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NY and SF Mayors Announce Joint Tech Summits

Posted by timothy on from the guiding-hand-of-the-state dept.

First time accepted submitter Clarklteveno writes "New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his San Francisco counterpart, Ed Lee, said at a news conference Friday that they are sponsoring a pair of technology summits over the next year. The mayors said the 'digital cities' summits — one in New York in September and another in San Francisco early next year — will seek to find ways to use technology to solve problems the cities face. The mayors made the announcement after touring the office of San Francisco-based mobile payment company Square with co-founder Jack Dorsey, who also helped found Twitter. Bloomberg pointed to power outages and dangerous winds and flooding from Hurricane Sandy as examples of issues the summits would seek to address."

27 comments

  1. Hmm.... by Rod+Beauvex · · Score: 1

    Define "problems".

    1. Re:Hmm.... by reboot246 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Define "problems".

      Having either one of these two clowns as mayor.

    2. Re:Hmm.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You read my mind.

      Hey NY:
      "How do we use technology to keep Bloomberg from being a complete and utter moron?"
      "How do we use technology to turn the stock market from a slot machine with nanosecond-precision timing into an investment market for stocks and bonds?"
      "How do we use technology to clean up New York so that it doesn't look like a landfill with people living in it?"

      Hey SF:
      "How do we use technology to make housing costs sane?"
      "How do we use technology to make electric cars affordable?"
      "How do we use technology to ensure police officers are doing their jobs correctly?"

    3. Re:Hmm.... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

      Define "problems".

      Well, acute under-surveillance and a lack of red-light camera revenue...

    4. Re:Hmm.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Living too close to large bodies of water. Having part of your city below this water level (battery park, the whole subway system). Living on major earthquake faults.

      These are not problems, they are really bad life choices.

    5. Re:Hmm.... by jopsen · · Score: 1

      Define "problems".

      How about cars, can we get rid of them?

      It ought to be feasible to make proper public transport both safer and cleaner in big citites.
      (Eletric == Clean, self-driving on tracks == safer, how hard can it be)

    6. Re:Hmm.... by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      I have to question a few of your points.

      "How do we use technology to clean up New York so that it doesn't look like a landfill with people living in it?"

      When was the last time you were in NYC, 1985? I can't speak about the Bronx or Queens, but Manhattan these days is a nice place, at least from what I've seen (I live in NJ, not far away, so I get over there occasionally). It's crowded, but so is every dense city in the world. They could stand to clean up some things though; the city is quite old, so a lot of the buildings and such there are old-looking too. They could really stand to knock down some of the crappier ones (I mean the smaller shops, not any skyscrapers or other old but well-maintained buildings) and replace them with newer structures. But that's true of any city. There were plenty of shitty old buildings in Phoenix (in the older sections like downtown) when I lived there, and that's a very new city for the US.

      A better question would be "How do we use technology to stop electing clowns like Bloomberg so we don't get blatantly racist and unconstitutional policies like Stop-n-Frisk?"

      Also, as a resident of northern NJ, one I'd like to ask is "How do we use technology to develop a better and cheaper transit method to move commuters from NJ to Manhattan, rather than these slow-ass trains that only travel once per hour?"

      And another one that really irks me: "How do we use technology to eliminate these ridiculous and costly toll roads and toll bridges?" The bridge from NJ to Staten Island costs $13 now; WTF? Aren't these supposed to be public roads? And WTF is the northeast's obsession with toll roads anyway?

      Also, as a NJ resident, "How do we use technology to reduce the insanely-high (highest in the country) property taxes in NJ"? I know this doesn't really concern Bloomberg, but since northern NJ really is part of the NYC metro area, it should; many people here commute to NY every day, and higher housing/tax costs make the area less attractive to workers.

      "How do we use technology to ensure police officers are doing their jobs correctly?"

      Aren't you thinking of LA here? I haven't heard too many horror stories about SF cops, except that incident where a transit cop shot some guy in the back of the head a couple years ago. LA and SF are very different places.

      "How do we use technology to make electric cars affordable?"

      Screw electric cars, just build SkyTran. That's a perfect application for modern technology, and the Bay area has just the right level of density for it to work. Last I heard, Mountain View was indeed seriously looking at SkyTran.

    7. Re:Hmm.... by russotto · · Score: 1

      "How do we use technology to keep Bloomberg from being a complete and utter moron?"

      Sorry, not possible.

      "How do we use technology to turn the stock market from a slot machine with nanosecond-precision timing into an investment market for stocks and bonds?"

      Turns out the stock market is actually in New Jersey, so not his department.

      "How do we use technology to clean up New York so that it doesn't look like a landfill with people living in it?"

      Drone strikes on everyone.

      "How do we use technology to make housing costs sane?"

      Build more fscking houses, an idea anathema in the Bay Area, where BANANA is the rule

      "How do we use technology to make electric cars affordable?"

      Drone strikes on all the poor people.

      "How do we use technology to ensure police officers are doing their jobs correctly?"

      Change the dictionaries so this is a tautology; whatever the police are doing is correct. Works for Bloomberg.

    8. Re:Hmm.... by Grishnakh · · Score: 2

      Living close to large bodies of water is rather necessary if you want to be a port city. Since sea shipping has been for thousands of years, and still is one of the most important transportation methods, port cities make a lot more sense than building a city in the middle of nowhere.

      Flooding problems can be solved with ancient technology called "sea walls". Lots of cities in the world use these, or levies, to prevent storm flooding. The Dutch are masters of this technology, and wouldn't have half their country without it. The fact that the US doesn't invest in sea walls is just a symptom of the extreme short-sightedness and corruption that the US suffers from.

    9. Re:Hmm.... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Not to diminish the (quite demanding) task faced by civil engineers and workers on large construction projects; but it's arguable that the least well-solved problem in infrastructure is within the realm of political science, rather than engineering.

      The actual tech levels required to achieve infrastructure objectives tend to be pretty modest; but building and maintaining infrastructure is a thankless task, that people notice only when it has been neglected for long enough to fall apart, and doesn't come cheap. Societies that enjoy reasonably stable, non-dysfunctional, civic institutions for a solid length of time get it(the actual tech level required to build what the people of a given era regard as 'basic infrastructure' is rarely bleeding-edge); but societies that don't have that tend to discover that there isn't really a substitute for it.

      You can only rush build infrastructure so fast, and you need genuine institutional competence to keep it in good shape once you have it.

  2. Digital cities problems by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the 'digital cities' summits ... will seek to find ways to use technology to solve problems the cities face.

    Next step... DDoS-ing large sugary soda?

  3. joint tech by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    NY and SF Mayors Announce Joint Tech Summits

    What's wrong with just rolling them the old-fashioned way?

    1. Re:joint tech by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      NY and SF Mayors Announce Joint Tech Summits

      What's wrong with just rolling them the old-fashioned way?

      Second hand smoke = wasted weed. It's all vaporizers these days.

    2. Re:joint tech by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well played, sir.

  4. Bloomberg won't be around for the SF summit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    since he'll be leaving office by the end of the year. Sounds like resume-building stuff in case he plans to run for POTUS, or maybe just legacy building stuff.

  5. Better kick Bloomberg out, as a start... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

    Just remember what happened when New York decided to use technology to solve a little payroll challenge...

    Hiring SAIC to do something was bad enough, letting the project get so out of hand that the cost increased by a factor of ten, half a billion dollars of which was recovered by the feds as being directly tainted by fraud...

    The rest of the participants should probably just tell mean jokes about the Bloomberg terminal's embarrassing little spying-on-customers-who-really-don't-like-that problem until he goes away.

  6. large sodas by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Bloomberg will probably push facial recognition software for self serving soda fountains to prevent people from getting 2 small sodas instead of 1 large one.

    1. Re:large sodas by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

      Bloomberg will probably push facial recognition software for self serving soda fountains to prevent people from getting 2 small sodas instead of 1 large one.

      I don't know if Bloomberg just doesn't give a fuck about public perception of either issue, or whether the soda thing is a brilliant PR move: He's a walking trainwreck on civil liberties; but the one that leads the pack, front and center, is his terrifying war on our god-given right to Big Gulps. It's genius, really.

  7. smart grid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A smart grid the will properly distribute power to homes and essential services during disasters wouldn't hurt.

  8. Squeegee guys ... by PPH · · Score: 1

    ... need to be dealt with before Google Glass hits the street.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  9. in lots of places outsourced stuff ends up costing by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    in lots of places outsourced stuff ends up costing more then it would by having it in house and it does not help when non tech PHB and MBA are calling the shots or pick the lowest bidder.

  10. I turn to history to help. by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 2

    The mayors said the 'digital cities' summits — one in New York in September and another in San Francisco early next year — will seek to find ways to use technology to solve problems the cities face.


    main()
    {
              printf("To solve the major problems the cities face:\n");
              printf("================\n");
              printf("Yokels, stop electing idiots.\n");
    }

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  11. Anoint by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I read that as NY and SF Mayors Anoint Tech Summits. How oddly appropriate.

  12. It is the TAXES STUPIDS! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why would I start a company in either San Fran or NYC. Heck, you have to pay a NYC income tax. Gee, ummm, a start up does NOT need more tax burden. It needs less. San Fran - about 10% income tax and 8% sales tax...and property tax...ad infinitum. No thanks, I'll start a business in a business friendly climate!

    1. Re:It is the TAXES STUPIDS! by Trepidity · · Score: 1

      Empirically, most tech-startup founders seem to disagree with you...

      --
      10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
    2. Re:It is the TAXES STUPIDS! by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

      Empirically, most tech-startup founders seem to disagree with you...

      I've always been a trifle puzzled by the 'Everyday Low Prices!' theory of "business friendliness"... There are industries where cost is king(many of them not very good neighbors), and access to cheap, docile, labor and a regulatory environment flexible enough to let you keep your externalities externalized are the overriding factors; but the continued existence of high cost, high status, markets suggests that human capital and network effects count for a lot(especially if you can structure the company so that the real money is mysteriously being earned in Nevada or Ireland or wherever).