Smart Cities’ Interview with Vitor Pereira
After two months and fifty posts about Smart Cities, we are pleasured to announce this interview with Vitor Pereira, an expert in the field.
With more than 24 years of experience as a radio professional, journalist, editor, director and creator, now the Portuguese dedicates himself to the Communication and Innovation Agency — Conteúdo Chave, specialized in new technologies applied to the Media, Tourism and Smart Cities, being one of the principal European stakeholders for the matter.
Official blogger for one of the major events and global platforms dedicated to Smart Cities, and responsible for the independent platform Smart Cities Online. Vitor is connected to several big events on the topic, being co-founder of ZOOM Smart Cities, receiving in 2015 the Smart Cities Live Personality prize and represents Portugal in the Smart City Business Institute.
1. What is your favorite smart city and why?
There are lots of amazing and interesting cities around the world. Most of them they even know they are smart or don’t care too much about that. They are just cities and as cities, they are always work in progress. So I will tell you that my favorite city is one that is not considered smart at all, but it’s a game shifter right now, it represents the end of an era. Detroit is my favorite city for a lot of reasons, one I mentioned, the economic shift that is the sign of times, the end of an era based in car industry and blue-collar jobs. Detroit fell high and hit rock bottom and a lot of people stopped considering it as a good example (totally the opposite). But Detroit rises again, like the Phoenix rebirth from the ashes bringing soul to new and creative generations that chose Detroit to live, skipping the impossible cost of life from other big branded cities like New York, Boston, San Francisco and so on.
2. What are the biggest challenges cities are facing in order to become smarter?
For me the biggest challenge is leadership and decision-making. There’s a lot of empty hype going on, cities think that investing millions in new toys and gadgets and buildings or infrastructure puts them automatically in the “Smart” track. Although, like history proved throughout centuries, there are a lot of big failures in this investments and Smart sometimes means saying no to this money pitfall. The challenge is not cities becoming Smart, the challenge its educating and giving awareness to citizens and grow a new elite of politicians and decision-makers, more worried about transparency and treating problems with their hearts rather than with their smiles, showing off things that their cities (or countries) are not. Communication instead of PR and Marketing is the challenge for true awareness and a better future.
3. Are you familiar with the concept of Nest? Do you think this kind of devices will be a must for smart cities’ path?
A lot of concepts are being rescued and included in the Smart City umbrella. Demotic for example, was one specific area in construction that, with Nest, and other IoT devices based on sensors and data, came into the arena. But there are others, like for example Telemedicine and Alarms for elderly people. We know these technologies for 10 or more years but now they’re being rescued to the Smart Hype and bringing renewed opportunities to the companies and entrepreneurs that were working with them back then.
4. Paul Mason wrote an article for “The Guardian” (May 2015) claiming “We can’t allow the tech giants to rule smart cities”. Do you agree with that view?
A lot of people is writing and saying it to the face of the corporation leaders, which is very interesting to observe. Saskia Sassen, for example, questions, “Who owns our Cities” and sometimes we forget that citizens should be the real owners of cities, but they’re not anymore. They’ve become customers and some even worst, slaves! Slaves of debt, but also slaves of some kind of new religion based in consuming things they don’t need and paying a lot for things they really need. I’m afraid some cities are already lost for good. Some are becoming amusement parks for wealthy people, like a luxury Disneyland, but it wouldn’t be a problem if they were funding by private. The problem is when are our taxes and public money creates this “new Mecas”.
5. How will smart cities change social behavior?
I touched slightly one point that worries me a lot in cities, which is the lost of authenticity. When we look to Venice, or Barcelona, or even Lisbon, we become worried with what it’s happening to the citizens that try to live in this famous cities.
And then there are the small cities that are losing population and even worst, they are not retaining talent neither attracting new. The social consequence on this situation could be very harmful for the future of these cities. We must understand that as smaller the community, the more closed to innovation and risk it is, and less easy it is to attract new talent, new ideas, new rebels and free thinkers. This is the core of a rich society when people feel tolerance and openness to share their ideas or a new haircut, or a tattoo, whatever. It’s this moment that defines a tolerant and open city and definitely smart. That’s a little bit the story of Amsterdam and also in some way Bristol and Austin, Santa Fé, etc. The haven of misfits and refugees of the intolerant sit backers in the streets pointing all failures and flaws in others rather than improving themselves. In Portugal we call them “Velhos do Restelo” the ones who were only watching and grumping and criticizing the new world discoveries and adventure brave man that left families behind to search for a better life or at least find a place in history. They did.
6. Still in May 2015, the Digital Single Market strategy was adopted by the European Union, ensuring free movement of persons, services and capital. How do you see this step-forward, regarding smart cities’ growing awareness after more than a year time?
The European Union should decide for once what would be their role in the global table game. Sometimes the signs are not clear and these actions only show that more than progress and freedom, the path is clearer for money and greed. Again, social policies and better conditions for Europeans based on the new economy (digital and global) must be based in transparency and democracy more than in closed silos. With silos in EU, National Governments and Cities, each one pulling their own strings and interests will be hard to create awareness and reach the state that some are whiling to commit. EU must break the chains of bureaucracy and start a more agile process to become more competitive and reconquering its leading role.
