborating with other cities, Mayor Richard Berry said.
“Collaboration is key,” said Berry, who met with Gamino after the Technology Council luncheon. “We need to share best practices to not reinvent the wheel.”
The national Center for Digital Government ranked Albuquerque in 6th place last November in its 2016 Digital Cities Survey among municipalities with more than 500,000 people. It’s the fourth year in a row that Albuquerque placed among the top 10 most-digital cities in America.
That reflects broad efforts to digitize Albuquerque, said the city’s chief information officer, Peter Ambs.
As part of the Albuquerque Rapid Transit project, for example, the city is investing $1 million to lay fiber cable from Louisiana to Coors to offer highspeed broadband access to homes and businesses all along the corridor. Last week, the city also began a $640,000 expansion of Albuquerque’s fiber optic network to provide highspeed internet service to 40 city-owned sites, including community and senior centers, and police and fire stations.
Last year, the city launched the initial phase of a project to install LED lighting around Albuquerque, including plans for sensors and cameras in key places for monitoring and data collection. Those sensors will allow automatic dimming or brightening of lights as needed, generating substantial energy savings. The data collection will feed real-time informa-
tion into city networks on things like traffic conditions or needed street repairs, reducing the time and money spent to dispatch city crews.
The system can also collect information on crime, feeding into the Albuquerque Police Department’s Real Time Crime Center.
“All of that data can be collected and synthesized to create efficiency in city services to improve the quality of life for neighborhoods and citizens,” Ambs said. “Each street light becomes a node on the network that could be used to monitor environmental conditions or detect gun shots. That capability won’t be on every street light initially, but we’ll have the capability in place to upgrade all of them with connected systems in the future.”
The city is planning “smart mobile pay” for ART to allow users to buy tickets on the go from smartphones and other devices. It will install “smart parking meters” with the same functionality, allowing someone to add time to a meter, for example, while sitting in a restaurant, Ambs said.
Another project will install sensors in dumpsters for smart waste management for crews to only collect garbage when bins are full. More sensors are now being installed in municipal parks and golf courses to track soil and moisture conditions, and sensors are already operating around the city to monitor air quality.
The city itself has converted most services from paper to fully digitized systems. Residents can now process building permits, licensing or business registrations online through computers or mobile devices. A slew of new mobile apps also allow people to report non-emergency crimes to police from smartphones, access bus route information and track where busses are in real time.
A 21st Century smart city is key to building a high-tech economy in Albuquerque, including the efforts to forge a modern innovation district Downtown, Berry said.
“We’re putting a great foundation in place that the next mayor will have the opportunity to expand on,” Berry said. “We’re already one of the most technologically advanced cities in America. That will continue to evolve with new technology as we move forward.”