maker Research in Motion, called the project “a colonizing To summarize our report, we identify eight main relevant experiment in surveillance capitalism attempting to bulldoze dimensions that will help readers to understand the Toronto important urban, civic and political issues” (The Guardian, smart city plan: May 7, 2020). On its side, Sidewalk Labs denied that any data collected would be shared with third parties, instead 1. Measuring the impact of mobility-related costs: advocating for a “data trust” to protect sensitive information. According to Sidewalk’s report (available on the firm’s website) on the smart city plan for Toronto, across the Sidewalk Labs had invested 1.3 billion dollars in the Quayside Greater Toronto Area (GTA), traffic congestion costs project. The project had intended to spur millions or billions more than eleven billion Canadian dollars a year in more in private sector investment. Sidewalk Labs’s final lost productivity. In fact, Sidewalk estimated that at the decision to quit Toronto came ahead of a May 2020 deadline that household level, car owners who live in Toronto’s downtown Waterfront Toronto, the partnership between Canada’s federal spend, on average, over ten thousand Canadian dollars a government, the Ontario provincial government, and the City year on car ownership. of Toronto that is entrusted with overseeing development of Toronto’s waterfront, had set to decide whether it would move 2. Mobility innovation with a people-centric approach: To forward with the Google subsidiary’s vision. Sidewalk Labs ensure the safety of bikers and pedestrians, particularly claimed that it was too difficult to make the twelve-acre project in the context of Toronto’s demanding winter conditions, financially viable. Consequently, a key question arising from this Sidewalk Labs planned to install heating devices under story is: Are business models such as this one sustainable? some sidewalks and bike lanes. A question specific to Toronto might also be asked: Will the abandonment of the project harm Toronto’s status as one of 3. Mobility innovation: The dynamic curbs proposed by the world’s great cities for innovation? Sidewalk Labs use physical infrastructure such as lighted paving or signs to designate spaces for passenger pickups Will this abrupt departure represent a “tremendous new and drop-offs along streets, including at times when opportunity,” as Toronto’s mayor, John Tory, said it would? such space is restricted to vehicles because of sidewalk In a statement released on the morning after the Google expansions or events such as pop-up street fairs. decision, he said, “I will be pushing Waterfront Toronto— along with our provincial and federal partners—to make 4. An innovative approach to green spaces: Sidewalk Labs sure the new Quayside that emerges will create new jobs saw the potential to plant approximately fifty-nine trees per and economic development opportunities, a carbon-neutral hectare in part of Toronto’s IDEA District, a concentration neighborhood with more housing including affordable housing that represents a twenty percent increase over Toronto’s units and better transportation and sustainability features.” current tree density of forty-nine trees per hectare. This Waterfront Toronto said in a subsequent statement that it is measure could have generated positive externalities to confident that Quayside remains “an excellent opportunity to the environment because a green landscape absorbs and explore innovative solutions for affordable housing, improved sequesters carbon particles, helps to mitigate urban heat, mobility, climate change, and several other pressing urban and considerably reduces the risk of flooding. challenges.”4 5. Generative design: Sidewalk Labs’s generative design tool The abandonment of Sidewalk Labs’s Quayside smart city identified the potential to increase Toronto’s open space “by project also raises question marks about citizen involvement, 12 percent while increasing daylight access by 8 percent the inclusiveness of such projects, and residents’ social and density by 498,800 square feet” (Sidewalk Labs, 2019b: perceptions. It also provokes a couple of concerns about the 141). One project planned by Sidewalk Labs to achieve this economic sustainability of such large projects due to the objective was a flexible space called Parliament Plaza. economic uncertainty that can ultimately arise from an event such as a pandemic or other big external shocks (climate 6. Open spaces and adaptable classrooms: Adaptable change, hurricanes, earthquakes, or economic recession). classroom spaces of the kind proposed by Sidewalk (4) https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/google-affiliate-sidewalk-labs-abandons-toronto-waterfront-project-1.4928968; The Guardian, May 7, 2020 (accessed on 8 May 2020 and 9 June 2021). 167 Quélin and Smadja | HEC PARIS | SMART CITIES | The sustainable program of six leading cities | 2021