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I'm dying to find out how they'll resolve the contentious transit issue. Sidewalk Labs clearly stated that without a confirmed and expedited transit plan, they'll walk.
 
TheSix said:
I'm dying to find out how they'll resolve the contentious transit issue. Sidewalk Labs clearly stated that without a confirmed and expedited transit plan, they'll walk.
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With the freshly approved provincial transit plan, the city has a billion freed up for new TTC related spending. I believe they are currently sitting about $300 million short to build Waterfront East - so perhaps council will fill that gap.
 
I wonder if there is a clause included in this deal about potential expansion beyond the 12 acres in the future. I do think Alphabet has loftier goals for developing the portlands, but obviously right now that is out of the scope of the project. Maybe Waterfront TO will allow them to expand at a later date with a different deal?
 
I suspect it's more a case of Alphabet pulling back on the scope of its plans when it received too much pushback re privacy concerns and consideration of the data as a public trust.
 
Tunafish13 said:
I wonder if there is a clause included in this deal about potential expansion beyond the 12 acres in the future. I do think Alphabet has loftier goals for developing the portlands, but obviously right now that is out of the scope of the project. Maybe Waterfront TO will allow them to expand at a later date with a different deal?
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I presume they will bid on those lands when the RFP goes out for it, just like they did for the lands they have right now.
 
So basically, they are getting exactly what they wanted to begin with?
Just like any condo developer in Toronto. They really want 35 stories, but ask for 50! Eventually settle at 35.
 
My reading of it is that Alphabet wants far more than the 12 acres - and probably remains very interested in the adjacent lands. It's a question of how far they have to water down their plans in order to snag the land for their grand experiment. Toronto's waterfront is a testbed for their tech - no doubt about that.
 
It shows you just how much public opinion has turned against Big Tech over concerns about data and privacy.

Heck, just two years ago the city, province and feds were rolling out the red carpet for the project. Now even Trudeau, who wouldn't be caught missing a ribbon-cutting for an Innovation Park or R&D Investment, is promising to reign in the Big Tech companies.
 
innsertnamehere said:
With the freshly approved provincial transit plan, the city has a billion freed up for new TTC related spending. I believe they are currently sitting about $300 million short to build Waterfront East - so perhaps council will fill that gap.
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Aside from other competing priorities such as Eglinton East LRT, Waterfront West and Waterfront East, the agreement we just signed with our provincial overlords dictates that this spending is "subject to the terms of the agreement including 1) a viable business case and 2) credible progress towards relieving the state of good repair backlog on the existing subway system."

The unfunded SOGR backlog is currently $24B. The mostly unfunded city money around $5B. I’m no math surgeon, but I think we have a problem here.
 
Looks like we dodged a bullet.

Globe: Sidewalk Labs document reveals company’s early plans for data collection, tax powers, criminal justice

A confidential Sidewalk Labs document from 2016 lays out the founding vision of the Google-affiliated development company, which included having the power to levy its own property taxes, track and predict people’s movements and control some public services.

The document, which The Globe and Mail has seen, also describes how people living in a Sidewalk community would interact with and have access to the space around them – an experience based, in part, on how much data they’re willing to share, and which could ultimately be used to reward people for “good behaviour.”
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www.theglobeandmail.com

Sidewalk Labs document reveals company’s early vision for data collection, tax powers, criminal justice

Known internally as the ‘yellow book,’ 437-page report from 2016 describes life in a Sidewalk neighbourhood such as Toronto’s proposed Quayside site as an experience based, in part, on how much data people are willing to share
www.theglobeandmail.com www.theglobeandmail.com
 
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Probably quite a few. But at least for the time being the scope of their potentially dystopian techno-gulag has been curtailed. The property taxation element is particularly noteworthy; they really did want an awful lot of power over the project.

I believe that, in time, Sidewalk/Alphabet will simply move on to other jurisdictions elsewhere in the world that are more willing to give up control in exchange for the hopeful realization of Sidewalk's all-too shiny visions.
 
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