New York City named Best Smart City of 2016

Mayor’s Office of Tech + Innovation

New York City’s Strategy for Building a Smart + Equitable City

NYC leverages smart technologies to achieve the goals set forth in Mayor de Blasio’s ambitious One NYC plan. The Smart + Equitable City strategy has 4 tiers: expanding connectivity for all, piloting and scaling smart technologies, growing the innovation economy, and ensuring responsible deployments.

Expanding Connectivity for All: The City has committed to bring high speed internet access to all of NYC’s residents and businesses. In 2016, NYC broke ground on LinkNYC, the world’s largest fastest and municipal Wi-Fi network. LinkNYC is transforming the city’s antiquated pay phones into a network of up to 10,000 state-of- the-art communications structures that provide gigabit-speed public Wi-Fi, phone calls, device charging, access to city services and more at no cost to taxpayers. For the first time in NYC history, the City is also bringing free high-speed Internet service to the homes of over tens of thousands of low-income New Yorkers in public housing, starting with the nation’s largest public housing development.

Piloting + Scaling Smart Technologies: NYC continues to pilot and scale smart technologies to improve government services, enrich neighborhoods, and better the lives of all New Yorkers. This includes a new $3 million investment in sensors to enhance public safety (see attachment) and a $20 million connected-vehicle pilot with the U.S. Dept. of Transportation.Through a network of neighborhood innovation labs in public spaces across the 5 boroughs, the City is also working with communities to leverage connectivity and the Internet of Things (IoT) to field test innovative technologies that address local needs.

Growing the Innovation Economy: Marketplace.nyc is a newly-launched digital discovery tool to help government agencies discover smart city solutions. The tool also allows smart city vendors to showcase products, increase exposure, and do business with government. Also launched in 2016, Urban Tech NYC is an accelerator program providing 100,000 square feet of affordable space and prototyping equipment to helps entrepreneurs build smart and sustainable solutions to NYC’s most pressing urban challenges in energy, waste, transportation, agriculture, water, etc. Calls for Innovation are open solicitations for ideas and proposals that address urban challenges. The goal is to encourage outside-the- box thinking to bring in fresh ideas and innovative solutions that might not otherwise occur through traditional procurement.

Ensuring Responsible + Equitable Deployment: NYC developed the world’s first set of comprehensive guidelines for ensuring the responsible and equitable deployment of smart city technologies in 2016. The White House formally recognized these guidelines and over 20 major cities have adopted them.

To see all the winners and finalists, visit: http://www.smartcityexpo.com/en/cfa-finalists